I think this election is about the getting economy humming again; about making sure there are jobs for people who want to work, and about getting off the back of the small business owners that drive our economy and provide the jobs in our community.
While Sacramento politicians continue to spend our state into bankruptcy, small businesses continue to close and jobs continue to be lost. I think most of us think things are getting worse, not better.
I know our state government could take action to get our economy going again. The problem is the Capitol is run by extreme liberals who think more government spending is the way to get California running again. Wrong.
The way to get the gold flowing in the Golden State is to get government out of the way. That means reversing the taxes and regulations which prevent small business owners from expanding and hiring more employees. Only then can our communities begin to recover.
Stopping Out of Control Spending
Spending is out of control in Sacramento. State government literally spends tens of billions of dollars more than they bring in. I believe in only spending what you have, and on actually saving some of that for a rainy day.
But the liberals want to keep the spending spree going by raising our taxes. Why? They believe they spend our money more wisely than we do, and that protecting state bureaucrats should be the first priority.
I disagree. I think that in hard times we need to eliminate waste in the system to protect education, health care, and law enforcement. I don’t think anyone would argue that there aren’t billions of dollars wasted in state government! I support a public, nonpartisan audit of every department in the government, with the goal of eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse.
Instead of new taxes, I think we need to ease the tax and red tape on small business owners and the middle class so that we can grow our way out of the recession. That way we will have every penny we need for education, health care, and law enforcement.
Stopping Illegal Immigration
The liberals in Sacramento don't like to talk about this, but the sad truth is that if we cut the billions of taxpayer dollars we spend on illegal immigrants every year, there wouldn't be much of a budget deficit. Without paying for services for illegal immigrants we’d have all the money we need for our schools, roads, and law enforcement.
Illegal immigration isn't just a fiscal issue though. Open borders are a grave national security risk, both in terms of terrorism and of the increasingly violent drug cartels and street gangs operating on both sides of the border. It's also a humanitarian issue – our porous border results in the human trafficking of thousands of unwilling young foreign women into the United States to work as prostitutes.
So what does ending illegal immigration mean to each of us? It means demanding the federal government secure the border by completing the border fence, and demanding they hire an adequate number of border patrol and INS agents. It means tough penalties for individuals who repeatedly cross the border illegally. It means real, punitive sanctions for employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants. It's time we started taking care of Californians first.
