Where I Currently Stand With Presidential Candidates, AND WHY!

This election has been anything but boring. Whether it’s Hillary and all of the issues going on with her, Sanders and his pie in the sky promises, or how Donald Trump has really shaken things up in a very good way as far as I’m concerned, this has been an exciting election, period. There’s never a dull moment.

Here I’m going to go through each of the issues that are important to me, share why they’re important and then share which candidate(s) I feel are the best for that topic. It should be very enlightening, and is pretty detailed.

Remember, I’m not a journalist. I’m just your normal every day American who’s simply sharing his views on the candidates I’m interested in and on the issues important to me.

My views very likely may not be yours, or you may agree with me totally. Regardless to which, these are the issues that are important to me and how I size up each of the four candidates I’m hoping wins the nomination around the issues important to me.

My encouragement for you is to simply be an informed voter. Know what issues are important to you and then analyze each candidate on your issues to see which supports what’s important to you.

I don’t care if you agree with me or not because I realize that based upon your life you may have different views than I do, or there may be issues that are more important to you which would make another (or other) candidates more attractive to you. That’s great, and what makes America so great.

Just please, be an informed voter. Don’t be a sheep and do what everyone else is doing, or vote for someone for a lame excuse like, “she’s a woman”. Make your decision on facts and what’s right for you. Remember, the President of the United States is the highest office in this country and the leader of the free world. This is a VERY important election.

Democrats

When I look at the candidates, there is absolutely NOBODY on the democrat side I’d even consider. If I absolutely had to choose one, I’d choose O’Malley. Why?

Clinton’s scandals and criminal acts and how she lies more than Obama. Here’s how I would best describe Hillary …

The only house Hillary should go to is the big house, not the white house. Why anyone would vote for Hillary is just beyond me.

Sanders is just unrealistic and is pie in the sky. I think he’d give away the White House to be elected, if he could. Plus, I couldn’t handle another 4 years of a socialist in the White House.

The only one left is O’Malley. But by the time I published this article O’Malley has dropped out.

What’s on the Democrat side is what I’d say is, “No good choices”.

Republicans

For Republicans, there are a lot of good choices. None meet 100% of what I’m looking for, and I have concerns with all of them. Based upon what I’m looking for and from putting a heavier weight on a few very key issues to me, I’d be happy with Fiorina, Trump, Carson and Cruz in this order. Two of my choices are in the top 2 which excites me.

Every candidate in my top 4 choice has very strong pro’s and a few areas of concern.

Now, when I look at Republicans I see them as two groups:

Crony Capitalist. These are the Republicans who have sold out “We The People”, who have put their allegiance with big businesses and lobbyist. These are the Republicans who are selling their vote to the highest bidder, and these are the Republicans that must be voted out.

The other name for this group is the “Establishment Republicans”, “RINO’s” and as Cruz call them, “The Washington Cartel”.

Nobody would vote for the Republicans in this group because they’re not in Washington to serve us, but instead to serve those who are funding their campaigns and who are buying their votes, so these Republicans try to convince us that they’re Conservatives.

But just like you’ll know “we are Christians by our love, by our love” as the song goes, “we’ll know they are Crony Capitalist by their votes, by their votes”. Just watch what they vote on. For example, those that voted for TPP or the incredible 1.1 Trillion Dollar ‘give into Obama’ spending bill cannot call themselves a conservative! Period! (Rubio didn’t even show up for this very important vote which as far as I’m concerned is a Yes vote, Cruz voted No.)

This is the group that has given Republicans a bad name and has pissed all of us off.

By the way, it’s the same with the Democrats. They also have Crony Capitalist in their ranks, but they’re better at hiding this, not to mention a lot of what the democrats stand for is what these lobbyist and big businesses want so it’s easier for a democrat to make big bucks from these two groups without their constituents any wiser. These donor groups pay money to not only Democrats, but also Republicans like Rubio & Ryan who support their wishes like immigration.

Conservatives. This is the base and what American’s want their elected Republicans to stand for. This group represents smaller government, supporting the constitution, helping small businesses to succeed, who are focused on “We The People” and all of those things we have believed was being a Republican.

Unfortunately “greed” has bit the ass of so many of our elected congress people (including Democrats). In my opinion, congress should not be allowed to take money or perks from anyone at all! In addition, I think there should be a cap at how much money a politician can get for their campaign, including their super PACs. Make it a level playing field, not a “he who’s raised the most money to do the most advertising wins” thing.

The fact is, our political system is corrupt and broken as I addressed in an article. It needs a major overhaul which would never happen if a politician is elected President. The only hope of this happens is if a non-politician is elected President, we could only hope. Don’t hold your breath.

None of the candidates are as conservative as I’d want. Even though Cruz tries to convince everyone he’s very conservative, I still have problems with him. Do I need to remind him that he was all in for TPP until the last day?

In this specific election, because of where America is right now, there are a few topics where I put the most weight in such as our economy and immigration. So let me break this election down based upon how I’m voting.

Business Aptitude & Skills: Economy, Small/Medium Businesses, Trade Deal

I consider this one of the most important issues in this years election. Now, you may be wondering why ISIS and attacks to America isn’t my #1 concern.

It is, but because all of the candidates in my top four have already committed to over-throwing ISIS it’s not a main topic. On this topic of ISIS, as you’ll read below when you get to this topic, they all are pretty even. The point is, each have committed to deal with them and do everything they can to keep American’s safe.

Let me start this topic of Business and the Economics with this …

For the FIRST TIME in the HISTORY of America, More Businesses Are Closing Than New Businesses Are Opening Up.

Do you grasp the significance to this?

When you consider small businesses and medium sized businesses are the backbone to America and considering they employ 2/3 of Americans, with businesses closing down left and right, it’s a serious problem.

Malls are closing. Chain stores are closing. Mom & pop businesses are closing. This doesn’t even take into consideration the big business like manufactures who employ thousands of people who have closed with many moving to other countries because of all of the regulations and the high taxes in America.

