Maryland

Maryland Republicans
by Wendy Rodriguez

           The state of Maryland was named in honor of the wife of a King Charles I by a grateful Cecil Calvert Lord Baltimore whom in 1632 was granted charter for the land as a haven in which his fellow Roman Catholics could escape the restrictions placed on them in England. The states’ nickname is the Free State or Old Fine State, its motto Fatti Maschii, Parole Femine (Manly Deeds, Womanly Words).
           Since 1694 Anapolis has been the Capital of Maryland. Eighty-percent of Maryland’s inhabitants live in areas classified as urban. The heaviest concentration of the population is centered around Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, which contain eighty-three-percent of the states’ population of 4,265,000. Baltimore, the largest city of Maryland was the center of major immigration for Europeans in the nineteenth century.
           Maryland’s economy is based primarily on government service and manufacturing. Department of Defense, installations and several large federal agencies, such as the Bureau of the Census and The Food and Drug Administration are among the largest employers in the state. The city of Baltimore has about one-third of the state’s manufacturing establishments. The largest manufacturing payrolls are in the primary metals, electrical equipment, food products and transportation equipment industries. The wages in Maryland for production workers are slightly above the national average.
           On the economic issue of taxes the Maryland Republican Party is in favor of a fifteen percent tax cut to marginal tax rates. The party feels that such a tax cut should be the first step toward reducing overall tax burdens while promoting the economic growth that will raise family incomes and our overall standard of living. They feel that the government’s failure to maintain the personal and dependent exemption at historic levels has created a burden on family finances, which is why the Republicans have made the $500-per-child family tax credit. Republicans support expansion of IRAs and the establishment of spuosal IRAs to encourage savings and investment. The Republicans also believe that to remove impediments to job creation and economic growth, you must support reducing the top tax rate on capital gains by 50 percent. The proposals making the current tax codes fairer and less burdensome should be viewed as an interim step toward comprehensive tax reform.
           The Republican Party feels that raising tax rates is the wrong way to balance the budget.   Reducing the budget deficit by shrinking government produces a fiscal dividend in stronger growth and lower interest rates. The Republican Party pledges a non-political monetary policy to keep prices stable and maintain public confidence in the value of the dollar.
           On the economic issue of the budget the Republican party feels that a reformation of the entire budget process is part of the solution to the $5 trillion debt along with restraining government spending. Their goal for the nations budget is the enactment of a constitutional amendment to require a balanced budget.
           The goal of the Republican Party for the environmental issues they want to continue the progress made to achieve a cleaner, safer, healthier environment. They use the Superfund   program, which is a program designed to help clean up abandoned toxic waste sites, as an example in which billions of dollars have been spent on litigation and administration, while the toxic waste sites wait to be cleaned up. The party is proposing to fix the broken Superfund law and direct resources to clean up sites here there are real risks. For all environmental problems the Republican Party proposes a common sense approach based on flexibility and consensus that builds a better future on free enterprise, local control, sound science, and technological development. The Republicans advocate conserving animal and plant resources, and want to improve the Endangered Species Act (ESA.), by implementing a program in cooperation with State, local and tribal governments and private individuals to recognize the critical relationship between a healthy environment and a healthy economy.
           The Republican Party believes in upholding the right of all. They are dedicated to strengthening the social, cultural and political ties that bind us as a free people. The Party recognizes the differing views held by its members and feel that this diversity of views is a source of strength. They feel that no one’s rights are negotiable and denounce all who practice or promote racism, anti-Semitism, ethnic prejudice and religious intolerance. According to the Republican Party the only source of equal opportunity for all is equality before the law, they are opposed to discrimination based on sex, race, age creed, or national origin and will enforce anti-discrimination statutes.
           The Republican Party rejects the laws made to protect homosexuals, and endorse the Defense of Marriage Act to prevent state from being forced to recognize same-sex unions. They feel rights inhere in individuals, not in groups. The Republican Party also endorses the Dole-Canady Equal Opportunity Act to end discrimination by the federal government. They also endorse Proposition 209,   which is a California Civil Rights Initiative to restore to law the original meaning os civil rights. It is also the view of the Republican Party that Public Policy respect and accommodate women whether they are full-time homemakers or pursue a career.
