Why I chose McCain

When I look at what this country needs in leadership I see John McCain in so many capacities superior to his opposition. Over this protracted election cycle, it is hard to read up on every nuanced statement and position and as we have seen with both candidates snap decision or held policy beliefs have changed with more available information or when global circumstance arise. Unlike most of my Red republican brethren I have a strong conservation position and consider myself a Green conservative.

When it comes to this election I think it is important to get away from Republican and Democrat fringes. The vast majority of Americans regardless of personal preferences are clear thinking people who just want to live a life that matters. A life that does not intrude on others and hopefully not be intruded on in return. I believe that the majority of Americans, even with strong political, religious, economic and social views lives somewhere in the middle on the vast majority of issues. These are my opinions, these are my thoughts on why a McCain administration is the right choice for the next four years. You will notice that my positions against an Obama administration are not personal attacks but the difference in my political beliefs from the Democrat party.

What frustrates me about all this talk about wealth is the hypocrisy of how its earned and how its spent. It’s okay for an actor to make $20 million a movie or an athlete to make $8 million a year or a lawyer to earn tens of millions suing business. Its okay to inherit money like the Rockefellers and Kennedys. But if you’re the CEO of a company making a cancer fighting drug, and you make $5 million you’re the bad guy. The distinction is that the actor, the athlete and the lawyer are employees, while the CEO is the business owner. The business owner ostensibly creates more economic freedom for his employees and the economy and that is the anathema of liberalism which does not celebrate success outside of government intervention. Congress has shown many times over in its laws that if your rich, you can stay rich, if you’re trying to get rich its going to be very hard. The less income someone has, the more dependant fiscally or the more empathetic you become emotionally to getting a hand out of some kind.

The Republican mindset is the abundance mentality and not scarcity mentality. There is money to be made out there by anyone who is determined or responsible. The money you personally make today did not come from some else’s pocket, it came from your hard work or the value your company puts on the work you do compared to the industry standard. Capitalists, small business owners, men and women of industrious spirit understand that they can attract money which provides freedom of movement in every dimension of your life and it doesn’t abridge anyone else’s ability to make as money much as they want. In just a general sense, the conservative mindset is to save 10% of your income, give 10% of your income to charity and live within your means. I do not hear that from the other side. The objection to that statement is that conservative increased spending under Bush. No argument there and in my opinion the one reason polls show Obama in the lead. Conservatives are apathetic that the party has left the base on spending issues. Conversely I have given more this year to charity than Joe Biden has in the last decade, yet he thinks I need to pay more taxes to be patriotic.

This makes taxes the number issue of this economy. Raising taxes on citizens and businesses in a climate where there is no prosperity is an insane idea. No government in history has ever taxed itself into prosperity. The liberal idea of “spreading the worth around,” as the Democrat candidate told a questioner, is absolutely the wrong idea. The Obama economic plan is that 95% of all Americans will get a tax cut when 40% don’t pay federal taxes. Furthermore the Democrat plan has not addressed what taxes will be cut or what rates will be. Are these cuts coming back as a credit or a check? For businesses, will inventory, principal payments on loans and pass through business expenses be excluded or included. Investors Daily Journal calls Sen. Obama the most anti-capitalist person to possibly be president. As a partner in a small business that generates millions of dollars in revenue, this concerns me.

The McCain plan follows a republican ideal of creating opportunity. He will cut government spending except key budgets like defense, and education along with bolstering areas like veterans benefits. He will at worst leave tax rates where they currently reside and at best create more incentives for business to spend and grow by dropping the corporate tax rate from 35% to 25%. For the normal everyday person, not only will they still enjoy, yes enjoy the tax cuts enacted in 2003 but McCain will also work in other areas to keep consumers from paying hidden federal taxes. For example he will stop upcoming tax proposals on cell phone text messages and internet purchases. McCain has twenty years of history on fighting wasteful spending and has promised to fight ear mark and pork barrel spending proposals that come his desk.

A President McCain will seek to repeal the 18.4 cent federal gas tax and 24.4 cent diesel tax between Memorial Day and Labor Day. This would keep $6.8 billion in the pockets of drivers. He has also vowed to repel the 54 cents per gallon tax on sugar based ethanol’s which makes it more cost effective for businesses to offer ethanol’s as a gasoline alternative for vehicles and create more stations delivering the product.

I appreciate the democrat position of being clear of foreign oil dependency in ten years. This however is a decision process and not an action process, regardless of what steps are made to overcome our country’s 30% investment in foreign oil, the following President will be able to reverse this decision. Of the two candidates, McCain has the Lexington Project and expressed publicly a clearer plan to increase the energy production of this country. He is not saying what he won’t do as President, but expressing in specifics what he will do.

The McCain plan sets into motion a larger infrastructure to support our country’s need for cheap and reliable electricity while at the same time decreasing the countries overall emission of toxics. Each candidate has described the need to use available renewable resources such as solar and wind. It is my belief the republican plan of tax breaks and incentives for business creating new energy technologies is superior to the Democrat platform of penalties for noncompliance to new laws they will create. McCain has stated his administration will build 45 nuclear power plants and create 700,000 new jobs. Nuclear power is the cleanest, cheapest and most reliable form of energy we can produce. He also supports the opportunity to drill along our coasts and in the 1002 Area. This is the disputed land in ANWAR that was set aside by the Carter Administration for oil exploration and has been stymied by democrats ever since. A McCain administration will work with private, state and federal organizations to streamline the production of shale oil within our borders which holds more barrels of oil than all the known oil deposits in the Middle East. Neither candidate has signed on to T. Boone Pickens Plan for switching the country’s dependency from oil to natural gas which is disappointing but not indicative of reluctance to participate.

McCain will stand up the pathetic, uber-partisan congressional leadership of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. Under their leadership congress has seen favorable polls drop into the teens. The upcoming election also has twice as many republicans up for reelection than democrats. The opportunity does exist for the democrats in the senate to have a super-majority. I show this because Obama has shown zero bipartisan effort as a senator. He has been called the most liberal senator in congress by National Journal, a congressional report. Certainly no one in either party is going to be 50/50, but the Democratic Party of today is far left of the Democratic Party of a decade ago under President Clinton as evidenced in a single person’s condemnation, Joe Lieberman. Obama speaks of change and has done nothing in his senatorial capacity to show action. The upcoming years will be volatile times. I do have serious doubt that a Obama, Pelosi, Reid trifecta will seek the middle ground in political matters. McCain is the only candidate with a proven record of reaching across the aisle in a bipartisan way. He at least has shown he can work with democrats on a variety of issues and find a way to create a piece of legislation that can be voted on and passed into record. I seriously doubt Obama will show the same maturity with the minority in congress.

I believe in a Supreme Court and federal judge appointment system that does not legislate from the bench and does not look to international courts for direction. A President McCain will appoint strict constitutionalists to the bench. I have seen far too often that the courts are an accelerator to changing the moral landscape of this country. The Supreme Court in just the last five years has upheld habeas corpus for terrorists and the created from whole cloth the Kelo decision that said a city can use ‘eminent domain’ to take a private homeowner property and give it to a private developer for their business use. This meant that hard working homeowners can have their houses taken by the city so a private developer could build shopping centers, retail space, office space and in the case of homeowners in Washington D.C., a new baseball stadium. There will be at least one and possibly two justices who will retire in the next four to eight years. I want judges appointed to the highest court along with the hundreds needed in the lower courts to use jurisprudence in their decision process and not personal opinion. I want the courts to refer to the will of the state in law and not create more federal laws that counter the will of the people.

Before spending 25 years in congress, McCain spent 23 years in the military. This is not a perquisite for president, but certainly not a neutral or negative addendum to a presidential resume. As a veteran, I have not seen from the Democrat candidate the respect or admiration for the armed services that I demand from any President. On the campaign trail he voiced the opinion of unconditional meetings with state that are openly hostile to democracy and America. He made ridiculous troop withdrawal timelines that emboldened our enemy and then backed away from those timelines after he sat down and spoke with the generals he would command.

I served under President’s Bush (41) and Clinton; I can speak to the level of esprit de corp that a president wields over his soldiers. Based on my personal experiences, a President McCain will instill a pride in our armed services that would be absent under Obama as it was under Clinton and Carter. Our military under McCain will continue to grow and have the most technologically advanced offensive and defensive weapons systems that can be developed. John McCain has tremendous respect among the military and international leaders for his reputation as a hardened, well educated, global strategist. When Russia invaded Georgia earlier this year, while neither candidate was involved in the overall concern, Barrack Obama could only call for restraint while John McCain, who had recently spent time in the country of Georgia as part of a delegation to understand the future of the country in Nato, was quick to address the issue with well thought ideas.

It has been said by Joe Biden and Madeline Albright that an Obama Administration will be tested on an international level the first six months of holding office. This mostly likely will not occur under a McCain administration but no one can predict the future. Yet when leaders of terrorist organizations, despots and tyrants all voice their hopes of a Obama presidency, that tells me they think a McCain led country will be tougher on them than the other option.

If the democrats hold all three offices of executive and legislative branches and quite possibly run a super majority of congress, they will enact the Fairness Doctrine. The frustration of democrats is that they cannot grab a foothold in talk radio. It does not matter that the liberal mindset controls the television and print media. Liberals will easily slay the Air America money pit to destroy the likes of Rush Limbaugh. The Fairness Doctrine will take opinion based radio off the air. Talk stations will become sports themed, or be shows on landscaping, cooking and the latest supplement fad to lose weight. As a smart, intelligent conservative I don’t need conservative radio hosts giving me marching orders, but what they do better than anyone is take my scattered thoughts on a subject and put them into a cogent theme. It also takes the biased, cut up, 3o second, emotionally charged subject on television news and spread it out over one to three hours using intellectual thought. With talk radio gone, a liberal congress will have almost no media oversight on their tactics.