Let me give you an idea of closures coming up (I have numerous resources showing thousands of businesses closing across America) …

According to Retail Info System News here are retailers (listed by number of store closings and date), including downsizing and company bankruptcies:

Retailer:	Store Closings:	Completion:
Office Depot/OfficeMax	400	By 2016
Wet Seal	338
Deb Shops	300
Body Central	265
Staples	225	Through 2015
Barnes & Noble	223	Through 2023
RadioShack	200	Through 2017
Abercrombie & Fitch	180	By 2015
Aeropostale	175 75	“Over the next several years” Through January 2015
American Eagle Outfitters	150	Through 2017
Target Canada (bankruptcy)	133
Sears	77	2015
Coach	70	Fiscal 2015
Pep Boys	63	“In the coming years”
Golf Galaxy	54	By 2016
Express	50	Through 2015
Guess	50	Through 2015
JCPenney	40
Build-A-Bear	25	Through 2015
Macy’s	15

Which stores are being hit the hardest?

Retail & restaurants.

In my opinion, another politician in the White House isn’t going to fix the problem. They’ll just make the problem bigger. Politicians just don’t understand businesses. Unless you’ve started and ran a business you just don’t grasp all of the things that the government is doing to them that’s just killing them, or what it takes to make a business succeed.

Besides, where politicians are concerned, so much of a Politicians time is spend strategizing their next campaign, fund raising for their next campaign and campaigning, that doesn’t leave a lot of time to do the work they were elected to do, let alone spend the time to understand a business. Just look at how many votes Rubio missed because of being on the campaign trail.

Along with having a businessman in the white house to help create more jobs by taking care of small businesses, I have said for years that the government should be ran like a business. If it had been we wouldn’t be having the debt problems we’re having, and we wouldn’t have the waste in our spending, to name just two things.

Kid Rock endorses Donald Trump for this same reason… the government should be ran like a business. Here’s his article: Kid Rock has endorsed Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump’s White House bid. Thousands have endorsed Trump for the same reason.

But Trump isn’t the only one business savvy. So is Carly Fiorina who I also strongly support, and is in fact my #1 choice as a very informed voter.

If it was a businessman running the country he’d/she’d know what things would kill businesses which would kill jobs! Politicians just don’t know these things and take “crap shoots” with things that sound good.

There is such a significant difference between a businessman and a politician. For starters, businessmen are very conscious of the budget, expenses and expenditures. Wasteful spending kills profits and that’s a no-no to a businessman. I think we can all agree that the government is extremely wasteful with the money they bring in.

I mean, what’s up with giving Iran $170 billion dollars, especially since they’re already not following the agreement? Or even toying with the idea of giving Cuba $117 billions to say we’re sorry when it’s their fault we put the sanctions on them?

Or how about all of the money we give our enemies … what’s up with that? Or how about all of the money we give to refugees over taking care of our veterans? And who in their right mind would ship in hundreds of thousands of refugees and give them full entitlement services … money, a place to live, food and more … when our deficit is so high and when our veterans aren’t being taken care of properly. What’s the priority here?

A businessman would NEVER do this because businessmen don’t spend money they don’t have, unless it will help increase the businesses growth. And when they borrow money, they pay it back ASAP. That’s what businesses do. I could write a book on all of our wasteful spending by our government that makes absolutely no sense at all. Or you can just google it.

These spending choices just absolutely make no sense to either a businessman or an American. However, a politician will play politics and a businessman will take care of business. BIG DIFFERENCE!

A politician will play politics and a businessman will take care of business.

Plus, a huge difference here is business owners make things happen, they’re doers where politicians are talkers and seldomly get much of anything done.

Business owners make things happen, they’re doers where politicians are talkers and seldomly get much of anything done.

It’s for these reasons and many others that the only two choices in this group is Donald Trump and Carly Fiorina, two very savvy business people and presidential candidates for the Republican party.

America has given politicians the chance to take care of America and the American people for many years, and look where we’re at now. Let’s be blunt … we’re in a very bad spot economically!

We need a businessman in the White House who understands businesses and who will run the government like a business.

Like I said, there’s only two choices … Donald Trump or Carly Fiorina.

If you want to make America great again and build back up our infra-structure (small & medium sized businesses has always been the backbone to America) then these two candidates are the only choice!

I can’t ignore the TPP (ObamaTrade) under this topic. Let me be very clear here … It’s DISASTROUS to America! Read more about it here.

Shockingly, most of the candidates support TPP. There’s only a few who do not support it including all 3 non-politicians candidates. I will NOT support a candidate who supports this America Destroying legislation.

Taxes

Businesses in the United States pay the highest Corporate tax in the world. Yes, in the world!

Here’s the FEDERAL Corporate Tax Rate …

Taxable Income ($)	Tax Rate
0 to 50,000	15%
50,000 to 75,000	$7,500 + 25% Of the amount over 50,000
75,000 to 100,000	$13,750 + 34% Of the amount over 75,000
100,000 to 335,000	$22,250 + 39% Of the amount over 100,000
335,000 to 10,000,000	$113,900 + 34% Of the amount over 335,000
10,000,000 to 15,000,000	$3,400,000 + 35% Of the amount over 10,000,000
15,000,000 to 18,333,333	$5,150,000 + 38% Of the amount over 15,000,000
18,333,333 and up	35%

Take a good look at it. Did you notice how a business that only makes $100,000 to $335,000 have to pay the HIGHEST tax %? This is what small businesses have to put up with, thanks to our lovely government!

You tell me how this is fair?

This group pays a higher % of taxes than a major corporation making over $15 million a year, or even the next tier of $335k to $10 million at only 34%. And you want small business to be taxed more, or for minimum wages to be increased which for many will put them out of business. Already American businesses have the highest corporate tax in the world.

But these aren’t the only taxes. There’s also payroll taxes … Social Security, Medicare, Labor & Industries (some states) and others. The more he pays an employee the more taxes he pays.

And let’s not forget ObamaCare which is being nicknamed “The business & job killer” because of the huge financial burden it’s putting on businesses.

