Question for the candidates: Scott Bradley (C)

Candidate Questionnaire: Scott Bradley (C)1. What is your top priority for the United States?I seek a restoration to the sound foundation of liberty and proper government which was established as this nation was established, including the following principles:

1. God is the source of mankind's rights
2. The Purpose of government is to preserve our God-given rights
3. The written words of our Constitution have meaning, and those meanings may be known. They are considered a written binding contract, and a sacred oath is taken by ALL who hold office to live by that contract
4. The powers granted to the national government are specifically limited to the powers enumerated within the Constitution, and none else
5. The Constitution established checks and balances which must be held inviolate if we are to prevent usurpation and tyranny in this nation
   1. The constitutionally established separation of powers must be maintained within the structure of the national government
6. The powers delegated by the people to the respective branches or departments of the national government may not be re-delegated across those branches or departments, or to international bodies. The United States Constitution is the charter of the nation which defines the limits of the scope and bounds of the powers granted to the national government; and it assigns the duties of those charged with carrying out that assignment of power. History has demonstrated that strict adherence to the plain English words of our Constitution is essential to restoring this nation to its status as the greatest, freest, strongest, most prosperous, and most happy nation on earth. For most of the 20th Century, and all of the 21st Century the leadership of both the major political parties of this nation have "tag-teamed" their efforts to stray from those principles. It is time for a restoration of the foundation principles upon which this nation was established. It is my intention to do all I can to bring that restoration about so we may preserve this nation for ourselves and our posterity.
   1. Describe your solution to the U.S. illegal immigration problem. What specifically should be done about the over 10-million illegal immigrants who are now in the United States? Do you favor or oppose some kind of pathway to legal status for the current illegal immigrants?As they wrote the United States Constitution, the founders of this nation delegated to the United States Congress the authority to deal with the issue of immigration and naturalization: "The Congress shall have Power... To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization..." (The United States Constitution, Article I, Section 8, clause 4) In addition, the responsibilities of the national government in protecting the States from invasion are clearly defined within the United States Constitution: "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion..." (United States Constitution, Article IV, section 4) By any reasonable definition, the current influx of illegal aliens must be considered an invasion. Many millions have illegally entered this nation, and they do not expect to leave. These growing numbers, with the entitlement mentality they bring here from their homelands, threaten the political philosophies of limited government upon which this nation was established. With the influence of these philosophies, which are foreign to the concepts upon which this nation was established, there are growing dangers that the "Americanst" political philosophies of limited governments will be further undermined and destroyed. The Americanist concepts of a limited Constitutional Republic may ultimately be overthrown as illegal immigrants seek to inject into the legislative process the political concepts they partook of in their home country. The "Republican Form of Government" of both the States and the nation may be in danger. The integrity and protection of the international borders of the nation must be maintained. No "right of migration" exists for foreign nationals to enter the nation under terms other than those defined by Congress, and Congress has a duty to establish terms which protect the sovereignty of the nation and its established form of limited Constitutional Government. History bears solemn witness that any nation which cannot or will not maintain the integrity of its borders will not long remain a sovereign nation. History abounds with numerous examples, both in ancient times, as well as in modern times, of this unequivocal truth. If the United States is to remain a free and independent nation under the United States Constitution, it must immediately secure its international borders. For the last several presidential administrations, including both houses of congress, regardless of their party affiliation, the leadership of the United States has apparently had greater interest in preserving the border integrity of South Korea against North Korea, Iraq against Iran, Afghanistan against Pakistan, and numerous other nations than they have had in preserving the border integrity of the United States. We have expended hundreds of billions of dollars, and thousands of American lives in the effort to protect the borders of those other nations, while our borders have been porous sieves to anyone who wanted to enter (including the international terrorists our leaders tell us are waging a generational war against anything American). The nation must immediately secure our border by whatever means necessary, including deployment of U.S. military forces that we have so freely deployed to foreign soils for the same purposes overseas. The U.S. military's purpose is to protect this nation. That includes the nation's borders. Public notification must be made that those who are currently in the United States illegally will be given a reasonable length of time to liquidate the assets they hold in the United States (three to six months), and leave the country. They will then be allowed to go to the end of the line back in their home countries and follow the rules for legal immigration which the U.S. Congress defines. And once they have met those criteria, they may apply to come to this country legally. Those illegals who are discovered remaining in this nation after the grace period will be arrested, and they will be deported from the country with no possibility of applying for legal entry in the future. Remember, they are not being sent to a gulag. They are being sent home. There they may work to bring about the changes in their home country that will allow their home country to replicate the circumstances they so desire in this nation.
