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Jeb’s responses are below and as always, feel free to leave a comment…
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QUESTIONS
1. If you could ask General Petraeus any question, but only one question, what would it be?
Jeb: General Petraeus: Thank you for your exemplary service to our nation. Would you describe please the progress that is being made in Iraq stabilizing that nation and leading to political reconciliation and do you have the resources necessary to complete that mission?
2. Do you favor Oil recovery in the newly found fields in Montana & the Dakotas? Jeb: Yes
• Drilling in ANWR? Jeb: YES
• Drilling in the deep waters off Florida and in the Gulf of Mexico? Jeb: Yes
• Creating a fast track process to license and build new nuclear plants? Jeb: YES
Jeb adds: Our nation needs to reduce our dependence of foreign imports by exploring in areas that have previously been off limits which includes ANWR. We also need to permit additional refineries, develop clean coal technology, and license new nuclear plants. Additionally our nation needs to develop renewable energy which should be done by creating incentives in the marketplace rather than direct government subsidies.
3. In the area of healthcare, are you in favor of:
• Giving tax credits for policies to individuals / families as well as businesses?
Jeb: YES
• Allow policies to be purchased across state lines? Jeb: YES
• Allow individuals to buy lower cost policies by "unhooking" legal mandates
Jeb: YES
Jeb adds: In order to lower the cost of health care we must reduce frivolous lawsuits that force doctors to practice defensive medicine. Small businesses should be able to pool together across state lines to get large discounts from insurers. Health savings accounts should be expanded. These are all provisions I have voted for. Additionally health care costs should be transparent and fully deductable. Individuals ought to be allowed to purchase health care policies outside their home states if they so choose. All of these provisions will lower the cost of health care. I do not support a Canadian style government run health care system.
4. British Prime Minister Brown said that the US must give up the idea of absolute sovereignty in order to better cooperate in the global community. Agree or disagree, and why?
Jeb: I Disagree. The United States must never relinquish its sovereignty to the United Nations, another international organization or other nation.
5. Guantanomo military prison:
• Keep it open or close it? Jeb: OPEN
• If closed – where would you send those enemy combatants? (N/A see previous answer)
• Would you be willing to try those enemy combatants in our civilian courts (with its accompanying mandatory rights as due to citizens)?
Jeb: I voted for and continue to support military commissions to adjudicate these issues regarding enemy combatants.
6. Should President Bush attend the Summer Olympics’ opening ceremonies in communist China?
Jeb: Despite persistent human rights problems in China, the Olympics should focus on the athletes and not international political affairs.
7. Are you in favor of using eminent domain in taking private property from one owner to another in order to expand taxable property values?
Jeb: ABSOLUTELY NOT
8. Are you willing to sign an earmark moratorium?
Jeb: Earmarks must be fully transparent, accountable, and merit based. In Congress I supported allowing an up or down vote on every earmark and naming the member of Congress requesting the earmark. Further, I voted against every earmark that had an up or down vote. I also supported a line item veto that would ensure spending is merit based. Until these common sense reforms are in place, I would support an earmark moratorium.