Then, ON TOP of this, the owner has to pay taxes on the income he takes from the business. So a business owner pays up to 39% on the profits of his business, and then he pays another up to 39.6% (15% – 28% is the average for small business owners) on his personal income . And this is just FEDERAL and doesn’t even take into consider what he has to pay in taxes to the STATE he lives in.

Sheesh! That’s a whole lot of taxes!

To really bring my point about taxes home, check out what the corporate tax is in other countries. Here’s what a few countries close to us charge:

Mexico: 30% highest

Canada: 11%-15% (federal) + 0%-16% (provincial)

It’s no wonder major corporations have closed shop in the US and moved to other countries with the high, very high taxes here in the America and because of all of the ridiculous regulations here in America, both put in place by democrats.

Democrats are business destroyers because it’s all about giving away free stuff to win votes and somebody has to pay for all of those freebies.

I am so sick and tired of hearing democrats get all excited about campaign promises to tax small businesses even more, or to hear how minimum wages need to be increased which I won’t take the time here to address. What they should be doing is HELPING small businesses. They should be looking at ways to make it easier to own a business and even provide tax breaks for the first couple of years which are the toughest years of any new business.

But they wouldn’t know this unless they started their own business.

I believe we need to abolish the IRS or dramatically downsizing it by cutting the 70,000 pages of IRS rules and regulations down to 3 pages like Carly Fiorina suggests, and then make it so simple anyone can do their own taxes.

As a business I pay $6,000 and up each year to have my taxes handled and make sure I’ve got all of my bases covered in the event of an audit.

Did you know that the tax code is written in such a way that the IRS can fault with anyone? True story. The IRS has become very corrupt!

Then there’s the taxes American citizens are paying. I have a friend who’s 55, self-employed due to health issues and can only work from home. She only makes $12,000 to $15,000 per year and she’s paying $1,500+ per year in taxes. This is absolutely ridiculous!

There are a lot of single people who don’t have the option of a second income earner in the home making under $30,000 per year who are being wiped out in taxes. Remember, the highest tax bracket is for single people, and these are people who are solely supporting the household. Somebody had their head up their ass when structuring the taxes.

We need a businessman in the White House. Once again, it’s Donald Trump & Carly Fiorina.

Our National Debt

Let me just say, our national debt is way out of control!

Now, do I want a politician who’s going to play “politics” which means they won’t make the tough decisions because their first concern is how those decisions will affect their re-election and not on what’s in the best interest of America? (Another reason why there should be term limits for the Senate and House.)

No! I want a president who will make the tough decisions over playing “politics”.

Bottom line, a $20 Trillion Debt is NOT GOOD FOR AMERICA at so many levels! I believe it was Obama’s goal to bankrupt America to drop the value of our dollar and for numerous other reasons. But this is another discussion for another day.

Like Carly Fiorina, a business woman and not a politician says, “We need 0 base budgeting”. She’s right. Every dollar accounted for. Every dollar spent serving a purpose. There’s a lot of fat that can be cut out. I addressed some of it already, and will address more further down.

Entitlements are a large part of this. I’ll discuss this under Entitlements below.

Once again, because politicians play politics when it comes to the national debt my confidence is with a non-politician. If the non-politician is also a businessman like Donald Trump & Carly Fiorina that’s better yet because they’ll know how to put a budget together, cut the fat out of the expenses and make sure everyone does their part to stay on budget.

Immigration & Refugees

A Wall & Immigration Management

For 25 years politicians have been promising to build a wall and stop the surge of immigrants coming into America and leeching off our entitlement programs. But it never gets done. This brings me back to what I said earlier … Businessmen are doers and politicians are talkers who are always strategizing their next campaign and only making decisions that will support their next campaign victory or who they’ll get funding from.

Big money donors on the Republican side do not want a wall (same with Democrat side). They want the cheap labor. And politicians do not want to piss off their donors. Remember this.

But that wasn’t why we elected them. We elected them to build that damn wall! And to get immigration under control. No more felons, rapist or murders coming into America! No more illegal aliens taking jobs away from Americans. No more illegal aliens siphoning off our entitlement programs.

We need real immigration management, and we must stop the surge of free-loaders coming to America. And we need to deport criminals out of America.

Donald Trump has been very strong here. Rubio is the weakest on this topic, and would increase the immigrants way beyond what Obama has.

Anchor Babies (Birthright Citizenship)

This brings me to “Anchor Babies”. It makes absolutely no sense to me that, say, a Mexican couple would have a baby in the US and then all of a sudden that baby is an American. If an American couple had a baby in another country, would that baby be a citizen of that country?

NO! It would be an American citizen because that’s what the parents are. I believe this was the intent of the 14th Amendment. Couples of other countries who have a baby in America, that baby would be a citizen of the country the parents are from. Plain and simple.

I agree with Donald Trump on this topic.

Anchor Babies need to be addressed. I believe it can be if someone would just challenge it, and if they use common sense.

Muslim Refugees

Immigration is at the top of the list and a high priority with islam muslims refugees being a huge concern.

I’m really okay about immigrants coming to America, as long as they come legally and it’s controlled. It’s a great country.

But I do not agree with immigrants coming to America solely to benefit off our entitlement programs. That has to stop.

What I have a huge problem with is islam muslims coming to America and trying to force Sharia Law on us and not respecting our laws and our citizens, and then making threats or attacking American citizens! And I’m sick and tired of liberals and islam supporters saying it’s a religion of peace. No it’s not …

There is so much proof out there that islam is everything America isn’t, that it’s not a religion of peace, that it goes against our constitution. Listen, if they want Sharia Law then go live in a country that supports it. But when you’re in America you MUST obey our laws.

We know they won’t, and we know they want to follow Sharia Law. And we know that the Quran is their bible and it says to kill the infidel. So why the hell are we allowing them into America? The majority of mass murders in America and around the world are by muslims.

American’s want the islam muslims refugees sent back! Like Carson & Trump has suggested, send them back and use our military and other countries military to offer them protection from ISIS and others who are attacking them. Give them a safe haven in their country.

This will save us billions! And it will protect American citizens while allowing the muslims to live in a country that supports their beliefs, their laws and their religion, all of which doesn’t fit into who we are as Americans.

