Virgil Goode for President and Jim Clymer for Vice President?

The next person on the voting ballot for President is candidate Virgil Goode of the Constitutional Party.

• Jobs, the Debt and Deficit: He says the United States can not borrow its way to prosperity.  It is incumbent on our next President to propose a balanced budget upon taking office and not ten years down the road. There will be pain, but the old saying that one will not get out of the hole by digging the hole deeper is accurate.  Nearly every department and agency will face significant cuts and some will face elimination. Veterans benefits is an example that will not be cut.  Examples of programs eliminated include the National Endowment for the Arts, No Child Left Behind, etc.  Other programs and departments, such as Foreign Aid and Education, will be slashed and trimmed.  Reducing regulations and becoming energy independent will also mean more jobs for America.  The Canada to Texas pipeline needs to be built and operational expeditiously and not delayed or stopped as the current Administration is doing.  Another way to reduce unemployment, reduce the deficit, and provide more jobs for U.S. citizens is to reduce legal immigration.  In recent years about 1.2 million green cards have been issued annually and over 60% go to foreigners who come to the United States and take jobs from American citizens.  He has proposes a moratorium (with a few minor exceptions) on issuing green cards until our unemployment rate is under 5 percent.  America has one of the most liberal immigration policies in the world and it is time for the citizens of this country to be at the head of the line for jobs.  We also need to totally end diversity visas (50,000 per year), reduce chain migration, and dramatically reduce asylees and refugees and their costs to the U.S. taxpayer.

• Immigration: He said illegal immigration must stop. Our borders must be secure. In Congress, he supported and cosponsored legislation to stop illegal aliens, terrorists, drug smugglers, and other criminals from coming across our Southern border. He said we need to utilize troops, fences, and other measures to stop the invasion from Mexico. He was the first to sponsor legislation providing for a fence along the Southern Border.  We must continue to fight for funding and for adequacy of the fence. Illegal immigration costs the United States taxpayers billions every year through increased health care costs, social service utilization, emergency room fees, prison expenses, and in other areas. For example, of the 189,000 federal prisoners, 50,000 are illegal or recent aliens costing the taxpayers millions of dollars for their incarceration. We must end the anchor baby situation, whereby a child of illegal aliens is an automatic citizen of the United States.

• Energy Costs: The United States must be free of foreign fossil fuel. Freedom from the Middle Eastern sheiks, Nigeria, and Venezuela is necessary for a continued bright future for our country. We cannot allow OPEC to control our energy supply. The United States must develop its own resources and alternative fuel sources.  Hydrogen, biodiesel, and other alternative energy sources have potential in making us less dependent on foreign fossil fuels. He also supports the utilization of nuclear power and expanded drilling opportunities for natural gas and oil in this country so that our energy needs are met by domestic and not foreign sources. He has supported and will continue supporting drilling in Alaska and the continental United States. If President, he would support the drilling off our coasts where it can be done safely and where the states, such as Virginia, have passed legislation requesting offshore drilling.Being free of a need for foreign fossil fuel will enable us to be free of the shifting sands of the Middle East.

• Tax Reductions and Fairness: He supports the elimination of the Death Tax. Death should not mean the end of the family farm or the family business. A death tax often precludes families from having the homestead or family business. He supports and has voted to terminate the current IRS Code at a date determined in the future so it can be replaced with something simpler and fairer. There are several alternatives to the current Code and include the Fair Tax, the Flat Tax, the Transaction Tax, and others. Between the current IRS code and the Fair Tax, He would support the Fair Tax with certain modifications. For example, the Fair Tax, which is basically a national sales tax, has a prebate of $180 per month per person, which should be limited to United States citizens, who are adults and who reside in the United States. He would support a Fair Tax only if certain other taxes, such as the Death Tax and Income Tax were eliminated.  If the Income Tax were to be retained, then he would oppose a national sales tax and have a simple flat rate income tax and scrap the current code with its inequities.

• Medical Costs: A big factor in medical costs is the high cost of malpractice insurance for our physicians and other health care providers. He supports tort reform that will limit attorney fees and the amount of damages recoverable for non-economic losses.

• Social Security: He says we must preserve and protect Social Security. Social Security is owed over two trillion dollars. Social Security should be repaid and have real money in the Social Security Trust Fund and not IOU's.

• Marriage: He believes that marriage should be a union between a man and a woman. He is opposed to gay marriages and so-called gay civil unions. He supports the federal Marriage Protection Amendment.

• Health Care: He supports ending Obamacare.

• Public Education: He said Washington should not be running our local school systems. We need to leave local education decisions to the states and localities. He is opposed to national testing of public school students and voted against "No Child Left Behind" with its new mandates and new tests that must comply with national standards. He supports ending the federal Department of Education.

• Veteran's Benefits: He supports funding for veterans' health care and providing health care benefits to all veterans.  We also need to insure that the Veteran's Administration works with and on behalf of our veterans.

• Abortion: As President he would continue to oppose abortion and would submit a budget to Congress with zero funding for planned parenthood and any other similar entities.

This is Jim Clymer, Virgil Goode's Vice President.

(Credits go to http://www.goodeforpresident2012.com/ for the information about Goode.)