   2. Do you support the Affordable Care Act (health care reform)? If not, how would you fix America's health care crisis?I did not and do not support President Obama's unconstitutional health care "reform" (take-over). I am appalled that such an action was taken, and continues to be the constitutionally bankrupt policy of a national leadership run amuck. It is simply a continuation of the unconstitutional policies and actions carried out by others of both the major political parties, which could be typified in the examples found in the passage of the Republican-led Medicare Prescription Drug Plan, and the implementation of "Romneycare" in Massachusetts. Romneycare was simply the blueprint or template for Obamacare, and both plans are gross usurpations and abuse of government power. Both violate the base-line "Americanist" principles upon which this nation was founded. Other perverse "substitute" healthcare "reform" approaches offered by the "opposite" party are equally wrong in that they inject the national government into a constitutionally prohibited realm. It would seem from the confusing mass of party-based proposals that the "prime directive" of both the major political parties is to vote against the opposite party, not to adhere to the Constitutional limits they took an oath to support. The so-called "Obamacare" must be resisted at all levels. States must legislate against its application within their boundaries, court cases must be filed to protect and enforce that legislation, States must simply say "NO," and every effort must be made within the U.S. House and Senate to repeal this gross violation of the U.S. Constitution, and congress must exercise their constitutional prerogative to prevent its application by withholding funds for its implementation (see US Constitution Article I, Section 7, clause 1; and Article I, Section 9, clause 7). Just as the United States Constitution grants no authority for the national government to be involved in health care, State-directed health care is likewise a usurpation of individual rights. The United States Constitution (Article I, Section 10, clause 1) prohibits the States from "impairing the Obligation of Contracts." Individuals and their healthcare providers are free to work out their own arrangements. Health care is best left in the hands of individual people who will work out their own challenges. Government does not need to be involved on any level. Let the free market operate as it always has in the United States before the government (all levels of government—federal, State, and local) began to onerously encroach on the lives, liberties, and properties of all Americans. We must get government out of the way so Americans may choose their own path. And we must not forget that there is overwhelming evidence that individual Americans have historically been, and continue to be, the most generous and caring group of people on the earth, so the truly needy need not go without care. Free-will offerings of funds and services by free Americans are the duty of all who have the means (not government-coerced and enforced "charity").
   3. What can be done to improve the U.S. economy? How will you help?Virtually all of the economic woes currently facing the nation can be attributed to the nation's abandonment of the sound principles (and limits) imposed upon the national government by the United States Constitution. The original formula of soundly founded economics have been set aside, and government bureaucrats have come to rule the economy and the nation. The words of the Declaration of Independence ring in our ears as though a modern warning: "He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance." Government is not the solution, government is the problem. Imposing more government "solutions" will only further destroy the few vestiges of a sound economy which remain. Today's politicians have buried the nation in debt. They have done this by ignoring the constitutional limits of their power, acting as though they have power to tax and spend for any whim that strikes them. They tax trillions of hard-earned dollars each year from the citizens of this land, only to spend hundreds of billions (and even trillions) more each year than they collect. Sadly, most of the spending is not authorized by the United States Constitution. This generation, and unborn generations of Utahans (indeed all Americans), are adversely impinged upon by unconstitutional federal entitlement programs which are draining the life out of our current livelihood. In a very short period of time the deleterious effects of these unconstitutional federal entitlement programs will accelerate dramatically, resulting in a bondage to the government which vastly exceeds anything experienced to date in this nation, and certainly beyond anything experienced by those we call the American Founding Fathers. Federal entitlement programs are unconstitutional. They must ultimately be eliminated. Time will be necessary to "wean" people from the long-entrenched programs. All such programs must be "frozen" at current levels, and receive no further increases or expansion of scope. "Sunset"dates must be set upon all programs which do not currently have closure dates, and each year a real reduction in funding to programs must be legislated, with a "straight line" year-by-year diminishment of the program to its demise. No new entitlements are to be created. The current abominable "Obamacare" package should pass from existence without ever being implemented. A sound economic system, as established by the American Founding Fathers, with an honest money system that is not based upon fiat debt-based money must be restored if the nation is to ever regain its economic footing. Among other things, this would require the repeal of the 1913 Federal Reserve Act which created the private for-profit banking consortium that controls the U.S. economy. The Federal Reserve must immediately be audited by a competent independent organization that could perform a comprehensive review and make an honest, complete, and straightforward report of the findings to the American people. The destructive inflationary forces promoted by the Fed and our profligate national government will be exposed by such an audit. Then the Fed must be abolished and the nation returned to an honest money system as originally established at the time the nation was founded (see the Coinage Act of 1792). The current Marxist formula of a graduated income tax must be abolished, including the ill-advised 16th Amendment, and the taxing formula originally defined within the United States Constitution must be reimplemented. Numerous other examples of egregious departures from the plain English words of the United States Constitution could be cited in detail as current burdens on our economy and people (such as unremitting undeclared foreign wars and international adventurism; efforts to redistribute American taxpayer's hard-earned wealth to foreign powers, corporate moguls, States, counties, municipalities, and individuals; injecting the national government into the education system; subverting the nation's sovereignty by granting supranational organizations power over our trade, monetary, and other matters; seizure by the national government of America's industrial and financial base; onerous regulatory burdens placed upon virtual every aspect of the American economy; confiscatory taxation; efforts to seize control of every aspect of the environment, including the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, and the energy we use to sustain us; etc.; etc.; etc.), but perhaps the foregoing brief notations will suffice to demonstrate how far the nation's leadership has strayed from the sound foundation of proper government which was bequeathed to us at such great cost. The solution is a return to the constraints of power on the federal government which exist within the United States Constitution. The problem is not with the Constitution. The Constitution is not flawed. It does not need to be changed. The problem is that we have stopped applying the Constitution. We do not have to amend the Constitution to solve this problem. The solution is to begin again to abide within the constraints so carefully defined within the plain English words of the United States Constitution. James Madison stated that the powers of the national government were "few and well defined." Perhaps, when the people of the nation again understand that fact, the nation's leadership will be compelled to abide by their oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States. The essential element is having an electorate (which is soundly founded in constitutional principle) install (through the election process) a national leadership (house, senate, executive) that is willing to keep their actions within the bounds established and defined in the plain English words of the United States Constitution. Then the nation's spending blitzkrieg and economic disaster will end. Fundamental changes are necessary to break the cycle of a government that has abandoned all semblance of constitutionality! We must get the government out of the way, and once again allow the true free market to restore prosperity to this nation. I will seek to bring this about.
