Today, is the fourth of a five part series, which is intended to outline the key issues facing the Ohio U.S. Senator beginning in January 2007 and beyond. Today we look at issues related to finances.The following table compares and contrasts how the two 2006 Ohio Democratic opponents for U.S. Senate differ in their basic beliefs about issues dealing with fiscal accountability:
THE ISSUE: ………… CANDIDATE BROWN: ….… CANDIDATE KEISER:
TAXES
Making the Bush tax
cuts permanent: ………..…. NO………………………………… YES ………………
Eliminating the
estate tax: ……….……..….… NO …………………………….…. YES ……………..…
Reduce the
“Marriage tax”: ……………. NO…………………………………..YES……………..…
Tax cuts for
small business: ……………. OPPOSES ………………………… FAVORS …….…
End offshore tax
havens and promote
small businesses: ……..…...NO…………………………….…… YES……………
SPENDING
Reforming the UN by
restricting US funding: ….. NO …………………….…………. YES ……………
Banning family planning
funding in US & abroad: .. NO …………………….…………. YES ……………
BARRIERS TO ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT &
REVENUE GENERATION
Capping damages and
settling time in
medical lawsuits: …..…….. NO ………………………………… YES……………
Not allowing product
misuse legal actions
against gun makers: ……... NO ………………………………… YES ……………
Limiting attorney fees
in class action lawsuits: … NO…………………………………… YES………………
Restricting frivolous
lawsuits: ………………………… NO…………………………………... YES………………
John F. Kennedy said that to stimulate the economy and to increase revenue, we must reduce taxes, not increase them. According to Mr. Brown's voting record my opponent does not agree.
The deficit is indecent. We must do all we can to stimulate economic growth and to control our spending. We must be willing to make deep cuts in programs and projects that do not work. For example, why fund the United Nations when it works against us and our interests? Why do we keep pouring money into education and continually get poor results? We must carefully evaluate everything that government does.
Agency bureaucrats must have good justification for their budget requests. In fact, it would be a good idea to introduce zero-based budgeting into the budgeting process. A national goal might be to cut spending across the board by 3-5 % until the deficit is eliminated. To produce a national budget that insures an annual surplus. This surplus revenue then must be used to pay down our national debt.
As a nation we should look seriously at abolishing the IRS. We must implement a better system such as taxing consumption (national sales tax) instead of income. This may encourage Americans to save more.
We must stop putting Social Security Funds into our general fund and thereore spending these funds for short-term purposes. Let's make and keep Social Security solvent. If we don’t have money to operate all our programs then we must prioritize those that are needed the most and eliminate what we cannot afford.
We must more aggressively pursue identification and elimination of waste, fraud and abuse and severely punish those who do so.
Besides lowering taxes and making tax cuts permanent, we should remove other roadblocks to economic development such as legislated environmental extremism which only increases the cost of doing business without actually benefiting the environment. Unreasonable and unbridled monetary damage awards are ruining whole industries and are increasing cost to the consumer. One example is healthcare, where medical professionals operate in constant fear of lawsuits. Another example is product liability legal actions. Is this driving some of our manufacturing businesses out of business or causing them to move out of the country?
If we citizens are expected to live within our means, then our government must live within its means. Congress must not spend more than what is brought into the treasury, and they must even insure a surplus to be used for deficit reduction. Legislators are needed who will bring old fashion common sense and frugality to Washington.
There are now only 6 more days until Ohio Voters can make A Good Choice on Tuesday, May 2nd in the Democratic Primary Election!
