Anne Northup for Congress

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Leadership In Our Community

For 10 years under Anne’s leadership, our community made unbelievable gains both in infrastructure and humanitarian aid. Because of her high energy and great insights into the needs of our community, she was able to partner federal programs and dollars with opportunities to help in Louisville. This help included:

  • Funding for the Ohio River bridge
  • McAlpine locks and dams
  • Roads and bike paths
  • The University of Louisville
  • Waterfront Park
  • American Printing House for the Blind
  • Local defense contractors at the former Naval Ordinance Station
  • TARC buses
  • Flood mitigation projects
  • Retention basins
  • Public health centers
  • Home of the Innocents and other non-profits
  • After-school programs
  • Police departments, the airport
  • Housing for the elderly
  • Economic development initiatives
  • Community centers in poor neighborhoods
  • The Louisville Zoo
  • Workforce development programs
  • Family literacy
  • The Belle of Louisville and other historic treasures
  • Arts programs and museums
  • Programs for the homeless

More than that, she effectively eliminated bureaucratic obstacles. When the Ohio River bridge project got bogged down-which it did almost every month- she held the federal and state bureaucrats’ feet to the fire, kept the project on track and kept the funding on track. This is the kind of leadership this community needs and deserves, and which it hasn’t been getting for the past two years.

Economy


I strongly believe that Congress should support policies that will create new jobs for American workers, allow the economy to grow, and increase economic opportunity for small businesses and entrepreneurs. Toward that goal, I have voted for tax relief for American families and businesses that helped end the economic recession that began in 2000, and which led to a record number of employed Americans.

I supported the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001, which allowed American families to keep more of the money they earn by reducing income tax rates, providing marriage tax penalty relief, increasing the child credit, and increasing the alternative minimum tax exemption. In 2003, I voted for the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliations Act, which accelerated some of the provisions in the 2001 tax relief law. I will vote to make these tax relief provisions permanent at every opportunity. The tax relief we passed has been hugely successful in spurring the economy and creating jobs.

The national economy has enjoyed 17 consecutive quarters of economic growth, including an overall growth rate of 3.5 percent in 2005. Since August 2003, the economy has created more than 5.1 million new jobs – and the current unemployment rate is 5.0 percent– lower than the average of the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. In the current environment, with the threat of a real downturn ahead, the very worst thing we could do today is to raise taxes.

War on Terror


The most important responsibility of the federal government is to “provide for the common defense” of the American people by protecting them from attacks from hostile nations or terrorist organizations. On the morning of September 11, 2001, this responsibility took on a new urgency, as thousands of innocent men and women were killed, just for being Americans.

While mistakes have been made in the prosecution of the war in Iraq, I have supported our country’s efforts to keep terrorists on defense by going after them where they live and organize. I believe that by fighting them there we can best protect ourselves from another attack here. A stable Iraq would do a lot to advance stability in an area of the world that has been very unstable, oppressive and aggressive. That would strengthen our ability to contain other threats such as Iran.

While acknowledging that mistakes have been made, the biggest mistake of all would be to pull out now. The surge is working; political and economic progress is increasing and we should not undercut all we and the Iraqis have done by leaving too soon.
Having said that, I am not for an endless war in Iraq, nor for a blank check to the Iraqis for rebuilding. We must hold them accountable for the long-term stability of their country, both militarily and fiscally.

The brave actions of our Armed Forces have enabled 50 million people in Afghanistan and Iraq to have a voice in the direction of their countries. I am extremely hopeful these two nations will be important allies in our fight against extremism for a long time to come.

Education


Since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, schools and teachers have been held accountable for raising student achievement and ensuring that our tax dollars are being used to effectively improve our children’s education. As a result, I am pleased that we are seeing higher achievement scores in Jefferson County and around the country. Last year, nationally, fourth and eighth graders achieved the highest math scores on record. In the past seven years, Kentucky has seen a seven percent increase in the number of eighth-grade public school students who are proficient at math. NCLB has led to an increase in federal education spending and better results for our children.

However, that does not mean that we should not make adjustments that are warranted. Testing should be fair, efficient and accurate. There are changes in the testing system that need to be made.

Adoption


Over the years, I have been committed to making the adoption process quicker and more affordable for families.

As we saw through tragedies like the tsunami in 2004 and the onset of SARS in 2003, there are sometimes unforeseen crises which hinder international adoptions or create greater numbers of orphans. With the SARS scare, many families found themselves missing procedural deadlines in the final stages of their international adoptions from countries like China, which could have stopped their efforts and forced them to start the long process over from the beginning. I was pleased to have led the effort to extend deadlines for those U.S. families.

In January, 2002, I traveled to China to discuss China’s intention to reduce international adoption opportunities to American families. After meeting with high-level Chinese officials, including then-Chinese President, Jiang Ze Min, they subsequently increased adoptions to our country. As I said at the time, “This fact finding trip was an important step in maintaining and building relations with the adoption community in China.” It helped keep the doors open for American families.