           The Republican Party put emphasis on the community integration and inclusion of persons with disabilities, by both personal example and practical enforcement of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and other laws. The party is ensuring to safeguard the interest of disabled individuals in Medicare and Medicaid, and also in federal work force programs. They are also against the non withholding of health care or treatment because of disability, age or infirmity, just as they oppose euthanasia.
           On the social policy of abortion the Republican Party is opposed to abortion; however, their pro-life agenda doesn’t include punitive action against women who have an abortion. They are opposed to using public revenues for abortion and do not fund organizations that advocate it.    The Republican Party salutes those who provide alternatives to abortion and offer adoption services.
           As for the issue of gun control, the Republican Party defends the right to bear arms and wish to restore the efforts of Operation Triggerlock, the Republican initiative to jail any felon caught with a gun, and set minimum mandatory penalties for the use of guns in committing a crime: five years for possession, 10 years for brandishing, and 20 years for discharge.
           The Republican Party sees juvenile crime as one of the most difficult challenges facing our nation. They see the cause of this as a generation of fatherless boys raising the prospects of soaring juvenile crime aided by the un-enforcement of truancy laws. The party also views that juveniles going unsupervised especially at night are most often victims of abuse in our society. To combat these issues, the Republican Party wants to stress accountability and require adult trials for juveniles who commit adult crimes. The Party is also encouraging local jurisdictions to enact programs to address juvenile crime and to consider juvenile nocturnal curfews as a law enforcement tool to help reduce juvenile crime and victimization. The Republican Party feels teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases as another problem being faced by our youth. They feel the best preventive measure is educational initiatives to promote chastity until marriage as the expected standard of behavior. The party is also opposed to school based clinics, which provide referrals, counseling and relate services for contraception and abortion.
           As for education, the Republican Party wants to return its control to parents, teachers, local school boards, communities and local tax payers. In doing so they will abolish the Department of Education and promote family choice at all levels of learning such as providing parents an option of home schooling. The party supports the recognition of English as the nations common language and advocate foreign language training in our schools and the retention of heritage languages in homes and cultural institutions. The Republican Party believes that Governors, State legislators, and local school boards should support requiring public school to dedicate one full day each year to studying the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
            The Republican Party believes in making health care and health insurance more accessible and more affordable. In doing so they wish to: make insurance portable from job to job, crack down on Medicare and Medicaid fraud, allow individuals to set up tax-free Medical Savings Accounts (MSAs), so they can pan for their own medical needs instead of relying on government or insurance companies.
Republicans are determined to protect Medicare, and are ensuring a significant annual expansion in medicare. The party is proposing to allow unprecedented patient choice in Medicare, so that older Americans can select health care arrangements that work best for them, including provider-sponsored organizations offering quality care with strong consumer protections.
           In their crusade to preserve, protect and strengthen Medicare the Republican Party is opposed to the earnings limitations for Social Security benefits. Their common goal is to secure an economic future. They feel public policy should encourage cooperative efforts by businesses and employees to expand the availability of savings vehicles for all. They wish to expand retirement options so that individual choice steers the decision making process.
           Republicans view the key to welfare reform is restoring personal responsibility and encouraging two parent households. They feel that all able bodied adults must be required to work either in private sector jobs or in community work projects. Illegal aliens must be ineligible for all but emergency benefits and a time limit for receipt of welfare must be enforced. They also see illegitimacy as the most serious cause of child poverty and encourage States to stop cash payments to unmarried teens and set a family cap on payments for additional children. Republicans feel that the benefits by teen mothers should be dependent on their attendance at school and their living at home with a parent, adult relative or guardian.
           Republicans put the interest of our country over those of other nations - and of the United Nations. They believe the safety and prosperity of the American home and workplace depend upon ensuring our national security in a dangerous world. They support restoring the promotion of democracy worldwide as a cornerstone of U.S. Foreign policy