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Name: Chris Stewart
Office
Seeking:
Congressional Seat, 2nd District
District: 2ndDistrict
Party: Republican
Introduce yourself:
My name is Chris Stewart and I am running for congress in Utah’s 2nd district.
I am a New York Times best-selling and national award-winning author,world-record-setting Air Force pilot, and the owner of a small business. My wife Evie and I are the parents of six children.
I am one of ten children and grew up on a dairy farm in Cache Valley. My father was an Air Force pilot who retired to teach school and farm. My mother was a full-time homemaker who was recognized as the Utah Mother of the Year in 1996.
Evie and I both graduated from Sky View High School and Utah State University where I earned a degree in
economics. Upon graduation, I joined the United States Air Force where I was the Distinguished Graduate (top of my class) in both Officer Training School and Undergraduate Pilot Training.
I served for fourteen years as a pilot in the Air Force, flying both rescue helicopters and the B-1B bomber. On June 3, 1995, I led two B-1s on a nonstop flight around the world, setting three world speed records in the process, including the fastest non-stop flight around the world.
I am also president and CEO of The Shipley Group. Shipley is nationally recognized for their consulting expertise in energy, as well as government anti-terrorism training and corporate security and executive preparedness consulting. During the time that I have been at the helm of the company, Shipley has increased its sales and profitability many times over.
I am a best-selling author whose books have been published in six different countries. Seven Miracles that Saved America was awarded the National Communications Award by the Freedom Foundation at Valley Forge. My
latest book, The Miracle of Freedom: Seven Tipping Points that Saved the World, was a New York Times bestseller
within two weeks of publication. My other books include The Great & Terrible series and A Christmas Bell for Anya, which I co-authored with my wife and which was performed at the 2005 Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert.
I have appeared many times on national television and radio programs. I have been a guest on Glenn Beck’s Fox television program multiple times, commenting on matters of history and current affairs. I have also appeared on CNN and have been interviewed by Laura Ingraham, Michael Medved, and G. Gordon Liddy, and many others. I have been a guest editorialist for the
Detroit Free Press, among other publications, writing about national security and military affairs.
In my spare time, my family and I love rock climbing, rappelling, and hiking through some of our state’s most remote places.
Please share your top three priorities, be specific (Include proposals you intend to make or will support)
1. Restore Fiscal Discipline
The first thing we must do is we must restore Fiscal Discipline to our Nation. There are a few vital steps we must take to do this.
First, we must pass a balanced budget amendment that focuses on cutting expenditures while capping federal spending to no more than 18% of GDP. If Congress won’t move a Cut, Cap and Balance Amendment forward, we should begin the process of working a Constitutional Amendment through the states and force it upon Congress.
Next, we must address entitlements. Anyone who suggests we can fix our fiscal crisis without addressing entitlements is not being truthful. Here are the facts: entitlement spending (Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and other mandatory programs) already consumes 66% of our federal spending. Financing promised entitlement spending will require doubling the marginal tax rates for all income brackets over the next 30 years.
We must enact Social Security Reform if we want to survive. We can do that by:
·
Not jeopardizing the future of American retirees. My plan will preserve the existing Social Security program for those 55 or older.
·
Creating Personal Savings Plans that would allow workers under 55 to invest
one third their Social Security tax into personal retirement accounts.
These private accounts would allow future generations to be independent of the government when they reach retirement age. They also have the added benefit of being owned and controlled by the individual and not the government.
·
Redefining Social Security back to its original intent – a true insurance plan to
guarantee against poverty in old age. To accomplish this, we must begin means testing Social Security benefits to those who really need it.
·
Using a more accurate Cost of Living Adjustment formula to figure future COLA increases instead of the current system, which overstates inflation.
·
Implementing a more reasonable retirement age that reflects the dramatic increases in the
life expectancy we have experienced since Social Security was first created.
We must also enact Real Medicare Reform.
