INFLATION

Inflation is a stealth tax on hard working families, and it falls most heavily on those who can least afford it. Overall, prices have risen almost 20 percent since Joe Biden took office, and the increases have been even higher for basic necessities like gas, electricity, and groceries. Wages have failed to keep up, meaning that American workers are significantly worse off financially than they were under President Trump.

Joe Biden and the Democrats have laughed off the hardship caused by their inflationary policies, which include trillions of dollars in deficit spending and a war on American energy. They have spent lavishly on benefits for illegal immigrants while leaving paycheck-to-paycheck workers struggling. They’re even proposing massive tax hikes – talk about adding insult to injury. The solution, which I will consistently support in the Senate, is to reduce taxes on American workers, rein in out-of-control spending, and make our tax and regulatory structure more fair so that American businesses can compete on a level playing field against foreign companies.

SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE

Our entitlement programs are on an unsustainable trajectory, and establishment politicians are responding with proposals to cut benefits and raise taxes on American workers. I will NEVER allow them to destroy the programs that millions of Americans depend on. These programs are the last umbrella that our hardworking tax payers have, and have earned these rights.

We must protect our entitlement programs and ensure they remain available to both current recipients and future generations. Our government made a solemn promise to the American people, and I will make sure that promise is never broken.

HEALTHCARE

Everybody agrees that our healthcare system is broken. For decades, healthcare prices have significantly outpaced inflation, eating up an ever-larger share of household and government budgets alike. Throwing more money at the problem isn’t a viable solution. Providing free healthcare for people who have not paid into our American system is not sustainable. What we really need are free market solutions, which will bring prices down without sacrificing quality of care.

The only effective way to bring down healthcare prices is to make the entire system more accountable and more transparent. No more backroom deals and secret “rebates” that line the pockets of wealthy corporate executives at the expense of the sick and the elderly. Our healthcare system is enormously complex and convoluted – and that’s by design. We need to break down the barriers that keep ordinary people from knowing how much they actually pay for treatments and medications, and allow the free market to reward efficiency and effectiveness.

crime

Every American should be able to feel safe in their own homes and neighborhoods. Sadly, for millions of Americans, this is not the case. Defunding the police, demonizing law enforcement, and restricting prosecution of property crime are making a bad situation worse. Meanwhile, rogue prosecutors are handing out “Get Out of Jail Free” cards to violent criminals, illegal aliens, and serial offenders. The predictable result of these soft-on-crime policies is devastation for urban and suburban communities, where law-abiding citizens now live in fear and local economies are being hollowed out by the exodus of reputable businesses.

As your senator, I will support increased federal assistance for state and local law enforcement agencies so they can re-staff, re-equip, and re-train to do the best possible job keeping the American people safe and secure.

Border Security

Joe Biden’s open-borders policies have created a social, humanitarian, and economic crisis of historic proportions. At least 8 million illegal immigrants – including hundreds of individuals on the FBI Terrorist Watch List – have entered the country in just three years, straining local budgets, overwhelming public services, and contributing to surging crime in our cities. The fentanyl crisis continues to rage unabated, fueled by industrial-scale smuggling across the undefended southern border. Meanwhile, open borders provide a haven for human traffickers to victimize women and girls on both sides of the border. This is 100% the result of the Biden administration’s refusal to enforce existing immigration laws, and its determination to thwart efforts by the states to safeguard their own borders.

The border was secure when Trump was president. It’s not secure now. We need to reinstate the effective policies that we had under Trump, including the Migrant Protection Protocols (Remain in Mexico), border wall construction, and rigorous screening of asylum claimants. We also need to undo Biden’s reallocation of Border Patrol funding from agents to administrators, which has made the border more dangerous for officers and migrants alike. These policies are good for the American people, and they’re good for migrants. They’re also more humane than Joe Biden’s failed open-borders agenda, which has contributed to the disappearance of thousands of migrants who never even made it to the border.

