This is an archive of a past election.
See http://www.smartvoter.org/pa/state/ for current information.
Lehigh, Northampton, Montgomery, Berks Counties, PA November 2, 2010 Election
Smart Voter Political Philosophy for Jake Towne

Candidate for
US Representative; District 15

[photo]
This information is provided by the candidate

Jobs

Governments do not create jobs, only people do. To cure the unemployment problem, all that must be done is to stop the government interventions that discourage employment with harmful tax, labor, and regulatory laws in the first place. The only barrier preventing our society from succeeding in fixing the unemployment problem is the separation of the state's harmful interventions from the economy.

The typical, dime-a-dozen schemes by career politicians primarily consist of resorting to the printing press or market interventions such as "jobs programs." We must always remember that GOVERNMENT HAS NOTHING + it must create the dollars out of thin air or tax someone else to be able to distribute out funds in the first place!

http://towneforcongress.com/platform-issues/jobs/

Bailouts & Corporatism

The government should not be issuing special favors to any corporation for any reason, as to do so the government must first steal from someone else. When government hands out taxpayer money to select groups, they have the advantage of using it first + paying higher wages, creating jobs that have less economic benefit to society, and investing or leveraging money to the detriment of their competition.

The bailouts and stimulus plans served to benefit the government's favorite corporations at the expense of every individual in America. By creating more future debt, the government has worsened the present imbalances and placed our next generations into bondage. Whether it is the military-industrial complex, Big Oil, Big Pharm, Big Ag, or the financial firms who bankroll their Establishment politicians into power, the crony corporatism and revolving door between the Treasury Department, the FED and Wall Street must end.

We must realize that much of the government-sponsored regulations put in place for "safety" or "fair trade" merely serve to increase bureaucracy, which increases the end cost to the consumer, prevents competition from smaller firms, and creates a higher barrier of entry for new businesses.

Free enterprise + never to be confused with government-sponsored corporatism + is the most just, most humane, and most prosperous economic system the world has ever known. As Congressman, I will never award special favors or bailouts to corporations and bankers.

http://towneforcongress.com/platform-issues/bailouts-and-corporatism/

Congressional Accountability

Perhaps the most important responsibility of a congress is accountability which is why I present a novel-yet-simple idea called "Our Open Office." Offering you the ability to have a public voice in the government, to debate, comment, and criticize on every House floor bill. You can submit new bills, summon me to an "On-Demand" town hall, and read my monthly reports where I will be accountable to you and inform you not only HOW I voted but more importantly WHY I voted. This idea is described here: http://towneforcongress.com/platform-issues/our-open-office-plank

Besides this, I am offering what is most sorely needed in Congress + an independent voice that is not subject to the whims and commands of the Republican & Democrat parties with their special interests. As a true independent with no party, I do not accept corporate PAC or lobbyist money.

Veterans

It is the duty of Congress to provide care for any physical or psychological damage veterans have suffered while defending our country. Service members shoulder a heavy burden when they volunteer to risk their lives for our country. They perform a necessary function in our society and for their service veterans receive deserved benefits and gratitude. However, the greatest way to honor them is to keep them out of unnecessary conflict. The only just war is one carried out in self-defense, as a non-aggressor, and as a last resort.

It's important that we have a strong military to deter attacks against the our country and protect it when attacked. However, asking our young men and women to participate in unjust war is a moral abyss that we as a country should never leap into. If we aspire to be a just nation ruled by laws we must resolve to never ask our military men and women to engage in unconstitutional warfare and nation-building missions.

http://towneforcongress.com/platform-issues/our-veterans/

Foreign Policy

Iraq + Without a declaration of war, the Iraq War is an unconstitutional and illegal war as it conflicts with the Constitution, the supreme law of the land. In dereliction of their duty and oaths of office, the House voted down by unanimous vote a motion in committee to follow the Constitution and declare war in H.R.J. 114, the bill that authorized President Bush to invade in March 2003.