On top of this, if they can’t properly be vetted then they can’t come in. Too many ISIS terrorist are infiltrating in with them, which is part of their game plan.

Politicians are playing politics on this topic because of the political correct movement of islamaphobics. Horse mucky! Here again our God given common sense tells us a whole different story like I’ve shared above.

Donald Trump is the only one who’s come out and said we need to put a stop on bringing in muslim refugees until we get a grip on this and are able to properly vet them. This makes total sense, and it protects Americans.

But then the liberal left attacked him and changed his words to say he wanted to stop all muslims from coming into the country. This political “smear” game just pisses me off.

My gosh, look at what’s happening in Europe, Germany and Sweden. Do you want this in America? Did you know that it’s estimated that 10% of refugees have terrorist ties?

That means for every 5,000 that come into America that’s 500 terrorist we just let into the country. Do you understand this?

I 100% support Donald Trump on his politically incorrect statement that we must stop the muslim refugee program until we can vet them properly.

This is the boldness and courage that I love about Donald Trump. While everyone else is being a bunch of wimps and playing “politics” due to the aggressive attacks from the liberal left mainstream media on this topic, Donald Trump is looking out for what’s in the best interest of America and how to protect American’s from bringing in a bunch of terrorist via the refugee program. I really respect Trump for this.

I hope Trump never stops being bold and having courage, even when everyone else gives into the political correct liberal left who just don’t seem to give a damn about protecting American’s. Again I think I need to point out what being Politically Correct really is…

This right here is another reason why I really like the idea of a Donald Trump Presidency … he’ll do what’s right, not what’s politically correct.

Illegal Aliens

I support Bill Riley’s “Kate Bill”. It makes total sense. And sanctuary cities need to be ended.

Illegal immigrants currently in the country need to be sent home. If they want citizenship then they need to do it legally.

However, having said this, I do not see how you can round up and send back 20 – 30 million illegal aliens. And the cost would be very high. So here’s what I would do instead. Cut off their income source…

NO entitlements to illegal aliens. NONE. If you’re not a citizen of America then you don’t benefit from our tax dollars and entitlement programs design to help American citizens.
Employers who hire illegal aliens will be prosecuted and fined. It should be illegal to hire illegal aliens.

Put these two things in place and illegal aliens may just leave by themselves once the “free ride” has ended.

The others will come forward and become a citizen legally. Either way, it would go a long ways to stopping the illegal aliens from coming to America illegally without costing us billions of dollars.

A country without borders and without immigration laws that are not enforced is no country at all.

The Candidates On This Topic As A Whole

Trump was the first who brought up the immigration problem in a very bold, non-politically correct way which started the serious dialogue about immigration. We should all be very thankful to him for this!

Trump and Carson are the only two I’m aware of who have also said they would ship the muslim refugees back to Syria. It’s for this reason Trump and Carson get a +1 on this topic.

Obama wants to change the demographics of America, and when you factor in how many babies muslims have compared to American’s it is estimated that by 2050 this will be an Islam nation. Remember what Obama said …

Plus, the way our entitlement program works the more wives and children they have the more benefits they get. Muslims, believe it not, are allowed to have more than one wife counted toward their entitlements, but nobody else is. Why do they get special concessions? And keep in mind, their wives are baby making machines.

In addition, Obama has appointed many islam muslims to many high ranking government positions. They need to be replaced with American’s who support the constitution and our way of life.

Finally, organizations like CAIR with ties to terrorist need to be shut down.

I don’t know if a politician would do all of this because they are more concerned about the next election than on doing what’s right for America and American’s. Oh sure, they’ll make those campaign promises that they’ll put America and American’s first, but history shows quite the opposite. I’m not willing to give them a chance this year.

That’s why here again, non-politicians get the most points on this topic with Trump and Carson getting the highest points on this topic followed by Fiorina.

The Safety Of American’s

This should just be a given, but for some odd reason Obama puts muslims above the safety of American’s. Keeping us safe should go without saying. But the fact that I even have to bring this up and put this on my list shows how far down this country has gone.

Also, as mentioned, Trump is the only one who took a strong stance about stopping the muslim refugee program until they get things figured out and can properly vet them.

For this specific topic of Safety of Americans, all four candidates support this and are equal on this topic. I do give Trump special consideration due to his stance he made with Muslims.

Decreasing the Size Of Government

The government is too big, too bloated.

The IRS has become the weapon of the Obama administration attacking conservative groups with NO repercussions.

The BLM is doing illegal, unconstitutional land grabs.

The EPA is not only increasing regulations that are hurting businesses, the clean water act infringes on private citizens properties giving the government way too much power and control.

And shockingly, laws are being passed to stop people from living off the grid. All of this is the small list of what the government is doing to increase regulations and take away our freedoms.

With each new regulation it requires more government workers to enforce it while further taking away our freedoms and putting more constraints on businesses and individuals.

Even all of the years when a Republican was President, the government continued to grow. Therefore, I have NO confidence that another republican politician will downsize the government. Here again I’m putting more faith in a non-politician candidates giving them each 1+.

For this topic I would have to give Carly Fiorina the highest marks. She wasn’t popular by having to cut jobs at HP but she did it for the good of the company. She’s already shown she’ll make those tough decisions that are in the best interest of the company and country.

Constitution: 1st Amendment, 2nd Amendment & Following The Constitution

1st Amendment

Being Politically Correct has screwed us all. Politically Correct is simply a form of manipulation to force an agenda upon others.

I mean, telling someone that they’re islamaphobic because they don’t want islam muslims who follow the Quran and want Sharia, and thus, want to kill the infidel’s in the country isn’t islamaphobic, it’s common sense. Why would anyone want people who want to kill you in their city?

We need to stop being Politically Correct and start using our God given common sense.

I mean, how’d we get to where we’re bowing down and doing everything in our ability not to offend muslims, calling people islamaphobic if they say anything negative about them, after they took down the World Trade Centers? They should be kissing our asses, not the other way around!

