Common Sense Conservative Reforms for Kentucky and America

During my live webcast January 14th, I talked about the problems we face as a country:  growing unemployment, skyrocketing deficits, out-of-control spending in Washington, our nation's dependence on foreign energy, threats to our national security, and more.

Interested Kentucky voters were given an unprecedented opportunity to weigh in on these problems, to ask questions and share their ideas.

Instead of tackling these problems in common sense ways that stress individual responsibility and fiscal restraint, the liberal majority in Washington believes spending more tax dollars and expanding government will solve our problems.  Clearly that's not working.

Now more than ever before, we need representatives in Washington who will stand up for taxpayers by proposing and supporting innovative reforms that will cut spending, reduce the deficit and free small business men and women to create jobs and get our economy growing again.

These are some of my ideas for doing that.

Spending Freeze

• Implement two-year budget cycles to increase legislative oversight
• Limit non-defense, non-veterans discretionary spending to FY 2009 levels across the board for two years
• Limit future discretionary spending adjusted to inflation every two years

End the Bailouts

• Eliminate the TARP program and dedicate any returned TARP funds to deficit reduction

Stop the Wasteful Stimulus

• End the spending of all stimulus funds not already expended

Enact Line-Item Veto

• Allow the President to send back to Congress wasteful spending for an up-or-down vote

End Wasteful Programs

• Enact legislation introduced by Sen. Sam Brownback to create the Commission on Congressional Budgetary Accountability and Review of Federal Agencies, a commission to evaluate all federal programs to determine which are duplicative and wasteful, allowing Congress to eliminate them or combine them for greater efficiency

Balanced Budget Amendment

• Pass a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution requiring Congress to pass a balanced budget, like the one that exists in Kentucky.

Health Care

• Prevent the IRS from managing health care reform, as called for under the current bill
• Enact medical malpractice reform to curb frivolous lawsuits and end the costly practice of defensive medicine
• Allow consumers to purchase insurance across state lines to increase competition and lower costs
• Allow small businesses to band together to increase the size of risk pools and obtain lower costs
• Provide full tax deductibility for individuals who purchase private health insurance
• Make all medical expenses not covered by insurance fully tax deductible
• Increase the use of medical savings accounts
• Reduce red tape and government regulation to lower compliance and paperwork costs for medical providers
• Modernize medical records technology and payment systems
• Eliminate waste, fraud and abuse in the Medicare and Medicaid systems

Energy Independence

• Stop any cap and trade system from passing Congress
• Pass a comprehensive national energy plan that encourages the use of domestic energy – an all-of-the-above plan that includes coal, nuclear, bio, solar and wind energy
• Increase domestic oil production, including off-shore and oil shale

Agriculture

• Promote access to new markets for Kentucky products
• Permanently repeal the death tax
• Reduce capital gains taxes
• Incentives for the development of renewable energy
• Support private property rights

National Security

• Secure our borders and enforce immigration laws
• Keep Guantanamo Bay facility open
• Require that terrorist suspects be interrogated and tried by military commissions, not in civil courts
• Review TSA and Homeland Security procedures to ensure the safety of airline passengers
• Review the process of information sharing within the national defense system to ensure adequate safeguards