DISCLAIMER: No positions available on AstroTurf, Lyme’s disease, airplane seats, fantasy football, parking lots and negotiations between Comcast and the YES Network.
Foreign Policy
“Dick Blumenthal has failed. He supported the disastrous Iran deal that emboldens our enemies at the expense of our great ally, Israel. Blumenthal supports policies that could bring terrorists to Connecticut. These two positions disqualify him from representing our state. To defeat ISIS, the strategy starts with calling evil by its name: radical Islamic terrorism. While we ought to support and give aid to our Middle Eastern allies to create safe zones for Syrian refugees, we cannot bring any more here until we ensure the safety of every American. ISIS has the desired goal and the ability to hide their fighters in the masses of refugees wanting to live in America and, if we allow them in, the terror killings in San Bernardino, California will be small in comparison. The FBI has documented many cases of ISIS activity in our nation. Our two guiding principles should be safety and freedom. There’s nothing more basic and important than maintaining the safety of our citizens.”
Taxes
“Dick Blumenthal has failed. Taxes are way too high. We want to take home more of our paychecks but the government always has a different idea. Right now, only those who can afford high-priced attorneys and accountants can take advantage of all the loopholes. We need to reform the entire tax code by instituting a fair and simplified tax structure that removes the need for the IRS and reduces our tax burden across the board. Government has to spend less and the place to start is with the billions of dollars of waste, fraud and abuse. After that, agencies should have to justify their annual spending by showing their regulations won’t kill American jobs or unnecessarily add to the tax burden of working families. Tax policy should not create winners and losers, that’s the role of the free-market. Small businesses are unduly burdened by regressive regulatory regimes that put them at a disadvantage in the world’s marketplace. As a US Senator, I’ll fight to change that.”
Veteran’s Issues
“Dick Blumenthal has failed. In addition to lying about the nature of his military service, Dick Blumenthal was the number one opponent of the VA Accountability Act. The VA administration has more than 300,000 employees and a huge budget. It’s been sorely mismanaged, particularly under President Obama and Dick Blumenthal. That’s shameful. I will support reforms targeted at speeding up health care services and holding administrators accountable for misspending and turning a blind eye to the men and women who wore the uniform and risked their lives. Government facilities aren’t the only places where we can serve vets. Veterans should be able to chose where they want to receive their healthcare. They should also return home to an economy that will embrace them. Those will be among my top priorities in Congress.”
Healthcare
“Dick Blumenthal has failed. It all starts with this: repeal Obamacare. All of it. Immediately. Then, we replace it with free-market, patient-centered solutions. We should allow any health insurance company to sell policies anywhere in the USA, which will increase private sector competition and drive down or cap prices. Encourage all Americans – not just a select few – to open Heath Savings Accounts so more people can take personal responsibility for their own health care. And increase penalties for greedy lawyers who sue doctors and hospitals when nothing was done wrong. Those frivolous lawsuits add billions to the cost of health care.”
Debt & Spending
“Dick Blumenthal has failed. Professional politicians like him have spent countless trillions of dollars in a desperate attempt to look good to the voters and win re-election. They act like the government is immune from basic principles of economics. It’s got to stop. I support an immediate hiring freeze for the federal government to reduce the workforce. We must repeal Obamacare and Dodd Frank while enacting a constitutionally—sound line item veto to root out waste, fraud and abuse. I support a mandatory 10-year sunset provision on every law passed by Congress. If we find a program that really works they way it should, then we ought to give it more funding. At the same time, the programs that don’t work should be cut or defunded altogether.”
Equality Before the Law
“Dick Blumenthal has failed. He wrote against same-sex marriage before he was for it. Many close to me are gay and I’m firm supporter of their rights. I signed and recruited others to sign the Supreme Court amicus brief in favor of same-sex marriage. As a conservative, I believe passionately that strong families are the cornerstone of our society. We must encourage committed and legitimate relationships. As a US Senator, I won’t equivocate like Blumenthal on this issue.”
Choice
“Dick Blumenthal has failed. He holds radical positions that harm women and families. I am pro-choice. I also support the Hyde Amendment that eliminates federal funding for abortion. We must expand access to and advancement of contraceptives to end the need for abortion.”
The Second Amendment
“Dick Blumenthal has failed. Our constitutional right to keep and bear arms must be defended. When the Founding Fathers wrote “shall not be infringed,” they meant what they said. I own firearms and I use them for sport frequently. We ought to focus on keeping mentally ill people and criminals from getting guns, not disarming law abiding Americans.”
Education
“Dick Blumenthal has failed. We start by getting rid of Common Core and the over reliance on standardized tests. Education should be determined at the local level, where taxpayers and parents can monitor what’s happening. Second, we need policies at every level of state and local government to support the right of parents to choose the best learning environment for their children. That means supporting and affirming parents’ right to home-school or send their children to charter schools, parochial schools, or any other school. The federal Department of Education takes local tax dollars from Connecticut and spends them on bureaucrats and regulations in Washington. There’s just no need for that agency at the federal level. It should be turned into a think-tank to provide best practices for local education.”
Immigration
“Dick Blumenthal has failed. We must secure the border and aggressively enforce current immigration laws. That starts by building a wall along our border. When law enforcement encounters an illegal immigrant, that person should be deported within days. We cannot reward those who have cut the line. There should be a path to legalization, incorporating fines and compliance with U.S. laws. Then after proven adherence to the law, citizenship should be possible.”
Energy
“Dick Blumenthal has failed. We need to support domestic exploration for clean coal, oil, and natural gas. America has enough natural resources to fuel our needs for decades—even centuries–to come. Those efforts will result in lower gasoline and electricity costs for consumers. And when we rely on our own resources, we can tell Russia and Middle Eastern antagonist countries that we don’t need their oil or gas. We also must stop making decisions that would never be made in the business world – like selling our strategic reserves at the bottom of the market, when prices are lowest. The market is working well to provide other energy alternatives such as hydro, wind and solar. We need to end corporate welfare.”