Congressional Accountability

Before Congress can impose its will on the American people, it must show that it is serious about making the laws it passes apply to themselves.

The use of earmarks to buy votes as add-ons to legislation must be banned. We also must put a stop to the process of Congressmen joining the lobby corps upon retiring from public office.

Roger supports term limits for members of Congress.

Government Spending

Federal spending is out of control! The 2009 budget deficit was more than three times the size of the previous record deficit, an amazing total of $1.42 trillion. The 2010 budget deficit is projected to hit $1.5 trillion.

Congress voted earlier this year to raise our national debt limit by another $1.9 trillion, and has now authorized a grand total of $14.3 trillion in debt. That is more than $40,000 of federal debt for each American with no end in sight.

In February 2010, Moody’s bond rating agency announced that the US government was in danger of losing its AAA bond rating. If the federal government continues down this course of reckless spending, the cost of paying our debt will increase substantially. In 2009, $383 billion was spent on paying interest on the federal debt. Under the President’s budget, that figure will increase by $800 billion by 2020.

Congress must stop its spending binge and govern responsibly. A balanced budget amendment must be enacted which forces Congress to make tough decisions instead of continuing to borrow and spend.

The Dollar

The US Dollar is the global reserve currency. Since President Nixon broke the dollar’s link to gold in August 1971, the threat of massive inflation – as happened in the 1970s – and periodic deflation caused by a floating currency have been the scourge of a sound economy.

The current fiscal and monetary policies pursued by our national government have set the stage for rampant inflation to hit when borrowers no longer purchase US treasuries due to our out-of-control federal spending and massive federal debt, as reflected if the federal government’s bond rating is weakened.

We need a strong and stable dollar to protect the earnings and wealth our citizens have made, particularly for seniors living on a fixed income.

Taxes

A competitive federal tax policy must be preserved and improved. The double taxation of capital funds through capital gains and dividends should be lowered. The 15% capital gains and dividend rates should be lowered, as these types of rate cuts adopted in 1997 and 2003 both resulted in more tax revenue being collected by the federal government.

Reducing the income tax brackets, including the top rate of 35%, would also have an immediate benefit to the national economy.

In addition, the federal corporate tax rate of 35% is second highest in the developed world, behind only Japan’s. As corporate taxes have declined across the globe in the past decade, it is long past time for the US to lower our own corporate tax rate.

Making English Our Official Language

Roger supports making English our official language and conducting all government business in English.

Our language is what unifies us as a people.  Americans come from many ethnicities from all over the world.  Sharing a common language is what binds us together.

According to the U.S. Census, over 47 million Americans do not speak English at home.  Programs like bilingual education divide us as a nation by undermining the bond that holds us together – the English language.

As a state legislator, Roger introduced legislation making English the official language of the state of Wisconsin.  The bill passed the state Assembly in March 2008.

Roger will fight for similar legislation in Washington so we can once again focus on being Americans first.

Health Care

While our country is in need of genuine health care reform, we must repeal and replace ObamaCare and start from scratch in a bipartisan manner. Government takeover of our health care system will only lead to disaster. Before passage of this legislation, federal and state government programs already accounted for nearly half of the $2 trillion spent on health costs.

Medicare and Medicaid already underfund payments to health providers, shifting costs to private payers and artificially inflating the cost of non-government health care. Further expanding the role of government will only exacerbate the pressure on the private sector.

Reforms that unleash free market forces to utilize competition are the solution to the outrageous costs we currently face. Allowing for the open competition of health plans across state lines, enacting national medical malpractice reforms, and making the price of medical procedures transparent and readily available to the public will all help lower costs, as well as increase affordability and accessibility.

Pro-Life

Life must be protected from conception to natural death.

Energy

To allow our nation to become truly independent of foreign energy supplies, our federal government must remove obstacles to the environmentally safe production of domestic energy supplies.
A responsible increase in domestic oil production is a major step in the right direction of energy independence.

The federal government must also encourage the development of clean coal technology, the use of new nuclear technology, the building of new domestic oil refineries, and the continued development of renewable energy sources.

Enacting a “cap and trade” scheme will destroy two million American jobs and increase household energy costs by up to $3,000 per year! Northeast Wisconsin would be hit especially hard as “cap and trade” would negatively impact every industry from paper to dairy farming to manufacturing.