While the decision to adopt is a matter of the heart, it is also expensive. Families can spend anywhere from $10,000 to $30,000, or more to adopt a child. In the past, I was a regular co-sponsor of the Adoption Tax Relief Guarantee Act, which would make the current adoption tax credit permanent. This tax credit has allowed thousands of families the opportunity to adopt a child into a loving family.

Healthcare


The cost of health care is by far the biggest concern of constituents I talk with in Louisville. Whether you are an individual, family, small business owner, or a large company like UPS, General Electric or Ford Motor Company, the cost of health insurance hurts employee’s monthly incomes and prevents businesses from being able to expand, hire more workers and stay competitive. We currently have the highest quality health care system in the world, but rising costs continue to hurt families and stifle economic expansion.

Here are a few steps we should take immediately:

  1. Allow individuals to buy catastrophic policies without all the mandates that drive up the cost. This would serve as a stopgap for families, giving them the comfort of knowing that they would not lose everything in case of serious illness.
  2. Make the cost of health insurance fully tax deductible and work to create and then increase every year a tax credit for individuals and families who purchase their own insurance. This would allow continuouys coverage for workers and allow them more mobility as they increasingly change jobs and as fewer small businesses are able to provide insurance coverage for their employees.
  3. Allow small businesses to band together across state lines (to create larger purchasing groups) to negotiate policies for their workers.
  4. Provide incentives to small businesses to provide catastrophic health insurance to deposit money in their employees’ Health Savings Accounts for day to day use.

Buying Safe Prescription Drugs from Canada


Americans pay up to 1000 percent more to fill their prescriptions than consumers in other countries, we pay the world’s highest prices. I have continued to lead the effort to allow Americans the opportunity to buy safe, effective prescription drugs at lower prices from countries like Canada (known as drug reimportation.) Allowing drug reimportation will bring increased competition to the pharmaceutical market, lowering the costs to all Americans.

We need a drastic revision of our health care system, but turning to a big government, one-size-fits-all program would be just as disastrous as it is in England and Canada. The first thing we need to understand is that we all pay for healthcare one way or another, either through increased costs of products manufactured by companies paying for their employee’s health care, or through Medicare and Medicaid taxes, or through increased hospital and medical costs incurred by providers who take care of the poor and uninsured.

We need to come to grips with the fact that medical care is a right, not a privilege. Once that decision is made, then we only need to decide what is the fairest way to provide it, and what is the most efficient way to provide it. Ideally, this would involve providing everyone with a certain amount of money, either through tax credits or reimbursement, to buy the type of insurance policy that they need, unfettered by state mandates on what must be covered.

Immigration


Immigration is one of the most explosive issues of our day. When Congress dealt with this issue on a broad scale in 1986, there were about four million illegal immigrants in this country. Now, we have 11 million. By any standard, that qualifies as having a broken system that must be reformed.

First, we must effectively and completely stop illegal immigrants from coming across the border. In Congress, I have voted to make a closed border our top priority. We need to build a wall, install electronic surveillance and hold employers accountable for hiring only legal immigrants. Additionally, we need to increase the penalty for smuggling aliens, as well as end the self-defeating practice of “catch and release.” Otherwise, we are right back where we were in 1986, when Congress provided sweeping amnesty without a commitment to border security or enforcing the ban on hiring illegals.

Once the border is closed, I could support an expanded guest worker program, where many more of those who want to come here for only part of the year, especially the summer months which are so important to our agriculture communities, are able to do so. The program must use every technology available, like thumbprints and other biometrics, to avoid fraud and abuse.

Of course, once we effectively and completely close our borders to illegal immigration, we are still left to deal with the 11 million people who are here illegally. I oppose amnesty, but because mass deportation is not plausible, I am open to discussing a path to citizenship, but only for those who truly want to become Americans. I feel strongly that potential citizenship would only be possible for those who: learn the English language; are self-sustaining or sponsored by an employer, (in order to avoid becoming a dependent of the state and becoming a financial burden on our hospitals, schools, and other social services); obey our laws and stay crime free for a set number of years; pay taxes; pay a penalty for being here illegally; and “get in the back of the line, ” so as not to punish immigrants who have played by the rules all along.

Energy


High energy prices are affecting everyone right now. Rising transportation costs are taking more money out of American pockets than ever before. Our country needs to become energy independent. We can’t be beholden to foreign countries or cartels for our energy.

While energy independence isn’t possible tomorrow, we must start immediately to reach that goal. While we are working toward those ends, we need to take advantage of our own resources: build new nuclear reactors, invest in research and collaborate with efforts to use clean coal technologies both for power plants and a substitute fuel for oil, develop hydrogen as an energy source and use the most abundant energy source in the galaxy – the sun, to lessen our dependence on foreign energy. Additionally we need to tap into our oil reserves in Alaska and the Gulf, and streamline the regulations for new and expanded refineries.

There isn’t just one solution to rising energy costs, but by using our resources, and continuing to research and develop new technology, we can become energy independent.

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