Stephen Broden on the Issues

Republican Candidate, Pastor Stephen Broden (TX-30), has been rising every day as one of the main candidates to support in this upcoming election! We need MORE people around the country to support him with donations RIGHT NOW. Incumbent Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson has been in power as a rubber stamp of Nancy Pelosi.

Help us get our country back! This race can be won with all of your help! Please help Stephen Broden. WE CAN WIN! To send financial support or find out more about Stephen Broden please go to www.stephenbroden.com. You can go there and see more about him he and what is he doing. Meanwhile here is Stephen Broden on the issues:

ECONOMY AND JOBS

The key to economic growth and jobs in the 30th district is developing and growing small businesses. According to the Small Business Administration there are 26 million firms in the United States. Of these, 97.5% have fewer than 20 employees. It is clear that the economic engine of America is small businesses. In order to facilitate growth in our economy, I will pursue creating greater opportunities for small businesses through cutting taxes and providing a friendly environment for entrepreneurs to develop businesses and thus create Jobs. What’s best for the 30th district is to create a business friendly environment that will attract new businesses, create jobs, and stimulate community growth.

I am pro-economic growth, and pro-business. I believe a flat tax will enhance a strong, robust vibrant economy and facilitate innovation and creativity in our marketplace. A healthy economy makes for a healthy nation. I will pursue changing our current tax code to support small businesses and encourage the spirit of entrepreneurship.

EDUCATION

A wise man once said, “if you get a poor education, you get a poor paying job; if you have a poor paying job, you live in poor neighborhoods; and if you live in poor neighborhoods, you go to poor schools.” It is clear the cycle of poverty is broken at the point of a quality education. If our nation is to compete in a 21st century economy, our educational institutions must return to an emphasis on the fundamentals of reading, writing, mathematics, and science. Unfortunately, political correctness and special interest groups have de-emphasized the fundamentals required to maintain our marketplace and global competitiveness in favor of a “new age” feel good curriculum.

American schools are not training and developing our children to compete with the challenges of a 21st century economy. This failure marginalizes our competitive edge in the marketplace and threatens our capacity to maintain our standard of living and our liberties. I will fight for school choice, vouchers, and charter schools in order to provide educational alternatives for parents. These options will provide a competitive environment that will enhance the pursuit of excellence in those academic institutions competing for students. I will fight to ensure that tax dollars follow the child to the institution of their parent’s choice.

HEALTH CARE

I am against government control of health care. The best correction for the problems in health care is a free market solution. We can experience cost reduction in health care if the current restrictions on across-state marketing are lifted. I am in favor of an open free market approach which will force insurance companies to compete for customers. Without question this will reduce health care costs in the marketplace.

Much of what’s wrong with health care is connected with unnecessary lawsuits targeted against doctors and other medical professionals. Many in the medical industry are forced to cover any potential lawsuit by ordering frivolous tests or over-testing to ensure that any possible liability is reduced. This practice drives up the cost of doing health care in America. In order to limit frivolous lawsuits and unnecessary testing, I am in favor of tort reform to lower the cost of health care.

ILLEGAL ALIENS

The problems associated with illegal entry into the United States must be addressed. Our porous borders have caused a multitude of social, economic and national security problems. America must be protected from criminal organizations and individuals (sometimes including terrorists), using our porous borders to gain illegal entry for the purpose of harming American citizens and destroying our way of life. It is crucial that we secure our borders in order to properly identify people and understand their reasons for entering this country..

Our great country cannot maintain its security or standard of living when citizens of other countries enter illegally through the “back door” and in the dead of night, to take jobs that rightfully belong to our citizens or to those who have entered legally through the “front door”. Such illegal aliens, who begin their journey into the U.S. by breaking the law, often work "off the books" or through some form of identity theft, pretending to be someone they are not. This leaves them vulnerable to workplace and wage abuse and pushes them into the shadows of society. Meanwhile, they also send much of their earnings back to their home countries while taking undue advantage of our social services and educational institutions. They often pay little or no income taxes and disproportionately use our public healthcare system. Rather than making the effort to earn American citizenship, assimilate, and honor our laws and our constitution, they choose to endanger their lives and that of their families by breaking our laws.

The first step is to secure the most porous sections of our borders by completing a physical fence, then fill the gaps with the technology of a virtual fence. We must also greatly increase the number of border agents, provide them with the proper training and equipment, and supplement them with National Guard assistance until the illegal flow of people, gang members, and drug dealers is cut off. Often, Americans near the southern border live in what is tantamount to a war zone. Those American citizens must be protected. It’s the most basic role of the Federal government.

