Constitutional Preservation
Let's be safe AND free!
Our Constitution rights are being eroded slowly. Sometimes it happens so slowly that we don't even notice. It is my mission to make sure the Constitution doesn't become the "living document" that so many in Washington would like it to be. I believe our founding fathers had very specific intentions in mind when carefully framing the Constitution and as your Congressman, I will fight to keep it that way.

Special Interests & Lobbies
Congress should represent the people instead
Our governemnt is supposed to be one of the people, by the people and for the people. I'm afraid that, over time, our Congress has become accustomed to working for the special interests and lobbyists who provide the most resources for re-election campaigns. It's time the people of Ohio got their government back! I pledge not to accept lobby or special interest funds intended to sway my vote away from the best interests of the constituency.

Border Security & Immigration
No Amnesty/No free lunches
The talk must stop. We must secure our borders now. A nation without secure borders is no nation at all. It makes no sense to fight terrorists abroad when our own front door is left unlocked. We must do whatever it takes to control entry into our country before we undertake complicated immigration reform proposals. Immigration officials must track visa holders and deport anyone who overstays their visa or otherwise violates U.S. law. This is especially important when we recall that a number of 9/11 terrorists had expired visas. Estimates suggest that 10 to 20 million people are in our country illegally. If we provide amnesty, that’s a lot of people to reward for breaking our laws. Americans have welcomed immigrants who seek opportunity, work hard, and play by the rules. But taxpayers should not pay for illegal immigrants who use hospitals, clinics, schools, roads, and social services. Pass true immigration reform. We need true immigration reform. The current system is incoherent and unfair. But current reform proposals would allow up to 60 million more immigrants into our country, according to the Heritage Foundation. This is insanity. Legal immigrants from all countries should face the same rules and waiting periods.

Tax Reform
It's about time for a fair tax!
Whether a tax cut reduces a single mother'rs payroll taxes by $40 a month or allows a business owner to save thousands in capital gains taxes and hire more employees, that tax cut is a good thing. Lower taxes allow more spending, saving, and investing which helps the economy, that means all of us.

Real conservatives have always supported low taxes and low spending.

But today, too many politicians and lobbyists are spending America into ruin. We are nine trillion dollars in debt as a nation. Our mounting government debt endangers the financial future of our children and grandchildren. If we don't cut spending now, higher taxes and economic disaster will be in their future and yours.

In addition, the Federal Reserve, our central bank, fosters runaway debt by increasing the money supply making each dollar in your pocket worth less. The Fed is a private bank run by unelected officials who are not required to be open or accountable to "we the people."

Worse, our economy and our very independence as a nation is increasingly in the hands of foreign governments such as China and Saudi Arabia, because their central banks also finance our runaway spending.

We cannot continue to allow private banks, wasteful agencies, lobbyists, corporations on welfare, and governments collecting foreign aid to dictate the size of our ballooning budget. We need a new method to prioritize our spending. It's called the Constitution of the United States.

War & Foreign Policy
No more nation building!
Both Jefferson and Washington warned us about entangling ourselves in the affairs of other nations. Today, we have troops in 130 countries. We are spread so thin that we have too few troops defending America. No war should ever be fought without a declaration of war voted upon by the Congress, as required by the Constitution. Under no circumstances should the U.S. again go to war as the result of a resolution that comes from an unelected, foreign body, such as the United Nations. Too often we give foreign aid and intervene on behalf of governments that are despised. Then, we become despised. Too often we have supported those who turn on us, like the Kosovars who aid Islamic terrorists, or the Afghan jihads themselves, and their friend Osama bin Laden. We armed and trained them, and now we’re paying the price. At the same time, we must not isolate ourselves. The generosity of the American people has been felt around the globe. Many have are thankful for it, in many languages. Let us have a strong America, conducting open trade, travel, communication, and diplomacy with other nations.

Free Trade Deals
Who do they really benefit?
So called free trade deals and world governmental organizations like the International Criminal Court (ICC), NAFTA, GATT, WTO, and CAFTA are a threat to our independence as a nation. They transfer power from our government to unelected foreign elites. Both the WTO and CAFTA could force Americans to get a doctor’s prescription to take herbs and vitamins. Alternative treatments could be banned. The WTO has forced Congress to change our laws, yet we still face trade wars. Today, France is threatening to have U.S. goods taxed throughout Europe. If anything, the WTO makes trade relations worse by giving foreign competitors a new way to attack U.S. jobs. Let’s not forget the UN. It wants to impose a direct tax on us. We must reform or withdraw from any organizations and trade deals that infringe upon the freedom and independence of the United States of America.

Gun Rights
A Constitutional right...end of story.
I share our Founders' belief that in a free society each citizen must have the right to keep and bear arms. They ratified the Second Amendment knowing that this right is the guardian of every other right, and they all would be horrified by the proliferation of unconstitutional legislation that prevents law-abiding Americans from exercising this right. You have the right to protect your life, liberty, and property. As Conressman, I will continue to guard the liberties stated in the Second Amendment.

Property Rights & Eminent Domain
Stop abuse of the system!
We must stop special interests from violating property rights and literally driving families from their homes, farms and ranches. We also face another danger in regulatory takings: Through excess regulation, governments deprive property owners of significant value and use of their properties — all without paying “just compensation.” Property rights are the foundation of all rights in a free society. Without the right to own a printing press, for example, freedom of the press becomes meaningless. We must get federal agencies out of these schemes to deny property owners their constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property.

Abortion
All human life is precious and deserves rights!
The right of an innocent, unborn child to life is at the heart of the American ideals of liberty. I would work to create legislation that affords our Constitutional rights to the unborn.

Education
More freedom and parental choice!
Returning control of education to parents is the heart of my education agenda. "No child left behind" is diminshing educational standards accross the county and parents who, if given the ability to have funding follow their children, would provide incentive to all school systems for improving standards.

Health Care
The freer the market, the freer the people.
Quite simply, I believe in a free market solution to health care for Ohioans. Government regulation of businesses regarding employee health insurance permits health care providers to raise prices well above free market standards. If health care providers were required to compete with other providers to win the consumer, costs would naturally be driven down. We need reform that allows more choice for Ohioans through competitive providers which are held to acceptable standards of medical practice.

Personal Liberty
Government is NOT a cradle to grave solution!
The biggest threat to your privacy is the government. We must drastically limit the ability of government to collect and store data regarding citizens’ personal matters. We must stop the move toward a national ID card system. All states are preparing to issue new driver’s licenses embedded with “standard identifier” data — a national ID. A national ID with new tracking technologies means we’re heading into an Orwellian world of no privacy. To date, the privacy focus has been on identity theft. It was Congress that created this danger by mandating use of the standard identifier (currently your SSN) in the private sector. For example, banks use SSNs as customer account identifiers because the government requires it. We must also protect medical privacy. Right now, you’re vulnerable. Under so-called “medical privacy protection” rules, insurance companies and other entities have access to your personal medical information. Financial privacy? Right now depositing $10,000 or more in cash in your local bank account will generate a federally-mandated report to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network at the United States Department of the Treasury. And then there’s the so-called Patriot Act. As originally proposed, it xxpanded the federal government's ability to use wiretaps without judicial oversight; allowed nationwide search warrants non-specific to any given location, nor subject to any local judicial oversight; made it far easier for the government to monitor private internet usage; authorized “sneak and peek” warrants enabling federal authorities to search a person’s home, office, or personal property without that person’s knowledge and required libraries and bookstores to turn over records of books read by their patrons. Today, the threat to your liberty and privacy is very real. We need representation that will prevent Washington from centralizing power and private data about our lives.