| National Security
We are the world’s most powerful nation.
That fact alone makes us the target of nations and ideologies abroad that resent our power and wish to see it diminished through violence and intimidation. We are a generous and a benevolent nation of goodness. Still, when our citizens are under threat by those who preach violence and hatred, we must be willing to stand up for ourselves.
America is absolutely worth defending. Our values, ideals and institutions, the historical way of life and the many opportunities that we have provided with for so long, are achievements to be proud of and protected.
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Immigration
As an immigrant myself, I fully understand how difficult the process of lawful entry into America can be. It is time-consuming and tiring. Families are often separated for a substantial time period, as was the case with me. When I came here I spent almost two years separated from my mother while being raised by my 70-plus year old grandmother. This was not an ideal circumstance, by any means. But so deep was our desire to become a part of the American experience that we were willing to make the sacrifices necessary to make this happen. Despite the brief struggles, I don’t regret any of it for a second. Coming to America and ingratiating myself into its laws, values, ideals and traditions has changed my life for the better and I wish to maintain the same opportunity for others who are willing to follow our established system.
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Economic Policy
Ever since they took over Congress, Democrat leaders have been leading Americans to believe that the federal government is in some sort of revenue crisis. These voices have become even louder with the recent economic troubles. But at $2.4 billion, federal revenue is actually at an all time high in absolute terms, while as a percentage of gross national product (18.7%), it is above the historical average (18.1%). This is not a revenue crisis, and Democrat rhetoric is in such contradiction to the facts that the only conclusion one can draw is they are pursuing an agenda of misleading Americans into accepting massive tax increases. This is unacceptable. There is no economic need for higher taxes when our government wastes so much of what they already take in. Our current representative does not understand this. I not only believe that taxes need to remain low, but that there are positive steps we can take to make taxes simpler and fairer.
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The High Cost of Energy
It wasn’t so long ago when gas prices over $1.00/gallon seemed excessively high. Today, Fourth District families, like most Americans, are paying well over $3.00/gallon. Just commuting to work has become an expensive chore and families are understandably frustrated at the strain high energy costs have put on their budgets.
Why are gas and energy prices so high?
Incapable of presenting the American people with a thoughtful, somber, rational assessment of the energy situation today, David Price and liberals have been blaming their favorite targets- President Bush and oil companies. Yesterday President Bush pointed out that recent Congressional actions had increased the cost of gasoline even more that it would have been simply based on the supply and demand curve. That Mr. Price takes such an intellectually lazy and dishonest approach to an issue of great urgency and importance is further evidence that he is no longer fit to serve the people of the Fourth District.
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Ensuring universal health care access for all Americans
For too many years our leaders in Washington have been nibbling around the edges of health care reform- passing symbolic, patchwork legislation but lacking the courage to truly fix the problems. Americans, especially the hard working middle-class, are paying a dear price for this failure of leadership.
Since 2000, family health coverage premiums have ballooned 90 percent, making basic care expensive and inaccessible for growing numbers of Americans. Those who receive insurance through their employer are watching their wages stagnate as employers divert more money into health insurance costs instead of pay raises. Many others are losing coverage all-together as employers conclude that they just cannot afford it anymore- the percentage of employers offering health benefits has declined by 8 percent in the past 7 years.
Americans who do have insurance have seen their out-of-pocket costs double since 2000. They have little choice or freedom in their health decisions; while many others hesitate to switch jobs out of fear they will lose their health benefits. Year after year quality of care declines while costs go up.
Americans are fed-up with all this, and rightly so. The current system is unacceptable. But because our leaders in Congress are unable to adequately explain to the American what exactly is wrong with our system, many Americans are being seduced by ideologues into believing that our “free-market” system is the problem and that universal coverage and greater government control is the (view entire article)only solution. We must have strong leaders in Congress who will fight against this lie and explain some basic truths to the people.
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Sanctity of Life
“Roe has ruined romance. Every woman’s deepest desire to love and be loved has been distorted into a license to use and be used. Women have paid with their bodies and their souls. Abandoned emotionally and financially by the men they loved, and moved by profound grief at the loss of their children, they stand in front of crowds with signs that say ‘I regret my abortion.’”
-Dorinda Bordlee, Americans United for Life
“We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
-Thomas Jefferson
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The Right to Bear Arms
I believe that the 2nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution affirms every INDIVIDUAL citizen's right to keep and bear arms, without equivocation. The founders of the nation realized that citizens needed to have the opportunity to arm themselves to protect themselves from those who would harm them. The government would never be able to protect citizens from all harm and society could only be preserved if law-abiding citizens had the right to defend themselves. I believe this right is as important to a free society today as it has ever been. When the state denies its citizens the right to bear arms, then the nation is only steps away from becoming a totalitarian state. Government should exist to serve the people, not to be served by the people.
Conservation
I am very concerned about our environment. Just because I am a Republican does not mean I don’t care about our planet! We need to preserve our world for posterity’s sake. We should strive to leave our world better than when we came into it, or at least no worse. To that end, I support treading lighter upon our world by being conscious of the impact we make upon nature. At a minimum, we should strive to:
· Reduce
· Reuse
· Recycle
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The National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility
My primary opponent opposes this facility. These are the reasons I support the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility in Butner.
What it is:
The Department of Homeland Security has been ordered, by Presidential Directive, to develop a plan to provide safe, secure and state-of-the-art agriculture biocontainment labs for scientific research aimed at developing new diagnostics and advanced countermeasures to combat animal diseases and zoonotic diseases (agents we share with animals). America’s food and agricultural infrastructure are imminently threatened by such diseases, and an outbreak (which could also be induced by a biological terrorist attack) would be devastating beyond imagination. As such, the vaccines and other technologies created through this research will be gravely important to the health of our citizens and our national security.
The facility would also be a valuable training ground for high-consequence livestock diseases. The current facility housing these labs, in Plum Island, is too old and limited to continue being the primary facility for this research so the DHS has scouted America for potential sites to house their new facility. They’ve narrowed the finalists to five states to house the site: Texas, Kansas, Georgia, Mississippi and our own North Carolina. The proposed site would be on 200 acres of state-owned land at the Umstead Research Farm in Butner. A final decision has to be made in October, 2008
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The Federal Marriage Amendment
Successful societies are built around certain fundamental institutions which endure through time. When these institutions come under attack from radical ideologues, it falls upon all those who revere history and tradition to make a stand in their defense. America today is in the midst of just this sort of institutional challenge as the ACLU and gay activists seek to redefine the sacred institution of marriage. Since these groups know an overwhelming majority of the American people oppose same-sex marriage, they’ve been litigating the issue in courtrooms; arguing to judges that marriage is a “right” and that denial of marriage licenses to same-sex couples violates state constitutional equal protection and due processes clauses. They’ve already found a number of judges and courts sympathetic to these arguments, and marriage laws in a host of states have been subsequently struck down. I, like most Fourth District Republican voters, am concerned about this kind of judicial social engineering finding its way into North Carolina or sowing cultural confusion throughout the nation and I support protecting traditional marriage through the Federal Marriage Amendment.
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