Jason Scheurer's campaign released the following questionaire from the League of Women Voters. They thought that everyone would be interested in reading his responses to their questions. Enjoy!
1.) The No Child Left Behind Act is set to be reauthorized in 2009. What kind of reforms, if any, will you be advocating during the legislative process?
I will not reauthorize the No Child Left Behind Act. Just like most of these government experiments, this has failed miserably relative to the costs. This is just another bureaucratic, paper-pushing, government failure that is designed to convince you that the federal government can fix an already broken education system. Why not instead have each child be worth a set dollar amount? For example, $7,000 per child and allow parents to shop around for the very best school program or home-based learning option in the market. Only by increasing competition can we fix our government-run, broken schools.
2.) What is your plan for resolving America’s energy crisis?
I would rather give my hard-earned money to fellow Americans drilling off the coast of New Jersey, putting up windmills in their backyard, using geothermal energy in applicable areas and harnessing coal-to-liquid technologies than continue to send my money to hostile foreign governments. All options for energy independence must be on the table if we are to regain our strategic and national security interests. Both parties have failed to confront this problem. The Democrats’ recent flip-flop on off-shore drilling is another example of how they would rather play politics than fix our nation’s problems.
3.) Recently the Supreme Court backed Indiana’s law requiring all voters to show photo identification at the polls. Where do you stand on voter id requirements?
I would like to believe that everyone would be honest enough to not need to show identification. However, in this age of rampant identity theft this inconvenience check is needed to prevent voter fraud and maintain the integrity of our election process.
4.) The US Census Bureau has reported that 47 million Americans are uninsured, almost a 5 percent increase since 2005. What kind of health care reform do you support to combat the growing number of uninsured Americans?
Each person in the United States must purchase catastrophic medical care insurance. All other medical expenses should be paid for out of pocket from tax-deductible medical savings accounts. You don’t file a car insurance claim when you get an oil change, a tune-up, or are in a minor fender-bender. Why are we filing insurance claims and adding to the bureaucracy and costs when we could easily pay for them out of pocket?
5.) Should the federal government reassess the existing immigration laws and reform them as warranted to face 21st century issues? What are your ideas to implement such a reform?
We need to have clarification of the 14th Amendment preventing ILLEGAL ALIENS’ children from becoming United States citizens. These jackpot or anchor babies are stealing benefits from hard-working honest Americans. All illegal immigrants who are still in the country after an 18-month grace period who are arrested will permanently forfeit their ability to ever become a United States citizen. In addition we need to make it a federal law that ENGLISH will be the official language.
6.) The majority of the American public believes the US is in a recession. What are the two most important things that can be done to create jobs and economic growth?
The most immediate and direct way to stimulate economic growth is to reduce the
number of people working for the government with a mandatory hiring freeze for a minimum of five years. Through attrition and a cap on all government spending the productive private sector of the economy will be able to throw off the job destroying and economic malaise that leaches blood off our competitive and world-class industries. You can’t improve an economy or make things better by hiring more government workers or spending more government money that we don’t have. This is how we got into this predicament in the first place.
7.) What should be our short term and long term strategic goals in Iraq and the Middle East?
Adult children will never move out of mom’s house if she continues to do their
laundry and pay their bills. What makes you think Iraq will grow up and assume their own responsibilities if we continue to prop them up with our own blood, sweat, and money, while their government sits on a $60 billion surplus from oil revenue. We should pull all troops out in 12 months as well as bringing home 70 percent of all United States servicemen overseas. Remember: it is called the Department of Defense, not the Department of Offense. Most people in the rest of the world love Americans, what they resent and causes trouble is our constant, even though well-intentioned, butting our noses into their internal politics.
8.) With the baby boomer generation nearing retirement, the number of people collecting Social Security is expected to increase to 84 million. There are serious concerns about the stability of the Social Security fund in the near future. What reforms would you support, if any, to the Social Security system?
We need to be honest with ourselves that both Democrats and Republicans have had more than enough time to make appropriate adjustments to ensure the viability of this system. Both parties have failed you. They have swept these problems under the rug and have proved once again that they cannot be trusted. There are only four options that must be implemented as soon as possible:
1, we must raise Social Security taxes
2, we must cut benefits
3, increase the retirement age, or
4, some combination of all three.
This is too important of a decision to be made by those in Washington and instead I call for a national vote on this issue.
9.) Please explain why you do or do not support spending limits for political campaigns and providing public funding for all candidates who agree to take no private contributions.
Access to the media is the key to real and lasting government reform. As a third party candidate I know first-hand how the two party system does not want any competition. This is probably the only thing Democrats and Republicans can honestly agree on. Any television, radio, or media that interviews more than one candidate should be required to allow all candidates equal time. As we have learned from Ross Perot’s candidacy, both parties will stop at nothing to try and stop people from believing they have more than two choices. All debates should include all candidates! How can we have an open democratic process and at the same time prevent all candidates from debating.
10.) How can civil liberties be preserved while giving our government the necessary tools to fight terrorism?
“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary security, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” – Benjamin Franklin
The present system of spying on Americans makes me sick. How can you trust a group of people who by their very nature seek more and more power? Absolute power corrupts absolutely. A government should fear its people not its people fear the government. This power grab is merely smoke and mirrors to distract the American public from the government’s own failings. 9/11 would have never taken place if the government had enforced its own immigration laws. Republicans and Democrats will never admit that they have failed the American people. Only a transparent and limited government can ensure every Americans’ freedom.