We can embrace the positive contributions of legal immigrants while standing up for our national sovereignty. Sadly, open borders and sanctuary policies are harming migrants and U.S. citizens alike. Benefits for illegal immigrants are outpacing the benefits for native-born homeless and homeless veterans, creating unrealistic expectations that encourage even more illegal immigration while depriving needy Americans of resources that could help them get back on their feet. We need to fix our priorities. It’s just a matter of putting America first. 

Foreign Affairs

The bipartisan “forever wars” of the past two decades are an unequivocal failure. They have not made America safer, and they have added trillions of dollars to our already-unsustainable national debt. President Trump showed us that it’s still possible to stand up for America’s interests without sending our sons and daughters to die in wars with no clear purpose or exit strategy. “Peace through strength” still works, but it requires leaders with real backbone.

The same goes for our allies. While we should absolutely stand up for our allies, and even support them financially or logistically when prudent, we cannot continue to be the piggy bank of the Western world. We should continue selling Taiwan the weapons it needs to deter Chinese aggression, but we should also insist that our allies in Europe put their money where their mouths are and pick up some of the slack when it comes to supporting Ukraine.

“Gold Bar Bob” Menendez, as head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, helped lead us into our current situation, even while he took cash in exchange for favors benefitting his cronies and foreign governments. We need to leave behind the crusading globalism of the Biden-Menendez-Murphy administration in favor of a foreign policy that puts America First.

Economy

Inflation is the single biggest problem for most working families. Hard working families in New Jersey and across the country are struggling to fill their gas tanks, put food on the table, and clothe their children. You can decide not to take a vacation, but you can’t decide not to feed or clothe your kids.

The reason inflation got so bad is because of trillions of dollars in unnecessary government spending and reckless money-printing. We need to cut government spending and let the market stabilize prices. We also need an all-of-the-above energy strategy that includes renewable energy. We shouldn’t be shutting down pipelines or cutting off coal production before renewable replacements have even been developed. This is another example of how there’s no planning in the Biden-Menendez-Murphy cabal.

Structurally, another big problem is that our governing elites collude with corporate elites to unfairly benefit foreign companies and multinational corporations at the expense of Main Street businesses. I know Main Street. My mom was a small business owner, and I followed in her footsteps. I also spent years working within the government to help small businesses succeed. I’ll work hard to make sure that small and medium-sized businesses are able to compete on a level playing field.

That also applies to international trade. I’m all for free trade, as long as it’s also fair trade. When countries like China try to take advantage of us to the detriment of American workers and businesses, we should impose harsh tariffs and sanctions until they agree to play by the rules.

Support for Israel

America should never waver in supporting our most important ally as they seek permanent peace and security, including eradicating Hamas terrorists from Gaza permanently, and our leaders should not tolerate or encourage anti-Semitism of any kind, especially from U.S. Visa holders on our college campuses.

The U.S.-Israel alliance is mutually beneficial and co-equal – a strong and secure Israel promotes regional stability which safeguards U.S. interests. We should continue to strengthen our alliance with Israel with common-sense policies such as recognizing and affirming Israel’s right to exist as a sovereign nation, properly identifying terrorist groups that target Israel, and cutting off funding to organizations that collaborate with anti-Israel terrorists.

ANTI-SEMITISM

We should adopt, as a matter of official policy, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism, and recognize that Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) is an anti-Semitic hate movement. Congress should also hold campus administrators responsible for enforcing codes of conduct equally. If it’s “hate speech” when directed against Blacks or LGBTQ individuals, then it’s hate speech when directed against Jews.

IRAN

I strongly oppose the Iran nuclear deal, and strongly support sanctions against the totalitarian regime in Tehran. The U.S. should be using every tool at its disposal to expose and thwart Iran’s nuclear ambitions, and work with allies such as Israel when it is advantageous to do so. We should hold Tehran directly responsible for attacks on American troops by proxy groups that we know are supported financially and logistically by Iran.