Paul Welday has a common sense plan to bring us true energy independence.  He understands that as gas prices spike higher and home utility bills increase, American families are being hit with a tremendous burden.  

The new National Energy Tax (commonly referred to as Cap & Trade Legislation) supported by Nancy Pelosi and Gary Peters will lead to a further increase in the cost of living and further job losses, thereby exacerbating the burden on American families.  The American people deserve better.  

To strengthen America and move us toward true energy independence, Paul Welday supports a fiscally responsible approach to reducing our dependence on foreign oil, providing a cleaner environment, and putting Americans to work by:

• Unlocking known US energy reserves
• Expanding the use of proven types of energy while encouraging development of new, clean types of energy
• Providing incentives to promote energy conservation
• Cutting red tape and reducing frivolous lawsuits

Michigan paid a huge price in terms of jobs and opportunity from the devastating spike to $4 a gallon gas in 2008.  With the news of gas prices slowly rising once again, struggling families and small businesses need to ask: Why do Nancy Pelosi and Gary Peters want to drive costs even higher through a new National Energy Tax?

Paul Welday opposes the Obama-Pelosi-Peters National Energy Tax (Cap-and-Trade Legislation) and knows we can move to a stable, independent energy future by directing the resources currently at our disposal in a common sense direction.  Details of Paul’s plan include:

UNLOCKING KNOWN US ENERGY RESERVES

America has been blessed with an abundance of natural resources, including known, yet untapped, energy reserves.  According to the US Department of Interior, the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) contains up to 86 billion barrels of oil and 420 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.  Unfortunately, sizeable areas of the OCS are unavailable, due to continued delays in leasing activities by the Obama Administration.  Increasing domestic production also requires an environmentally sound opening of the Arctic Coastal Plain. Doing so could provide an additional one million barrels of oil per day.  Additionally, America has been called the “Saudi Arabia of oil shale deposits” with an estimated 1.23 trillion barrels of oil underneath federal land alone.  

The Welday Action Plan calls for:

• Immediately moving forward with leasing programs in those portions of the OCS already open
• Expanding territorial waters to up to twelve miles for resource exploration
• Timely leasing within the Arctic Coastal Plain
• Codifying the oil shale leasing program and restoring leases halted in February 2009
• Providing states with a reasonable share of revenue for energy exploration of their shores

EXPANDING THE USE OF PROVEN TYPES OF ENERGY WHILE ENCOURAGING THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEW, CLEAN TYPES OF ENERGY

To achieve energy independence, all types of energy must be carefully explored and developed.  We cannot afford to allow narrow political agendas to limit our ability to utilize all the energy types within our reach. To achieve these goals we must allow safety, science and good sense to be our guides.

The Welday Action Plan calls for:

• Expanding production of clean, reliable nuclear energy and bringing sufficient new nuclear reactors online to provide one-third of our electricity by 2030
• Providing an accelerated regulatory process for new nuclear applications where: a site is already licensed, an existing design has already been approved, an operator is in good standing, and a full review has been completed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)
• Completing construction of the Yucca Mountain storage facility for spent nuclear fuel
• Providing funds for a Renewable and Alternative Energy Trust Fund to provide funding for further development of energy programs such as biomass, hydroelectric, clean coal, solar, wind, and geothermal.  These funds will be derived from leasing in the Outer  ontinental Shelf and Arctic Coastal Plain
• Repealing the “Section 526” prohibition on government purchasing fuels derived from sources such as oil shale, tar sands, and coal-to-liquid technology
• Establishing permanent tax credits for the production of and investment in renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, fuel cell, diesel, and biodiesel

PROVIDING INCENTIVES TO PROMOTE ENERGY CONSERVATION

Recognizing that every unit of energy saved is one less that is needed, we must embrace and encourage efforts to conserve energy.  Providing incentives will help us to make wise use of the resources entrusted to us.

The Welday Action Plan calls for:

• Encouraging American ingenuity by offering substantial awards for the design and development of economically feasible, super fuel-efficient vehicles that reach heretofore unattainable mileage standards
• Providing tax credits for energy efficient homes (new and existing), appliances and commercial buildings

CUTTING RED TAPE AND REDUCING FRIVOLOUS LAWSUITS

We simply cannot afford to allow dilatory obstacles to thwart American energy independence.  We must take immediate steps to permit the market place – not bureaucratic interference or the courtroom – to decide how to achieve our energy goals.  The public interest cannot be ignored, and some semblance of balance must be restored if we are to free ourselves of dependence on foreign energy sources.

