The Issues
Fundamentals
Fundamental Freedoms
The freedom and liberty guaranteed by our Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the other Amendments must be protected and fought for. I am opposed to any legislation that attacks those rights or tries to take them away.
Government Regulation
We, as a society, are regulated to death. Businesses suffer excessive costs due to regulation, and those costs are passed on through consumer prices and increased inability of employers to provide living wages and benefits to their employees. This over zealous effort to control every aspect of our lives simply must be stopped.
Government Spending
I believe that we are, and have been, facing a "run-away" government that believes that they can continue to create programs and spend money without limitation.
I firmly believe that we must require our federal government to work within the constraints of a balanced budget.
Governmental Mandates
States and local governments should not be saddled with federal programs without the proper funding to allow those governments to implement and carry them through tied to the program.
Hidden Legislation ("Riders")
We must eliminate the use of "riders" attached to important bills that are almost certain to garner majority votes in Congress. Many "riders" could not pass on their own merit, so this process has been used for a long time to sneak passage. Short of total abolition of "riders," Congress should enact rules that require them to address the same issue as the original bill, or that they be voted on in a fashion similar to an amendment to the bill it is carried with.
Judicial Legislation (Legislating from the Bench)
The Constitution calls out three branches of Government: Executive, Legislative and Judicial. Each has their own responsibilities, and have checks-and balance functions built into them.
The judiciary has no business writing or enacting legislation by court order or edict.
Limited Government
The federal government is out of control, whether it is Congress, or the agencies that they've created and approved.
Government should not do for people what they can do for themselves.
We need to return to the Constitution and limit the activities of the federal government to those things that it specifically provides for, and return control to the states, where it belongs.
Line-Item Veto
The President should have the powers of the Line-Item Veto on appropriation bills and the federal budget.
Kent's Position on Issues
Agriculture
We need to continue to move agriculture in the direction of the free market, and work toward elimination of federal involvement and management.
The federal government, through the Secretary of State and trades missions could be of great help to American farmers through creating good relations and opening up of closed foreign markets to American agricultural products.
Bail-Outs
The federal government should not be a "financial agency" for bailing out failing operations or poor decision-makers. We should allow the marketplace and the "invisible hand" to thrive -- it was creativeness, ingenuity, drive, and the very spirit of capitalism that built this country, and it has only been through pure luck that it has survived the meddling regulators, excessive taxes and federal government of the past few decades.
Education
Education should be controlled and managed at the local level, closest to the people.
Energy
We simply cannot continue our dependence on other nations as our source of oil.
Laws and regulations need to be changed to allow for more oil exploration and processing within our borders. Partnerships need to be created that ensure protection of the environment and animal life. Man has the ability to work in concert with nature, and there is no reason that we shouldn't be doing so.
Other energy sources must be developed to take care of the needs of a growing population, and government should clear the path so that the ingenuity and creativity of the private sector can develop new, clean energy sources.
Environment
Our weather and climate operate under cyclical conditions. A few short years ago, there were people that insisted that the world was cooling. Now, people insist that we have global warming. The latter group insists that we have created a greenhouse that is causing the polar icecaps to melt.
History, itself, tells a story of dust bowls in the Midwest, and a huge lake that covered most of southern Idaho and northern Utah -- both brought about by cyclical change.
At this point, I believe that the global warming movement is simply a political tactic being used to further a political cause, to take our minds off other activities, or to further the political futures of its leaders. The "science" is still out on this issue, and the facts are not all yet in. Until we know with some certainty that the phenomenon actually exists, we must not get involved in knee-jerk reactions that could have detrimental effects on our people and economy.
We need to continue to seek out alternative (clean) energy sources, and to work toward reducing more pollution sources. Much has been done over the last three or four decades to create energy efficiency and a reduction in carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide emissions. We should continue down that path.
In addition, we must work to find ways to utilize our needed natural resources while protecting the world we live in.
Federal Properties
Federally owned and managed transportation systems and other infrastructure must be properly maintained and funded before funding new projects.
For instance, bridge failure on a federally managed highway is unacceptable. We simply cannot wait until catastrophe strikes before doing something about our failing infrastructure. It should be an on-going program that maintains or replaces structures as needed.
If the federal government needs to turn facilities or projects over to the states, it should do that, along with the necessary funding for maintenance. State and local leaders have a better knowledge of what is needed for the people they serve than federal bureaucrats do.
Forest Lands
Federally-managed forest service lands have been mismanaged, and are largely to blame for the increase in out-of-control, catastrophic fires in recent years.
Opening up of unprotected forest lands for ecologically sound logging and clearing operations with provisions for planting new trees will create stronger, healthier forests.