http://towneforcongress.com/platform-issues/iraq-war/

Afghanistan + I will not approve spending to extend this unconstitutional war of aggression against Afghanistan and Pakistan. As Congressman, I will drive for a rapid immediate and orderly withdrawal from Afghanistan and redeployment to protect America's sieve-like borders. I support increasing the reward for the capture of Osama Bin Laden forty times from $27 million to over $1 billion. I favor the use of constitutional Letters of Marque and Reprisal to address the threat of rogue enemies by granting special warrants and bounties for marked terrorists to be brought to justice.

http://towneforcongress.com/platform-issues/afghanistan-war/

Terrorism + Addressing the threat of suicide terrorism by the use of occupational, conventional armies has only worsened the situation at the extreme cost of hundreds of billions of dollars and thousands of lives. To defeat suicide terrorists one must capture the current generation and prevent the next generation from being created from collateral damage and blowback. Our armies in Iraq and Afghanistan are creating more future terrorists and aggression against our country. Letters of Marque and Reprisal would be extremely cost-effective + or we can choose to let the "War on Terror" grind on for another 9 years as our economy crashes. The annual $1+ trillion military spending is not economically sustainable. Sound Money

Sound money is the hallmark of a prosperous society, yet the US dollar is not backed by anything. Sound money not only imposes fiscal discipline upon government, impeding reckless federal spending and imprudent warfare, but it also provides a stable unit of account, store of value, and medium of exchange for entrepreneurs, businesses, and individuals.

When the Federal Reserve inflates or deflates the money supply, there is no net benefit to society whatsoever. Obviously, the key to prosperity does not lie in running a printing press endlessly, like Zimbabwe, and it defies logic that America's prosperity would increase if every American helped deflate the money supply by burning a $100 bill.

Inflation and deflation are simply methods to redistribute wealth. It is easy to see that inflation benefits debtors and hurts savers on fixed incomes, like many retirees. Conversely, deflation benefits savers and hurts debtors. However, there is no net gain. In large part due to the burden of the $13 trillion dollar debt, the American government chooses inflation to avoid insolvency. We must return the money power from the central bankers to the people.

http://towneforcongress.com/platform-issues/sound-money-and-jobs/

Income Tax

The federal income tax is an unnecessary and immoral tax. I am in favor of abolishing the federal income tax and eventually the entire IRS. YOUR income from YOUR labor belongs to you and no one else, especially the government, has the right to steal it from you. If we cut federal spending back to the size it was in 2005, we would eliminate the need for the income tax altogether.

The federal income tax code is time-consuming, confusing and baffling for many Americans. The code itself now consists of 3.4 million words and if printed would fill 7,500 pages and regulations together were 66,498 pages long in 2006. The taxpayer's 1040 instructions are 161 pages long. Americans spent 6.4 Billion hours filing their taxes in 2006.

America's "Tax Army" employs more people (1.2 million) than we have armed forces stationed in the United States (0.9 million). Collecting taxes is a completely non-value added task, adding nothing to our economy. Some of our brightest minds + lawyers, accountants, and computer experts + pound away at keyboards trying to figure out either how to plunder more money from others or find loops in the tax code to "save costs" for their clients. The total cost of collecting taxes is estimated at $63 billion, ironically just $4 Billion short of funding general government and law enforcement! The IRS employs 91,000 and will spend $11.6 Billion in 2009 collecting taxes.

http://towneforcongress.com/platform-issues/income-tax/

Next Page: Position Paper 1

Candidate Page || Feedback to Candidate || This Contest
November 2010 Home (Ballot Lookup) || About Smart Voter


The League of Women Voters does not support or oppose any candidate or political party.
Created from information supplied by the candidate: September 21, 2010 20:10
Smart Voter   <http://www.smartvoter.org/>
Copyright © League of Women Voters of California Education Fund   http://ca.lwv.org