The Welday Action Plan calls for:

• Imposing a 60-day deadline on legal challenges while still ensuring legal remedies
• Streamlining and accelerating the refinery permitting process to ensure additional refined oil capacity should the market demand it
• Ending the practice of identifying unnecessary alternative locations for renewable energy projects while ensuring a proper environmental review

Those that suggest “we can’t drill our way to cheap gasoline” are really suggesting that we don’t drill at all.  While drilling alone is not the total answer to our energy needs, we must include all potential sources in our overall march to independence.  We can no longer simply talk about freeing ourselves from our reliance on OPEC.  We must act.  

President Ronald Reagan said that our nation’s future “should not be thwarted by a tiny minority opposed to economic growth.”  He was right then, and he is right now.  He understood what the American people instinctively comprehend: Our country has been blessed with tremendous energy resources, which if utilized properly, will propel future generations.  We all agree that we must be good stewards of our environment, but we must unleash American ingenuity, technology, and hard work to become masters of our own destiny.  

Clearly, the American people deserve it, and common sense demands it.

Nothing is more important than providing a quality education to every child.  It is the foundation of our future and the building block of our economic resurgence.  Education is a shared responsibility with the primary delivery of learning focused at the local level with an emphasis on parental involvement.  While the federal government has an important role to play, Washington is not the place to direct all aspects of education policy in America.

The No Child Left Behind legislation that serves as the primary role of the federal government in K-12 education is an example of the pros and cons of Washington involvement in primary education.  While it has greatly increased much-needed accountability in public education, but it has also created a one-size-fits-all standard that often has educators talk about obligations to “teach to the test.”  The truth is there is a lot to be desired in NCLB and may not be the most appropriate involvement of the federal government into education. 

Under NCLB federal funding for education jumped from $42.2 billion in 2001 to $54.4 billion in 2007. No Child Left Behind received a 40.4% increase from $17.4 billion in 2001 to $24.4 billion. The funding for reading quadrupled from $286 million in 2001 to $1.2 billion.    But a  2008 study from the Department of Education, “Reading First Impact Study: Interim Report,” analyzes the performance of students in 12 states who were in grades one to three during the 2004-5 and 2005-6 school years and concluded that the Reading First Program, a major billion dollar a year NCLB effort, had proven "ineffective."  So needless to say, the jury is still out on the sweeping changes mandated by NCLB and rather that keep going forward into darkness, the Welday Action Plan shifts the focus of federal involvement in education to place priority where it is needed most – reforming math and science learning.

Nothing is more important to our future than to be able to compete with the world in the area of technological advancement that is predicated by a strong math and science educational foundation.  We ignore this reality very much at our own peril.  More than twenty-five years ago the Reagan Administration published “A Nation at Risk” which said “our once unchallenged preeminence in commerce, industry, science, and technological innovation is being overtaken by competitors throughout the world.” It went on to conclude that “what was unimaginable a generation ago has begun to occur – others are matching and surpassing our educational attainments.”

Other nations of the world, such as India and China, understand the importance of math and science education.  Some reports indicate that these two nations have a ten-to-one advantage in engineering graduates over the U.S and pose a very real threat to American national security.   A bi-partisan congressional commission concluded that that the failure of math and science education is a greater threat than any conceivable conventional war in the next 25 years. The Commission went on to assert that only a nuclear or biological weapon going off in an American city was a greater threat. 

Improving math and science education is among the greatest challenges to our continued economic and national security leadership. Without tremendous improvement in math and science learning, America will simply not be able to sustain its national security nor compete for high value jobs in the world market.  . For the last twenty years, we have tried to improve education while accepting the fundamental principles of a failed system, guarded by the education bureaucrats and teachers unions. Now is the time to transform math and science education or fall behind. We owe it to future generations not to let this fundamental area of learning slip further than it already has.
  