A John McCain administration will uphold my second amendment rights. His statement sums my belief best, “We need to focus on halting the spread of violent crime and punishing violent criminals who abuse their Second Amendment rights, while preserving those same rights for law-abiding Americans…Bearing arms is a constitutionally protected right. With rights come responsibilities. I will continue to support effective, common sense measures that help keep firearms out of the hands of criminals, children and the mentally incompetent; that assure Second Amendment rights are exercised responsibly; and that do not impinge upon law abiding citizens in the free exercise of their rights, including the right to protect themselves and their family.”

The Washington Times has called Obama, “The most anti-gun presidential candidate ever.” In 1996, Obama said to John Lott, an economics professor who studied gun ownership statistics, “I don't believe that people should be able to own guns.” Since then, the Democrat nominee for president has voted to ban or limit firearm rights in every vote he has cast on the subject. In my opinion limiting gun ownership in urban areas creates more victims. Obama also voted to outlaw or tax every type of ammunition that is currently used by hunters, thereby not banning hunting weapons but impugning a hunter’s ability to use their legally owned firearm.

Speaking strictly for the state of Arizona, my medical premiums are high because of the tremendous strain our health care system absorbs from illegal aliens. Almost a dozen hospitals and several Level 1 Trauma centers have closed their doors due to illegals that use our superior health care system and then don’t pay their bills. I have sat in emergency rooms with a son who had a high temperature and other serious condition and listened to nurses and responders bemoan illegals that clog their doors for simple cold or non-emergency issues because they can not get appointments with general practitioners, adding hours to the waiting period for insured citizens.

I have never gone without medical insurance and firmly believe that most, not all, of those hard working Americans between 18-35 years of age without insurance do so of their own choice. I have the opportunity every day to talk to young, energetic employees making more money than they have ever made in their life and I always recommend they get medical insurance, even just major medical. If they do not have insurance, almost universally the answer I receive is they would rather spend their money on something else like their awesome car or they have a life style that is beyond their means.

My company does not provide health care for its employees, partially because we pay about 30% over industry standards. Otherwise, it is not cost effective for our business. Our look into the subject showed we would need to hire an administrator at approximately $40,000 a year who’s sold job would be health care management. Then the cost we would invest into each employees plan would add approximately $8,000 per employee on a group plan. In a true capitalist move, we pay them more to do what they want with their money, which we active suggest allows them to get a competitive insurance rate.

As a small business owner, I pay for my own health care for my family. The premium has gone up on average $75 a year with the same or less benefits. I have been brutally honest with people regarding the medical issues of my son and more recently myself. Since our son was born five years ago, I have paid out of pocket, on average $22,000 in medical bills, well over $100,000 total. Under the McCain plan with a $5,000 tax credit that will come right off the top of my taxable income, I will get some relief. Not necessarily a health care issue but McCain will also double the Child Tax Credit from $3,500 to $7,000. With a second child arriving next year that is an additional savings in my pocket of $7,000 plus the $5,000 medical credit and I will in essence get a $12,000 tax benefit under McCain.

I am very much a conservationist. I certainly will not defend the terrible pro-business mentality of the Republican Party. In 2005-2007 I was recognized by Tonto State Park here in Arizona for taking out over 500 pounds of trash each year in my own beautification program. So far in 2008, I have collected and recycled over 5,000 aluminum cans. My son and I walk around parks and parking lots looking for cans several times a week. I have businesses collecting cans for me that I pick up. I plant trees. I support a wildlife rehabilitation clinic.

That being said, McCain and Palin each bring to the ticket a conservation concept that does not pander to special interest groups and junk science. I have seen firsthand and listened to authoritative testimony regarding the efforts environmentalist activists take to hurt businesses, keep people from using our great outdoors or committing crimes in the name of protecting species. McCain will begin to unravel the bureaucracy put on states to remove scrub brush that perpetuates the million acre fires in the west. He will protect the rights of hunters and fisherman. I have always believed that west coast politicians are better proponents of outdoor stewardship that east coast, regardless of political affiliation. For example I respect the Udalls quite a bit. In essence it’s my belief that this Democrat ticket will pander to special interest and not what’s in the best interest of my environment.

I voted for McCain because I believe in small government. I believe in a cleaner environment. I believe in more money in my pocket and freedom to do with my money whatever I choose. I think the McCain platform will help me more than hurt me. I pay plenty of taxes thank you, it may sound cruel, but I put the efforts of rugged, risk taking individuals above government programs. It doesn’t take a village to raise my children; it takes a close knit family and if there were more intact extended families in this country we would all be better off. I don’t like paying higher medical bills every year or for the charter school my son goes to but I don’t want to pay for your kids all day pre-school or your medical bills. A McCain Presidency will protect our country; it will project international strength and will be better for our economy. It will be better for me and my family.