Issues, consistency and integrity. That's how you'll be deciding who to vote for in the primary, and then in the general election.
There are dozens of good, important issues in this election year. One candidate will come closest to your views, and his "signature issue" will resonate with you. For me, that issue is the budget deficit.
When I speak, and in my campaign e-mails, I've gone into detail. Briefly, federal spending has soared, creating a $1.4 trillion deficit, and a $14 trillion national debt (over $200 trillion including "off-budget" items.)
Four policy options are:
1. Ignore and continue until our creditors refuse to lend us more money, and the US will go into a devastating sovereign debt default. (A very BAD option.)
2. Raise taxes. We CAN'T. Long established economic fact says that if your economy is highly taxed, raising taxes generates lower revenue.
3. Print new money. The Fed has tripled the monetary base recently, and is planning another tripling. The result MUST be much higher prices, possibly reaching hyper-inflation like Argentina or Zimbabwe. This could destroy our country, and is the WORST of the policy options.
4. Live within our means. I favor balancing the budget, and running a surplus, so we can start repaying the national debt. This is the least bad option for dealing with heavy debt loads created over generations, and made worse by the recent insanity in Washington.
I'll propose Constitutional Amendments:
1. Balance the budget
2. Line item veto
3. Repay the national debt
4. Dollar spending limit on the budget
I also want:
1. 100-page cap on Congressional bills
2. Congressional Constitution Committee where all bills go to show where they're authorized in the Constitution
3. Congressmen certifying that they've read bills before a "Yes" vote is allowed
4. Repeal Obamacare
5. Governmental zero-based budgeting system
6. Abolishing Fed and re-institution of hard money system
7. Market-set interest rates on investments
My positions are consistent with each other, and they haven't changed over time. I don't call for "getting spending under control," and then propose we build 10 nuclear power plants, as one of my rivals has. I speak out strongly about the Constitution as the highest law of the land, but I don't want to interpret away what the words say, just because a particular section is inconvenient, as another opponent does.
And I've shown integrity in the campaign. I have refused to run a dirty campaign. I intentionally have not used personal nonissues against my opponents. I have answered every question directly, as best I could. And I have said that, if I'm elected, I will not hide behind controversy by not casting my vote.
My varied background, as a pharmacist, teacher, small-business owner, shop steward, manager of 175 people at Merck, production line worker, consulting economist, software engineer and more, gives me the experience to know what must be done to get our country back on the right track. I promise that I will do what I say. My integrity is on the line every time I vote.