Instead you have a muslim president (after everything I’ve observed of what Obama has done there’s no one who could convince me he’s not) and a muslim DOJ telling Americans that they will be prosecuted for saying anything negative about muslims. Seriously?

As you can see, I absolutely am not politically correct. Instead, I’m like most Americans who uses his common sense.

Now, just for clarification purposes, I do not have a problem with all muslims like the Christian Muslims or the ones who have walked away from Islam and the Quran and have instead adopted the Constitution and our laws. These muslims I consider a fellow American.

It’s the muslims who follow the Quran and want Sharia Law and won’t integrate into America, but instead want to force Sharia Law on us and who support “killing infidels” that are the problem.

If someone like Pam Geller wants to have a Muhammad drawing contest, nothing should stop her from doing that. If muslims have a problem with it, then they don’t understand America’s 1st Amendment giving us the right to do this.

I’m not saying it’s nice to do this, but anyone in America has the “right” to do this. Look at everything Westboro Baptist Church has done and there’s no consequences to them all in the name of “Freedom Of Speech”.

Freedom of speech is a constitution given right. Take it away and muzzle us and I promise you anything anyone says negative about what someone is doing like complaining about the President will put you in jail. Is this what you want, to not having the ability to voice your opinion, concerns and even complain about what’s going on or what someone has done?

Then there’s our religious freedoms.

Why is it okay for muslims to not do things that are against their religion, but Christians are being chastised for following their beliefs?

If a Christian baker or florist or photographer says no to serving a gay couple, that should be their right. What happened to, “We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone”?

Recently a farm in NY who told a gay couple they could not use their property and setting for a gay marriage was fined and told to take special classes to learn tolerance. Seriously?

Christians not only in America but across the world have been the target to all kinds of attacks. Muslims are killing them in the thousands, American government is fining them with huge fines to teach them a lesson. Teach them a lesson, seriously?

We must have God in our country, our schools and throughout our nation.

We need a President who will fight for our religious freedoms and rights. Cruz gets the highest marks here.

2nd Amendment

The democrats are forever going after our guns. If we’d just enforce the laws on the books there would be no need for more. The point is, LEAVE OUR GUNS ALONE!

The unconstitutional Executive Order signed by Obama in January 2016 will do NOTHING to stop the mass murders and gun violence in this country. If Obama would just have the laws already on the books enforced, that would do more to keep us safe (and stop bringing in muslim refugees who have ties to terrorist groups).

I believe Obama just simply wants our guns, even though the gun violence has dropped dramatically over the past 10 years while at the same time gun sales have been at an all time high.

I for one feel safer knowing there are others around me with guns should a muslim terrorist decide to do some jihad around me. I don’t want to be a sitting duck in a gun-free zone. And with Obama poorly vetting the muslim refugees coming into America, it makes this topic that much more important.

Just recently Obama signed an Executive Order in January 2016 on gun control.

There are 15 states that have already signed into law that they will not enforce any unconstitutional laws by Obama regarding gun control. I fully and totally agree with their decision to do this.

Besides, if we just enforced the laws that are currently on the books there would be no need for any additional laws. But, Obama doesn’t enforce them. That’s a problem.

We need a President that supports the 2nd Amendment. All 4 of my chosen candidates do support the 2nd Amendment.

Minority Demands Versus The Majority

In business you never make decisions based upon what the minority of customers want. That would be business suicide! It’s the same with the employees. If 75% want their coffee made with 2 scoops of coffee and 25% only want 1 scoop, you make the coffee with 2 scoops and tell the other 25% to fill their glass 1/2 full and fill the rest with hot water. (This was an actual thing that happened at my company).

The 25% understand that the majority got it their way, which is how it should be.

Along this same logic, why are decisions being made when just a small percentage of American are requesting it? Here are a few examples:

Removing religious items from government offices.
Removing the “Pledge of Allegiance” from being said in schools (those who don’t support it can go to another room while the rest of the kids say it to show their allegiance to America)
Removing “Merry Christmas” because it’s offensive to a few people
Not allowing Nativity scenes at churches or private homes.
Removing old glory, OUR Flag, from anywhere (Hey, come on, this is America and this is our flag and we should all be honored to fly it!)
Not allowing prayer on school grounds
Passing the unconstitutional law that a gay couple can marry (only 3% of Americans are LGBT). Just so you know, I have no problems with gay couples having the same legal rights as a married couple. My sole issue here is they called it a marriage and changed the definition of what “marriage” is.
Turning the confederate flag into a hate thing.

Over and over again I see these small groups of people yell very loud and then get national attention and create a movement to make a drastic change to America. Keep in mind, these groups are the minority.

If I ran my company like this I’d be out of business in no time. You just don’t do this. And you wonder why American’s are angry! Well, here is another reason why.

I also have to say, if muslims or any other person or group of people don’t like our Christian and Jewish beliefs, don’t like our laws, don’t like our flag, they can leave. It disgusts me seeing people stomping on and burning our flag.

No longer will America bow to anyone who tries to force their values, beliefs and laws on America. I could only pray to hear a President protect the American way and no longer give into groups of minorities.

I cannot give any of my 4 selected candidates a score on this topic because I do not know who would stand up for the majority or who would give into the left wing mainstream media attacks. I will say that Trump is the most politically incorrect so at this point I would say our best chance here is Trump.

Our Constitution

As far as the Constitution is concerned, it’s the law of the land! It MUST be supported.

Our fore-fathers came from a tyrant government and they saw what happens when the government is tyrant. The constitution was written to protect Americans from a tyrant government. (No wonder Democrats who are all about more power and bigger government are constantly attacking the constitution … have you ever thought about that?)

For the past 7 years we’ve watched Obama spit on it and try to rip it to shreds.

Obama has attacked the 1st Amendment. American’s have a right to voice their concerns about a group of people who Obama is importing into America against OUR wishes who’s beliefs and laws are completely opposite of ours and our constitution, and who want to kill us if they can’t convert us to their laws and religion.

If anyone should be corrected it is the islam muslims! They need to learn to either assimilate into our culture and our laws, or they need to leave.

