What is the role of Government?

In the Declaration’s preamble, they told both the world and generations to come that, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.  – That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men…” 

Never has there been a more clear and concise explanation of the true purpose of government.  Government, properly constituted and run, exists to protect our God-given rights.  When we allow government to expand beyond its allowed boundaries, we find our God-given rights, our liberty, in jeopardy. 

Unfortunately, the history of government shows a strong tendency to expand at the expense of our liberty and our economic freedom.  This is why the Founders created a government with three separate branches to check and balance one against another – they understood that power tends to concentrate and that power, once gathered, can threaten liberty.

Unfortunately, today we are living in a time when necessary checks and balances have been severely undermined by the administrative state.  The administrative state, a progressive concept, is a state with a robust regulatory bureaucracy that combines the power of all three branches of government.  We see this concentration of power in federal agencies that have been ceded the ability to make law (called regulations), execute the law and determine guilt or innocence. 

Play related videos below:


Chuck discusses the role of government

Barbara Boxer's $620 Million Air Freshener for Harry Reid

Share this issue online!

print all issues

Jobs, the Economy, Taxes, and Stimulus and your Freedom

Higher taxes and more regulations destroy jobs and reduce freedom while spending borrowed money on a misguided stimulus will only darken our economic future.

Taxes, however necessary, are a claim upon your time by the government. The higher the tax rate, the more of your time you must spend working for the government. In this, one can also make an argument that progressive taxes are unfair, insofar as they result in some people spending more time to complete their obligation to government than others. This is one reason why Chuck supports flatter tax rates with a simplified tax code.

High taxes also threaten liberty by potentially generating huge sums of money that enable large government – a government that appears increasingly unaware of its purpose: to “secure” our “unalienable Rights” including “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Lastly, burdensome taxes and heavy regulations slow the economy, preventing job creation, reducing wealth, and stifling innovation. When people have good jobs, material sufficiency, and are free to create, the world is better off. High taxes in the name of “fairness” may make some feel good, but in truth, such policies simply make us all just suffer together. California is an example of this, with Sen. Barbara Boxer’s ideological allies in Sacramento making California the absolute worst business climate in the nation, according to Forbes magazine. This is why California has one of the most severe unemployment rates in America.

Play related videos below:


Chuck DeVore rises to debate against MASSIVE California Tax Hikes

Stimulus? It's In there!

Share this issue online!

print all issues

What real healthcare reform looks like

American healthcare costs continue to rise faster than the rate of inflation, making health insurance less affordable to Americans. There
are a few basic reasons for this:

• Government and insurance companies, not patients, direct 85% of healthcare dollars.
• True interstate competition among insurance companies does not exist.
• Doctors fearful of malpractice lawsuits must practice defensive, and hence expensive, medicine.

The Federal government-run Medicare system is bankrupt, with some $89 trillion in unfunded liabilities in 2009.

The so-called “public option” favored by President Barack Obama and Senator Barbara Boxer will make the problem worse. Consumers will opt for the taxpayer-subsidized rates offered by the "public option," over the up-front costs of private insurance. When the services offered by private insurance are needed -- for example, swift or advanced treatments traditionally difficult to obtain under government-provided care -- the expense will be greater than if previously accounted for in a pool of insured persons.

The effect of the "public option," then, would be like allowing people to purchase auto insurance after an accident.

There is nothing wrong with the American healthcare system that free markets, and the choice and competition they bring, can’t fix.

