My role as your representative in Congress is to solve problems, to bring real solutions to the table, and to
stand against policies that won’t work or will do more harm.
Economy
What the American people must have now are jobs, not more government spending and intrusion.
I support:
- Tax cuts for small businesses—not temporary tax cuts but permanent tax cuts so businessmen and women can plan for
the future.
- A cut in the capital gains tax so businesses can invest in people, infrastructure and innovation.
- The easing of unnecessarily burdensome regulations.
- Assisting community banks to free up lending to small
businesses.
- Real enforcement of illegal immigration laws at worksites and making E-Verify—an easy-to-use
and efficient online employment verification system—universal and mandatory.
The President’s trillion-dollar stimulus plan did not work. More than 3 million Americans have lost their jobs since
it was signed into law. Big government will not pull us out of a recession. Small businesses—which employ more than
half of all American workers—will. The federal government’s role is to create a commonsense tax system that
encourages job building and a regulatory system that does not strangle innovation and productivity.
Terrorism
The Number One responsibility of any government is the protection of its citizens. We must stand strong
against our enemies.
Appeasing Iran makes us weaker, not stronger. Iranian strongman Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has no interest in good
relations with the United States. He is a sponsor of terrorism and has made it clear one of his goals is to destroy Israel,
our strongest friend and ally in the region. He is actively working to build a nuclear bomb.
Closing Guantanamo Bay will not appease al-Qaida. Al-Qaida terrorists murdered 3,000 innocent people in New York,
Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon before Guantanamo Bay became a prison. An al-Qaida terrorist tried to blow up a Northwest
flight over Chicago on Christmas Day, nearly a year after President Obama announced his plans to close the high-security
prison. Guantanamo Bay is not the problem. Ignoring our enemies’ intentions is.
Bringing terrorists from Guantanamo Bay to try them in civilian courts in the United States, where they are afforded
constitutional protections they are not entitled to, will not make us safer. These are not common criminals. They are
foreign terrorists. Their actions are acts of war. They must be tried by military tribunals and incarcerated far from
American citizens.
I support President Obama’s troop buildup in Afghanistan and Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s plan of action. But I
believe the President’s six months of indecision before approving Gen. McChrystal’s plan, the President’s
delay in addressing the nation after the Christmas Day bomber struck, giving a foreign terrorist Miranda rights, his plan to
close Guantanamo Bay and his actions toward Iran indicates he doesn’t understand the enormity of our enemies’
intentions.
As a senior member of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the Foreign Affairs and Judiciary Committees, I
have been and will continue to urge the President to take a stronger stance against our enemies and support legislation that
enhances our security. That includes tougher illegal immigrant enforcement. The 9/11 hijackers and alleged Fort Dix
conspirators took advantage of lax enforcement of our laws to plot against us on our own soil. Others will too if we do not
remain vigilant.
Healthcare
Government-run health care is not the answer to healthcare insurance reform. We can
reform the system we now have without destroying it, lower health insurance premiums for families and small businesses and
increase access to affordable, high-quality care without adding to the crushing debt House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate
Majority Leader Harry Reid have placed on our children and grandchildren.
We can do that by:
- Ending junk lawsuits.
- Establishing Universal Access Programs to guarantee access to affordable healthcare for those with pre-existing
conditions.
- Preventing insurers from unjustly canceling a policy unless a person commits fraud or conceals material facts about a
health condition.
- Encouraging small business health insurance pools.
- Encouraging innovative state programs that reduce premiums, increase access and improve quality.
- Allowing Americans to buy insurance across state lines, thereby increasing competition.
- Expanding Health Savings Accounts (HSAs).
I voted against Speaker Pelosi’s healthcare plan because it would have destroyed the system that covers 80 percent of
Americans, would have increased health insurance premiums, would have promoted government-run healthcare and would not have
increased quality of care. That is the wrong prescription.
