Key Issues

To ensure we only accept individuals for entry into our country who are good candidates for citizenship and can immediately contribute to meet the nation’s requirements for additional personnel.

The United States accepts over a million legal applicants for citizenship every year.  This number is based on our requirement for additional citizens and an adequate labor force to support our economy. We need to analyze this number to see if it is right-sized or needs to be increased or reduced. Currently, our borders are not secure; illegal immigrants that far exceed our requirements for additional citizenry and labor are pouring across our borders. These unlawful immigrant numbers entering our country are unmanageable, and our towns, cities, states, and federal resources necessitate their successful assimilation into our great country. In addition, our established amnesty system is being overwhelmed by those claiming amnesty without valid reasons.    We do not adequately screen potential amnesty recipients to ensure we know who they are and if they have a valid amnesty claim to gain access.  More importantly, we don’t do adequate screening to ensure those with criminal or terrorist backgrounds don’t gain access to our nation. This problem is in dire need of a solution.  I believe any course of action to fix the problem must include, as the first step, securing the border to stem the illegal flow of the unsustainable numbers of immigrants.

For every citizen to achieve their own American Dream, the economy needs to improve for all classes of American citizens.  

A large portion of the American population cannot meet or can barely meet their monthly financial obligations. The first step to improving the current economy is to re-establish energy independence. Not only will this decrease prices for gas for our vehicles, but it will also lower fuel prices, which will naturally have a positive impact on the cost of other items like heating fuel, groceries, and other commodities that require fuel to be produced or are direct byproducts of fossil fuels, e.g., plastic. It will also strengthen our nation internationally; e.g., our European allies will not be held hostage by countries that are not our friends, like Russia. Also, we will no longer be importing oil from those nations that have stated that they want to do us harm, like Venezuela, Iran, and Russia. In addition to becoming energy dependent, we must help our economy flourish by lowering taxes for businesses and reducing the burden of regulations on them, thereby creating a business-friendly environment.  

An energy-independent nation is more profitable and consequently more vital.

Energy is vital to any nation’s survival.  Our goal should be to reclaim our energy independence from fossil fuels as we transition to renewable energy sources. Wind, solar, and nuclear power are all examples of renewable energy sources that we should pursue.  Current technology does not allow those renewable energy sources to replace fossil fuels. We must also determine if we can ever replace fossil fuel energy, which must be included during the transition to 100% renewable energy, as technology cannot support the power demands placed on renewable sources. 

No citizen should ever have any doubt that U.S. federal, state, or local elections are secure. No citizen should ever wonder if their vote was canceled by successful efforts to illegally alter election results.

There is still significant concern about the security of our elections. Those concerns need to be eliminated. Our election processes need to be free from any suspicion of illegality.  Some of the election processes and procedures currently in place lend themselves to fraud and need to be eliminated or reformed.

Law enforcement and first responders are critical to maintaining the rule of law by any definition of a vibrant civilization.

There has been an effort to defund the police nationwide. This effort takes the rule of law in the opposite direction it needs to go. From my experience training in the U.S. Army, I know that more resources equal better-trained professionals, which equals more desirable outcomes when dealing with the population. To use an adage, you get what you pay for. Salaries for law enforcement and first responders must be increased and sustained to maintain the personnel we want in those jobs. They need more training, as their training burden is complicated by balancing it with their requirement to perform the services we are paying them for. I was appalled to discover that some police departments only allocate enough ammunition for officers to qualify annually.  If they do not train regularly, they will not have the necessary skills that we demand.