Issues

Here are my positions on some key issues:

Energy: “As gas prices surge, many say, ‘Drill here, drill now.' I am for anything responsible that will bring down prices, whether it's more drilling or less speculation. But everyone should know that we are drilling more now. The number of drilling permits grew by 360% between 1999 and 2007. Over the last four years, the government issued 28,776 permits to drill, roughly 10,000 of which remain unused. On-shore, 47.5 million acres of federal land are under lease, but only 13 million acres are producing oil or gas. Off-shore, 44 million acres are under lease, but only 10.5 million acres are in production. If the 68 million acres leased but not used were put in production, it would help close the gap. I voted to open 8.3 million acres to drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico , and more recently voted to tell the companies sitting on their leases, ‘use it or lose it.' We need to drill more, but we also need to invest more. We need far more funds for alternative fuels across a broad range – ethanol, biomass, clean coal, nuclear, wind, and solar.”

Iraq: “I have traveled to Iraq four times and always come home proud of our troops. They have trained 150 Iraqi battalions and 200,000 Iraqi police, and have begun to drive the insurgents out of Baghdad , Anbar, and Mosul . President Bush has said that ‘our troops will stand down as soon as their troops stand up.' After more than five years, it is time to do just that – time for us to start standing down and for Iraqis to start standing up, and being responsible for their own country.”

Jobs. "Every American deserves a good job and the chance to earn his own way. We should protect American workers by curbing illegal imports and opening foreign markets to American goods."

Health Care: “We have to move step-by-step until we close the gap and secure every American access to affordable medical care. One easy step is the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which covers children in working families without medical insurance. I helped create CHIP and am working to expand it to all eligible children. In the meanwhile, South Carolina is passing up millions for children's health care because of the state's unwillingness to match 20% of the cost.”

Budget: “I was one of four in Congress who hammered out the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. By the year 2000, the budget was $236 billion in surplus. But within four years, the budget was in deficit again, $413 billion in the red. I believe that balancing the budget should be job one, so as chair of the Budget Committee, I presented a plan that moves the budget to balance by 2012, and steered the plan to passage through both houses of Congress.”

Education: “A good education is a precious gift, one we owe all our children. It should begin early and on a strong foundation of classroom teachers, so that in grades 1 through 4, no class has more than 18 students. And it should mean that college is as accessible as high school. That's why I put the College Access Act in our budget. It boosts the value of Pell Grants, cuts interest rates by half on need-based loans (from 6.8% to 3.4%), and ensures that student borrowers will not have to spend more than 15% of their discretionary income on loan repayments.”

Social Security: “We do not have to destroy Social Security to save it. When the retirement trust fund was about to run dry in 1983, President Reagan created a bipartisan commission. The commission worked out a plan to which every stakeholder contributed. That plan ensured the solvency of Social Security for 60 years, through at least 2042. Another broad-based commission could do the same. Private accounts do not have to be excluded, but they should be user-friendly, tax-favored saving accounts that are a supplement to Social Security and not carved from it.”

Immigration: "Immigration reform has to include more staff and resources for enforcement. This was the most glaring shortcoming in Representative Sensenbrenner's bill. The bill stiffened penalties, but provided little for the enforcement of those penalties. By the same token, immigration reform needs to include not amnesty and not citizenship, but some sort of temporary worker program, but it has to provide for its proper administration and enforcement. The immigration service is woefully understaffed, and unable to handle this huge responsibility, and no reform will work without a substantial increase in staffing at the immigration service, border patrol, and customs." Click here to see some of John Spratt's votes to secure the border.

Taxes: “The tax code is full of deductions, credits, preferences, and exemptions, and long overdue a closet cleaning. We need to broaden the tax base and lower tax rates, as we did in the Tax Reform Act of 1986.” Click here to see some of the tax cuts John Spratt has voted for.