| Fellow Kansans, our system is broke. Our government no longer works for us. We work for it. It's time that we the people take back our government and exercise our sovereign right to govern ourselves. This doesn't start in Washington, DC. It starts in our own back yard. The tail has wagged the dog for far too long. Constitutional republics such as ours simply cannot run on autopilot. You and I have the power to kick the government out of our bedroom and out of our boardroom, and we can do it. This won't be accomplished overnight, nor will it be accomplished with radical measures. It can, and it WILL be accomplished through common sense approaches that have stood the test of time. I invite you to examine my position statements below. You may not agree with them, but you will know where I stand. As your representative, I will not lead by opinion poll. I am a statesmen, not a politician. You identify the problems, and I will propose the solutions. If you don't agree, don't vote for me. But when you walk out of the voting booth, you will KNOW why you pulled the lever, which is probably more than I can say for a vote cast for my opponent(s). Immigration Policy: We need sensible immigration reform. While the federal government scrambles to implement ineffective and costly solutions to our open and lawless borders, we here in Kansas can provide real solutions. The answer is simple: punish employers of illegal aliens with harsh penalties, and they will begin to realize that it's not worth the cost savings they are reaping by this illegal activity. No jobs means no money, and the illegals will find their way home the way they found their way here. They may then seek lawful entry into our nation, through the front door rather than the back. The drinking age: It is absolutely ludicrous that we don't allow legal adults to drink alcohol. We have service men and women stationed around the world in harms way, armed with deadly weapons, who can't come home and enjoy a beer. We allow these same young men and women to choose our President, get married, start families, own property, and act as an adult in every other way. It's time we end this nonsense and allow them to have a beer. Casino Gambling: The state finally realized that we're losing a fortune to Missouri's casinos. Now we need a constitutional change to allow the new casinos to be privately owned. The state has no business running a casino. Coal fired electric plants: We as citizens are responsible for the energy problems we face. We need to conserve as much as possible, and allow the free market to respond to the demand for alternative energy, and it is. In the meantime, we don't need to endure rolling blackouts and economic problems in the name of symbolic and ineffective government energy policy. The coal fired electric plants in Western Kansas should be built according to plan. Annexation laws: Citizens of townships should be allowed to decide whether or not they wish to be annexed. Abortion: While abortion is indeed a deplorable alternative to family planning, sometimes it is necessary for medical and other reasons. The choice to have an abortion should be confidential, and between a family, the family's physician and clergy, up until the point at which a fetus becomes viable outside the womb. Drug policy: We need to legalize marijuana, especially for medicinal use. This drug is far less destructive than alcohol, it is not physically addictive, and nobody has ever died from an overdose. It makes no sense to fine and imprison peaceful users of marijuana who have sovereign right over their own bodies and are harming no one else. We also need wholesale drug law reform to address the reality that prohibition has never worked and never will work. Public Schools: Our public schools continue to receive more and more funding, but the results never seem to change. The problems with the public school system stem from the fact that they are government run and leave parents no choice. Parents also need to take a more active role in their childrens' lives and rely less on the school system to raise them. Until these things happen, we can continue to throw more money at the system until the walls are lined with gold, but nothing else will change. We taxpayers are on the hook to the tune of over $10,000.00 per pupil in the Shawnee Mission Public High Schools. A good private school would cost us half that. I favor a tax credit for any Kansan who home schools or sends his children to private schools, and I would like more fiscal accountability from our public schools. Gun Laws: Kansas needs full reciprocity with other states' concealed carry permits. Furthermore, Kansas' Concealed Carry permit should be a Concealed Weapons Permit much like Florida's. It makes no sense to license a person to carry a handgun but not a Taser or a knife. The 2nd amendment of the U.S. Constitution, along with the Kansas constitution, both recognize the individual right to self defense and protection from tyranny by allowing its law abiding citizens the right to keep and bear arms. I fully support all lawful gun owners' rights. With the ever increasing threat of terrorism, pit bull attacks and school shootings, we need more of our law abiding citizenry armed, not fewer. In decision after decision, U.S. courts have held that personal safety is the responsibility of each of us, not the police. Taxation: Kansas should abolish its income tax. Many other states, such as Nevada, Texas, and Florida have no income tax and their governments function as well as any other. Income tax is unnecessarily intrusive, complex, and burdensome. I favor an overall reduction in taxes, coupled with cuts in wasteful government spending. The economy: The government is the root cause of most economic problems. After the government has caused an economic problem, it offers the solution. The solution frequently causes more problems, to which there are more government solutions. This perpetual cycle creates dependency and inefficiency. There are theoretically an infinite number of productive jobs, most of which should be created by the private sector. Minimum wage: This hurts the poor more than it helps. We cannot legislate supply and demand. Simple economics dictates that if the price goes up, the demand goes down. If a business owner employs two people at $5.00 per hour, and the minimum wage is raised to $10.00 per hour, he almost always has to eliminate one of them rather than raise his prices accordingly. Health care: Some regulation of the healthcare industry will always be necessary; however we need to move more in the direction of a free market system rather than a socialized system. Socialized medicine is a disaster waiting to happen, and medicaid is already going broke as it is. I support tax incentives such as Medical Savings Accounts and allowing Kansans' the right to purchase drugs from foreign countries to help bring down the cost of health care. We are paying many times more for our medications than the rest of the world simply because the drug companies can get away with it Smoking Bans: I am not in favor of forcing a private business to allow smoking any more than I am in favor of forcing it to not allow smoking. This is not a smoker's rights issue; it's a private property rights issue. Bars and Restaurants are private property, and people express informed consent to whatever is legally taking place inside the establishment when they walk in the front door. No person has an inherent right to be in any business; nor does he have the right to dictate what goes on within anyone else's business. Motorcycle Helmet Laws: Laws should exist to protect us from fraud and bodily harm by another, not from ourselves. The decision to accept risk belongs solely to the individual. The declaration of independence grants us the right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness". If one person's happiness is riding a motorcycle with or without a helmet, he has the liberty to do so. He also has the liberty to sky dive, scuba dive, operate a private plane, race stock cars, drink alcohol, and become obese - all of which are costing us far more than helmetless motorcycle riders. Eminent Domain: Eminent Domain abuse has gone on far too long and needs to be put to a stop. We need a constitutional amendment preventing the taking of land from one private property owner and giving it to another simply because he can generate more tax revenue. Private property rights are the cornerstone of a free society and must be respected. Kansas Public Employee Retirement System (KPERS): Kansas' public servants deserve a good pension. KPERS cost of living adjustments have been too few and far between. Many of our public employees, such as firefighters and police officers have risked their lives for us their entire career; the least we can do for them is provide a fair and equitable retirement. No Child Left Behind: This program has been an abysmal failure and it is time for the states to assert their rights and develop their own standards of measurement. The federal government has no constitutional authority to interfere in any part of education. This is a function of each state; the federal government simply dangles a carrot in front of the states in order to make them conform. The carrot in this case is our own money. I call for Kansas to establish its own metrics and reject this unfunded mandate. |
Where Jason Stands on the Issues
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