Greetings,
With the upcoming primary elections on August 24th, I would like to take the opportunity to examine the issues between this year's two GOP congressional front runners, Keith Stern and Paul Beaudry. You will see that while both candidates are front runners in the public eye, only one of the candidates addresses the issues and only one candidate has the plans and solutions to save America. Please do not take me on my word, but rather call up both candidates and ask them what their plans are, please vote on the issues, rather than the traditional stump speeches.
Keith Stern:
Phone: (802) 384 - 4873 Email: keith@VermontGetStern.org Website: VermontGetStern.org
Paul Beaudry:
No phone number on website, email is: paulbeaudry62@gmail.com Website: beaudryforcongress.org
Health Care:
Keith Stern: Create an independent & private centralized billing and collecting company combined with effective tort reform (minimizing the need for expensive malpractice insurance.) These two plans, along with the safe importation of prescription drugs and other small measures will significantly cut the cost of healthcare, which will reduce the cost of health care insurance.
Paul Beaudry: Remove federally funded and federally controlled Medicare putting a burden on cash strapped states to come up with the extra funds. Also it would make it a hardship for all seniors and anyone else already in the current system.
Income Tax Reform:
Keith Stern: Propose an exemption on the first $75,000 of income earned per person and $10,000 of investment income per family, having a flat tax imposed on all income above that. This plan has far reaching benefits, both for the Americans and for the government. It will eliminate the need for most Americans to file a 1040, and will not penalize anyone for making more income, allowing for more money to flow, help small business owners, and stimulate the economy. It will cut the cost of managing the IRS dramatically. In addition it eliminates many loopholes that highly wealthy individuals and corporations use to skirt paying the taxes that they are required to pay. This is a plan similar to that which Steven Forbes purposed in 96' & 00'. This also includes making all corporations making a profit here to pay income tax at a rate based on percentage of the labor being performed by American workers. This will help keep jobs here and bring jobs back from other countries.
Paul Beaudry: Won’t allow for new taxes - a far cry from actively campaigning for reduced taxation or elimination of taxes. Also has no known "plan" to reduce government spending, other than generally "wanting to do it".
Environmental Concerns:
Keith Stern: Plans to completely use nuclear material from nuclear energy that would otherwise be sitting in a storage tank, and reduce the use of heavy metals and chemicals that are destroying our environment. Push for stricter emission laws on power plants. Move to use the established flex-fuel engines that would run on ethanol (e-85), provided by sugar beet and other very efficient plants and other starch rich sources, other than corn. This will allow grain and food prices to remain stable, while providing an alternative fuel that is renewable. This also reduces our need to be reliant on fossil fuel and eliminates the need for paying farmers not to grow crops. This will give New England farmers profitable crops to grow and create jobs refining the fuel locally.
Paul Beaudry: Only known "support" is to push for energy self sufficiency which is good, but falls short of specificity and actively protecting the environment.
Term Limits:
Keith Stern: Self-imposed 2 term limit which allows Keith to get back to the state that he loves. Also he will be leaving before the 6 year threshold for getting the congressional pension.
Paul Beaudry: Self-imposed 6 term limit, which is long enough for him to become inundated into the political realm, and also allows him to receive a pension along with a military pension after his time in office.
Social Security:
Keith Stern: By eliminating the cap on the FICA tax it would allow everyone to pay the same rate regardless of income, meaning that the high income earners don't escape having to pay. Also this will eventually allow for the tax to be reduced to 4-5%, because everyone will be paying it, not just low income families.
Paul Beaudry: No definite plan; he first said that he wanted the federal government to end the Social Security and Medicare plans and let the cash strapped states assume the burden. Since making this announcement at several debates, Beaudry has reversed his decision, proving he will say anything to get elected.
Other issues that have not been addressed by Beaudry but have been addressed by Stern:
1. Education Reform
2. Judicial Review
3. Road Safety
4. Protecting Small Businesses
5. Step Toward World Peace
6. Re-evaluation of Drug Policy
7. Consumer Protection
8. Child Mentoring
Issues that both Candidate Agree on:
1. Jobs
2. Immigration
3. Supporting and honoring obligations to Veterans
4. Smaller Government
5. Both pro- constitution & pro- gun rights
If you plan on supporting a Republican candidate please support one who is not going to tear the GOP down. In short, while Paul Beaudry may speak pretty words, thanks in part to his many years on state wide radio, all he does is "support" a limited number of issues and say that issues are common sense, without supplying any plan on how to effectively change such policies. If you ask both Republican and Democratic candidates, of course they support increase in jobs, of course they approve of affordable healthcare, of course they want lower taxes; this is the political game, to approve and support. However you need to do more than support an issue, Keith Stern, unlike Paul Beaudry, has plans ready to create bills in Congress Please do not elect another supporter, but elect someone with the guts and plans to help Vermont, and help America. Please vote for Keith Stern.
