338 Seven Acres Road
Parkersburg, WV 26104
304-422-0138
January 26, 2010
For those of you who prefer shorter responses to the issues, here are Tom Stark‘s positions on the major hot-buttons of 2010:
ECONOMY/JOBS - PRIORITY #1
You cannot spend your way out of a recession and government "stimulus" spending cannot create permanent, market-based jobs. It has been proven in the past and history does not lie. It has been proven that cutting taxes raises business activity and tax revenues.
Short-term solutions: Cut corporate business taxes, retain all of the expiring tax cuts and make them permanent, provide stable policies that allow business to plan for the future.
Long-term solution: Repeal Amendment #16, enact HR 25 (The Fair Tax) as written without damaging amendments. A consumption-based national sales tax replaces virtually all federal payroll, income, and business taxes including capital gains taxes, inheritance taxes, and many others (www.Fairtax.org for more information). Begin a concerted effort to reduce the size and scope of government control of the economy and allow free markets to work as they have for years.
HEALTH CARE
The federal government has no authority to control health care decisions, mandate the purchase of health insurance, or interfere in the private communications between you and your doctor.
Solutions include: Tort Reform, Health Savings Accounts with full tax exemption coupled with high deductible Catastrophic Medical Insurance for the unusual, big-ticket situations, walk-in clinic plans that deliver primary care for a flat monthly fee that provides affordability to families for the routine medical concerns and minor emergencies.
ENERGY - CAP & TRADE
ALL sources of energy should be made immediately available for use within the U.S. market, including oil, oil shale, natural gas, nuclear, wind, solar, fuel cell, etc. The environment cannot be allowed to take precedence over the security and economic well-being of our nation.
Solutions include: Opening off-shore and ANWR acreage to drilling leases, lifting barriers to development of new refineries and nuclear power plants, returning environmental protection to control by the states where issues unique to a particular state can be balanced with the need for responsible stewardship of our resources.
SECOND AMENDMENT
The individual's right to keep and bear arms is an absolute right. This includes removal of all barriers to ownership and lawful use. Registration and licensing, restricting markets for firearms, ammunition, or re-loading components all infringe on this right. Records of firearms purchases should not be maintained because they can be used to confiscate firearms later.
LIFE
It begins at conception and should never be terminated except on the certified medical necessity to save the mother and then only when consent from either the mother or father are obtained. Seldom does this result in an abortion because a vast majority of life threatening conditions take place in the later stages of a pregnancy when the baby can often be saved and sustained.
IMMIGRATION
Legal immigration serves a vital role in our economy and national society. However, illegal immigration is unlawful activity and must be stopped based on the rule of law in our society as well as the national security impact that open or porous borders create. Deportation has been successfully used to stop major influxes of illegal immigration under both Republican and Democrat administrations (Truman, Eisenhower, to name two). Birth-right citizenship should be eliminated when the parent is in the country illegally to begin with.
GOVERNMENT WASTE AND CORRUPTION
The system that has become entrenched in Washington must be rebuilt on a different foundation. The corrupt influence of lobbyists can be terminated simply by stopping or drastically changing the manner in which our government prepares a budget. Hidden earmarks are the target, and by bringing this process into the sunshine, much of what controls Washington can be curtailed and channeled into cost-savings and control of government waste. Fixed-pie budgets that limit expenditures BEFORE line item allocations are permitted is the key provision of any plan to fix this problem.
GOVERNMENT INTRUSION INTO STATE AND INDIVIDUAL DECISIONS
As stated in our Constitution, all authority provided to government at the federal level is fixed and limited (contrary to those who espouse a "living Constitution" that changes every time they want it to); all authority not granted to the federal government is retained by the states and the people. The one that is limited the most is the federal government because it is farthest from the people. The states have their own Constitutions that govern within their territories. The people grant that power to their home state, and retain all other authority themselves. That is what freedom is about. Where ever the federal or state government over-extends that limited authority, they must be stopped in order to protect our freedom.
MARRIAGE
Marriage is the union of one man and one woman. This is the basis of the family unit. It has been the natural law of nature and of God since time began, and is necessary to the health of any society. A constitutional amendment is needed to prevent same sex marriages from being forced on the citizens through individual state action. There is no constitutional method of preventing this other than through amendment since the "full faith and credit" clause of the Bill of Rights puts the Defense of Marriage Act in slight question. Congress does have the power, however, to interpret exactly how this clause is put into practice making this Act potentially able to withstand a challenge.
EQUAL PROTECTION UNDER THE LAW
The abolition of all forms of so-called "hate crimes" legislation on the basis of the "equal protections" clause of the U.S. Constitution. If we support "equal protection under the law" we cannot offer more protection to one class than another.
ENVIRONMENT
Other than as they affect inter-state commerce (i.e. hazardous material handling on Interstate Highways, nuclear waste transportation across state lines) environmental regulation is a state-level function which should be tempered with common sense. Regulations should be limited to those that do not stifle/impede economic growth and opportunity or those that protect citizens from injury to them or their property. We are endowed by our Creator with dominion over the earth and all that is on the earth. We should act responsibly in the use of our resources. They should, however, be used where they benefit society and our economy, rather than hoarded without sane reasons. When given the choice between sacrificing a small salamander or bird for the sake of providing our nation with the resources to prosper, there should be no question as to which is most important. Environmental restrictions on business are the major reasons the United States has lost its position as the leader in manufacturing and business in the world today.
INITIATIVES TO MOVE OUR COUNTRY FORWARD
Repeal Amendment 17 - Return appointment of the Senators to State Legislatures as a means of controlling growth and power of Federal Government. The problems that caused the amendment‘s enactment œ LEGISLATIVE DEADLOCK IN CHOOSING A SENATOR - can be overcome with a simple provision that the Governor can appoint a Senator for that state if the legislature does not do so within 30 days of a vacancy. The appointment of Senators was a cornerstone of states' protections in the Constitution. Without it, the states have no real control over dominance by the federal government. While the idea of popular election of Senators is attractive, it carries with it a dangerous loss of control over what the federal government‘s powers become.
New Amendment - Balanced Budget with provision that any debt incurred in the future be in the form of bonds that expire in a maximum of 20 years and must be related to a constitutionally mandated function of the Federal Government (i.e. Defense, Infrastructure, Public Health Catastrophes or Public Safety Emergencies)
New Amendment - Either one of the following would be acceptable: Term Limits for Congress; or The ability to recall any representative upon showing by signed petition that voters believe a special election is in order.
OTHER INITIATIVES
Return control of the currency to the Treasury of the United States and rescind the charter of the Federal Reserve Bank System. In the absence of this, a legislative mandate for a retroactive and future annual audits of all financial transactions of the Federal Reserve Bank.
Establish rules under which Congress operates that are transparent, even-handed, and permanent so that they cannot be changed to the advantage of the party in power. If this requires a Constitutional Amendment, then such an amendment deserves consideration.
The recent court decision rendering McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Law an infringement of corporate free speech, makes it imperative that voters remain alert, engaged, and involved so that they can discern the truth and the motivations behind the advertising and political statements issued for or against an particular candidate or issue.
In considering this position that many say allows big money interests to prevail, we need to balance freedom with responsibility. We must put the monkey on the back of our elected officials to honor their oath of office making the influence of these interests subordinate to their purpose in serving. We also must put the monkey on our own back to stay informed and watch our representatives' actions, not just what they claim to support.