Our Founding Fathers firmly believed that "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson even went as far as to say, the primary purpose of government is to secure these inalienable rights. Unfortunately, many of our elected leaders today have a different view of the purpose of government. Most of them (Democrats and Republicans alike) seem to believe that government should have a larger role in lives of its citizens.
The truth of the matter is irrefutable though. As the size of government increases, our freedoms and liberties are slowly taken from us. Take a moment to think about your last pay check. Were you free to spend every dollar you made? Of course not, you are only free in part. The government decided how part of your income would be spent on your behalf.
When I am in Washington, I will fight against the current trend of socializing our economy. I will seek to make the Constitution the cornerstone of all laws passed in Congress. In short, I will simplify government.
Our current administration foolishly believes that government spending will create jobs, stimulate our economy, and restore economic prosperity to our nation. However, this could not be further from the truth. We need only to consider one question to understand how counterproductive our government's excessive spending has been: Where is the government getting the money it spends?
The government continuously takes wealth from the engine of our economy - the middle class, the wealthy, and small businesses. According to the Wall Street Journal's Market Watch, the top 40% of income earners paid 86% of all federal taxes this year. In other words, the most productive members of our nation are taxed for their hard work and productivity, and their wealth is transferred to less productive members of the economy.
To achieve sustainable economic growth, the United States must simplify government. We need leaders in Congress who are willing to make tough decisions to drastically cut inefficient government programs that are wasting our nation's productive resources. Once we are able to reign in the out-of-control spending, the federal government will be able to responsibly reduce the overall tax burden on consumers and businesses alike. This will grant all of us an increase in freedom to spend, save, and invest more of our hard-earned income.
For the past five years, Chard Reid has taught his economics students to live within their means and to avoid debt at all costs. Now it's time for him to bring this common sense approach to Congress.
Chard Reid will simplify our federal budget by fighting to:
For more information regarding Chard's view of taxation, please visit his blog and read "The Truth about Taxes".
Chard Reid believes that the Constitution is the foundation of the United States government. In response to the tyranny they faced in Europe, our Founding Fathers crafted the Constitution to protect our economic and personal freedoms. However, our current politicians resent the constraints that the Constitution has put on their power, so they have begun to disregard its principles. Chard Reid will fight to make sure that the federal government only passes laws that it has the Constitutional right to pass.
When the United States began the social security program, the average life span was 65 years for Americans. At that time, Americans had to wait until they were 65 years old to draw on social security. Therefore, it truly was a social safety net for those who lived longer than expected. But today, the average lifespan for Americans is 78 years, but the social security payout age is 67. That means that the average American draws social security benefits for 11 years (14% of their lives). It is no wonder that the system is falling apart.
Over the past eighty years, our federal government has been collecting 6.2% of our income from our paychecks plus 6.2% of our income from our employers. They have promised to return that money to us when we retire. Unfortunately, our government has been running a Ponzi scheme similar to the one Bernie Madoff was arrested for orchestrating. Every dime that we have paid into the system has been spent to cover deficits from other programs in the annual budget! As of today, the federal government owes $14,000,000,000,000 ($14 trillion) in future social security payments and does not have a dime of that in the bank!
Therefore, the federal government has two options:
This is the route that most politicians want to take. Because they want to be reelected, they avoid making the difficult decision to reform social security. They fear backlash from the voters. Unfortunately, though, there will be more pain later if we do not fight to reform the inefficient program today.
We need to gradually begin raising the eligibility age in order to save the program for years to come. This is not a new idea, but one that has been rejected for decades by short-sighted politicians. It is important to note that in my plan, monthly social security benefits will not change for anyone near retirement. In fact, everyone over the age of 55 will continue to receive benefits at the age of 67. I believe that people need time to make adjustments to their patterns of behavior, especially when it comes to their savings retirement account.
The program will not survive unless changes are made, and my plan offers a relatively painless change that will save trillions of dollars for tax payers. It will provide an incentive for Americans to save for their own retirement, while giving them plenty of time to plan ahead.
Chard Reid believes that the rising costs of health care in America need to be addressed. However, the bill passed by Congress this year is not the answer. Chard Reid will vote to repeal the Health Care bill and replace it with free-market solutions.
Chard Reid believes that the United States of America should have the strongest national defense program in the world. As usual, his beliefs are consistent with the Founding Fathers, who went out of their way to include national defense as the primary function of the federal government in the Constitution. Although defense spending is the second-largest component of our federal budget, it is arguably the most important and legitimate program we have.
As your representative in Congress, Chard Reid will fight to simplify our foreign policy and return to the sound advice of our Founding Fathers. He will count the human and economic costs of every conflict before agreeing to put our armed men and women into harm's way.
In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote, "All men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
Chard Reid believes that life begins at the point of conception. Consequently, Chard considers the lives of unborn children to be equally as precious as the lives of children outside of the womb.