In conjunction with those measures, we must ensure that U.S. companies only hire workers who are here legally by restoring E-Verify to its previous level, ensuring its use by all employers, and severely fining companies which knowingly hire illegal workers. If the jobs are no longer available, the flow of illegal aliens will slow, and many illegal workers will return by attrition to their home countries, leaving more jobs for the millions of Americans who are in need of work.

As a long-term solution, we must improve our regulatory policies and procedures for issuing temporary work permits for jobs which are not being filled by our citizens or permanent residents. This process must be streamlined, efficient and fail-safe. Doing so must result in such permits being processed (i) in larger numbers and (ii) much more quickly than is currently the case. When legal entry for workers is made safer, faster and easier, the incentive to risk one’s life and safety to enter illegally will be reduced – as will the flow of illegal aliens.

Once our borders are secured and an improved work permit process which includes strict workplace enforcement is implemented, people who once came here illegally can then apply for those same permits, just like anyone else – and they will have to qualify for and obtain such permits to remain in the country and to be employed. We must also review, and likely increase, the number of green cards issued annually, especially for educated immigrants such as those who have been great contributors to American society in the past.

The health care plan which was passed into law is unhealthy for America and is unconstitutional. Inside this plan are medical decisions made by bureaucrats based on economic viability and end-of-life counseling, both of which will lead to rationing and death panels. This is against the laws of nature and of nature's God and against our Judeo-Christian ethics. Inside this plan is government control of health care. This is tyranny and is unconstitutional. Inside this plan is taxpayer-funded abortion. This practice is against our Christian faith.

NATIONAL SECURITY

The security of the American people is the primary constitutional duty of the federal government. All elected officials are duty bound to ensure that the homeland is safe and secure from all foreign and domestic threats. I believe having a strong and well-equipped military is essential to achieving that responsibility. We are engaged in a global war on terror. There are enemies of America and western civilization who hate our liberties and the principles that support them. We must be prepared to meet the challenge of 21st century terrorism with a new military that is well trained and sophisticated in new technologies and techniques designed to stop terrorism before it reaches our homeland.

LIMITED GOVERNMENT

The achievement of greatness by our country down through the years was not because of government, but by what government was prevented from doing to its people. Limited government is what made this nation great. Because of limited government, we the people have more freedom: freedom of the individual, freedom to work, freedom to succeed, and freedom to keep the fruit of one's labors. America is great because the stifling effects of too much government have been prevented..

Limited government cannot in and of itself account for the success of America. A simple examination of our history will reveal we are a moral people. From its inception America chose a moral code from the Bible to frame how they would live as a people. Personal morality and limited government are the traits that characterized the spirit of Americanism and made us the envy of the world.

It has been said that our nation is the offspring of a religious base heritage of liberty under the rule of law. It is clear that the founding fathers appealed to the laws of nature and of nature's God as they framed the Declaration of Independence and fleshed out the principles in the Constitution that now governs our country. What these brilliant men understood is that God created all men and that man’s right are unalienable, based exclusively in God. Out of that acknowledgement the framers gave us a republican based government, one that rewarded initiative, hard work and perseverance.

Acknowledgement of Divine Rights by the framers gives support to their understanding of the role of government. This is evident in these words in the Declaration of Independence: “that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” That statement is a reference back to the unalienable rights sourced in God. The role of government then is one of protector, securing our God-given rights and freedoms - no more, no less!

However, what we have been witnessing in our country is an incremental move down through the years away from the fundamental principles outlined in the Declaration and the Constitution. There can be no doubt that there is a diminishing of our freedoms through the deliberate expansion of government over our lives. The trend towards big government started in the twentieth century through the crisis of 1929 and the implementation of the “New Deal”. This plan began the slow spiral down the path of expanded government and soft tyranny. The greatest rhythm for expanded government came in the 1960’s with the Great Society program. However, with the current administration there is a rapid attempt to push government into every aspect of our lives. This must be resisted. When I go to our nation's capitol I will seek to return our nation to those founding principles that limit government and also to our Judeo-Christian heritage that made us great.

FAMILY AND FAITH

The family is the cornerstone of any successful civilization. Our nation's future is only as strong as the stability of its families. We face a serious threat against families in America - marriage is on the decline as many young people choose not to get married. As the family goes so goes the nation. I will fight for policies that strengthen marriage, not destroy it. I firmly believe that our nation was founded on the principles of the Judeo-Christian heritage. These principles are the bedrock of our success as a nation and as a people. Our nation's traditions of faith are under attack by the forces of political correctness. I intend to reinforce those principles and traditions while serving in our nation's capitol.