I support five major reforms to improve our healthcare system:

• Our tax code should encourage people to buy basic health insurance coverage. The key word here is “encourage,” not
  mandate. With more people in the risk pool, the cost for insurance will decline.
• We should allow accelerated write-offs of information technology (IT) investments in the healthcare industry. U.S. healthcare
  appears to be last holdout in fully applying IT productivity improvements. By using the tax code to incentivize this, rather
  than create a massive, centralized government database, we also reduce privacy concerns.
• Eliminate the foolish use-it-or-lose-it policy that governs flexible-spending accounts (FSAs), and allow everyone to
  establish tax-free health savings accounts (HSAs), so we can all save for healthcare costs.
• Allow interstate competition for insurance coverage. Right now, a Californian cannot buy a health insurance policy written for
  Arizona. Competition reduces costs and provides patient options.
• Encourage tort reform. Doctors practice too much defensive medicine to guard against medical malpractice lawsuits. Tort
  reform is the proper domain of the state, not federal, court system, but there are mechanisms to move tort reform along.

A note about healthcare reform and illegal immigration: any change to the present system must not reward people in America illegally. It isn’t fair to taxpayers and it would encourage more illegal immigration.

America has excellent healthcare. We can improve it by applying free-market principles, not by following the failed big-government
models of Europe, which will make all of us less secure in our liberties while enlarging government and burdening future generations with
crushing debt. Government created many of today’s healthcare problems -- and so it makes no sense to turn to government to solve them.

Play related videos below:


Barbara Boxer's Jagged Little Pill

Chuck DeVore on healthcare and the free market

Share this issue online!

print all issues

America needs America's energy

America has tremendous reserves of energy, but many environmental policies serve to lock our energy up and prevent our using it, making us dangerously dependent on other nations for oil and gas.

Take California, for instance. California produces about 40 percent of the oil it consumes, making California the third biggest oil producing state in America. But environmental restrictions, many of which make no sense in the larger strategic context, have prevented America from accessing the more than 9 billion barrels of oil that we know about off of California’s coast. This oil includes at least 1 billion barrels of oil in California’s territorial waters, those within 3 miles of the shore. This oil can be extracted with modern slant drilling techniques that require no new offshore platforms or manmade islands. With slant drilling, new wells can be sunk a mile or two inland from the coast in areas chosen for minimal environmental impact.

Further, since for the foreseeable future, America will burn oil and use oil for a multitude of products, it makes sense to produce more of our own oil, rather than pay other nations to ship the oil we need in supertankers from the other side of the planet, spewing pollution and greenhouse gases for the entire trip. Plus, America has the strictest environmental rules and the best labor safety laws in the world – it makes far more sense to get at our own oil since oil extraction in other nations is done under more lax rules than in America.

Lastly, every dollar of oil we pump for ourselves is another dollar available for domestic investment – and, potentially, another dollar kept out of the hands of petro-dictatorships or petro-terrorism.

Play related videos below:

Chuck on FoxNews Business' Stuart Varney Show

Glenn Beck on Chuck DeVore and the Orwellian Vote in California


Chuck DeVore featured on NOVA special about California's greenhouse gas reduction law

Relative Risk: Global Warming and Imported Fossil Fuels vs. Nuclear Power

PowerPoint: Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Imported Fossil Fuels and Nuclear Power

Share this issue online!

print all issues

Chuck DeVore on California’s water woes

As a California State Assemblyman, Chuck DeVore understands how important common sense water management is to our state’s growth and economic health. We need clean water for our families, for our farmers, and for our future economic growth. Unfortunately, Sen. Barbara Boxer and her radical environmental allies see control of water as a way to shut down California’s growth. They’ll use any means necessary to prevent added water storage and conveyance to the places it’s needed for farming and to sustain our communities.

We must end the man-made, government-caused drought that has idled about 100,000 acres and devastated farmers on the Central Valley’s West Side.

Chuck DeVore on the other hand, sees adequate supplies of water as absolutely vital for California’s economic health. With better water management, we can sustain our critical farming sector while improving water quality in the sensitive Delta region. We can improve habitat for fish and birds and increase water supplies, if we make water a priority.

Share this issue online!

print all issues

Chuck DeVore has a solid record on sustaining traditional values

Regarding family values, the first rule of government should be to "do no harm." Unfortunately, liberal activist lawmakers, such as Barbara Boxer, as well as liberal judges, are constantly trying to remake society in their vision by using the power of government. If elected U.S. Senator I know my biggest impact on values will be in the votes I make to confirm federal judges. In a prospective judge, I’ll look for those who understand that the role of government is to secure our "unalienable" rights as set forth in the preamble of the Declaration of Independence and that the Judicial Branch's role is not to legislate from the bench.