The Welday Action Plan for education includes the following principles:

1. Set the bar high by eliminating fifty percent of the education bureaucracy outside the classroom.  Dedicate the savings to financing the improvements in math and science education.
2. Students must have informed, enthusiastic, and confident teachers guiding them in difficult subjects. We therefore need to foster and encourage teacher specialists who have mastered a subject matter, such as engineers and mathematicians. They should be allowed to teach after taking only one course on the fundamentals of teaching. They should be allowed to teach part-time so that more professionals can have the opportunity to share their knowledge and experience in the classroom. Moreover, encourage every state to pass laws establishing an absolute preference for part-time specialists with real knowledge over full-time teachers who do not know the subject. Finally, by the 2008 school year, no one should be allowed to teach math and science that is not competent in the subject matter.
3. Apply the free enterprise system to our education system by introducing competition among schools, administrators, and teachers. Our educators should be paid based on their performance and held accountable based on clear standards with real consequences.
4. Provide zero interest student loans to graduates willing to stay in math and science fields until their incomes reach four times the national average. This would encourage students to stay in these needed fields and continue to pursue knowledge.
5. Encourage the best and brightest high school graduates and fully fund their further education.  Create an America’s Scholars Program to fully fund the undergraduate and graduate education on the physical sciences, math, biosciences, or engineering of the top 1,000 high school seniors each year. These scholarships would be based on academic success and ability to maintain the highest degree of excellence throughout the remainder of their education.
6. Reward and encourage private sector participation in math and science education. Provide tax credits to corporations that fund basic research in science and technology at our nation’s universities.
7. Fully fund IDEA to allow children with disabilities the same opportunity to high quality education as other normally developing children.  Recognize that it is the children, not the adults, who must be the focus of efforts in this important area of instruction.  We must end the red tape, bureaucracy and layer upon layer of supervision that often bogs down special education.  We now have curriculum specialists who consult with curriculum consultants, who work with curriculum supervisors, who manage curriculum department heads, who occasionally meet with teachers. The more we seem to spend on education, the smaller the share we spend on inspiring and rewarding those actually doing the educating.
8. Dramatically increase federal funding for basic science research over the next decade.  There are many fundamental areas of study that only the federal government can undertake.  The Manhattan Project comes to mind.  America must act to rebuild our core strength in basic science research and development so that America can maintain its global position long into the 21st Century. 
   
   We cannot rest on our laurels.  Past achievements in science, technology, and economic growth will disappear if we fail to transform our system of math and science education, make more investments in basic research and meet our obligations those who through no fault of their own need our help most.  Our economic future and a secure world depend upon our ability to create jobs and maintain our way of life depends on our competitiveness with China and India, which in turn, depends on our success in leading the world in math and science education and continuing to be the world leader in innovation.

Paul Welday is committed to a principled and accountable approach to spending hard-working Americans’ taxpayer dollars. Unless we act today, within a generation Americans will face either a crushing tax burden or a federal government that is reduced to little more than Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.  And even these programs are in jeopardy.

As a matter of principle, the American people deserve truth in budgeting and have a right to know how federal dollars are spent. In an effort to reclaim our roots as the party of fiscal discipline and defender of the American taxpayer, the Republican Study Committee is proud to announce a new Taxpayer Bill of Rights.

Paul Welday is committed to the belief that:

1. Taxpayers have a right to have a federal government that does not grow beyond their ability to pay for it.
2. Taxpayers have a right to receive back each dollar that they entrust to the government for their retirement.
3. Taxpayers have a right to expect the government to balance the budget without having their taxes raised.
4. Taxpayers have a right to a simple, fair tax code that they can understand.

Specifically, the Welday Action Plan would include the following specific steps:

• Extend the federal Tax Reductions adopted in 2001 and 2003
• Cut the Payroll Tax by 50%
• Lower the 15% marginal tax rate to 10%, 10% rate down to 5%
• Eliminate the Capital Gains Tax
• Restructure the Alternative Minimum Tax
• Sponsor the FairTax in a House Resolution, bringing the issue to the forefront of the debate regarding tax reform in our nation's capital (visit www.FairTax.org for more info).

The time has long past to take immediate action to eliminate wasteful Washington spending. By any measure the projected rate of growth in federal spending is unsustainable and is a serious threat to the standard of living for the future generations of American families. By 2037, taxes would need to double to pay for the compounded spending if the federal budget is left on auto pilot – and that assumes no additional spending is created!