But, we will NOT be intimidated by their threats or bow-down to their threats. We’re American’s and we will fight back! We will fight for justice, fairness and our freedoms. We will not have our freedoms taken away from us just because it offends immigrants and refugees who aren’t even American citizens. Even if they were American citizens, we still would not change our ways for them. It is up to them to adapt to our laws and our ways of life.

We need a President who 100% backs up and supports the constitution, the very thing they promise to protect with the oath of office.

In this group I would give all 4 of my selected candidates the same score.

A Hillary presidency will attack our 1st Amendment rights and saying anything negative about people who want to kill the infidels. She has also vowed to go way beyond Obama on gun controls.

Entitlements

First, let me share my beliefs in this area:

I’m an American and I’m all about helping my fellow American’s who are down on their luck. Crap happens to people, and there are times in their life when they just need some additional help to get through what they’re going threw. I love how the farmers, for example, would help their fellow farming neighbors. This is the America I love.
However, I do not believe in “hand outs”. Never have. Even with my own kids when they needed help I wouldn’t just give them the money. They had to work for it or pay me back. Why? They need to learn to be independent and not rely on others, and they need to take responsibility for their actions. All of my kids are very successful and completely independent. I even have a child with a learning disability who’s doing very well because all of my children have been taught to look for and focus on the “solution”, and not dwell on the problem.
I’m a believer in giving a “hand up”. Things happen. For example, I helped all of my kids get threw college. All I required was a minimum of a C in each class. None of my kids got less than a B.
I do NOT consider Social Security an entitlement! This is a program where American’s paid into it like a savings account for retirement. This is their money.

In my opinion, the entitlement system should be a program that gives fellow American’s a “hand up”, not a hand out. It should be temporary, and personalized to the needs of the person. That’s because each person has their own individual needs based upon the circumstances they are facing. (I have a lot of ideas here, but this isn’t the place to discuss them.)

For example, one of the biggest reasons a single parent can’t work is because of the cost of daycare. Even with a married couple with young children, it makes no sense for the wife to work because everything she’d make would go toward daycare so what’s the point?

I think the government should create daycare centers (or something to cover daycare costs) to support these American’s who can’t work because of needing daycare first. (There a number of things I would do to build a daycare system to help our fellow American’s like a nutrition program to make sure they kids are getting a good meal every day, learning programs that are age appropriate to prepare them for Pre-K and Kindergarten, etc.)

The point is, there are millions of American’s who are on welfare that have no right to be on it. And the longer they are on it the lazier they’ll get and the more dependent upon the government they’ll get. Let’s quit giving hand outs and start helping people get back on their feet!

It starts by making entitlement programs temporary, and to address the things that are hindering them from getting back on their feet and being independent.

Finally, like I mentioned above, illegal aliens should not be getting American entitlements.

Next.

American’s Must Be FIRST

We must put American’s first ahead of all others, especially non-Americans.

It’s shameful that immigrants & refugees have more rights and are better taken care of than American’s and our vets, If there’s not enough money to take care of our fellow American’s and immigrants both, then it should always 100% of the time be the American’s who get the help! Period!

It is OUR tax dollars and if we are going to be forced to pay taxes to cover entitlements then we Americans want them used to help other Americans, not illegal aliens or refugees! Following I address what I feel we should and shouldn’t do for illegal aliens and refugees.

No More Tax Dollars Going To Illegal Aliens

Following this same line of discussion, NO MORE TAX DOLLARS GOING TO ILLEGAL ALIENS! We never asked for them and we do not want to support them. Currently $11 billion+ dollars per year is spent on welfare for illegal aliens.

Are you aware of what refugees get compliments of the American tax payer? And no, you have no say in this. Let me show you:

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) formerly known as AFDC
Medicaid
Food Stamps
Public Housing
Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
Social Security Disability Insurance
Administration on Developmental Disabilities (ADD) (direct services only)
Child Care and Development Fund
Independent Living Program
Job Opportunities for Low Income Individuals (JOLI)
Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP)
Post-secondary Education Loans and Grants
Refugee Assistance Programs
Title IV Foster Care and Adoption Assistance Payments (if parents are qualified immigrants – refugees, asylees, etc)
Title XX Social Services Block Grant Funds

Welfare use is staggering among refugees. Welfare usage is never counted by officials as part of the cost of the program. Yet, when it is included, the total cost of the refugee program soars to at least 10-20 billion a year.

Entitlement programs are a magnet to immigrants and refugees, and a huge strain on America!

Listen, in regards to the muslim refugees it would be far less money to leave them in Syria and build a safe zone protected by our military and other military’s in that area to protect them from ISIS and others that would try to harm them. It could be a safe place for Christian muslims from being killed by islam muslims. Here’s why this approach makes so much more sense:

It would save America BILLIONS of dollars!
Muslims do not want to follow American laws, they want Sharia. Fact is, our constitution compared to the Quran is polar opposite. It makes no sense to bring them to America.
We don’t have to worry about ISIS terrorist infiltrating the refugee program. It is estimated that 10% of the refugees are terrorist. This would keep America safer.
Everyone will be happier. The muslims will be happier because they’re in a land that supports their life, their laws, their values and American’s are happier.

As for the other illegal aliens, the bottom line is they are not here legally and therefore they should not be benefiting from our entitlement programs. Giving them money, food, shelter and healthcare just simply makes no sense.

No, I’m not cold hearted. I’m logical.

If they need help then we should create a “temporary” program for them. They can go through the channels legally. But, no more handouts to illegal aliens. If they need our help they can come forward and ask for it.

Another option is to do like Austria and selectively offer entitlement programs, and only allow them access to them for a maximum of 1 year to get on their feet and then they’re on their own.

Nothing Is Free

Nothing is free. Someone has to pay for the entitlement programs.

Bernie Sanders is promising a lot of free stuff, which is what the democrats do. Pay close attention here … NOTHING is free!

Take a look at free college.

Let’s say you save $30,000 in college tuition’s. Here’s what that will cost you … an addition 20%+ in taxes, which doesn’t include all of the other tax increases under Bernie Sanders (income tax, payroll tax, elimination of “alternate minimum tax” and more puts it around 20%).

