Issues

The nation’s growing debt is a growing threat to economic freedom as we know it. Households across the U.S. are running on tight budgets, while the federal government is spending more than it takes, putting the burden squarely on the shoulders of hard working Americans and future generations. Washington’s reckless spending of our tax dollars is leading our country to unsustainable levels of debt, impeding sustainable economic growth and hindering the private sector’s ability to invest, produce and create jobs.

The American Dream for every parent is the hope of a better future for their children. That dream begins with access to a better education. Despite efforts from local teachers, parents, and communities to improve our schools, the growing federal footprint over our nation’s public education system continues to produce lack-luster results. Across the nation, Latino families are forced to send their children to under-performing schools, making it difficult for their children to graduate and earn a diploma.

Cronyism is any government-provided privilege to a particular business or industry and comes in a variety of forms including privileges such as monopoly status, favorable regulations, subsidies, bailouts, targeted tax breaks, and protection from foreign competition. A recent example was the government bailout of wealthy and well-connected banks in 2008. Whatever its form, cronyism destroys free markets. It allows the government to assume an expanded role for which it lacks the necessary market knowledge and adequate resources to properly regulate.

Providing affordable access to quality health care is a worthy and important goal, but the current path of increased government power over the patient-doctor relationship that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) provides is not an acceptable solution. This federal mandate is a tax in disguise that forces citizens to purchase insurance plans and threatens our small businesses with penalties. The specific requirements in the ACA legislation will inevitably constrain job creation and add another layer of bureaucracy to an already bogged down system.

We believe the best path forward to reform the broken immigration system in the United States is through a streamlined, market-based and employment-driven policy. The ongoing failure of Washington to develop and approve a sound immigration policy threatens our national security, economic prosperity and the cohesion of the family unit. So long as the American economy is strong, immigrants will look to the United States as the beacon of hope for a better future.

A free market economy provides a strong and healthy environment that promotes innovation, business development and job creation.

Americans are suffering under the crushing burden of overregulation. Businesses are being strangled by red tape and individuals face vast and growing limitations on personal freedom in nearly every aspect of their lives. Such overregulation limits our freedom and encourages individuals and businesses to circumvent or even alter regulation to their advantage.

Americans believe in helping the less fortunate, but while government programs aim to assist families in meeting their daily needs, they fail in lifting the beneficiaries out of poverty. Rather than just providing support at an unsustainable cost to the entire country, these programs should focus on helping Americans return to work and break the cycle of government dependence through the promotion of personal responsibility.

The current tax code and system of patch-work provisions have created an environment of uncertainty that is detrimental to the national economy. At more than 73,000 pages, the current federal tax code is unfair, inefficient and unnecessarily complex. Recent tax increases have only exacerbated the need for comprehensive reform to help increase U.S. competitiveness and restore growth.