Just as all of us must make difficult spending choices to secure our family budget, a new approach that forces Washington to establish a reasonable limit to the growth in spending is an essential first step. We must limit federal spending to no more than the growth in nominal GDP. Obviously, there will be times – such as a declaration of war or by a two-thirds vote of Congress – when this limitation could be suspended, but we must re-create a system that will demands less spending and a smaller federal government.

The components of the Welday Action Plan will focus on responsible, stable, commonsense principles:

• Balance the budget by FY 2019 and adoption of a federal balanced budget amendment.
• Cap Medicare spending to the rate of average, projected economic growth (4.2%).
  
• Cap Medicaid spending to the rate of average, projected inflation (1.1%).
  
• Require each congressional committee to find savings equal to one percent of the total mandatory spending under its jurisdiction from spending determined to be wasteful, unnecessary, or lower-priority. 
  
• Establish a minimum two-year moratorium on non-defense congressional earmarks that will apply to every member of Congress and establish firm rules to increase the transparency of designations.
  
• Provide full defense funding no less than the current request, plus necessary funds for overseas operations.
  
• Make real reductions to non-defense discretionary spending (A “zero-growth” baseline for non-defense spending)
  
• Institute a one percent annual reduction to non-defense spending, plus additional savings from lower-priority programs
  
• Prohibit cuts to Veterans’ Affairs spending.
  
• Make NO immediate changes to Social Security, but establish a bipartisan commission to examine the future solvency of the system.
  
• Provide a definition for emergency spending in the budget that will only be permissible under clear emergency circumstances
  

Creating new, private sector jobs and stopping the hemorrhaging of existing jobs is the top priority of the Welday Action Plan. The plan calls for immediate action to put people back to work and includes:

1. Immediate Tax Relief for Working Families:
   
   In addition to a refundable credit based on payroll taxes, the Welday Action Plan proposes reducing the lowest individual marginal tax rates from 15% to 10% and from 10% to 5%. As a result every taxpaying-family in America will see an immediate increase in their income with an average benefit of $500 in tax relief from the drop in the 10% bracket and $1,200 for the drop in the 15% bracket. A married couple filing jointly could save up to $3,200 a year in taxes.
   
   
2. Help for America’s Small Businesses:
   
   Small businesses (those employing less than 500 individuals) employ about half of all Americans, yet they can be subject to tax rates that siphon away one-third or more of their income. The Welday Action Plan for Job Creation proposes to allow small business to take a tax deduction equal to 20% of their income. This will immediately free up funds for small businesses to retain and hire new employees.
   
   
3. No Tax Increases to Pay for Spending:
   
   The stimulus proposal pending in Congress includes record levels of government spending that will substantially increase the current deficit and the long term national debt. Undoubtedly, Gary Peters at the urging of Nancy Pelosi and company will soon be supporting tax increases on American families over and above the new taxes they already support.
   
   Paul Welday will vote against any effort to raise taxes to pay for new spending. He believes that any of the so-called “stimulus” spending should be paid for by reducing other government spending, not raising taxes.
   
   
4. Assistance for the Unemployed:
   
   Incredibly, the Federal Government actually imposes income taxes on an individual receiving unemployment benefits. The Welday Action Plan proposes to make unemployment benefits tax free so that those individuals between jobs can focus on providing for their families. The plan would also extend unemployment benefits from March to December, 2009.
   
   
5. Stabilizing Home Values:
   
   Nothing demonstrates the damage to our economy more than the freefall of home values. The real-estate market is paralyzed as potential buyers wait on the sidelines waiting for prices to fall even further. This is becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy as hard-working families watch their home equity go up in smoke with each passing month. 
   
   Fixing this problem requires more than simply giving a tax credit to first-time homebuyers. We must create incentives to get all qualified buyers back in the market to help increase demand. In order to encourage responsible buyers to enter the market and stabilize prices, the Welday Action Plans calls for a home-buyers credit of $7,500 for those buyers who can make a minimum down payment of 5%.
   

Factories closing, production shipped overseas, mass layoffs, dealer doors slammed shut. Tell the families affected by this wrongheaded strategy that this so-called “restructuring” is a new lease on life. Clearly, the Obama strategy with regard to our domestic auto industry is to “burn the village down in order to save it.” 

