Jerry Fowler on The Issues

The Issues

Unemployment: We must take drastic action to remove government obstruction to business expansion to allow our unemployed to seek gainful employment. On February 17th of this year, in an address at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, Barack Obama said "So far, the Recovery Act is responsible for the jobs of about 2 million Americans who would otherwise be unemployed. ... [And] the Recovery Act is on track to save or create another 1.5 million jobs in 2010." So, do the math! If half of the stimulus money has been spent so far, that is an average expenditure of $196,750 for each job "created or saved". If the rest of the stimulus money is spent for an additional 1.5 million jobs that will raise the average expenditure per job to $224,857. Ask yourself how many of those jobs are actually paying annual salaries in that range. Does that appear to be a sound investment of our tax dollars?

Tax Reform: As an emergency stop-gap measure we need to preserve what is known as the "Bush Tax Cuts". On Thursday Jul 22, 2010, it seems that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke agrees with this approach in the following article (Bernanke Urges Congress to Renew Bush Tax Cuts). The FairTax (H.R. 25) should be implemented which would repeal the 16th Amendment (H.J. Res 16), repeal the income tax and a host of other taxes, phase out the IRS, and implement a National Sales on all new purchases. If you would like to determine the impact FairTax on your net spendable income click on this link to use the FairTax Calculator. One of my first acts in Congress would be to add my name to the existing 62 co-sponsors of this bill and work to get this bill out of the House Committee on Ways and Means to a full floor vote.

Budget Reform: Eliminate wasteful spending and keep taxes low by implementing the Unified Fixed Pie Budget as proposed by the Independence Caucus

Health Care Reform: Repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) in its entirety and implement incremental improvements to reduce costs and improve quality of health care. I applaud the Missouri Legislature for placing the Missouri Health Care Freedom Amendment, Proposition C on the August 3, 2010 statewide ballot in Missouri to block the federal government from requiring people to buy health insurance and bans punishment for those without health insurance. This is a prime example of how state nullification works in response to the unconstitutional insurance mandate. I will be voting Yes on Proposition C on August 3rd.

Social Security Reform: We need to address the massive unfunded liabilities of this program (and Medicare) with an approach that will preserve the benefits being received by current recipients and those nearing retirement age while providing private retirement account options for younger payors into the system.

Medicare Reform: The strengthening of Medicare fraud enforcement to absolutely essential to eliminating abuses of the program and reducing costs. Medicare should remain the same for current beneficiaries, but a future transition to a defined-contribution plan in which the government's contribution is adjusted based upon age, income or health status should be implemented.

Energy Reform: We need to promote energy security by expanding domestic energy supply and repeal the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (H.R. 2454 - Cap and Trade) to keep American energy costs low in this time of economic hardship.

Strengthen National Security and Preserve National Sovereignty: I favor ending the Iran and Afghanistan wars and returning our foreign troops home as safely and as quickly as possible. I favor the position of some of our Founding Fathers who advised the country to avoid "foreign entanglements" and promoted "peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none."

Protect the Sanctity of Human Life: I am a pro-life advocate in principle and in deed and believe that all life should be protected from conception to those who are in their last stages of life and am supportive of the Life at Conception Act.

Education Reform: Parents need to be provided with more school choice to improve the quality and reduce the costs of education. I strongly support the Parental Rights Amendment (H. J. Res. 42) which confirms that "The liberty of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their children is a fundamental right." A good site to track the status and get involved is ParentalRights.org.

Immigration Reform: Our national security is weakend by our lax border security. Our nation needs to enforce existing immigration laws and reject amnesty for illegal aliens. In this time of chronic unemployment, I favor temporarily reducing the limit on foreign workers to allow the 9-10% of our unemployed workforce to seek gainful employment.

Federal Reserve: I support the heroic attempt to pass the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009 (H.R. 1207) and believe it is crucial to conduct a full audit of the institution that is entirely responsible for the 98% loss in value of the dollar, since the Federal Reserve was established in 1913.

States Rights: James Madison wrote in Federalist #45: "...The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite..." (bolding added). The balance of power between the States and Federal government needs to restored to the original intent of the U.S. Constitution and a good place to start is the repeal of the 17th Amendment which would return the election of U.S. Senators to the State legislatures.

Increase In-District Representation: The last sentence of Article 1 Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution reads: "The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall, by law, appoint a different day." Current technology, such as finger print identification, web cameras, and teleconferencing should be utilized to facilitate remote voting and discussions regarding legislation. The purpose of implementing this technology is to allow the Representative to spend more time in the Congressional District working with (and being held accountable by) the constituency as opposed to spending more time in Washington D.C. While the primary benefit is to the Congressional District constituents, other benefits include; increased national security due to de-centralized representation, reduction in air travel and its associated costs, and reduced lodging costs for the Representatives.

Paid for by the Committee to Elect Jerry Fowler to U.S. Congress