U.S. Representative, Texas 4th Congressional District
(Editor’s note: Democratic nominee Russell Foster and write-in candidate Tracy Jones did not respond to invitations to participate.)
1. What do you see as the most difficult challenge(s) facing the district, and what solutions do you propose?
No response.
2. What are your legislative priorities for the next Congress?
There’s not a revenue problem in DC, there’s a spending problem. We must get our financial house in order. The best way to do that is support a balanced budget amendment. It nearly passed out to the states a few decades ago and I plan on championing this effort again and bringing it to the forefront of the national debate. I’ll also be filing legislation that withholds federal dollars to cities/states that provide illegal sanctuary for foreign aliens in our nation unlawfully, support term limits, reform our immigration system to make it wholly merit based, repeal Obamacare, protect innocent life, implement zero based budgeting and have national tort reform as well as defunding any university that doesn’t allow Reserve Officer Training (ROTC) on campus.
3. How do you propose to make affordable health care available to as many Americans as possible?
Free markets and competition are the best solution for any industry — including health care. Nationalizing health care, a goal of the Democratic Party and a dream of its Progressive wing, won’t lead to better quality of care nor will it improve access. The Republican Party, as do I, supports ensuring that pre-existing conditions are covered, along with a few other innovative options but largely the best way to continue with the excellent health care provided Americans is to promote competition and allow for market-based solutions.
4. What, if anything, should Congress do to address the concerns of the Black Lives Matter movement?
BLM’s entire premise, that our African American Brothers and Sisters are systematically singled out and treated poorly by law enforcement based on their race, is false. The data proves this beyond a shadow of a doubt. Data gathered by the CDC, the Census Bureau and the FBI prove that Black Americans are actually LESS likely to be harmed by police than any other race. A 2017 Harvard Study concluded that there is no racial bias in Police Shootings. A Study done in 2019 by the National Academy of Science. Less than 200 Blacks are killed by police every year out of 48 million. And, in nearly every instance the police were being shot and/or their life was being threatened. About twice the number of whites are killed by police each year but those shootings don’t seem to interest the media. There are 375 million interactions civilians have with law enforcement annually. 44% of those interactions are with African Americans and nearly all of them end well. Of all police shootings, 32% involve Blacks. This shows that Blacks are actually less likely to encounter deadly force. Bottom line, and this goes for ALL Americans, when interacting with police, comply with their commands! This will keep everyone safer. Your life does matter. So does the officer’s. We’re all created in the image of the Almighty and we all matter.
5. What, if anything, would you change about U.S. foreign policy?
We should never reward the bad behavior of totalitarian regimes. If you subsidize it, you’ll get more of it …. We need to be a good, reliable friend to our allies, oppose our adversaries diplomatically and keep our military the best and strongest in the world.