If you make $100,000 a year in that awesome career you now have thanks to that great free education you got, that 20% increase in taxes to pay for that free tuition just cost you $20,000 in taxes year after year after year. In just 5 years that’s $100,000 in additional taxes you paid to get that FREE $30,000 education.

Even if you only made $50,000 per year, in 5 years you’d pay an additional $50,000 in taxes for that free education with each year increasing the amount.

Now, using some basic math, which was a better deal … FREE tuition saving you $30,000 in tuition or paying an addition $10,000+ per year in taxes, year after year after year, for the privilege of having your tuition free?

It’s a no-brainer, isn’t it?

Or maybe down the road you’ll start your own business. If you do, I promise you that you’ll fully regret voting for a socialist or democrat for President because businesses of all sizes, especially the small and medium sized businesses are hit the hardest in taxes and ridiculous regulations.

Every entitlement program is paid for off the hard working backs of American’s. And the more entitlement programs the more taxes that will have to be collected to pay for them. This is why we need to reform entitlements.

I can’t rate any of my selected Candidates on this topic of entitlements because nobody wants to discuss this topic.

Summary & Conclusion

There are a lot of issues to consider. But as a businessman I’ve prioritized them, and I’m only addressing the top issues that are the most important to me.

This year especially for the election I’m putting the rebuilding of American and saving the values of what makes America great at the highest priority followed by immigration & refugees.

Carly Fiorina

I’m actually shocked Carly Fiorina isn’t higher in the polls. She’s bright, articulate, has excellent policies laid out at her website, has a tremendous amount of business experience and is very focused on serving “We The People”, to include getting our feedback on key issues.

Never in all of my life have I ever heard of a Presidential Candidate turning to the American people during their term to get feedback on what we want on key issues. I’m telling you, this is pretty darn cool, and would absolutely motivate congress to serve their people.

This is how I ran my companies. We aggressively asked for input from our clients on how to make a better product and how to serve them better. The end results was becoming the most “client focused” company in our market place and becoming the number one company in sales in our market place.

Why? Because our focus was solely on the needs of our clients!

Even as the President of the company with an extensive background in my market, if I had tried to second guess what our clients needed I would’ve been wrong a minimum of 1/3 of the time. It was only by listening to our clients and encouraging their feedback that we were able to create such an incredibly successful company.

Carly Fiorina, a very savvy businesswoman, gets this! Politicians don’t. Besides, this makes them accountable to the people who voted them into office.

Carly Fiorina is very clear on her policies and have listed them all at her website. Scroll to the bottom of this page so you can read about her stance on numerous issues.

Carly has so many strengths I’m truly shocked she’s not higher in the polls than what she is. This savvy businesswomen isn’t getting nearly the credit she deserves!

Donald Trump

Donald Trump has national name recognition. This unquestionably gives him a huge advantage.

In addition, you can’t argue with his business success. There’s no question about it, this country needs a business man running the country.

You see, what makes a businessman extremely successful is their management skills. Their knowledge is certainly important, but their ability to surround themselves with very sharp people who are experts in the position they’ve been given is what good business owners are very good at doing.

In my company I hired the best General Manager for running the company, the best marketer, the best copywriter for creating the marketing pieces, the best customer support people, the best sales people.

Trump gets this (so does Carly Fiorina).

There are four key things about Trump that excites me:

He’s bold, courageous and is not politically correct. Trump will do what’s right, not what’s politically correct, which is exactly what America needs.
He’s very business savvy! Something our government has lacked for a long time and the reason why the deals they do are so bad, why the government is so far in debt and much more. Politicians are pathetic when it comes to creating great deals. Let’s be realistic here, they just don’t have the experience in this area.
He’s self funded and will not owe any business or lobbying group anything. He’s the only one with this very strong advantage which will allow him to stay focused on “We The People” and making America great again. However, that doesn’t mean he won’t use the office to better his businesses because it should be expected that he will. But those actions will very likely help all businesses in this country.
He’ll surround himself with the best of the best in each government position. He’ll then rely on each of these people to effectively manage their area. This is why Trump will clean house in the government and will be able to make America Great Again.

Politicians just don’t grasp this. They instead put people in cabinet positions and leadership rolls because of favors they owe, or because their donors want a certain person in specific roll, or because of friendships created even though that person may not be qualified for that roll.

Trump will put highly qualified people in each cabinet position and in each leadership roll. And unlike politicians, he’ll pull from the private sector pulling in the best of the best.

I do truly believe that America will be Great Again under a Trump presidency.

However, and this is a big “however”.

Trump is brash and not very Presidential. Someone please take away his Twitter account!

Presidents don’t call people names. For example, I agree with him on how Megyn Kelly was unfair to him and all, but that does not give him the right to call her a bimbo.

Name calling divides people. And it really makes people think less of you. Is this how he’ll treat our allies and enemies when they don’t agree with him? Or how he’ll handle people in America who challenge him? Or treat our elected people in Congress? This scares me!

Remember what I’ve always said, “your best indicator of what a person will do in the future is based upon what they’ve done in the past”.

This is the part of Trump I don’t like or care for. You can’t do this or act like this in a business. It will not give you the results you’re after! Even when competing against another company for their business, you don’t start calling the competitor you’re up against names. It’s perfectly okay and expected to point out the differences, but you don’t call them names.

If it hadn’t been for this, I would be a much stronger supporter of Trump. But this is a very big deal. Remember, we’re talking about electing someone to the highest office in this country and the leader of the free world. There just isn’t room for this behavior in this role.

Remember, though, I have negatives for all of the candidates including my top four choices. This is my only real negative to Trump. Trump brings to the table so many strong attributes that we need, do those key attributes and skills which Trump would bring to the office of President outweigh this negative attribute of his?

This is something for each person to decide. In my opinion, yes and no.

Trump certainly has the skills we need to make America Great Again, but he’s also rude and unprofessional which can create even more division in America and can alienate our allies and piss off our enemies.

