Issues
Leadership
On his first day in office, Bob Vander Plaats will issue the Foundation Proclamation affirming Iowa’s commitment to traditional marriage and moving to restore the appropriate separation of powers between the judicial, executive and legislative branches of state government.
He’ll show leadership that past administrations have either been unwilling or unable to provide to reform Iowa’s tax and regulatory structures so we finally open Iowa for business. That includes easing the property tax burden on Iowa’s businesses so they’re able to create more quality jobs. He’ll also move to end government’s discredited practice of picking winners and losers, and instead create a level playing field for all businesses to flourish.
Bob Vander Plaats has a history of fiscal integrity and authentically balanced budgets during his time in turning around a nonprofit organization that was facing the bleak possibility of closing. He’s a true fiscal conservative who will break the pattern of current and past governors who promise to curb spending only to give us bigger and bigger state budgets and higher taxes. He’ll rely on his front-line experience in education, health care and human services to lead a major retrenchment of government programs.
Bob Vander Plaats has never been one to walk away from a life. As governor, he’ll lead a culture that champions and celebrates life from conception to natural death. He’ll also lead a state that recognizes the foundation of our culture is the traditional family. He won’t be a governor who ‘nibbles at the margins.’ He’ll be a transformational governor.
In the realm of leadership, Bob Vander Plaats is:
· FOR a stay on same-sex marriages until the General Assembly rewrites state law or Iowans are allowed to vote on the definition of marriage as one man and one woman.
· FOR standing up to the courts when judges overstep their legal bounds and redefine state law from the bench.
· FOR standing up for Iowa’s rights under the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
· FOR legal immigration and welcoming with open arms those who come to Iowa via the proper channels and seek to become productive, law-abiding citizens.
· FOR strict accountability and high fines for business and industry employing illegal aliens.
· FOR English as the official language.
· FOR a ban on government assistance to anyone who is in the state illegally.
· FOR aggressively addressing the $900 million shortfall created by Chet Culver and legislative Democrats.
· FOR repaying as soon as possible the massive long-term debt that Culver and legislative created to generate short-term gains in their misguided I-JOBS program.
· AGAINST saddling current and future Iowans with additional debt.
· FOR zero-based budgeting before programs are funded.
· FOR lean-process management of state resources, focusing on results, transparency, the expectation of more services with fewer dollars and threading service delivery with excellence.
· FOR ending Chet Culver’s practice of using one-time revenues to pay for ongoing expenses, which currently sees 13 cents of every dollar in the ongoing state budget relying on income such as the federal government’s stimulus package.
· FOR limiting the scope of state government.
· FOR seeking advice on improving government productivity from Iowa’s top business executives, entrepreneurs, nonprofit leaders and government innovators.
· AGAINST paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to out-of-state government efficiency consultants.
· FOR hiring department directors and other top state officials with stellar character, exceptional competency and solid team chemistry who understand that their job is to serve constituents rather than be served by taxpayers.
· FOR defining marriage as the union between one man and one woman.
· FOR protecting the words “Under God” in the pledge of allegiance.
· FOR the right to display the Ten Commandments.
· AGAINST restoring voting rights to felons without proper process.
· FOR the death penalty in the case of pre-meditated murder and multiple felonies that, when combined, result in death.
· FOR a state “shall carry” law that protects Iowans’ Second Amendment rights so they are not subject to the current arbitrary, county-by-county process in which sheriffs can deny gun permits to law-abiding citizens.
· FOR mandatory prison sentence for producers of meth.
· FOR tougher penalties for drug violations involving firearms.
· AGAINST expanded gambling.
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