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Darrell Issa on Education
"Our future as the freest, most powerful nation on earth depends on providing
a first-class education to our children. The answer is not to simply throw more money
at the problem - we must be smarter in spending it. Our schools must develop rigorous
standards of academic excellence with the expectation that teachers will uphold them
and students will meet them.
While the federal government cannot fix public education, it can play a positive
role in assisting our neighborhood schools to be the best they can be without jeopardizing
their independence. We need to streamline federal education grants by shearing away
the red tape. Schools that choose to apply for federal aid should be free to focus
on the needs of their students, not the whims of Washington educrats.
The Department of Education should promote the use of technology in our schools,
and help ensure our children have a safe environment in which to learn. Ultimately,
of course, the answers lie with the American people themselves, in concerned parents
and teachers working together to make our neighborhood schools the best they can
be.
I am opposed to bilingual education - it is a dead-end that victimizes those it purports
to assist. I am also opposed to having the federal government set education standards
and requiring schools to meet them."
Darrell Issa on Jobs & the Economy
"The federal government should tax us no more than is necessary to carry
out its necessary obligations - any taxation beyond that is unjust and confiscatory.
We've reached that point. The average Californian works nearly three hours every
work day just to pay his or her taxes. That is just plain wrong.
The more government taxes our income away, the more it diminishes the range of choices
we can make for ourselves and our families. Tax hikes erode freedom and opportunity
and endanger future prosperity. A member of Congress must vigilantly guard our pocketbooks
from the federal tax collectors.
I will go to Washington as an advocate for taxpayers. Cutting taxes will stimulate
the economy, and enable Americans to work less and take home more pay. Eliminating
the need for a second income within the family just to pay taxes will allow mothers
who want to stay home with their children to do so. A reduction in payroll taxes
will create jobs. Abolishing the estate tax and indexing the capital gains tax to
inflation will reduce the disincentives to savings and investment created by the
tax-and-spend machinery of Washington.
While reducing taxes, we must reduce the power of those who collect them. Let us
throw out the huge and complex tax code and begin anew with something flatter, fairer
and simpler. No longer should taxpayers be required to run the costly gauntlet of
proving they do not owe taxes; if IRS agents think they have a case, the burden should
be on them to prove it. Innocent until proven guilty - that is the American way.
If overzealous IRS agents cause injury to taxpayers, they should be held civilly
and criminally liable."
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This page first published April 6, 2001 -- last updated April 6, 2001