By implementing free market reforms, the cost of Medicare can be contained while Americans are assured they will have access to quality medical coverage when they enter retirement age. To do this we must:
·
Never jeopardize the medical future of American retirees. My plan will protect those
Americans 55 or older by preserving the existing Medicare program.
·
Repeal the unsustainable spending incorporated in Obamacare.
·
Allow individual states the freedom to innovate and experiment with Medicare programs
through federal block grants.
·
Allow free market competition to drive cost down by transitioning Medicare from a
defined-benefit entitlement system. This can be accomplished by providing future retirees (those currently under 55) with a federal contribution that they can use to purchase Medicare’s premium-based plan or one of other private health care plans. This payment will be risk adjusted so those with greater medical needs receive a higher payment.
2. Revitalize our economy
Our economy is unquestionable burdened and if we want our economy to grow there are a few steps that are critical for our nation. We must simplify our tax code and incentivize small businesses.
We also must relax the regulations that are crushing small business. And we must return Utah’s lands back to the state.
The Tax Code
The current tax code is unjustifiably complex and unfair. It is designed to benefit those who have the money to pay lawyers and accountants and to disadvantage those who are trying to play by the rules. Worst of all, it has the enormously divisive element of not requiring a fair distribution of the burden. Will Rogers once said, “Any government that robs Peter to pay Paul will always have Paul’s vote.” This is the situation we find ourselves in now. To remedy this, we need to implement real tax reform
that will:
·
Reduce the power of the IRS by allowing taxpayers to complete their taxes on a postcard if they so choose.
·
Create a new code consisting of just three rates: 10%, 15% and 25%
1. 10% for incomes less than $35,000
(single). Recognizing that it is a burden to have and raise children we would broaden the 10% tax rate to married couples earning up to $50,000.
2. 15% for incomes between $35,000-$75,000 (single). Again, recognizing that it is a burden to raise children, we would broaden the 15% tax rate to married couples earning between
$50,000-$100,000.
3. 25% for incomes above $75,000
($100,000 single).
·
Allow tax deductions only for home mortgages and charitable giving.
·
If they choose, taxpayers can stay with the existing tax structure.
·
Protect the working poor through a $2,000 (individual) and $3,500 (married) tax credit.
·
Implement a straight 15% corporate tax.
These reforms would allow for average tax revenues of approximately 18.5% of GDP, (our historical average) while greatly reducing the power of the IRS.
More, the economy would experience enormous growth as we eliminate distortions and inefficiencies that occur through tax avoidance.
The Regulatory Burden
Explosive government spending and regulations have taken us away from our Founding Father’s vision of the role of the federal government. Stimulus spending, bailouts for Wall Street, local education, AMTRAK, farm subsidies, medical research, alternative energy development, transportation programs… the list of federal spending programs that can be cut goes on and on.
We need to examine every line of federal spending to ensure that it falls within the Constitutional limitations envisioned by our founding fathers. Rather than voting on omnibus spending bills, where Congress lumps all federal programs into one massive bill, Congress should be required to pass spending bills on an agency by agency basis, thus effecting an actual review of agency spending.
We should also examine all federal regulations.
In 2009 the Code of Federal Regulations totaled 163,333 pages. One hundred and sixty-thousand pages of rules and regulations that strangle business, distort decision making, instill resentment and fear into the populace, slow down economic growth, empower bureaucrats in Washington and intrude upon our lives.
Since taking office, President Obama has added tens of thousands of pages more to the Code. None of these regulations have passed the scrutiny of the voters or the direct blessing of Congress.
We need to control and eliminate these federal regulations. To do that, we should implement a five-year Sunset Rule, during which time we review every rule and regulation. Those that can pass Congressional muster should be kept. Those that don’t pass a vote in Congress should be automatically eliminated at the end of the fifth year.
De-Federalization of Utah Public Lands
Why are huge tracks of Utah owned and controlled by the federal government? Some say 67% of Utah is federal lands. Some say the number is closer to 75%. The truth is, no one knows, because the government isn’t even capable of conducting an accurate inventory of their holdings, let alone effectively administering such vast swaths of lands.
