Asked By: Doug favors universal insurance! - 12/21/2008

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I am a Conservative because i believe in....
1. Secure our Borders: Build the necessary fences and place the necessary forces there, whether it be the border patrol, or the National Guard. We have to effectively regulate the flow of people not only from our southern border, but also those who remain here on expired visas. Border security is pivotal to our safety and security from those who seek to kill Americans.
2. Strengthen our Military and Intelligence Network: We must treat our men and women in uniform with the respect they deserve. That means a pay increase, beginning at the bottom for all of our armed forces. In order to attract the kind of people we need, the money has to be there. These are the people we charge with the defense of America, and they deserve the best America has to offer. We must also modernize the way we prepare, in peace and in war. This means updated weapons systems that are functional and reliable, and armor for personal protection that is unparalleled. In order to defend America, we must give our soldiers the tools they need to be effective at their jobs. We must also ensure that our intelligence services have to money and recruits to effectively provide us with the information necessary to keep Americans safe, here and abroad.
3. Achieve Energy Independence: Depending on foreign governments to supply us with the crude oil we need is a dangerous game of Russian roulette. Public opinion in many of these countries toward the United States and our allies is, at best, suspect. In others, many call for the outright destruction of America. We cannot allow these countries to dictate our energy policy and control the price of a resource that is vital to our economy. Make no mistake, the availability of oil is a National Security issue. Nuclear power, clean coal technology, drilling domestically for oil and natural gas, and investing in other alternative forms of energy should be our main priorities in this area. Until a viable alternative is available we must open all available oil and natural gas fields to development so that we may ensure that Americans are able to have, among other thing, gas for their automobiles and heating oil for their homes at prices they can afford.
4. Fiscal Responsibility: Lower taxes promote the growth of small businesses, as well as growth of corporations here at home. The only way to keep jobs here is to give tax incentives to businesses of all sizes. We currently have the highest corporate tax rate in the world, so who can blame companies for packing up and moving overseas. At this point, it’s only good business. We also have to put an end to wasteful spending in federal and state government. $400,000 Tea Pot Museums and billion-dollar bridges that serve a few hundred people are projects for private donors or community fundraisers, not our tax dollars. And how detainees at Guantanamo Bay get $75,000 prosthetic limbs that are covered under the Americans with disabilities act is beyond me. On the issue of taxes I agree with a plan advocated by former Arkansas Governor and presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee, called the Fair Tax. At its core, the implementation of the fair tax would eliminate the need for the IRS and we would no longer pay income taxes. The revenue would be replaced resetting the sales tax nationally to around 27?People call for a level playing field, and this is as level as it gets.
5. Decrease the Size of the Federal Government: There are certain government agencies that could be combined with others and re-structured, and others that could be eliminated altogether (See the proposal above for the IRS.) And while I believe that there are times in a person’s life that they need a helping hand, programs like welfare are broken and need to be fixed. Welfare is not a lifestyle, and those who abuse the system drain resources that could be made available to modernize our infrastructure by creating jobs in clean energy technologies, or giving tax incentives to companies to develop and keep jobs here at home.
6. Address the Education Crisis: No child left behind is a joke, eliminate it. It may not be politically correct to say that some students do not learn at the same pace as their peers, but those are simply facts. Holding students back to get the slower students on board helps neither. Our public school systems in general are failing. According to the New York Times, barely 25?f New York City high school students graduate, and less than one third of those go on to college. We have to give parents the option of sending their children to schools that afford them the opportunity to succeed. We must begin holding teachers and administrators accountable for performance and reward those who innovate and perform well. Apply the same free-market economic idea to our education system and encourage competition between schools. Competition, as we see in business, leads ultimately to a better product.
7. Continue the offensive in the War on Terrorism. We have stayed on the offensive and we have not been attacked on US soil since 9-11. The Bush Doctrine speaks for its self.

Answered By: n.timberlake - 12/21/2008