In 2008, the domestic auto industry approached the federal government for loan guarantees to help them weather the economic storm much of which was not of their own making. It was an unfortunate, but necessary and appropriate step to take under the circumstances particularly given the unquestioned bailouts to the financial industry. The perfect storm that hit the Detroit Three last year presented a clear and present danger to the viability of our industrial base and it was in everyone’s interest to help the automakers work through the problem.

But consider the cost of this “help” from Washington

Chrysler will close factories in Ohio, Wisconsin, Missouri, and Michigan and move work to Mexico. General Motors is now to shutter factories in locations across the country in order to move the work to China. And as mentioned, Chrysler and GM to drop roughly 1,900 dealerships who represent “Main Street” as much as any business in America. For those affected this is not change they can believe in.

The story we are being told is that all this is designed to save the companies. However, it seems clearer each day that all the Obama-Pelosi-Peters approach will do is save the companies in name only.

Gary Peters has worked to generate a good deal of press coverage on the backs of the auto crisis. Unfortunately, all of his press clippings have done nothing to help the families devastated by the Obama Task Force. Peter’s grandstanding on the issue did nothing to create a reasonable timeframe for Chrysler to avoid bankruptcy. All of Peter’s media interviews did not help the thousands of auto dealers forced to shut their doors. And in spite of his publicity machine, Gary Peters is a by-stander with his own President as General Motors becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of the federal government.

President Obama, along with his team of Nancy Pelosi and Gary Peters, have set their course for a government takeover of much of the domestic auto industry. This unprecedented and unwarranted intrusion in the private sector is likely to end badly for the people of Michigan. Until we change the voices in Congress speaking for the families affected by the federal takeover of Chrysler and General Motors, we will watch an industry that was once the heartbeat of America becomes a shadow of its former self. 

We can do better than that. And for the families of the 9^th District and all America, the change we need will come when we change Congressman in November 2010.

History has shown that as the federal government has gotten more involved with the health care of the American people it has gotten more expensive and less adaptable to modernization. The truth is that the best health care system in the world is the one found in the United States and to nationalize health care is a prescription for disaster. Nevertheless, we must address the need to provide reasonable access to quality care for all Americans. The problem is that health care costs too much and cannot adequately contain costs resulting in annual increases in the double digits.

We can – and must – do better when it comes to providing quality health care to all Americans. The Welday Action Plan address the health care challenge head-on by empowering individuals, not government, to help improve the shortcomings in the system. In fact, the Welday Action Plan aims to turn a challenge into an opportunity and weakness into strength by making health care the economic engine of growth that it can be. 

Health care in the United States must be transformed. But this transformation cannot succeed if becomes even more of a “command-and-control” system based out of bureaucratic offices in Washington, DC. The necessary changes to our health care system will come as we de-centralize the system and put individuals back in charge of their health care futures.  

When individuals are provided accurate and timely information regarding their health care needs and opportunities, how to maintain and improve their health, knowledge as the best practitioners using the latest techniques and an understanding the outcomes, they will make decisions in their best interest. When individuals understand the cost of health care options and outcomes they will act as consumers not just beneficiaries. When people understand their personal responsibility for their own health and are incentivized to do so, they will live healthier lives. When we truly change the way we view health care in America, we will improve outcomes, find people living longer, healthier and improve the quality of life for all. 

With acknowledgement to the Center for Health Transformation, the following strategies must be employed to truly improve health care in the United States:

1. Create information-rich health savings accounts to both incentivize and empower the individual.
2. Create secure electronic health records with expert systems to maximize accuracy, minimize errors, reduce inefficiencies and improve care.
3. Develop a new system of health justice.
4. Create a buyers’ market for pharmaceuticals by building a transparent system for individuals, doctors, and pharmacists of price and efficacy information about prescription drugs and medically appropriate over-the-counter drugs.
5. Create a system and culture of rapid adoption of solutions that result in better outcomes at lower cost for both the public and private sector.
6. Establish an intellectually credible, accurate system for capturing the cost and benefits of better solutions, better technologies and better outcomes in order to create a technically correct model of return on investment for solutions resulting in better outcomes at lower cost.
7. Develop a real-time continuous research database and discover-develop-deliver ability that sets real and achievable goals to minimize some the most debilitating diseases like cancer and diabetes.  
8. Knit together these electronic systems into a virtual public health network for health protection against natural outbreaks and the creation of a strong system of defense against deliberate biological attack.