We are losing hundreds of millions of dollars in energy royalties while allowing bureaucrats in Washington to dictate what happens in our own backyard.
Many of these public lands could be – and should be – controlled and administered by the state. If they choose, states should be allowed to sell these de-federalized lands to private entities.
We, the people of Utah, are capable of protecting our own backyard from abuse or exploitation. We are capable of protecting the true wilderness that we love – indeed, the reasons that many of us have chosen to live here – without cutting off so many of our lands to multiple use.
De-federalizing public lands is vital to a coherent energy strategy.
It will lead to greater energy independence, an issue that is critical to our national security.
And at a time when the rising cost of energy is devastating middle-class families, our leaders in Washington DC are making it more and more difficult to develop energy on public lands. Over the last two years, oil development on federal lands is down 13%, while natural gas development is down 10%. This is a direct result of President Obama’s unwillingness to allow drilling on public lands.
I am the CEO of a company that works extensively with independent energy producers. I understand how difficult it is to get a drilling permit on federal lands. It is painfully slow, incoherently arbitrary, and always expensive. Worst of all, at the end of the process, an environmental finding is often thrown under the heavy hands of the courts.
But if we allow our states to have more control over this process, we can open up more of our lands to multiple uses. This will lead to significant increases in revenue to state coffers, most of which will be spent on education. More important, we will become more energy independent. And by increasing our supply of energy, we will drive the cost down.
3. Secure our borders and Ensure our Mutual Defense
Secure our Borders
Controlling our borders is one of the fundamental responsibilities of the federal government, a responsibility in which they have failed. Because of this failure, illegal immigration has become a national security threat. It is also extraordinarily expensive, costing tens of millions in health care and education costs.
There is also a moral argument to border enforcement in that it is fundamentally unfair to those who are waiting, sometimes for years, for the chance to enter our country legally.
The answer to the problem of illegal immigration is fairly straightforward.
·
Enforce the security of our borders by all means necessary
·
Enforce current laws by prosecuting those who are involved with identity theft, Social
Security fraud, and other criminal activities.
·
Reducethe economic incentive to enter our country illegally by instituting an E-Verify program. This will also ensure that employers know who they are hiring, fulfilling their responsibility to the security of the nation as well as to their other employees.
·
Never allow a pathway for citizenship for anyone who has entered the country illegally. Require those who have entered the country illegally to return to their country of origin and go through the legal immigration process before they are allowed citizenship.
·
Do not allow local communities to aid and abet illegal behavior by providing sanctuary to illegal immigrants. Cut off all federal law enforcement funds to sanctuary cities.
Ensure our Mutual Defense
It is the fundamental responsibility of the federal government to provide for our mutual defense. And though national security is not foremost on many people’s minds right now, sometime in the near future we will face a national security crisis again. Insurgents are gaining power in Iraq and Afghanistan. Iran is on the verge of a nuclear weapon. Pakistan is unreliable and sitting on a nuclear arsenal. Hostilities are growing in many corners of the world. History assures us that another security crisis will come. When it does, it is absolutely essential that we be prepared. We must keep our military strong. We must provide our troops with the tools that they need to succeed.
But that doesn’t mean the military shouldn’t be exposed to the same scrutiny that the rest of the government will face. By
closing overseas bases and streamlining operations, the military can sustain some reductions in spending without hurting national security.
What cause will you champion?
We must restore fiscal discipline to our Nation.
According to economic estimates, sometime our debt to GDP ration will equal that of the country of Greece. We can not allow our country to reach that point.
We must restore fiscal discipline to our government if we hope to leave a country for our children and grand children
What has been your most fulfilling civic service?
The most rewarding service I have had the opportunity to perform was servicing our country in the Armed Forces as a Pilot and Officer in the United States Air Force.
Where
can voters learn more about you?
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