9. You have a choice: raise corporate taxes or eliminate five Federal programs. Which is your choice? If it is “eliminate five programs”, please list them. (Feel free to list more than five if you think more could go)
Jeb: I support lowering the corporate tax rate. I would eliminate or curtail the following programs:
(1. Eliminate the ability of state officials (including NH officials at the Department of Health and Human Service) to inflate Medicaid costs which the federal government then reimburses. While this has benefited states, it is a straight cost shift to the federal budget deficit and according to the Administration this practice is termed a “blatant abuse” by state officials. The Wall Street Journal termed this practice "Medicaid Money Laundering. Carol Shea Porter recently voted to not crack down on this blatant abuse by state officials. The Congressional Budget office estimates this practice costs taxpayers $42 billion over 10 years. (2. Eliminate all price support for tobacco. (3. Eliminate all subsidies for ethanol. (4. Eliminate all subsidies for corn, wheat, barley, soybeans, rice, cotton, peanuts, and sugar. (5. Eliminate the ability of illegal aliens to receive federal benefits for social security, health care, housing, and food stamps. (6. Crack down on the abuse of food stamps. (7. Eliminate improper payments to providers for Medicare’s fee for service. (8. Curtail abuses in Crop Insurance reimbursement. (9. Curtail student loan defaults. (10. Reduce USDA grant programs for rural development. (11. Eliminate Electrification and Telephone Credit Subsidies. (12. Cancel space travel to Mars. (13. Eliminate funding for money losing timber sales or related road building in public lands. (14. Eliminate the Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act. (15. Eliminate the Rural Telephone Bank. (16. Eliminate Citrus Canker Compensation. (17. Eliminate Empowerment Zone Grants. (18. Eliminate Historic Whaling and Trading Partners Program. (19. Reduce the 9.5% guaranteed subsidy for lenders of student loans. (20. Eliminate Rural Communities Program. (21. Eliminate Urban Development Action Grants. (22. Eliminate subsidies for vacant public housing. (23. Eliminate Economic Support Fund Payments under the South Pacific Fisheries Treaty. (24. Eliminate water subsidies in the Central Valley Project. (25. Eliminate low priority Army Corps of Engineers projects. (26. Eliminate the National Drug Intelligence Center often referred to as the John Murtha earmark. (27. Eliminate the Denali Commission. (28. Eliminate the Migrant and Seasonal Farm Workers Training Program. (29. Do not expand Davis Bacon prevailing wage provisions. (30. Reduce United States payments to the United Nations to an amount no more than that of the next highest member of the permanent Security Council. (31. Reduce Millennium Challenge Grants. (32. Eliminate pay raises for members of Congress. (33. Reduce franking privileges for members of Congress. (34. Direct Amtrak funding to routes with ridership levels that justify the funding. For instance funding for routes in the Northeast corridor are justified but funding in other areas where ridership is low is not justified. (35. Sell the Tennessee Valley Authority electric system. (36. Eliminate the Appalachian Regional Commission. (37. Sell Southeastern Power Administration electric system. (38. Reduce Bureau of Land Management Range Improvement Fund. (39. Eliminate tax breaks for oil companies.
10. Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security are “demographic time bombs” in waiting. What steps should be taken to avoid future failures of these entitlements?
Jeb: We must slow the rate of growth of entitlement spending. In 2005, I voted for the Deficit Reduction Act that cut spending by approximately $40 billion. Key components of this legislation were: curtailing food stamp entitlements, reducing agriculture commodity programs, reducing agriculture conservation funding, student loan reforms, pension reforms under the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. This measure included several Medicaid reforms on asset transfers prior to eligibility for long term care and benefit flexibility for states. This legislation continued saving achieved under welfare reform. When I return to Congress I will once again work to curtail entitlement spending while ensuring the safety net for those truly in need.
11. How would you propose Congress and the president balance the federal budget?
Jeb: Reduce wasteful spending, slow the rate of entitlement spending, while growing the economy. See answers to 9 and 10.
12. Would you vote for the “Fair Tax”? The “Flat Tax”?
Jeb: I was proud to vote for the 2003 tax cuts which helped create 8 million jobs and lowered taxes for working Americans and small businesses. This tax
relief package eliminated the marriage penalty, increased the child tax credit, dropped millions of low income Americans from income taxes, reduced every tax bracket, lowered capital gains taxes, lowered the tax rate on dividend income, and increased opportunities for small business owners to invest in their companies by expanding expensing provisions, and I also voted to eliminate the death tax. But these reforms simply aren’t enough, the current IRS Tax Code is over 60,000 pages long, it should be scrapped. Americans spend way too much time filing their taxes or paying way too much money for others to prepare their taxes and that is why I am a strong proponent of the “Flat Tax.” The Flat Tax would be simple and fair, grow the economy and jobs, encourage investment and eliminate the Alternative Minimum Tax. I would also support the Fair Tax provided it also eliminated income taxes and the Alternative Minimum Tax.
~~~~~~~~ Visit Jeb Bradley’s website at http://www.jebforcongress.com/
