Issues

America First Agenda

Border Security

Our border security and immigration policies are disasters. Many illegal border crossers come to the USA for seasonal farm work and want to return to their home countries when the seasonal work is done.  Yet they stay in the USA for fear of being apprehended upon re-entry for the next season’s work.  

Our old school, establishment GOP Members of Congress won’t consider fresh, innovative approaches to the border and immigration issues. They keep trying the same old programs, with the same results – nothing positive gets done. And that means our farmers and ranchers don’t get the workers they need to bring the crops and livestock to market – leading to empty shelves in the grocery store. Everybody loses.

It’s time for new thinking that will address the border security, immigration, and guest worker issues. Implementing biometric worker IDs will go a long way to addressing these issues.

A biometric ID immigration program

  • Issues IDs with chips authenticated by fingerprints
  • Ensures that the right tax revenue is captured
  • Permits seasonal workers to return to their home countries after the season is over
  • Revokes the ID for any felony or serious crime such as drunk driving

Biometric ID is just one part of a robust border security and immigration policy.  To secure our borders fully and completely, we must

  • Finish the wall
  • Implement technology such as maximum drone coverage supported by Customs and Border Patrol ground units
  • Empower Immigration and Customs Enforcement to deport all felons and those without biometric IDs
  • Deport immediately all illegal border crossers

Supply Chain Security

Our economy is a mess.  Our supply chain is in tatters – ships can’t unload, goods can’t be delivered, consumers can’t buy what they need.

What’s even worse is the state of critical products such as pharmaceuticals.  More than 90% of pharmaceuticals that the USA depends on are produced in China. Think about that — do you want your chemotherapies, antibiotics, and other vital drugs manufactured in Communist China?  

It’s the same with other vital products such as computer chips and parts for our diesel tractors–they are made outside the USA.  And that makes us vulnerable.

We need a new approach to the issue. As your Congressman, I will sponsor a bill requiring that the manufacturers of specific critical infrastructure products such as computer chips, diesel parts for our tractors, and pharmaceuticals produce at least 75% of their products in the USA.

Government Agency Abuse

George Orwell tried to warn us about Big Brother Government, but sadly 1984 has arrived!

All around us, every day, we see more and more signs of governmental actions that are assaulting our freedoms.  We don’t have to look far to witness the many ways government thinks it knows better than we do how to live, earn a living, or raise our families.

  • FBI investigating “domestic terrorists” — parents who exercise their Constitutional rights to challenge over-reaching School Boards
  • Mandates that dictate how we run our businesses and care for our children
  • Red Flag laws that chip away, bit by bit, at our Second Amendment rights
  • Proposal for the IRS to monitor nearly all banking transactions
  • Entitlement programs running amok, fostering new generations of dependents rather than creating incentives for responsibility and self-reliance

And then there is this one that demonstrates how the lack of accountability coupled with the arrogance of a government convinced it has all of the answers leads to tragic and corrupt practices:  the Bureau of Land Management’s turning a blind eye to the slaughter of wild horses – after the BLM has paid $1000 per horse for the lifetime adoption of those very same horses.

Every year more than 3,500 mustangs are rounded up and placed in government-controlled pastures and corrals as a way of controlling the growth of the wild herds.  But the BLM does not have the budget to maintain the more than 50,000 mustangs in these holding pens and so it pays $1,000 per horse for people to adopt and supposedly keep them for life.

The adopters are required to sign documentation that they will not resell the mustangs for slaughter.  Yet that is exactly what happens – truckloads of wild horses are carted off to the slaughterhouse to become dog food. And the BLM does not follow up, does not check to ensure that the mustangs are in fact still alive.

What happens to the symbol of the American West, the icon of Texas and our way of life, is just one more example of the lack of accountability by government.  It is the same arrogant mindset that leads to our Constitutional freedoms being taken away from us.

As your Congressman, I will fight for governmental accountability, for the protection of our Constitutional rights against the encroachment of Big Brother socialism.  Our government exists to guarantee our freedoms, not steal them.

Tax Reform

  1. Capital gain/qualified dividend tax free limit should be raised to the end of the 12% marginal bracket
  2. MFJ 15% taxation starts at $80,800 within the 12% bracket  (19,901-81,050) $250 difference in 2021
  3. Single 15% taxation starts at $40,400 within the 12% bracket  (9,951-40,525) $125 difference in 2021
  4. Social Security solvency plan should include the following
  5. Federal Tax free income should not count when your income is calculated for purposes of determining if Social Security benefits are taxable. Every $100 of tax free income can cause $50 to $85 of that income to be taxed. (Treat municipal bond interest and Federal tax free capital gains and qualified dividends the same as distributions from Roth IRA accounts).
  6. Index the taxation thresholds of Social Security income for inflation.  The 1984 50% (1st tier) and 1994 85% (2nd tier) taxation thresholds are still in effect. For 2021 indexing for inflation would raise the single $25,000 (1st tier)/ $34,000 (2nd tier) thresholds to $65,300/$81,800 and the MFJ $32,000/$44,000 thresholds to $83,600/$105,600.
  7. 2nd tier Social Security tax revenue should be credited to the Social Security trust fund and not the Medicare Part A trust fund.
  8. Allow Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) for all citizens and all health plans (Do not require high deductible plan)
  9. All individuals, including seniors on Medicare, should be able to use pretax savings accounts to pay out of pocket medical premiums and qualified medical expenses.
  10. Allow yearly funding of an HSA with tax free transfer from a Traditional IRA
  11. Allow Traditional to HSA transfers to count toward a required minimum distribution (RMD)
  12. State and Local Tax deductions (SALT) Fix marriage penalty and index for inflation
  13. Specify the current deduction cap is for single taxpayers and Index this $10,000 cap for inflation.
  14. Specify the deduction cap for Married Filing Joint as twice the single deduction.
  15. Allow employees not covered by employer retirement plan to open a solo 401K
  16. Capital loss limit changes
  17. Yearly capital loss limit should be indexed for inflation. For 2021 the 1978 capital loss limit of $3,000 would index to a value of $12,375.
  18. Married couple allowable capital loss per year should be twice the single amount.
  19. Death of a taxpayer should allow an unlimited capital loss deduction. Treat it just like passive loss carryover when the activity has been terminated.
  20. Make the individual tax cuts permanent.
  21. Make permanent  the $300 single $600 MFJ charitable deduction for non-itemizers