Issues

Here is a quick summary of some of my views. Please check back soon for more details and my proposed solutions.

I oppose SOPA, Chris Dodd’s online censorship bill that Lamar Smith sponsored.

I oppose HR 1981, Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s bill that Lamar Smith sponsored.

I oppose the NDAA with its indefinite detainment provision, which Lamar Smith supported.

I support the STOCK Act, which Lamar Smith did not co-sponsor. (The majority of Congress did.)

I support the GPS Act, which would require law enforcement to get a warrant before tracking people through their cell phones. The bill has been stalled in the Judiciary Committee since last year, and as the Chairman of that committee, Lamar Smith has the ability to advance it.

I support giving people vouchers for the money they’ve paid into Medicaid

I support eliminating the payroll tax for seniors

I support No Budget, No Pay

I support zero-based budgeting

I support Term Limits

Jobs & The Economy

At 39.2%, our combined corporate tax rate is the second highest among all democratic industrialized nations in the world. Companies require employees and investors in order to operate. When their profits are being taxed at some of the highest rates in the world, it encourages those investors to invest elsewhere, which results in our jobs moving overseas.

I support lowering the corporate tax rate. We also have to lower the maximum personal income tax rate, otherwise people will shelter their income in corporations.

Big companies can afford lawyers and lobbyists to find loopholes and favors, but many of our small and medium businesses cannot, and not only are they responsible for most of our job growth, they are the ones most hurt by our high tax rate. Unless we cut the corporate tax rate, we discourage investors from investing in our small and medium businesses, resulting in higher than necessary unemployment.

Balanced Budget Amendment

Though I support a balanced budget, I do not support the Balanced Budget Amendment in its current form.

Article I of the Constitution gives Congress the the power to raise taxes and determine spending. The President was not responsible for submitting a budget until the 1921 Budget and Accounting Act, which unconstitutionally transferred that power to the Executive Branch. Section 3 of the Balanced Budget Amendment would give the President the Constitutional authority to set taxes and determine spending.

The Constitution lays out a limited number of areas where the Federal Government is authorized to spend money, and the problem today is not that we spend too much; it’s that we spend money we were never authorized to spend. Congress would not spend anywhere near 18% of GDP if Congress maintained the power to determine spending and limited their spending only to areas where they are authorized to spend.

There are also flaws with limiting spending to a percentage of GDP. First, the GDP is determined by the Bureau of Economic Analysis in the Department of Commerce, which is an agency under the President’s control. Also, as our economy improves and GDP rises, so would the size of our government. A better approach would be to index spending to population growth plus inflation.

In summary, enacting a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution would give the Executive Branch the Constitutional right to set the budget, and as Paul Ryan pointed out, passing a Balanced Budget Amendment in its current form would increase the size of government and force us to raise taxes.

Education is a Local Issue

I believe that education is inherently a local issue and that parents and the community can do a better job educating a child than a bureaucrat in Washington could do. Rather than sending our tax dollars to Washington so that a portion of it can be sent back with strings attached, I would fight to return education spending to the state and local level.

School Choice is Important

As someone who was homeschooled all 12 years, I fully support school choice. Being homeschooled allowed me to learn at my own pace, and it’s what allowed me to get ahead at an early age. While not every child has the opportunity to be taught at home, parental involvement is important, and parents should be encouraged to invest in their children–not penalized.

Reward Investing in Our Children

I would support a bill allowing any money spent on a child’s education to be tax deductible. That way, we avoid raiding local public school funds, while rewarding parents who choose to homeschool or send their children to private school.

The bill should also apply to charitable giving so that people would be rewarded for giving to send less fortunate children to a better school.

Abolish and Privatize the TSA

When most people think of the TSA, they think of airport security, but the T in TSA actually stands for Transportation. The TSA has jurisdiction over all forms of transportation. As a result, the TSA has already conducted over 9,300 unannounced checkpoints on our highways. I support Congressman John Mica’s bill that recently allowed airports to opt out of the TSA and hire private screening companies instead.

A 2011 Transportation Committee report found that private screeners are 65% more efficient and save tax-payers 42% more money than the TSA. The TSA has over 65,000 employees, including over 9,600 administrators and nearly 4,000 in D.C. who make an average of $103k per year.

Despite the fact that TSA screeners wear badges and uniforms and call themselves “officers”, they are not required to receive any law enforcement training and do not even have the authority to arrest people. I support HR 3608 which would strip TSA screeners of their badges and uniforms unless they have received such training. In addition, we should first offer those jobs to our veterans, who are highly trained and who face some of the highest unemployment rates in the nation.

For more information about the TSA, check out this infographic.