Accountability

I’ve worked to earn the trust of the people of the Space Coast by being an example of accountability in government. In fifteen years in the state Legislature, I only missed three days of work. I kept my legislative office under budget every single month and returned my leftover budget money to the state. And I voted to cut my own legislative pay twice. Finally, I literally wrote the book on more accountable government with my Activity Based Total Accountability plan (ABTA). ABTA revolutionized the way state agencies report their activities by requiring agencies to state exactly what they do with your money. It took me eight years to pass ABTA into law here in Florida, but I got it done, and it has revolutionized how our government does business and has made government more accountable to the people of our state.

As your Congressman, I am working hard to ensure that the Federal Government remains accountable to you. I have introduced legislation which would require that the full text of a bill be made available for at least 72 hours before any vote could be held on it. I have introduced legislation that would prevent unrelated amendments from being attached to must-pass legislation. During these tough economic times, when 1 out of 10 Floridians are out of work, not only do I oppose the current system of automatic pay raises for members of Congress but I even gave every cent of my Congressional pay raise for this year back to the Federal Treasury.

Jobs and Economy

It’s the most important issue facing Congress right now. What can we do to truly stimulate our economy and bring back jobs to the 15th District and the rest of Florida? We’ve seen over the past year that more government spending under the guise of “stimulus” just is not the answer. With record deficits and crushing national debt, we can’t expect Washington to spend more money we don’t have to prop up an economy desperately in need of more jobs and better goods and services. Government can’t make those things happen, but it can let small businesses and families keep more of their hard-earned money with lower taxes on investment and spending, giving them the freedom to spend more so small businesses can create jobs. That’s what I’m working for and have worked for in Washington since you sent me there last November.

Health Care

With a federal government already facing a $1.9 trillion deficit and a national debt of over $12 trillion, more government spending and even more government mandates and red tape simply is not the responsible way to achieve meaningful health insurance and health care reform that cuts costs and increases access to quality health insurance. That’s why I’ve opposed the government takeover of health care proposed by the Democrats in Congress, and favor truly market-based reforms that will unleash real competition and better services at a lower price for all Americans.

Let’s be clear here. We absolutely need to change the way health care is provided in this country. We need to enact policies that focus on driving costs down and making quality health insurance more affordable for all Americans. These proposals include tort reform laws that will save taxpayers billions in health care costs, getting rid of the mandates and red tape that raise insurance premiums higher than working families can afford, and letting health insurers compete with each other across state lines so consumers can purchase the plan they need and can afford, not the plan the states force them to take. Further, we certainly should not attempt to achieve so called “reform” by threatening to jail Americans who choose not to buy insurance, which would happen under the House passed health-care bill.

Taxes and Spending

Ronald Reagan said it best when he said that “government doesn’t have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem”. The federal government takes in over $3 trillion in revenue every fiscal year. If the government can’t operate under a budget that big, they’ve got no business coming to the American people and telling them to accept higher taxes. That’s why I’ve continued my proven track record of opposing tax hikes and wasteful spending in Congress by voting against the failed stimulus package, “Cash for Clunkers” and bailouts for GM and Chrysler that just sent more of your good money after bad, while forcing us to borrow more and more money from China.

National Security

No matter what it’s called in Washington, the War on terror is still an ongoing fight for America. The threat of terrorism remains a driving influence on our national security policy. As your Congressman, I will continue to vote in favor of a strong national security policy that focuses on fighting and destroying terrorist cells before they cause Americans harm. I will also vote to ensure that our uniformed heroes have the necessary resources to achieve real and honorable victories against the world’s agents of terror and fear.

Another important component of fighting terror is ensuring that terrorists captured by American forces are not allowed to use our civilian legal system to further their own ends. The Department of Justice is planning to shutdown our detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in order to house terrorists on American soil. I oppose efforts to bring Guantanamo’s inmates to our shores, and I oppose holding show-trials in civilian courts in which these terrorists will be given full access to lawyers and classified information. Those who wage war against the United States should not be able to avail themselves of the United State’s courts in an attempt to escape justice; nor should they be allowed to turn their trials into a media-driven forum by which they can recruit new adherents to their philosophy of “jihad”. Instead, they should face justice before a military tribunal, as would a uniformed enemy soldier.

Energy

We’re long past due for building a better national energy strategy that lays the groundwork for long-term energy independence for America by recognizing the need for greater domestic oil and nuclear energy production.. That means Washington needs to finally open the doors for safe energy development that it has kept shut for almost forty years. We can start to open those doors by rolling back the outright bans and excessive regulations on offshore oil drilling, exploring ANWR’s oil deposits and building new, safe nuclear power facilities that Washington has denied. In the meantime, we can continue to move forward on advancing alternative energy technology like solar power, battery and biofuels that can create a greener energy future down the road. But only with an “all of the above” energy independence strategy can we reach a place where America produces its own energy for its people at a lower cost to American families.

Space

As a former NASA employee and former Chairman of Space Florida, I believe that America absolutely must remain at the forefront of space research and exploration. Not only will continued space exploration keep much-needed, high paying jobs here in Brevard County and throughout the Space Coast, but it ensures America remains first in innovations that will make the world a better place to live, and puts America in the lead on sending man farther out into space as the Marco Polos and the Christopher Columbuses of our time.

In order to maintain economic stability in Brevard County and supremacy in space, we must continue to keep the Space Shuttle program going as long as possible. NASA has promising manned spaceflight programs on the horizon. Just this past October, I got to witness the first test launch of the Ares 1-X rocket, which will someday propel men back to the Moon and later to Mars. But until those programs become fully operational, we need to maintain the manned space systems we are currently using, so America will not need to rely on other countries to send men and material to our space stations.

Also, the federal and state governments can continue efforts I helped move forward in helping commercial launches become more affordable and less bogged down in taxes and red tape. These measures will help the Space Coast retain thousands of quality jobs while helping America remain an independent power in space technology and travel.

Immigration

Americans told Congress that we needed to build up our southern border fence. Congress set aside money to build 700 new miles of fences on our southern border. And still nothing has been done with that money to make our border more secure. This is unacceptable to me, and it should be unacceptable for any member of Congress. Equally unacceptable for the American people is any plan to directly or indirectly grant amnesty by any name to illegal immigrants, especially when so many Americans are struggling to find work in this economy.

We must secure our borders as a matter of national security, and once we accomplish that we must get to the business of deporting any illegal immigrants who have been convicted of felonies in our courts, so we can make a real impact in the fight to make our nation safer and more secure.