Rick on the Issues

Iraq:
We need to leave Iraq and refocus on the war on Terror. It is time for the Iraqis people to take charge of their own country, their own government and their own future in the world community. It is time to bring our soldiers home as heroes, they have accomplished their mission.
We are paying $12,000,000,000.00 dollars a month for a poorly planned and poorly executed war. The sooner we leave, the sooner the Iraqis will be held responsible for their own country. We can do better.
 

War on Terror:
The war on terror has been forgotten, Osama bin Laden has been forgotten. Attention has to be refocused on Al-Qaeda and capturing Osama bin Laden.
Countries with actual Weapons of Mass Destruction need to be focused on like Pakistan and North Korea, before they go over the brink. We can do better.
    

    
Education:
No Child Left Behind (NCLB) needs to be left behind. Our children’s education should be decided on by our parents, our neighbors, our teachers and our school boards not by some bureaucrat in Washington D.C.
Accountability is a good buzz word and people need to be held accountable, but our children need to be prepared for life and not taught to a test. We can do better.
 

Budget:
We need to quit spending our grandchildren’s money. We need a balanced budget. We need to quit borrowing money from China, and start paying down our national debt. We can do better.
 

Environment:
We need to leave our neighborhoods, our communities, our municipalities, our counties, our state, our country and our world better than when we got it. Our children deserve no less than our best effort. We are only here for a short time and we are only caretakers for the future. We can do better.
 

Jobs:
We need to quit shipping jobs overseas. Free trade is good but fair trade is better. Trade agreements need to be reciprocal and shouldn’t give an unfair advantage to either trade partner. Industries shouldn’t need incentives to stay here, and policy shouldn’t make it profitable to send jobs overseas. We can do better.
 

Energy:
We need to work towards energy independence for many reasons. We need to tap into natural gas reserves here in the 5th district and lead the United States away from the Middle East. We need to find alternative uses for our largest renewable resource- timber. We need to lead the alternative energy field and bring jobs to the 5th district. We can do better.
 

Health Care:
We need to work through a private/ public partnership towards covering all Americans with health insurance. We need to work towards affordable prescriptions for all Americans. Health Insurance and prescription costs are out of control and affecting all of us. It is unacceptable as a nation to pay some of the highest costs and have some of the poorest results. Even the French health care system is rated higher than the United States. We can do better.
 

Right to privacy:
Freedom and Privacy are inalienable rights which are the fabric this country was founded on. We must protect all of our freedoms and still keep ourselves safe. Our identities need to be protected with the same vigor as our country. Nobody that steals our identity or invades our privacy should be given amnesty. We can do better.
 

Economic Development and Rural Development:
We need to focus on family sustaining jobs. Our communities rely on jobs; jobs are the foundation Community Development is built on. Jobs keep people from leaving. Our children can’t continue to leave the 5th district for employment elsewhere. Parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters should be able to stay in the communities of their choosing and not travel halfway across the country or the world to support themselves. It’s important for kids to see their grandparents. We can do better.
 

Second Amendment:
To keep and bear arms is a right we must fight to defend. A well armed militia is as good a deterrent to crime and terrorism as anything the government can come up with through Homeland Security. We can do better