   4. Utah is famous for its beautiful landscapes. What will you do to protect and promote these areas?Other than for the specific purposes enumerated in the United States Constitution (see Article I, Section 8, clause 17), the national government has no constitutional role to play in land use within Utah. The Constitution defines the constitutional limits of lands to be held by the national government. The holdings of the national government were to be extremely limited, and constrained to specific applications. The Constitution does not grant authority to the national government to be the largest landholder in the nation. The Northwest Ordinance, which was passed in 1787 and repassed once the Constitution was ratified (to assure that it was understood to apply under the newly-constituted national government) defined the original intention that all new States be admitted into the nation on an equal footing with previously admitted States. Originally, as States were admitted, the land within the boundaries of the States was transmitted to the States, or put into the hands of the people, as soon as was practicable. The Western States were denied the privilege of joining the nation on an equal footing with the older States (yes, I am aware that the Western States agreed, under duress, to "grant" the lands to the national government as a term of their admission as a State, but now is the time to correct this injustice). Most of these Western States have spent more than 100 years as "second class" States because true freedom and economic wealth generally originates in the land (minerals, water, timber, agriculture). Returning to the land-use formula which was set forth as this nation was founded would solve the economic crises face by the States, and end forever the energy crisis which is upon us because of our failed foreign policies and government-meddling in our domestic affairs, specifically land-use and ownership. When Utah finally receives ownership and control of the land that has been wrongfully withheld from it for so long, Utah may choose its path in the promotion and/or use of these lands without the interference of the national government. The States need friends in the House and Senate at the national level to help them correct this deficiency which has been their burden for so long.
   5. What are your views on federal funding for embryonic and adult stem cell research?I oppose federally funded embryonic and adult stem cell research:
      a. The power to fund projects of this nature is not a constitutionally enumerated power granted to the national government.
      b. Life is a sacred gift of God. In regards to the concept of performing this type of research on embryos, I take the view that any tampering with the fountains of life is improper. To interfere with any of the processes in the procreation of offspring is to violate one of the most sacred of God's commandments, as well as one of the primary purposes of government—that of protecting life.
      In regards to privately funded medical research on so-called "adult" stem cells: Research indicates that adult stem cells (cells that did not come from a destroyed embryo) hold at least as much promise for medical advancements as does embryo-based research (to date, research results in adult stem cells has indicated that there is no reason to believe that the desired medical advances will in any way be hindered by their "adult" status). Therefore, it is my position that if this type of research is to be pursued, it should be done not with taxpayer dollars, but by private funding.
   6. Are you willing to work with members of other political parties to accomplish changes in Washington?I will seek to work with anyone who seeks to restore the sound foundational principles upon which this nation was established.
   7. What are your views on nuclear testing?Detonation of nuclear weapons devices for testing purposes is no longer necessary. Nuclear energy is essential for America's future energy independence, and must be pursued.
   8. When you are forming an opinion on an issue, who do/will you ask for advice and information?In fulfillment of my sacred oath as a senator to uphold the United States Constitution, I will carefully review the plain English words of the United States Constitution, weighing and measuring any potential action that comes before me by asking three questions:
      a. Is the power to exercise this proposed action granted to the national government in the United States Constitution?
      b. Is the proposed action necessary?
      c. Can the nation afford the cost?
   9. What is the one personal trait/characteristic that you want voters to know about you, and why is that important in this race?I have the highest personal standard of integrity. Applying that characteristic, I will strictly adhere to the standard of liberty and proper government as raised by the Founding Fathers of this nation, to the end that we may preserve the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity.