Issues

Border Security
Failing American border security is an issue that has not been satisfactorily addressed, nor resolved. It is first, and foremost, a national security issue, but the fact that it’s currently failing is also a very real obstacle to moving forward with reforming American immigration policies.

The lack of political will to secure our borders by the current administration is dangerous for both our national security, and our economy. While the vulnerability of our southern border has been the bigger problem, our country clearly needs overall improvement in “360-degree border security.” This is to ensure our seaports, our coastlines and northern border are also adequately secured. In order to achieve this, we simply need more resources — more boots on the ground, an increase in aerial surveillance and improved technology employed along the border. And, in densely populated urban areas, more — and improved — fencing.

Our borders need to be secured, and this can’t be done soon enough. But this will take political will — something the Obama administration has yet to demonstrate. Then, and only then, will it be possible to achieve needed immigration reform acceptable to a majority of Americans.

Economy
Governments don’t create jobs — businesses create jobs! But government can establish public policies that can create business-friendly environments for the private sector to grow in and prosper.

To revitalize America’s economy, we need to lower taxes and cut back unnecessary and excessive government expenditures, including entitlement spending, by making pragmatic, common-sense changes to these latter programs that are long overdue. We also need to reduce unnecessary regulations that are strangling industry and businesses, making them less competitive in the international marketplace.

The late President Ronald Reagan once said, “Government is not a solution to our problem; government is the problem.” Excessive government spending, high taxes, and irrational regulations kill jobs and make us less competitive. If we want a healthy business climate, and economic growth, we need to eliminate unnecessary and burdensome government regulations. We also need to keep taxes low, have a majority of taxpayers pay “something” so they are invested and let Americans keep more of the money they earn. The exponential impact of economic growth that will result from implementing pro-business policies and incentivizing private sector investment will dramatically grow our economy and provide government, at all levels, with more than sufficient revenues for the public services and educational system appropriate for today’s American society.

National Defense
America’s National Defense budget is too often the first place naïve politicians look to cut before they look anywhere else, particularly if it is a domestic program that “buys votes.” Most people would be surprised to learn that America’s defense expenditures, as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (“GDP”), is near an all time low. Eliminating waste in Defense expenditures is certainly a worthwhile goal. However, we simply can’t afford to make cuts in U.S. Defense “Muscle” that handicaps our capability to respond to threats, and increases our vulnerability to the nation’s enemies at a time when both hostile nations and non-state terrorist organizations are growing their military capabilities.

Radical Islamists have publically stated they want to destroy the American republic and Western civilization, and Iran and North Korea are unpredictable volatile regional powers with weapons of Mass Destruction that can kill thousands of people. Further, the growth of international narcotics cartels and criminal organizations with lethal capabilities that exceed that of many small nations, all combine to make this a very dangerous world for the United States in the 21st Century.

We have no choice but to defend this nation through strength and resolute foreign policy. However, this can only be sustained with adequate force and the enduring support of a majority of the American people. With regard to the latter, we must ensure Americans are fully aware of the issues, and of the consequences for our failure to adequately defend ourselves. Our survival as a nation is directly related to not only our Defense capabilities, but also sustaining our national will for these purposes.