PLATFORM

           I have spent much time talking with, and more importantly, listening to the people of our district. What I have learned adds up to the way the people wish to be represented. With your help, I will advocate for these positions both during the campaign and as your Representative in Washington.

Taxes

In 2001 and again in 2003, Congress passed and the President authorized what have become known as the Bush tax cuts. These measures pulled the nation out of the Clinton recession, and then out of the post-9/11 recession. These cuts should be made permanent without further debate or question. Further cuts may well be possible. I am also very interested in alternative taxing schemes, including the Flat Tax plan and the Fair Tax plan. More study will be required, together with a great political effort, before either of these alternative plans, or any other alternatives, can be successfully instituted. The easiest way to assure a lessening of the tax burden would be to put tight functional reins on governmental spending.

Global War on Terror

We are engaged in the early stages of a worldwide war against terror aimed at destroying our great Nation. To further clarify the point, my definition of terrorism is “the threat of use of force or violence, or the actual use of force or violence, against private citizens or against public or private property with the goal of coercing or intimidating people, a government, or society as a whole, or any combination thereof.”

Having said this, people who can be identified as meeting this definition I consider to be a terrorist threat against civilized people throughout the world, including my primary area of interest, which is right here in America. In short, these people are, by their own oaths, our sworn enemies. The vast majority of worldwide terrorists seem, at the present time, to be fundamental Islamic extremists. While it is true that the terrorists make up only a small percentage of Islamics, it is also true that there has been no outcry from mainstream Islamics to distance themselves from the terrorists. This is unfortunately reminiscent of Nazi Germany, wherein the actual Nazis were a small percentage of the German population, but acquiesced as a whole to the will of, and murderous reign of, the Nazis. One of our main current advantages is that we have not had a Democrat Chief Executive to further empower our enemy as Neville Chamberlain empowered Hitler.

As such, it is my position that the President has it right when he says that we must destroy the terrorists AND make it unattractive for additional terrorists to rise up and take the place of the terrorists we destroy AND foster new societal norms and mores in Islamic countries that have heretofore been havens to terrorists. We are in uncharted territory when it comes to fighting a war against private organizations that span across international borders rather than fighting against a nation. Whether President Bush’s tactics in the field have been right or wrong, which is open to serious discussion and debate, his underlying strategy of eliminating worldwide terrorism as developed from the facts as we know them at this time is unassailably correct. I therefore support the U.S. Military, both abstractly and as currently deployed, as I recognize that the primary Constitutional function of the Federal Government is to “provide for a national defense.”

As footnotes, among all Islamic nations, we must tread most lightly around Pakistan, due to their nuclear capabilities and the dire consequences of such capability falling into terrorist hands. All terrorists, and this includes non-Islamics as well as Islamics, must have their ability to spread terror eliminated. The military may not be the best way to eliminate terrorists, but it is the best way that we currently know; new and better ideas and techniques are always welcome.

National and Homeland Security

National and Homeland Security is constitutionally the prime duty of the Federal government. We are currently at war in both Afghanistan and Iraq. How we got into these wars is beside the point; whether one agrees or disagrees with the policies that brought about this state of affairs, these wars exist and therefore must be successfully concluded. To me, the phrase “successful completion of a war” means that we have achieved the political objectives of that war, and are able to bring our troops home safely and securely while remaining confident that the status quo will remain unchanged with regard to the achieved political objectives. This position allows for the establishment of an overseas military presence in the form of military bases. As a matter of national defense, we have maintained presences in other nations in this way for many years, including over 100 years in the Philippines and Guantanamo, Cuba, and over 60 years in both Germany and Japan. Each of these presences has resulted in a military advantage in subsequent warfare; in other words, it has kept America safe. It is well to remember that war is the one event in which there is no “home field advantage.” The Afghanistan war has successfully pushed the Taliban and Al Qaeda out of that country, although there still occur many skirmishes against those groups as they cross the border from Pakistan back into Afghanistan. The major problem now is diplomatic in nature, and involves the permission of the Pakistani government for cross-border insertion of troops to conduct the war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

 

 FISA Legislation

Renewal of the FISA act is crucial to the success of our government’s efforts to protect us from attacks on our shores. The ability to wiretap communications from outside this country to potential terrorists inside this country is clearly necessary if we are to stop these attacks before they happen, instead of cleaning up after they happen. Some of the key features of the FISA act that must be retained are the ability to start the wiretaps before a warrant issues, immunity for the telephone companies that aid the government in this effort, and of course the total secrecy of the activities of the FISA courts. There has been much outrage in the press that FISA, and also the Patriot Act, have violated YOUR Constitutional rights. I am unaware of any violation of a citizen’s Constitutional rights as a result of this legislation. If any of you feel that your rights have been violated, please inform me of the details, and I will take appropriate action.

 

Illegal Immigration and Border Control

Illegal immigration is a great danger to our nation. Especially in time of war, we must know who is entering our land, and what they are bringing with them. Our southern border has historically shown itself to be so porous that we have come to the conclusion that the only way to effectively secure that border is to fence it off. The funds have been allocated for portions of the fence to be built. The only open question is what is taking so long to get the fence built. As the son of two legal immigrants, I am unquestionably pro-immigrant and pro-immigration. While we welcome new Americans, we expect that they will come here in accord with our laws and customs, and that once they get here they will work hard, learn the language, and become productive members of our society.