To me this is a person who speaks without thinking about what he’s saying, a person who “reacts” without thinking. This is not a good attribute for the President who needs to be calculating and who chooses his words very carefully.

Trump is very capable of being Presidential and professional. Check this out (this is the Trump I want to see all the time): Donald Trump: Finishes Second In Iowa, ‘I’m Just Honored’.

But then the next day he’s back on his Twitter account being very unprofessional again attacking Cruz like a sore loser. Every time he does this I lose more and more confidence in his ability to be a President that will pull this country together, and build strong relations with other countries.

If he loses the nomination it’ll be all because of this, and he’ll have nobody to blame but himself.

Ben Carson

Ben Carson is smart, very smart! But does he have what it takes to be President?

I’m not sure about this. I’m not sure if Ben is strong enough to make the tough decisions required in this roll. However, I do feel Ben would be a great cabinet member like the Surgeon General. I’m just not sure if Ben is “Presidential”.

He’s certainly got the smarts, the morals and the ethics which I find extremely attractive. In fact, I think Ben Carson would be the most honest, ethical President America has had in decades. It’s hard to not be attacked to this characteristic.

He’s against the politically correct movement which is simply a strategy to manipulate people to ones way of thinking, which has consistently been to support minority groups over what the majority of American’s want.

I’m very confident of Ben being able to bring America back together again after our very divisive President Obama.

But can he handle the roll as President of America with everything it entails? I’m just saying.

I’m just not convinced he could do this job. But then again, he’s got as much experience at doing this job as any politician has, maybe more with his experiences of running a large hospital.

The key here would be, “Will he place highly qualified people for each of the different cabinets and leadership positions, and then trust them?” Anyone who does this will be a great President.

Yes, there’s a reason Ben Carson is above Ted Cruz as you’ll learn from read my thoughts to Ted Cruz.

Ted Cruz

I like Ted Cruz, and I feel like he’s got a lot of really good attributes and beliefs that would be good for America. But right or wrong, his massive push to pass the disastrous TPP/ObamaTrade is what turned me off on Cruz. I address all of this in the article I wrote about the disastrous TPP.

This is the one huge problem I’ve had with Ted Cruz because of how disastrous TPP is to America.

While it may be true that Congress has a problem with him, that’s because, in my opinion, he’s a Conservative Republican. I believe the ones having a problem with him are the establishment Crony Capitalist Republicans who don’t want to lose their gravy train with the money they’re getting from big businesses and lobbyist.

Oh well! You go Cruz!

Therefore, I really don’t have a problem with this because personally I’d like to see all of the Crony Capitalist Republicans voted out of office! We need our elected congress making decisions and supporting “We The People”, not their donors and the big businesses who are buying their votes!

Cruz will hold these crony capitalist republicans feet to the fire, and that’s not a bad thing at all.

However, Cruz also got big donor dollars from big businesses. I don’t care how you slice it, these donors expect Cruz (or any politician they donate to) to support their agenda which may be contrary to our wishes. How will Cruz, or any other politician, balance this?

Is this why Cruz pushed so hard for the disastrous TPP/ObamaTrade?

And if he’s elected will he again go back to pushing the disastrous TPP/ObamaTrade?

Trump owes nobody anything! He can’t and hasn’t been bought. That’s a HUGE bonus for Trump!

My Take On Marco Rubio

Rubio is pure “establishment”, and is playing the Obama playbook of lying to all of us in order to get the nomination. Murdoch, owner of FoxNews, wants Rubio so you’ll notice that FoxNews is giving him a lot of coverage now and they are slanting their narrative to support Rubio while cutting down the other two top candidates.

But it’s not just FoxNews. It’s the big business donors who want open boarders and a huge increase in immigrants coming to America who want Rubio. A vote for Rubio is a vote for immigration and open boarders. You need to understand this. It’s because of Rubio’s position on immigration that I cannot support him. I give a detailed explanation at the link.

Remember, you can pretty accurately judge a person’s future actions and beliefs by their past actions. Rubio’s past actions indicate he strongly supports immigration and open boarders!

Look at Obama and everything we’ve learned about him and his upbringing along with his voting record and we know he’s a socialist and has a chip on his shoulder against America. Don’t fall victim to Rubio’s game and be manipulated by the media. We have all already been taken advantage of by Obama. We got change alright, but not the change he promised or we expected.

Update on Rubio: On 2/3/16 Breitbart published an article, “La Opinión: Marco Rubio Is a ‘Republican Obama’“. Here are a few things it stated:

Marco Rubio and Barack Obama share many of the same policy goals, such as Obamatrade (click here to see why ObamaTrade is DISASTROUS to America) and military intervention in Libya, but their most striking similarities are on the subject of immigration. Both men support citizenship for illegal aliens, expanded refugee resettlement, more green cards, more H-1B visas, and large permanent expansions to the rate of immigration and foreign worker importation.
Marco Rubio was the co-author of the 2013 Obama-backed immigration bill. Rubio’s immigration bill was endorsed by La Raza, the AFL-CIO, SEIU, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), Mark Zuckerberg, and George Soros.
Rubio has not renounced his support for a single policy item outlined in the Gang of Eight bill—including his desire to triple green card issuances, double foreign worker visas, and grant citizenship to illegal immigrants.
“You know, I have said for a year that he is the Republican Obama,” Scarborough said. “He is the Republican Obama and he just stole the speech… In my opinion having somebody with little experience before they become president has not actually been great.”
However, there is one important distinction between Rubio and Obama. Obama represented the core views of his most ardent base, and presented a vehicle for turning his base’s dreams into reality. By contrast, the Republican base is overwhelmingly opposed to large-scale immigration, amnesty and refugee resettlement—the pillars of Rubio’s campaign. It is the GOP’s donor base, not its voter base, that supports these policies.
That may explain Rush Limbaugh’s prediction that, with Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) as Speaker and Marco Rubio as president, in the “first 12-to-18 months, the donor-class agenda [will be] implemented, including amnesty and whatever else they want.”

Where I Currently Stand With Presidential Candidates – Feb 2016