Allowing hundreds of thousands of acres of forested lands to burn every year makes absolutely no sense.
Our logging and all of the related businesses and other operations have suffered great losses through the forced purchase of wood products from outside the United States.
The means of balancing conservation and the ecology with careful planning for clearing and reforestation are a science that the forest industry has been working on for years. They should be allowed to implement those methods, which could create countless jobs and opportunities for Idahoans and people across the country.
Health Care
We must fight every effort to create a national health care system (socialized medicine).
The increasing role of Medicare and other agencies in providing medical care for the uninsured is crippling the medical industry through government's ability to set the price it will pay for services. One of the results is an increased cost for those services to people that either have private insurance, or the ability to pay.
We must do something to curtail the ever-increasing encroachment on our health care system by programs that are created or expanded one step at a time, with a national health care system as its ultimate goal.
Our medical schools have seen a huge decline in new student populations because young people looking for a profession see a decline in potential earnings and lifestyle. Our heavily litigious society has brought about nearly unbearable increases in premiums that medical professionals must pay for protection against malpractice claims. The excessive regulation and red tape created by our federal government has brought on ever-increasing costs for hospitals and medical professionals. Hospitals and clinics have been forced to close their doors due to the demand placed upon them to serve illegal immigrants pro-bono.
The inability of small businesses, which make up a majority (80 to 85%) of enterprises in the United States, to provide any kind of health coverage for the owners or their employees, must be addressed. Legislation that would allow them to band together in associations (like NFIB, Chamber of Commerce, etc.) to negotiate rate that much larger businesses and government enjoy, must be passed.
Accessible, affordable health care is critical - but it must come about through a reduction in entitlement programs, regulation, providing of services to illegal immigrants, and allowing the marketplace to develop solutions to the medical insurance dilemma.
Illegal Immigration
The holes must be plugged so that people can't just freely pass into our country and assimilate into society. Easy to cross borders not only allows the influx of illegal immigrants, but also threatens our national security.
Our nation is a nation of immigrants, but the immigration must be controlled to protect our society and the very infrastructure on which it is built. An economy cannot long withstand an influx of millions of non-tax paying people who do not contribute toward the services they receive -- be that medical care, education, or the myriad of other services that the people demand.
We must send illegal immigrants that violate our laws back to their native land, and then keep them out. The millions that are still here must go through the proper channels of legal immigration, and those that don't, or refuse to do so, should also be sent back to their native land.
Research
Research in all areas from medical to scientific discovery should be encouraged, and freed from red tape, regulations and strings that come with federal funding.
Our government should not be in the research business.
In this very generous nation of ours, financing can be achieved for researchers if their organizations are willing to do some fund-raising work.
Taxes
The tax cuts that have been created by President George W. Bush should not only continue, but should be expanded -- short of a complete re-structuring of the system of taxation. The program has worked to expand our economy, and has helped maintain a healthy economy and some of the lowest unemployment rates we have ever enjoyed. The growth of the economy, due to the tax cuts, has brought in more tax revenue than the higher tax rates did preceding the cuts.
I believe that we really need to re-create the taxing system of the federal government to create a flat tax, or a national sales tax. Such a system would not penalize the wealthy or crush the poor. If everyone paid the same (percentage) rate, it would be a percentage of their ability to spend - not based on their ability to earn. Such a system would invite savings and investment, which leads to economic growth; because people wouldn't be taxed until they actually spent the money.
Taxes of all kinds be they local or national are not just excessive -- they are ruinous. The federal government "banks" on the fact that people don't realize how much of their income is coming out of their checks in the form of deductions. Most people are excited when they get a refund -- not realizing that it was their money in the first place that was taken in excess of what they would be required to pay. They don't notice all the other little taxes that eat away their earnings, from taxes on gasoline to taxes on the set of tires that the need to get to-and-from work; or that taxes are eating up more than half their income. They cry for higher wages instead of demanding lower taxes.
Our revolutionary forebears had no idea what over-taxation was, compared to today.
The War
We simply must put an end to aiding our enemy by a meddling Congress that is attempting to handcuff our military and our Commander in Chief.
The War on Terror is a battle to which we must see a successful end. We must protect the security of our nation and the lives of her people, and not allow expansion of the enemy's forces or passion, which most assuredly will bring the war to us, on our soil.
The resolve of our nation after the events of September 11, 2001 was to stop the enemy and to secure peace and freedom of fear from terror -- and we must win this battle.
National defense should be the primary responsibility of everyone in Congress, and we must provide the funding necessary for them to carry out their duties to protect us. Having said that, I must add, that it is not the duty of Congress to run or direct the course of war once authorization has been granted to engage in it.
