• Closing the Keystone XL Pipeline, costing the US 900,000 barrels of domestic oil production per dayⁱ
• Throwing open (essentially) our Southern border imposing a cost on Georgia of more than $2 billion per yearⁱⁱ in services to illegal immigrants
• $1,400 “stimulus” checks, even a billion-dollars-worth to prison inmates, including the Boston Marathon bomberⁱⁱⁱ
• Vaccine mandates imposed on businesses, causing staffing shortages and/or necessitating higher wages, in industries vital to our health and the supply of goods in the marketplace.^iv
• Deficit spending, hanging by a thread of getting much worse should the Build Back Better debacle garner another vote or two.

Every time we purchase food or fuel we notice the 40-year high rate of inflated prices; 7.5 percent as of this writing. This costs the typical American household $250 per month.^v Most of us don’t appreciate have $4,000 zapped from our budgets, savings, or investments in a year.

As the battle for Ukraine forges on, inflation could shift into overdrive, especially with an administration unwilling to re-institute our Trump-earned energy independence.

“Inflation is taxation without legislation,” according to Milton Friedman, Nobel Prize winning economist of decades ago.^vi Quantity of money relative to output – meaning productivity — fuels inflation, Friedman taught us.

Squandering our energy independence^vii combined with curbing productivity by discharging workers for refusing the COVID vaccine, and providing stimulus checks and free rent to make employment unnecessary stirs into the cocktail of inflation.

The final ingredient is government overspending. Deficits are then addressed through printing money or borrowing, each of which shrinks the value of the dollar.

Stopping or reversing the terrible policies of the Biden administration is key to taming inflation without having to face higher interest rates dictated by Federal Reserve monetary policy, or a move for wage and price controls.

REFERENCES

i https://www.cnsnews.com/blog/craig-bannister/manchin-keystone-pipeline-could-bring-us-900k-barrels-day-surpassing-bidens-1

ii https://www.fairus.org/sites/default/files/2017-08/USCostStudy_2010.pdf

iii https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/budgets-deficits/nearly-1-billion-in-stimulus-funds-sent-to-prisoners-in-2021-terrorists-and-perverts-got-1-400-checks

iv https://www.heritage.org/government-regulation/commentary/bidens-reckless-vaccine-mandate-risks-severe-economic-dislocation

v https://fee.org/articles/inflation-is-costing-households-250month-moody-s-analysis-finds/

vi https://youtu.be/B_nGEj8wIP0

vii https://www.forbes.com/sites/rrapier/2021/11/14/is-the-us-energy-independent/?sh=6751e7cc1387

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To the extent a member of Congress has a bully pulpit, I’ll use mine to fight crime.

Assuming Congress stays within its Constitutional boundaries, law and order within Georgia is a matter for the governor, state legislature, local prosecutors and law enforcement – with but few exceptions.

Securing our southern border would slow the flow of illegal narcotics and sex trafficking into Georgia, while also reducing the presence of violent felons entering our neighborhoods. There are various Homeland Security measures, such as e-Verify or whatever is necessary to fight bioterrorism, I support.

Former Attorney General William Barr recently explained actions his department took during his first tenure in the Justice Department, serving under President George H.W. Bush, to curb crime throughout the U.S.[1]

The crime rate in the US in 1991 was almost five times the rate it had been in 1960, according to Barr. He described a “revolving door” criminal justice environment in many major cities, which is now a lot worse.

“We used our federal laws,” Barr explained, “to incapacitate the most violent (criminals), working with the locals, but we also pushed the states to reform their systems. For 22 years from that point forward — if you look at a chart of crime in the US — it hit a stone wall in 1992 and it went down for 22 consecutive years; it was cut in half.

“It only started going up again,” Barr added, “under Obama when people started going back to the revolving door system of justice and demonizing the police.”

Washington’s role, especially anything Congress can do legislatively, is limited. My outcry against anarchy, however, will be loud and clear.

Allowing criminals to go unpunished is not a remedy for perceived disadvantage in upbringing, education, or socio-economic status. The lawlessness in some of our major cities must never be allowed to erupt in Georgia’s 7^th District.

Public safety is the first obligation of government. Much of law enforcement is outside the scope of the United States Congress, but I’ll be right alongside you fighting any effort to defund police, decriminalize violent acts, or bypass prosecution.

Keeping our streets safe and our citizens protected is the first obligation of government. Even when my role in government may not be central to this critical issue, I’ll add my voice to yours in preserving and protecting our most vital freedom; living in safety.

[1] https://youtu.be/HP_Sh9Te3-Y?t=324

Our Founding Fathers meant exactly what they wrote in the Second Amendment; that the “right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.” The language is clear and absolute.

Mark will fight all liberal legislation that attempts to remove our 2nd Amendment rights. The Democrats are currently attempting extreme gun confiscation laws around the country. As crime has exploded, you have the right to protect your property and family. We cannot allow unconstitutional legislation to stand.

• Supports National Concealed Carry Reciprocity
• Opposes unconstitutional “red flag” laws.

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“Give me liberty or give me death.”

The echoes of Patrick Henry’s statement is the soundtrack of America.

Almost 250 years later, this sweet melody grows increasingly muffled by one overly burdensome regulation after another, executive order upon executive order, or mandate after mandate.

FREEDOM FIRST!

Without our God-given right to freedom, nothing else matters. A quarter millennia ago, it was of such importance some brave men pledged to its attainment their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor. We should do no less.

The practical application of this is to allow Americans to run their own lives.

• No mask mandates.
• No strong-armed tactics to force vaccination or any other medical procedure.
• No shuttering small businesses while larger, politically connected enterprises remain open reaping a windfall from reduced competition.
• Recognize that both freedom to assemble and freedom of religion mean government can never close a church.
• The right to bear arms shall never be infringed.
• Social media companies recognize freedom of speech or forfeit their Section 230 protection.
• We’ll drive petroleum-powered vehicles if we desire, and the free market will determine if/when alternatives are viable.
• Capitalism is the greatest economic engine the world has ever known, and we won’t sacrifice fair competition to either socialism or cronyism.[1]
• Our private property is and will forever remain our private property and no initiative of the United Nations will ever change that.[2]

Let our government know that:

• We’re not sheep.
• We’re not subjects.
• We’re citizens of a country with government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

FREEDOM FIRST!

[1] https://www.capitalism.org/capitalism/capitalism/

[2] https://sdgs.un.org/2030agenda