HOLLINGSWORTH POSITION STATEMENT
March 1, 2008

IDAHO REPUBLICAN PLATFORM - Jim Hollingsworth unreservedly supports the Idaho Republican Party Platform (June 17, 2006),

RIGHT TO LIVE - Jim Hollingsworth believes that everyone is a distinct person from conception until natural death and as such is protected by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution.

PRIVATE PROPERTY -Jim Hollingsworth believes that the U.S. and Idaho Constitutions clearly protect the right of each person to own and enjoy the fruits of his own property without undue government restrictions.

GUN CONTROL - Jim Hollingsworth opposes any effort to register or otherwise infringe the right of the people to keep and bear arms as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

PUBLIC SCHOOLS - Jim Hollingsworth appreciates the efforts of our many fine public school teachers and administrators and supports efforts to eliminate unnecessary activities from the school day to make teaching easier and more rewarding. He also supports quality education that takes place in a disciplined and safe environment.

PRIVATE, PAROCHIAL, AND HOME SCHOOLS - Jim Hollingsworth believes it is the right of every American to place his child in a private or parochial school, or to teach him at home.

SCHOOL CHOICE - Jim Hollingsworth recognizes that where school choice has been permitted in other states the education has improved. School choice includes moving from school to school within the district, moving to a school in another district, charter schools, private and parochial schools, as well as home schools. He also supports the use of universal tuition tax credits to make school choice available to every student in Idaho.

TEACHER TRAINING AND CERTIFICATION - Jim Hollingsworth supports changes in Idaho State Teacher Certification Requirements such that those who are qualified may be able to teach without first having to obtain a degree in education or take additional education classes.

TEACHER COMPENSATION - Jim Hollingsworth believes in competitive teacher salaries and that compensation should be based on experience and merit. He recognizes that it may be necessary to pay some teachers more because of the scarcity of available teachers in that subject area.

NATURAL RESOURCES – Idaho has abundant natural resources. These must be made available to all the people in Idaho and not just a few. Jim Hollingsworth supports use of public lands for logging, mining, hunting, grazing and recreation without serious restrictions.

TAXATION - Jim Hollingsworth unreservedly supports the Idaho Republican Party Platform plank on limited government. The only practical way to limit government is by limiting taxation. Jim Hollingsworth is opposed to any increase in taxation and believes that all new and/or temporary taxes should be permitted to sunset as planned.

GOVERNMENT GROWTH – Our world is filled with varied and abundant need. There is a tendency for government to try and meet that need. Thus government has grown larger and larger with each passing year. Jim Hollingsworth believes that many of the things done by government are in direct violation of the U.S. Constitution. Others are simply impractical; they begin small but they continue to grow. Jim Hollingsworth believes that all existing government programs must be evaluated to see if they can better be done by private initiative, or by a smaller unit of government.

SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE – Every day seems to bring some new challenge in the area of separation of church and state. While this statement is nowhere found in the U.S. Constitution (made privately by Thomas Jefferson) it was well understood at our founding. Today it has come to mean “Separation of God and State” which was not the intent of our founders. While God is not mentioned in the Constitution, the importance of a Divine Presence was noted in the Declaration of Independence and other early American documents, and was taken for granted by the citizens at that time. Jim Hollingsworth encourages every effort to Keep God in our Pledge, on our Money and on our Public Buildings. Jim Hollingsworth believes that the First Amendment was written to protect the people from their government, not to protect the government from the people.

MARRIAGE - Jim Hollingsworth recognizes the traditional definition of marriage as between one man and one woman. He discourages any public policy or teaching which makes any other social relationship acceptable. Every person, regardless of sexual persuasion, or personal background has the same right that anyone else has to marry and raise a family. We cannot support any special rights for “gays”.

FREE ENTERPRISE AND CAPITALISM - Jim Hollingsworth believes our economic system of free enterprise is the best ever developed in the history of man. Our nation has prospered because each worker obtains the benefit of his labor and through savings (capital) new endeavors are produced.