By implementing strategies that turn health and healthcare from a problem into an opportunity making it the leading creator of high-value jobs and foreign exchange earning for the United States, we can improve a system that is already the world’s quality leader. There is no question that there is much work to do and that it must be done on a bi-partisan basis, but with a commitment to prioritize the health, well-being and quality of life for all Americans we can fashion a health care system that works better than ever before.

The difference is clear. Paul Welday supports the secret ballot. Gary Peters does not. 

Paul Welday opposes the “card check” legislation that would eliminate a worker’s right to make a determination as to whether they wanted to accept union representation by secret ballot. The Card Check legislation has been called the most counterproductive measure that could be enacted, especially during this period of deep economic recession. 

Gary Peters is a strong supporter of Card Check. But that should come as no surprise. His biggest financial supporters are union bosses. 

By way of background, understand that the current method for workers to win recognition of their union in the United States is a sign-up then an election process. In that, a petition or an authorization card with the signatures of at least 30% of the employees requesting a union is submitted to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), who then verifies and orders a secret ballot election. Two exceptions exist. If over 50% of the employees sign an authorization card requesting a union, the employer can voluntarily choose to waive the secret ballot election process and just recognize the union. The other exception is a last resort, which allows the NLRB to order an employer to recognize a union if over 50% have signed cards if the employer has engaged in unfair labor practices that make a fair election unlikely.

Under the so-called Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), if the NLRB verifies that over 50% of the employees signed authorization cards, the secret ballot election is bypassed and a union is automatically formed. Introduced in the U.S. Congress in 2005 and reintroduced in 2007 and 2009, the EFCA provides that the NLRB would recognize the union's role as the official bargaining representative if a majority of employees have authorized that representation via majority sign-up (card check), without requiring a secret ballot election. Under EFCA, if over 30% and less than 50% of employees sign a petition or authorization cards, the NLRB would still order a secret ballot election for union representation. In other words, the current threshold to have a secret ballot election is signatures from 30% of employees. The EFCA would keep that threshold, but make a new threshold of signatures from 50% + 1 of employees to bypass the secret ballot election and automatically be unionized. Therefore a petition signature would have the same weight as a "yes" vote in a secret ballot election.

The reality of the Card Check legislation is that it strips workers of their right to a secret ballot and that it increases intimidation and pressure by union organizers, making it an inaccurate mechanism for determining employee support for unionization. Job creators from across the nation are in agreement that Card Check is a disaster waiting to happen.

As the U.S. Chamber of Commerce says:  

"Under the existing law today, workers have a chance to vote for or against unionization in a private-ballot election that is federally supervised. Under Card Check, if more than 50% of workers at a facility sign a card, the government would have to certify the union, and a private ballot election would be prohibited--even if workers want one. By forcing workers to sign a card in public - instead of vote in private - card check opens the door to intimidation and coercion. Over 70% of voters agree that a private election is better than card check."

The National Restaurant opposes card check for the following reasons:

1. A card-check process increases the risk of coercion. When a union tries to organize a workplace, employees sometimes face intimidation and pressure about how they should vote, from the union, management, or both. The best way to protect employees from coercion is through the continued use of a federally supervised, private-ballot process.
2. Private ballots are a basic American right. The entire American system is based on respect for individual liberty and democracy. If Congress passes this proposal, they will strip away the protections that federally protected, democratic elections provide for American workers.
3. An employee’s decision to join a union should be made in private. Employees should not have to reveal to anyone -- employers or unions -- how they exercise their right to choose whether to organize with their co-workers in a union. Moving to a card-check process rather than a federally supervised election tramples on employee privacy. An employee’s decision to join a union should be made in private, protected from any coercion by unions, employers or co-workers.

As Congressman John Kline (R-MN) said recently in explaining his opposition to the EFCA or Card Check legislation: “It is beyond me how one can possibly claim that a system whereby everyone — your employer, your union organizer, and your co-workers — knows exactly how you vote on the issue of unionization gives an employee 'free choice' ... It seems pretty clear to me that the only way to ensure that a worker is 'free to choose' is to ensure that there's a private ballot, so that no one knows how you voted. I cannot fathom how we were about to sit there today and debate a proposal to take away a worker's democratic right to vote in a secret-ballot election and call it 'Employee Free Choice.”