2^nd Amendment Rights

The Constitution guarantees the individual right of all Americans to keep and bear arms. As a hunter, Roger recognizes and embraces that right. As a state legislator, Roger has fought to keep that principle enshrined in law and have twice earned an A rating from the National Rifle Association.

Illegal Immigration

Illegal immigration is a threat to our national security.  We cannot continue to allow unknown people from any national origin to enter our country undocumented or allow visitors to stay after their visas have expired.

The Department of Homeland Security estimates there are at least 11 million illegal aliens living in the United States.  About three-quarters of these arrived here across the southern border with Mexico.  Half of illegal aliens are believed to be Mexican; a further quarter of illegal aliens hail from Central or South America.

In addition to the fiscal cost associated with providing benefits and support services to illegal aliens, those wishing to do harm to our nation’s people and resources can easily be slipping through our borders.  Three of the six Albanian plotters who attempted to attack Fort Dix in 2007 entered the county illegally across the border with Mexico.

The first step of any plan to reduce the flow of illegal aliens into our country is to secure the main point of infiltration, our borders. “Securing the border” must include the use of all resources at our disposal.  Roger advocates:

• Closing the border to illegal immigration immediately by giving the National Guard the ability to enforce laws until additional Border Patrol agents and the technology necessary to secure the border are put into place.
• Declaring that amnesty is not an option.  Unacceptable proposals include the 2005 McCain-Kennedy bill, which would have granted citizenship to those who came here illegally.

We must also address the problem of visitors to our country who overstay their visas.  In 2008 it was estimated that more than one-quarter of the illegal aliens in the United States have entered this country on a valid, temporary visa and simply never returned home.

Four of the 9/11 terrorists, one of those arrested in the New York subway bomb plot, and two of the 1993 World Trade Center conspirators were illegally in the county on visa overstays.

In the interest of national security, we must enact reforms that focus our resources on those who enter our country from countries known to have ties to international terrorism, produce a no-fly list of people who are actually a threat to our country, and improve our exit control process to identify those who have overstayed their visit or work visa.

As a state legislator, Roger has worked to curb illegal immigration in Wisconsin.  He authored legislation allowing the state Department of Corrections to participate in the 287(g) program, which allows prisons to verify with federal immigration officials the citizenship status of inmates prior to their release.

Roger also authored a bill to ban “sanctuary cities” that passed the state Assembly in 2008.  So-called “sanctuary cities” are local governments that direct their police not to ask people detained for criminal activity what their citizenship status is.

Roger realizes that immigrants from across the globe help make this country the greatest in the world.  He fully supports the legal immigration process.

Our government owes it to the citizens of this country to protect their property and their lives.  Roger Roth is a proven leader on this issue and with your help he will represent this district and our values in Congress.

Veterans Issues

Roger believes that we owe those Americans who have served to defend our freedoms and liberty the gratitude they deserve by providing them with quality care, educational programs and support systems upon their return.

Roger has worked hard in the State Assembly to make sure that our veterans receive the benefits they have earned.  Roger has supported the continuation of the state income tax exclusion for all federal uniformed services retirement benefits, the Wisconsin GI Bill which provides tuition assistance for all Wisconsin veterans and the spouses and children of veterans with service connected disabilities along with the continued funding of our state veterans homes in King and Union Grove.

In Congress Roger will continue to be a strong advocate for his fellow veterans.  Roger is committed to providing our veterans with first-class medical care and the educational benefits they have earned by ensuring that VA benefit programs are appropriately funded, working to reduce the backlog of pending VA claims, limiting premiums increases in the TRICARE Health Care program and ensuring that Wisconsin veterans can continue to take advantage of VA home loans (with affordable fixed-rate mortgages).  Roger also supports the National Guard and Reserve Parity for Patriots Act to ensure that every reservist or Guard member who has served on active duty since September 2001 receives the same credit for service in determining eligibility for early receipt of retirement pay.

National Defense

As a Wisconsin Air National Guardsman who has deployed to Iraq three times, Roger brings a unique perspective to the importance, sacrifice, and needs of both our men and women serving in uniform today.

America will continue to be threatened by those who are opposed to the freedoms we enjoy as Americans and by radical Islamic extremists who use terror to achieve political goals.

Roger will fight to ensure America maintains the best fighting force in the world and that our fighting men and women have the weapons systems, equipment, and other support they need to decisively win any engagement they are committed to.

As a combat veteran Roger believes that committing our forces to a conflict is the most important decision a member of Congress can make.  He will vote to authorize the use of force when it is in the best interest of the American people.