INCOME TAX - No tax is ever popular, but a tax on income dampens output and reduces production. Jim Hollingsworth believes the income tax rates should be reduced, with ultimate plans to eliminate the tax altogether.

PROPERTY TAXES - Jim Hollingsworth believes that property taxes should be reduced wherever possible. Even though it makes sense to finance local projects with property taxes, high property tax rates make it very difficult for people on fixed incomes to hold onto their property.

BUSINESS AND GOOD PAYING JOBS – While the government cannot create private sector jobs, it can do a lot to discourage investment and business. Jim Hollingsworth believes we should do all we can to maintain a business friendly tax structure and keep regulation of business to a minimum.

AFFORDABLE HOUSING – Everyone is concerned about housing for the homeless and affordable housing for the workforce. Jim Hollingsworth believes that the cost of housing is mostly a product of market conditions. Jim Hollingsworth also believes that public policies ought to encourage construction of suitable housing for all concerned.

FARMING - Jim Hollingsworth recognizes the great contribution farming makes to our state. We need to continue policies that make farming profitable and rewarding.

PREDATORY WOLVES – Wolves are very beautiful in their natural environment, but these are not small dogs like coyotes.  These are man-sized animals that have large litters and multiply very rapidly.  It was probably a mistake to re-introduce them to Idaho, as they really have no natural enemies; they can bring down even the largest bull elk.  Ranchers need to maintain the right to kill any wolves harming stock, and there needs to be continuing efforts to reduce and control the wolf population.

Articles in the Coeur d'Alene Press
Wolf 'reintroduction' still rankles
Environmental groups prepare to fight wolf delisting

IMMIGRATION – America is known as the melting pot of the world. People have come here from all over the world. Many impoverished people have been attracted to America as a place to earn a decent living. Jim Hollingsworth supports any program that will reduce the number of illegal aliens who enter this country, or aliens who overstay their time here. He also believes that we need a reasonable program to use foreign workers in our agricultural and other programs, but that birth to an illegal alien must not be recognized as legal basis of citizenship. No government benefit should be granted to any illegal alien.

WAR AND ANTI-TERRORISM – As a conservative Jim Hollingsworth believes that a strong and well-prepared defense is the best deterrence to any enemy. It must be recognized, however, that there really are no “victors” in any war. Often many good people die for a cause they do not truly understand. The last declared war was World War II. The last enemy to actually attack us was Japan.

In the War in Iraq we lack a well-defined goal, strategy or any measure of when we have reached our goal. Our stated purpose was to stop the possible use of weapons of mass destruction, but none were ever found. If our goal is to plant “democracy” we are fighting against centuries of other kinds of rule (kingdoms, oligarchies etc). We have a well-defined history of democracy (ours is actually a republic) inherited from England and elsewhere. It seems unlikely that the people of Iraq will ever truly understand our own history.

This war is unpopular to many simply because our borders are very porous, allowing many potential terrorists to enter at will. If we are actually fighting terrorists in Iraq then we need to stop terrorism in its tracks before it enters our own country.

In any serious war, such as WWII, we made sacrifices for that effort. At the moment those in Congress are actually increasing domestic spending, not reducing it. Our debt due to the war is enormous. This cannot continue forever without some balance of reducing other spending. It is almost like the war is not a part of the American economy.

We must also keep in mind that in any war there are losers and there are gainers. Some people are getting very rich out of this war. We ought to turn over more of the reconstruction to the Iraqi people themselves and help them to a developed economy that is not totally dependent on oil.

Jim Hollingsworth believes that since we are not fighting a country, but terrorism in a country, that we ought to concentrate on training Iraqi soldiers to deal with this, and gradually reduce our own presence there. We must remember that we were sworn enemies with Russia (we will bury you), and with China (intent on world domination) yet today we are “very friendly” with these nations. We can develop the same kind of relationship with Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait and other mid-east countries.

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