Congressman Kline has it right. The secret ballot is a right that must not be infringed. Paul Welday will fight for worker’s rights and preserve this fundamental democratic principle by voting NO on Card Check legislation.

US foreign policy is a complicated and multifaceted web of relationships with nations across the globe. Nevertheless, the pillars of our policy must be to protect lives, property and the national interests of US citizens while fostering democracy and freedom throughout the world. We must support our allies and use our influence to persuade others while standing firm against rogue nations that sponsor terrorism and repressive practices.
Among the many foreign policy issues facing the United States none is more pressing than rise of Islamic extremism and its global agenda. The center of this threat sweeps from Pakistan to the Middle East and is exemplified by the continuing bellicosity of the Iranian regime. Our response to these threats must be the central focus of our foreign policy.

At the heart of our foreign policy is our support of our allies such as Israel. Israel is a shining symbol of democracy in the Middle East and we must place the security of this important ally at the top of our agenda. The United States must resist dangerous attempts to link resolution of the Palestinian question to its legitimate security concern regarding the development of Iranian nuclear weapons. The Israeli-Palestinian issue is properly a substantial issue of concern to the United States, but so long as the Iranians continue to use Hezbollah and Hamas as their surrogates to block peace accords, achieving an agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority is much more difficult.

Iranian nuclear ambitions and its extremist agenda is among our highest concerns. Rather than spin our wheels attempt to engage the Iranian regime we must recognize that a nuclear-armed Iran threatens Israel’s very existence, but also destabilizes the entireregion and while posing a direct threat to the national security and interests of the United States.

These threats are not theoretical. They stem directly from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who not only has repeatedly threatened to wipe Israel off the face of the map, he has promised the same fate for all non-Islamic nations.

Yet the longer our efforts focus on establishing a dialogue with the Iranian regime in Tehran, the easier it is for Iran to attain its nuclear weapons goals. Talk is fine if it is premised in achieving realistic goals, but the Iranian regime has used past efforts at negotiation to delay and divide efforts by the United States and our allies to turn Tehran away from nuclear enrichment programs that clearly could be used for nuclear bombs.

In fact, when asked about Iranian uranium enrichment efforts, Adm. Mike Mullen, U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, publicly said recently that Tehran already has enough nuclear material on hand to build at least one weapon. And, because of missile imports from North Korea and its own missile development efforts, Iran has the means to deliver such a weapon.

When President Obama last week offered increased dialogue and a better relationship with Iran, what was Tehran’s reaction? Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the world cannot block "the path of Iran’s nuclear progress." The Iranian mullahs have played this game before and we have yet to learn our lesson. Rather than attempt to engage a rogue regime that has no interest in good faith negotiations, we should expand US sanctions against Tehran and acknowledge legitimate opposition groups in order that they might have an opportunity to make their case to the Iranian people.

March 17 marked the 17th anniversary of the bombing by Iranian proxies of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires that killed 29 and wounded 242. It is but one of hundreds of attacks Iran has made against Israel and the United States in a war Iran seems committed to continue.

Without direct Iranian support, Tehran’s proxies, Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, would be far less formidable foes for Israel. Without Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Iranian weapons, the United States would have suffered hundreds of fewer casualties in Iraq.

The United States should increase the pressure on Iran to end its war upon us and our ally Israel once and for all. Only through additional sanctions and pressure will we see anything resembling cooperation from the mullah regime in Tehran.

The United States is located in the Americas and it is here where significant threats and tremendous opportunities exist.  While the US is an Atlantic and Pacific power and enjoys a global role, it needs to secure its interests as a high priority.  This means continuing the construction of cooperative relations with friendly states like Mexico, Guyana, Brazil and Chile.  The aim of intensifying relations with Latin America would be to secure the neighborhood in which our country is located as issues like immigration and drug trafficking remain.  We need to hold our ground with regional opponents, like Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and the Castro brothers in Cuba, who work to undermine our interests on a regular basis.  While not without its shortcomings, NAFTA should admit additional countries and generate institutions that give it an international presence and coherence.  A common North American labor market would minimize illegal immigration and investment controversies with Mexico and other Latin American nations.