 

Proposed New G.I. Bill of Rights

I am thrilled at the news that Rep. Peter King (R-NY) and Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), together with Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) have announced an initiative to write a new GI Bill. The statements that they have thus far released via Bill O’Reilly’s radio and television programs indicate that they intend to completely revamp the existing system, and fully fund the resulting system, so that budgetary demands will no longer be an issue.

            I look forward to their finalized bill, which is expected by the end of this month. I intend to review their work, and will have further comments on the program that they design. This new bill is crucial to this district (Florida’s 15^th, currently represented by Dave Weldon), in that we desperately need a better staffed and equipped facility here. The currently proposed hospital for Lake Nona is simply not sufficient for our needs. This is especially so because under the outline of the new GI Bill, there will be a provision for health care coverage for all veterans and their immediate families for life. Since our district has so many retired military families, with more settling here all the time, our need for a VA hospital will greatly increase.

            When I am in Washington as our representative, after the new GI Bill is enacted, fighting for a local VA hospital will be one of first priorities. Just as major corporations give their employees a health benefit as part of their compensation package, and continue that benefit as part of the pension package, there is no reason that the United States Government, through the Departments of Defense and Veterans’ Affairs, should not take care of its employees who happen to be in the military in the same way. These brave men and women have volunteered their energies, personal safety, and family lives to ensure our safety, but are not well paid for their efforts. We, in turn, should at the very least relieve these American heroes of the burden of financing costly first-rate healthcare.

            Veterans, of course, as a group suffer from injuries both physical and psychological that are rarely found in non-military populations. It is therefore necessary that centers are established to specialize in these injuries that are specific to veterans. That is the medical reasoning behind the existence of a separate VA hospital system, and it is sound reasoning. Some have argued that it would be more cost-effective to give veterans a card, similar to a Medicaid card, which would grant them full access to medical care at any local hospital. Unfortunately, since most hospitals would not have on staff people with the requisite training and experience to treat peculiarly military conditions, this idea is simply not practical.

 

Energy Independence

This great nation is suffering from a dependency on Middle Eastern oil. There are several steps that can be taken to lessen the noose of dependency from around the neck of our economy. First, we must be able to process oil more efficiently. To this end, America needs to expand its oil refinement capabilities. Due to diligent lobbying by ecology groups, no new refineries have been built in over twenty years. However, the new clean refining processes that did not exist when our last refineries were built guarantee that the process will be both more efficient and less ecologically destructive than ever before. Second, we must find other sources of oil. Actually, we have already found these other sources. They exist in the Alaska National Wildlife Reserve (“ANWAR”). Great care must be taken to avoid damage to delicate ecosystems. However, we must balance disasters which may never occur. Therefore, I am for responsible drilling and oil recovery in that need for great care against the needs of society. Third, we must find other ways to generate power. The most obvious proven alternative technique here is nuclear power. Again, we have not built a new facility in this country in many years, due in large part to the ecology lobby. And further, new advanced technologies put the safety levels of the existing facilities to shame. I therefore advocate expanding our nuclear generation capability so that no oil need be burned to assure that this nation has its electrical needs fully met while complying with new, tougher ecological standards.

There are other alternative energy sources to be developed, including without limitation wind power, solar power, wave power, and geothermal power, to name but a few. One of my priorities in Washington will be to support research into these alternative “green” energy sources. This District is rich in all these resources, and can readily develop local industries to harness this energy. Each of these is, unlike nuclear energy, insufficient alone to replace our foreign energy needs, but together their cumulative effect will be real and will make a difference. We therefore must continue research into these secondary energy sources to bolster our energy generation abilities.

I would note that if we do in fact open ANWAR to RESPONSIBLE oil exploration and drilling, increasing fuel refining capacity, and safely and cleanly expanding our nuclear plant electrical generating capacity, in conjunction with further exploration and expansion of use of alternative energy sources. By irresponsible exploration behavior, I mean ecologically unsound drilling processes, spills, behavior destructive to wildlife habitats, and other indefensible actions. So as to “educate” the entities involved in the proposed exploration and drilling, in exchange for their licenses to explore and drill, these entities should be required to contribute to and participate in rehabilitation of various existing ecological disasters (known as “Brownfields”), either through the Environmental Protection Agency, or under the supervision of that agency. Of course, each entity licensed to explore and drill should also be forced to post a significant bond, the size of which would be sufficient to allow for the repair of any environmental mishap.

 

Global Warming

Global warming is a fact. The earth’s mean temperature has increased by a little over one degree Fahrenheit over the last 100 years. There is no clear single cause for this warming effect. It has become quite fashionable in certain circles to say that the effect is entirely man-made. This argument is at best suspect. If one were to charge our scientists with creating a temperature increase of similar scope and dimension, it is doubtful that they would be able to do so. Because the rest of the planets in our solar system are also warming, according to NASA and NOAA, it may well be that the sun is the real culprit behind the warming. Further investigation is required as to the source of the heating. Without a better understanding of the cause, there is no practical cure that can be instituted.