Issues

As your Congressman, I will be Long Island's bulldog and will stand up and fight for you and your family every day in our local community and in Washington DC.  Here are five key areas of importance to me and the residents of the 1st Congressional District.  I am passionate about these issues, which are at the core of my campaign.

1. Reducing Long Island's Unreasonably High Cost of Living

Long Islanders are among the highest taxed in the country, resulting in a mass exodus of young families, year after year, and making it impossible for many of our seniors to remain here at home, after they retire on fixed incomes.

As a middle-class husband and father of two young daughters, I understand the challenges you face everyday.  High property taxes, ever increasing gas and fuel prices, and the cost of providing health care and a quality education for your children must be addressed in a more pro-active way in order to effect positive change.  I will spend everyday, as your Congressman, making that change happen.  The time to improve the quality of your life and the life of our community is now.

I am against the liberal taxing and spending ways of Congress, which has cost Long Islanders our hard earned money.  We must permanently extend the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 in order to protect our hard working, middle class families.  Additionally, Congress must immediately pass a moratorium on all earmarks.  I will work on your behalf, in Washington, to change the mindset of Congressional members that continually hand out your hard earned money to support the pandering of their own constituents.

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2. Strengthening Our National Defense

Nothing concerns me more then watching liberal members of Congress play politics with our successes in Iraq by calling for immediate withdrawal, disregarding the danger to our nation in pulling out indiscriminately, despite the fact the surge is working.  What is popular, as trends change, is not always practical or the right course of action.  Winning elections during an unpopular war is more important to some in Washington than protecting our security and liberty.  That is simply un-American.

As a military veteran who served on the ground in Iraq in the summer of 2006, I have gained a first-hand perspective of our nation's continuing fight against radical Islamic terrorism.  Our enemy is unlike any other we have ever faced.  To combat this evil, we must bring fresh ideas and take on a lean-forward approach.

Unlike my opponent, I will vote to fund our troops with the equipment and supplies they need to be successful while deployed.  My opponent will not, as a means to gain political leverage.

I am pro-victory.  There is plenty of time to debate whether we should have gone into Iraq in the first place, but the fact is that we are there now.  I have extensive experience in the Middle East, unlike my opponent, and I know indisputably that the surge is working under the leadership of General David Petraeus.

We all want the war to end in Iraq and our troops to come home.  For the sake of our nation’s security and for the sacrifices of the men and women who serve everyday with distinction, I will never vote for surrender to an enemy who would stop at nothing to destroy our way of life.

Our nation must not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon, and must employ every diplomatic tool at our disposal to ensure this never happens.

We must continue to disrupt and destroy the command and communication networks of terrorist groups like Al Qaeda.

America must also continue to recruit brave young men and women to serve in our Armed Forces.  They alone selflessly dedicate their lives to the protection of the freedoms we enjoy and firmly stand on the tip of our nation’s diplomatic spear.

Locally, Eastern Long Island is uniquely positioned to make an immediate impact in enhancing our national security.  I can’t think of a better symbol of Long Island’s commitment to our country than the 106th Rescue Wing at Gabreski Field in Westhampton Beach.  This unit executes our nation's most important mission, dedicated to the moral obligation of rescuing our downed aircrews and operators behind enemy lines.  When they're not rescuing service members, they are out patrolling the Atlantic for rescues in extreme weather conditions.  Part of our efforts, on behalf of the United States Military, will begin by providing the 106th Rescue Wing with increased manpower and uncompromising support for their mission.  We will ensure they have the best tools available to carry out their invaluable and dangerous duties.

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3. Securing Our Borders

We must seal our borders, and immediately deport illegal aliens who continue to commit crimes.

Rewarding criminal activity only serves to undermine the very principles upon which our civil society was formed.  As an attorney, former prosecutor and Military Magistrate, I am shocked by anyone who would accept anything less than the enforcement of the rule of law.  It is simply unfair to suggest that those who immigrate to our country legally, follow the path toward obtaining citizenship, pay taxes and obey our laws, should somehow be told that illegal aliens get to skip the line ahead of them.

Unlike my opponent, I am against hiring halls.

We should celebrate the hardworking businessmen and women of our community who obey the law.  We must punish employers who hire illegal aliens and fail to pay the required taxes.

In these uncertain times, keeping track of those who come into our country is paramount to homeland security.  Too often, terrorists with intent to harm us have used government-issued identification, like driver's licenses, to carry out their attacks.  We cannot afford to make these mistakes again, and by providing criminals with driver’s licenses, we would allow ourselves to be vulnerable to attacks.  Unlike my opponent, within hours of Governor Eliot Spitzer’s proposal to give driver’s licenses to illegal aliens, I was on record voicing my strong opposition.

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4. Supporting Our Senior Citizens

The energy, zeal and creativity driving our campaign began decades ago with the folks that conquered tyranny abroad and returned home to Long Island to create the modern suburbs, live the American dream and provide unlimited potential for their children.  Our "Greatest Generation" now deserves the opportunity to retire at home on Long Island, after spending their entire lives raising their families here and building our local economy.

In addition to the measures I will take to improve our high cost of living, we must address the high cost of health care as well, an issue of utmost concern, especially to our Seniors.

First and foremost, we need to work on reducing the outlandish costs of prescription drugs.  Our founding fathers guaranteed life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  Access to good health care is an important component to these inalienable rights.

My focus in addressing my commitment is three-fold:

• We need to give the Secretary of Health and Human Services the ability to negotiate the cost of prescription drugs;
• He/She should also have the ability to limit which drugs to approve for federally funded disbursement; and
• We should allow FDA-approved drugs from outside the country, in order to give everyone better access to the coverage that they deserve.

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5. Better Assisting our Military Veterans

In Congress, there is a need for more veterans fighting for veterans.

I will take an active approach to provide our returning warriors who have both physical and psychological wounds, the best health care and services we can provide.  As a veteran myself, I will always fight for the needs of our bravest men and women, who put their lives on the line to protect and guarantee our freedom and liberties.

It is entirely unacceptable that disability claims are at an all-time high; soldiers are returning from combat with undiagnosed and untreated signs of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder; veterans make up more than 1/4 of our nation's homeless; and wait times at VA clinics throughout our nation are unacceptably too long.

We must ensure that the mistakes of Walter Reed are never repeated.  Nothing bothers me more then when our leaders in Congress engage in Washington's age-old “Monday morning quarterbacking,” focused solely on placing blame, while our heroes languish with sub par care. This old way of doing business won’t cut it anymore.  I will work tirelessly to confront the ways of Washington bureaucrats and effect real change for our veterans.

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LONG ISLAND’S FUTURE BEGINS NOW…