A bedrock of American foreign policy is our ability to ensure national security through economic prosperity.  It is not possible to secure a viable defense force to act against both conventional and terrorist threats without a secure economy underwriting the defense effort.  At present, the United States economy is import dependent, the dollar is weak, the industrial enterprises are dying and the financial system is unstable.  Therefore, essential to our foreign policy is defining our national interest to include the overhaul of the economy and the implantation of a policy of growth and opportunity.  This must entail intensive trade and financial negotiations with China, Russia, the EU and Japan.

At the heart of our security agenda is our ability to reduce America’s dangerous dependence on foreign sources of energy, secure U.S. borders and stop illegal immigration, combat the rising criminal threats in our communities, and give terrorists plotting new attacks no place to hide. 

Threats to the security of Americans are present from a variety of sources. These threats may take the form of internet predators who lurk in cyberspace, thugs who prowl vulnerable neighborhoods, illegal immigrants who take jobs from those in need and terrorists from rogue states across the globe. Our goal must to confront these threats unflinchingly and provide a secure future for our families wherever they exist.

The Welday Plan for National Security begins with common sense solutions that balance the fundamental rights of all Americans with the need to protect our children, seal our borders in a meaningful way and give our troops and intelligence community all the tools they need to fulfill their mission. 

One of the critical steps to achieving real security is to end our dangerous dependence on foreign oil. There are no simple answers to this challenge, and while we should pursue the advancement of energy alternatives, “green” technologies are not the panacea to our energy challenges that some would leave you to believe. We must employ an “all-of-the-above” strategy that encourages the advancement of all forms of energy production if we are to see real progress toward energy independence. 

To protect our children against the growing threat from cybercrime we must thoroughly review existing law and strengthen it where necessary and create new law where needed. We must foster collaborative efforts as we often see on the state and local level with the strength of the federal government. We must promote greater awareness of this threat and proactively encourage families to become aware of the dangers that exist. 

There is no excuse for the United States becoming complacent when it comes to illegal immigration. We are a nation of immigrants – legal immigrants – and it is a cornerstone of our heritage. But illegals have made a mockery of the process. We need encourage legal immigration and make the process safe and predictable for those who want to enter the US by following the rules. But we must strengthen our borders by using state-of-the-art tools and the necessary manpower to protect the integrity of our nation. 

Fighting the war against terror will require us to quit playing politics with our national security. As evidenced by the disgusting display of partisanship over Guantanamo Bay and the interrogation of prisoners we have seen that nothing is off limits to those who put politics above the national interest. 

The Welday Action Plan is clear: The lives of Americans takes priority over the “rights” of those whose sworn purpose it to kill our citizens and destroy our way of life. 

Make no mistake. This is not an endorsement of torture. Nothing of the sort. But it is a call for common sense and restoration of priorities fundamental to protecting American citizens.  

The world is still very much a dangerous place. To fight for a more democratic, stable, and secure world, the Welday Action Plan calls for a security agenda that supports preemptively combating terrorism when necessary preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and isolating rogue nation states through a strong national defense and increased intelligence capabilities. Our nation demands – and our troops deserve – the full support of our federal government and to achieve our goals we call for a bold plan that will promote increased security at home and abroad.

Abortion

Paul Welday is pro-life.  He was endorsed by Right to Life of Michigan PAC in 2008 and was informed that he once again this year meets endorsement criteria for the 9th District Congressional race.

Welday believes that the right to life is an essential and God-given right bestowed on every child at the moment of conception.  As an unalienable right enshrined in our Constitution, our government should respect and protect this right from that moment of conception until natural death.  As a father, Welday is blessed with two wonderful children, Nick and Natalie, and can personally attest to the sanctity of this beautiful gift of life.  As the next Congressman from Michigan’s 9th District, Paul Welday will fight for the most vulnerable in our society – the unborn – and make sure that they too have the chance at life that all of us enjoy.

Traditional Marriage

Paul Welday opposes any attempts to define marriage as anything else other than a commitment between one man and one woman.  Paul believes that it is in the best interests of our nation to preserve the institution of traditional marriage so as to strengthen our society and our families, and will work to defend traditional marriage in Congress.

Second Amendment

As an avid outdoorsman, Paul Welday staunchly supports the right of individuals to bear arms as protected under the Second Amendment to the Constitution.  The right of individuals to protect themselves should not be impeded or restricted by any local, state, or federal government.  Reasonable regulations such as requiring permits and having mandatory waiting periods should be incorporated; however, it is imperative that a free society be able to possess and carry weapons with which to defend itself.