I’m proud to have been one of 18 lawmakers who received a perfect pro-family score from the Capitol Resource Family Impact for voting in 2007-08. Capitol Resource Family Impact runs California's only pro-family state lawmaker ranking. The full score card may be viewed here.

Share this issue online!

print all issues

Chuck has deep experience on defense and foreign policy matters

Chuck DeVore, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army retired Reserve, served as a civilian White House appointee in the Pentagon during the Reagan Administration where he was a Special Assistant for Foreign Affairs. Before his election in 2004, Chuck was vice president of research for an aerospace and defense firm and has firsthand knowledge about America’s hi-tech weapons systems. As a member of the California State Assembly, Chuck has served on the Veterans Affairs Committee and has been named Legislator of the Year by the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion, and the State Commanders' Veterans Council.

While a strong supporter of a robust and modern volunteer military, Chuck has been a consistent skeptic of direct military intervention since the 1980s, preferring instead to encourage those who want freedom and democracy overseas with more indirect methods, if possible. Chuck knows that we neither have enough people or treasure to be a global policeman for decades.

Regarding our current conflicts, we must be define and then achieve victory. If we are not prepared to defeat our enemies, then we should not sacrifice our men and women in uniform to a lost cause.

Play related videos below:


Chuck DeVore on foreign policy

Chuck DeVore on our missile defense

Share this issue online!

print all issues

DeVore's record on securing borders stands in stark contrast to Senator Boxer's failed policies

Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, unlike Senator Barbara Boxer, has been a consistent supporter of completing a border fence along our southern border. Every nation has a sovereign right to secure its borders against the threat of drug, weapon, and human smuggling.

Chuck believes that any changes to our immigration laws must be fair to those who are following the rules overseas while honoring rule of law. Allowing a mass amnesty would violate these principles and would be grossly unfair to people living overseas who have been patiently following the rules in trying to come to America legally.

Once we get control of the borders, it is important to review our present system for issuing work visas, especially as it relates to California's critical agricultural sector.

As an experienced lawmaker, Chuck has introduced bills to reduce incentives, such as government subsidies, for illegal immigrants to decide to live in California.

Share this issue online!

print all issues

Chuck DeVore takes on his opponent Carly Fiorina on her proposed regulation of the Internet

Former HP CEO Carly Fiorina wants to be a U.S. Senator. At a Web 2.0 conference in October 2009 she called for regulation of speech on the Internet, saying that the Internet cannot continue to be the "Wild Wild West." Fiorina's proposal for content restrictions on the Web represents an unconstitutional infringement of our First Amendment rights. California State Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, the conservative Republican candidate against Sen. Barbara Boxer, disagrees with Fiorina's proposed regulation of the Internet. As a U.S. Army officer and a state lawmaker, he has sworn an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America -- and that includes the First Amendment. Watch the video by clicking on the video to the right.

Chuck DeVore on the Second Amendment and the right to bear arms

I believe the U.S. Constitution confers an individual right to keep and bear arms.

The Bill of Rights’ Second Amendment is clear:

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

The founders believed that armed people were citizens while an unarmed public were subjects. They believed the people themselves were the best bulwark against tyranny.

My own record over three terms in the California State legislature shows that I back my beliefs up with votes.

This is easy for me. Not only am I following my oath to support and defend the U.S. Constitution when I vote against bills that infringe on the liberties of law-abiding citizens, but, reams of data show that strict gun control laws do not reduce crime. In fact, numerous case studies show the opposite: that when gun control laws go into effect, law-abiding people are put at the mercy of gun-toting criminals.

Carly Fiorina on the First Amendment: Regulate it

Share this issue online!

print all issues