Candidate Statement

By Steve Chabot

It is a great honor for me to represent our community in the United States Congress.

I try to show my respect for the voters by being clear about where I stand on the issues and by keeping my word. I've kept my promises and continue to work to protect our values in Congress. Working together, we've already achieved some important goals: we've moved toward a balanced budget; we've enacted welfare reform that is working to end the cycle of dependency; we've extended the life of Medicare; we've forced Congress to start living by the laws it passes; and we've enacted I.R.S. reform and the $500 per child tax credit that parents will begin to benefit from this year.

But much more remains to be done. The burden taxes place on our families is at the highest level in our peacetime history: we need broad-based tax relief, coupled with tax code reform to make taxes simpler, fairer, and lower. We also need to eliminate Washington rip-offs such as corporate welfare, and I have taken a leading role in that effort. We need to protect Social Security by stopping the government from using money from the trust fund to support unrelated programs and by continuing to fight against federal deficits. We must continue the battle against wasteful federal spending (such as that contained in the recent transportation bill, which the Cincinnati Post described as "so loaded with pork that it squealed"); I am proud to have won the "Taxpayers' Superhero" award from Citizens Against Government Waste, and to have received an "A" from the National Taxpayers' Union.

As a father and former school teacher, I know the important role education plays in our children's future. I pledge to continue my work to improve education by restoring more power and money to parents, teachers, and local communities. I also believe that parents should be allowed to establish education savings accounts and accumulate money tax free for their children's education. This money could be used for books, computers, tutoring, public or private school tuition, or college.

I will keep working, too, to improve the federal criminal laws, to protect against government snooping into individual medical or employment records, and to end the horrible practice of late term, partial birth abortions.

Cincinnati values and Cincinnati common sense go a long way in the United States Congress, and we need to continue to have a strong presence there.