Term Limits – This job was never meant to be a career. Go to the Hill, do your job, come home. By definition, career politicians do not represent us; they serve their own selfish interests. I promise, if elected, I will not serve more than 12 years (6 terms) and can be fired by my employers, the citizens of Congressional District 4, at any election.

Immigration The Illegal Immigration issue is interesting, because I expected it to be a non-issue this year. It is brought up in every single speaking engagement. First, I want people to understand that I fully support legal immigration. Since the very discovery of this country, people have risked their lives to come here to the land of opportunity. America was a place of freedom; where you could work hard and become wealthy; where you were free to make your own choices about your life and its direction. These early immigrants worked hard to learn the language and assimilate to American life. People wanted to be…AMERICANS.

This country was founded on the precept that people would want to become Americans. That means assimilating into American culture and language. The thought of having immigrants retaining language and customs to the exclusion of English and American customs does not build a healthy country, rather it destroys it. A country must be built on similarities.

Oddly enough, while working the Eugene gun show recently, a gentleman asked me what I felt is the most important issue facing Congress today. When I told him we need to repeal all unconstitutional bills that have been signed into law, he pressed me for one single issue.

After thinking for a moment, I told him, "If I could only enact a single piece of legislation, it would have to be to counter illegal immigration because it affects every issue we have in America today. "

Based on that one statement he and his (60ish year old) son took a handful of cards and said they would tell everyone they knew to vote for me. Illegal immigration is still a very big issue to Americans....and should be.... as I will address by issue.

National Security: How do we justify fighting a "war on terror" overseas when we leave our borders open to anyone who wants to enter? This is akin to having your house broken into and being robbed blind, so you leave the doors wide open and head off to Detroit to get rid of thieves over there. While our soldiers are busy overseas, our borders are being infiltrated daily. When the first act these people make in America is to violate the law, it is not a good start!

Public Health/Health care: Unlike legal immigrants who are screened for diseases before being accepted into the US, illegal immigrants are not. There is a resurgence of TB, this time a resistant strain, in the US mostly due to illegal migration. There was an outbreak of Typhoid in 1992 in Maryland because of an illegal working in food service as a food handler. The four states with the highest illegal immigration numbers have over half of all TB cases.

Medical care for illegals drives up the costs of health care astronomically. According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform, California alone spends $10.5 billion annually on illegal immigrants. Medical care for illegal immigrants cost California families an average of $1200/year. If we addressed the issues of illegal immigration, it would almost single handidly solve the problem of healthcare for American citizens.

Education: The demand that we teach these children in their parent's native language at taxpayer expense indefinitely keeps these young immigrants in lower class status because it makes it impossible for them to compete with others in their classes. This is a detriment for them.

To us, it is another taxpayer expense. The average cost for a child in the public schools in the US is $7524/year (approx $100,000 for K-12). Using California as an example again, $7.7 billion is spent on teaching illegal immigrant children yearly.

Economy: A common argument for illegal immigration is that it is cheap labor. Is it really? It was estimated in 1996 that illegal immigrants cost the US taxpayer $2,444,000,000,000 (that is $2.4 trillion) in healthcare, housing, welfare, food stamps, education and the like.

What is so difficult about the concept of illegal immigration? Illegal means criminal. Why aren't these known criminals deported immediately? Why is our over-taxed (no pun intended) social system overburdened by people who are not even citizens of our country? Those who would argue that we need to take care of those less fortunate than us fail to understand, or explain, how we can help all. Our responsibility is to our own citizens first and primarily. None of our tax dollars should be going to improve the plight of citizens of other countries; that is the option of individuals and civic organizations.

I accept citizens who come here through legal channels, but illegals should be immediately deported. By very definition, they are criminals. Why would we want them here? They have already proved their blatant disregard for our laws. The kids? Sorry. Their parents are responsible for them...they go home, too. The 14th amendment states, "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside." Jurisdiction is defined as the "power, rights or authority of". Since illegal immigrants are not subject to US authority, they are not inclined to the rights of an American citizen. This has been misconstrued to mean anyone born in this country. The specifics of this amendment were to assure that the children of freed slaves were given full citizenship. This does not mean those who walk across our border to give birth. In other words, no more anchor babies, either!

Economy – You can’t spend your way out of debt. Our government needs to stop spending money. Stop all social benefits to non-Americans, not only within our borders, but around the world. Just like we in the private world do, let’s cut out the niceties and focus on necessities. Let Americans keep more of their own money and we will stimulate the economy.

Health Care – Health care reform is a must, but Socialized medicine, euphemistically called Universal Healthcare, ensures one thing- poor care. Other options need to be evaluated, but we should never allow our federal government control over our healthcare systems. They have already destroyed our financial system and education system.

Here in Oregon, we already have a form of Socialized medicine in the Oregon Health Plan. It is to my great embarrassment that Oregon’s plan is often held up as an example of what we don’t want in our country! One of the stories often quoted is the one about Barbara Wagner, who is covered through the state of Oregon's government health care plan, and was denied an important cancer drug she requested and instead was offered a drug for assisted suicide. Her doctor offered hope in the new chemotherapy drug Tarceva, but the Oregon Health Plan sent her a letter telling her the cancer treatment was not approved.
Instead, the letter said, the plan would pay for comfort care, including "physician aid in dying," better known as assisted suicide.

My healthcare plan can be summed up in 3 simple points: Tort reform, competition, tax credits.

My healthcare platform includes the following planks:
• Bring insurance companies under the Sherman Anti-trust laws like every other business.
• Make insurance portable so that it can be purchased across state lines. When I moved from Michigan to Oregon 5 years ago, my car & health insurance premiums each decreased by exactly one half. If we could buy across state lines, the competition would force prices to drop ~ if used in conjunction with the Sherman Anti-trust law.
• Tort reform. Those who have been injured permanently and catastrophically should never be left without medical coverage, but no one should get rich on a malpractice suit. Tort reform has worked remarkably in Texas and doctors flocked to the Lone Star state in the first 3 years since Tort reform was enacted in 2004.
• It is also within the scope of Congress’ enumerated powers to allow providers who provide pro bono care to indigent patients a federal tax credit equal to the Medicare/Medicaid payment that would otherwise be paid.
• We also need to make sure that all recipients of non-emergency care are citizens. We cannot afford to continue to provide “free” care, which as I stated before is not free.

Whatever we decide, we must not rush into a plan that has not been well thought out regarding outcomes. It can be compared to going to the doctor for chest pain and being rushed into open heart surgery without testing. Something needs to be done, but we need to make sure that we are doing the right thing.

The bottom line is we have the best healthcare in the world, which is why people come from around the world to get healthcare in America. Let's not mess it up by allowing the government to take it over.

Gun Control – The Constitution and the Bill of Rights were written at a time when the new world had just gone through a war with a tyrannical government. The American Revolution was started over gun control and confiscation. Banning guns does not remove guns from criminals, only law-abiding citizens who are not a risk. The Constitution states “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”

George Washington said, "Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself. They are the people's liberty teeth (and) keystone... the rifle and the pistol are equally indispensable... more than 99% of them [guns] by their silence indicate that they are in safe and sane hands. The very atmosphere of firearms everywhere restrains evil interference [crime]. When firearms go, all goes, we need them every hour." (Address to 1st session of Congress)

Timber – Oregon grows trees…well. Trees are a renewable crop, much like corn or wheat, albeit at a slower rate. At this time, timber companies are replanting at the rate of 2:1 the trees that they cut.   As they age, they begin to emit carbon dioxide. The only way to sequester the carbon in trees is to grow them to a harvestable size and then make them into a finished product. We must take our timber industry back!