The Balance Party

1. The Balance Party Lucas Hepp Steve Seifried Rachel Rodden Julie Primavera

2. Gay Marriage • The Balance Party believes that gay rights should stay how they are as a state issue. • Why? • The institution of marriage has traditionally been defined as between a man and a woman • Allowing gay couples to wed will further weaken the institution of marriage • Gay marriage could potentially lead down a "slippery slope" giving people in polygamous, incestuous, bestial, and other nontraditional relationships the right to marry • People should not have their tax dollars used to support something they believe is wrong • According to a July 31, 2003 statement from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and approved by Pope John Paul II, marriage "was established by the Creator with its own nature, essential properties and purpose • Gay marriage is incompatible with the beliefs, sacred texts, and traditions of many religious groups

3. Energy • The Balance Party would like to provide sources of renewable energy like solar, algae, and wind. We would also like to provide sources of non-renewable energy in order to keep energy efficient and better for the environment while at the same time making it so that we still have plenty of energy to provide under all conditions. • Why Renewable Energy? • Renewable source of energy such as solar produce clean energy that does not pollute the environment. This is because no burning is required during usage of the energy • Renewable energy are available everywhere throughout the world thus there is no chance of the sources becoming depleted in future. For example, solar energy is everywhere as the sun will always be there every day • Maintenance is cheap • Solar energy can be trapped easily and used for domestic needs • Renewable sources of energy boost economic growth and increase job opportunities. This includes electrical energy, which is used to run many industries • Why Non-Renewable Energy? • Most nonrenewable sources of energy are easy to transport from one area to another. For example petroleum oils which can be transported via pipes • Cost of producing nonrenewable energy is low since they are naturally available, so they are cheap to transform from one form of energy to another • Most of this energy sources are abundantly available in different areas. Their availability is not affected by climatic condition

4. Abortion • The Balance Party believes that abortion should be a national issue. Abortion should only be allowed in the cases of rape, incest, and life endangerment. This should be the law for the whole United States. Abortion is murder, and murder is illegal. • Why? • Babies are humans from the moment of conception. • Abortion is killing a human which defies a commandment from God. The Sixth Commandment of the Bible's Old Testament (Exodus 20:13) is "Thou shalt not kill." • According to Kanwaljeet J. S. Anand, MBBS, DPhil, Professor at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Fetuses feel pain during the abortion procedure. • The original text of the Hippocratic Oath, traditionally taken by doctors when swearing to practice medicine ethically, forbids abortions. • Women should use contraceptives before to protect themselves from unwanted pregnancy. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study showed that 19-25% of women who received abortions in 2006 had previously had one or more abortions • Abortions providers are in the business for money rather than to help the clients. Abortion for Profit," Abort73.com, Oct. 15, 2009

5. Education • The Balance Party thinks that education is a very important issue. We believe that every child should be able to get the best education that they can. We support charter schools and vouchers. We will try and reduce teacher tenure because it makes the process of firing too extensive. Banks should cut back on student loans, not completely but a little. Education should be in the hands of the parents, teachers, and schools. Government should have little involvement. • Why? • Tenure makes it difficult to fire teachers because the process takes months of long out legal wrangling. In 2009, a study by the New Teacher Project found that 81% of school administrators knew a poor performing tenured teacher and 86% of those schools did nothing about it because of the costly and time consuming process. • Student loan debt is crippling for college graduates. So many students have so much debt and they will try and pay it off for a long time. • College graduates make more money and have better employment opportunities. • Charter schools provide families with public school choice options. Parents will have the ability to choose the school best suited for their child. http://blogcritics.org/the-pros-and-cons-of-charter/ • Charter schools tend to "create a community hub," according to the Center for Education Reform. They can bring together students and parents from all different backgrounds in a safe educational setting in many violence- and poverty-stricken urban and rural neighborhoods where they operate

6. Immigration • The Balance Party supports immigration into the United States. America is a melting pot for all cultures. While we support immigration, The Balance Party believes that illegal immigration should be strictly enforced. We want to stop illegal immigration into the United States as much as we can. There should be fences along every border shared with another country and guards patrolling the borders at every moment. • Why? • Fences along the border will make it difficult for illegal immigrants to get into our country. • Illegal immigrants take jobs away from Americans and lower the minimum wage. • "Illegal immigration costs U.S. taxpayers about $113 billion a year at the federal, state and local level. The annual outlay that illegal aliens cost U.S. taxpayers is an average amount per native-headed household of $1,117. Education for the children of illegal aliens constitutes the single largest cost to taxpayers, at an annual price tag of nearly $52 billion. Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) • More immigration opens more opportunity for terrorism, drug dealers, and criminals to come to the country.

7. Health Care • The Balance Party thinks that no one should be forced into buying insurance, and we also plan on getting rid of Obama Care. • Why? • - Over 45 million people in the U.S. (15.4% of the population) did not have medical insurance in 2008. • - Notice that this statistic says “people” and not “citizens.” This census could easily contain illegal aliens • - Also, many people who are covered by medicare, a government run health care program that covers 45 million citizens, may have said they do not have insurance because they don’t have private insurance. • - Nowhere in the constitution does it state that a person has a right to health care • - The U.S. already puts more money per capita into health care than any other nation in the World Health Organization, yet it is only ranked #31 in life expectancy. • - So, the problem isn’t how much money we spend on the capita, it is how it is spent • - While some argue that allowing the government to get involved in America’s industry will improve the quality of health care, it will only make things worse like other government operated departments such as the DMV. • - If someone shows up to a hospital that needs to be treated, they are covered by US law to be covered medically • - They will have to pay taxes until it is paid off, but they will not be refused care that is necessary for them to live • - If everyone is covered by health care there will be far more visits when they are truly not needed • - If someone has medical insurance they can go to the doctor, but if they don’t it makes them think twice before going because it will cost them a lot of money. It will keep people from going unless they truly need the care

8. Affirmative Action • The Balance Party believes that offering opportunities to people based on their color or gender is counterproductive and taking opportunities from people who may be more qualified, so there are no restrictions on gender or race. But, if a company is reported or has an overwhelming number of male/female ratio or white/minority ratio it will be looked into. • Why? • It will only hurt companies if we force them to hire women or minorities who are generally less qualified than another white male. • Accepting people or presenting opportunities based on race is racist in it’s own way. The only way to make society truly color blind is to eliminate race from the picture and present opportunities strictly based on merit and achievements

9. National Debt • The Balance Party’s solution to stop national debt is to stop borrowing money by creating a balanced budget. • How? • cut our government’s spending • stop giving foreign financial aid to countries that don’t need it or deserve it and then borrow the money back. • By not giving financial aid to well off nations we help ourselves by reducing our debt and stabilizing our budget

10. Business Regulation • The Balance Party wants to lower the corporate income tax down to about 15% • Why? • To bring back the U.S companies that began outsourcing and we could bring in other companies from other nations to the U.S. • It will have the potential of bringing in a lot more jobs to the nation and that means more capital that can circulate in the U.S economy.

11. Economy • The Balance Party proposes that we cut money equally across all departments and bring people back into the work force. • Why? • It makes it more appealing to companies to stay and grow instead of moving production to other countries and when companies grow so do their work forces creating more jobs and bringing more money into the federal government’s budget • We also plan on improving the economy by cutting federal income taxes on people and having every citizen pay a flat tax rate 7-10%. • Why? • This will give the American citizens more money in their pockets allowing them to spend more on consumer goods increasing production for companies. When companies have to increase production then they have to hire more people to work creating more jobs.