This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Oct. 28, 2010 - My name is Robyn Hamlin and I am the Republican candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in Missouri's 1st District. Would you agree with me that we have been sending the wrong people to Washington, supposed representatives who do not represent our best interests, those who do not offer solutions to problems they sometimes created?
Priority One: Create Jobs
Get people back to work now! One in eight Americans is on food stamps. I know we can change this and I know how. Unlike President Barack Obama I believe that job creation is best carried out through the private sector, which has always responded favorably to tax cuts and to a government that moves out of the way of business. Obama wants to use the public sector to create jobs. How do I know that his approach is incorrect? Employment is at 9.3 percent and growing. Here I would insert Einstein's definition of insanity - to keep doing the same thing with the belief that it will bring different results.
Priority Two: Prevent America's Bankruptcy
Stop the wild spending! The annual budget for the federal government includes a 37 percent interest charge. We are living on borrowed money. This will catch up to us. The Government Accounting Office says that unless the economy takes a drastic turnaround, by the year 2054, the national debt will be four times the size of the Gross Domestic Product or $52 trillion.
Priority Three: Cut Off Funding for Illegal Aliens and Protect our Borders
Do I need to argue for this? Should the people re-elect politicians who want open borders to import cheap labor and/or pick up liberal voters? The people that have suffered the most from the invasion of illegal aliens are African-Americans whose unemployment statistics are twice that of the white community.
Priority Four: Reduce the Size of Government
All federal agencies need to be closely reviewed, both for their function and efficiency. Some must be reduced in size; others scrapped altogether. This also includes a thorough audit of the Federal Reserve. How will this bureaucratic decrease be accomplished? For a responsible bookkeeper this answer is simple - lower income taxes. If the money is not on hand, the government must be smaller, and with that it will become less intrusive.
Final Note: My list of priorities puts me light years away from my Democrat opponent, Rep. Lacy Clay. He is a pawn for the Obama administration and its failed policies. Like many others in control he wants us to rely on the government. What will that mean? I can't say it any more lucidly than our third President, Thomas Jefferson, "Any government that is big enough to give you what you want is big enough to take it away."