Questions To Ask Presidential Candidates

Questions To Ask Presidential Candidates

The Phyllis Schlafly Report January 2007

The 2008 presidential campaign has begun. Candidates are already making appearances around the country, especially in early-primary and early-caucus states. Voters should evaluate policies and promises in order to determine who are the real conservatives. Here are questions that grassroots citizens should require candidates to answer — along with follow-up questions (marked below with •) so you can pin them down and prevent them from responding with generalities and hot air. This list of questions is a work-in-progress, and you are invited to send additional questions to the Phyllis Schlafly Report so we can provide updates.

Supremacist Judges Legislating from the Bench

Will you sign a law withdrawing federal court jurisdiction over attempts to prevent the acknowledgment of God in all public places (such as the Pledge of Allegiance in schools and displays of the Ten Commandments)?
What steps will you take to protect and defend traditional marriage?

Will you actively support a federal marriage amendment?
Will you sign a law limiting federal court jurisdiction over DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act)?
Will you promise that, under your administration, the 1,138 federal laws identified by the GAO as affecting the rights of husbands and wives remain in full compliance with the federal DOMA law?

Will you sign a law withdrawing federal court jurisdiction over attempts to banish the Boy Scouts from public schools and public property?
Will you sign a law to repeal the law that allows the ACLU to collect attorney's fees from local governments and school boards every time they win a case against the Pledge of Allegiance, the Ten Commandments, a cross, or the Boy Scouts?
What is your plan to deal with the federal court decision (Fields v. Palmdale) that parents' fundamental right to control the upbringing of their children "does not extend beyond the threshold of the school door," and that a public school has the right to provide its students with "whatever information it wishes to provide, sexual or otherwise"?

Since the Supreme Court refused to review this case, will you support parents' rights through amendments to federal appropriations to public schools?
The Federal Government gives about $60 billion a year to public schools. Will you use that money power to protect parents' rights against federal court decisions of the last two years that upheld the right of public schools to indoctrinate students in the Muslim religion, to force students to attend pro-homosexual classes and programs, to use classroom materials that parents consider pornographic, to force students to answer nosy questionnaires with suggestive questions about sex, drugs and suicide, and to censor any mention of Intelligent Design?
Will you support parents' rights to refuse government mental health screening of their children?
Will you support parents' rights to refuse Ritalin and other prescription drugs for their public school children?

How do you propose to protect private property from the Supreme Court Kelo decision, which allows government to use eminent-domain power to take private property away from one person and give it to another who will pay higher taxes?

Border Security and Immigration

Do you consider it a presidential duty to prevent illegal entry into our country?
Will you use whatever means necessary to close our borders to illegal aliens and illegal drugs, including electronic fences and National Guard troops?
Since most illegal drugs come across our southern border, will you require visual inspection of the contents of at least 50% of trucks coming across our border (instead of just 1% to 2%)?
What is your plan to stop the entry of the 85% of illegal drugs that come over our southern border?
Will you pardon the two Border Patrol agents who stopped an illegal alien from bringing in a million dollars worth of illegal drugs, and now face 11- and 12-year sentences while the drug smuggler was given immunity from prosecution?
Last year, the Senate passed the Secure Fence Act 80-19, the House passed it 283-138, and we saw President Bush on television signing it into law. Now we are told the fence will never be built. Do you intend to obey the Secure Fence Act and order a fence built on our southern border?

Nobody ever said a fence is a total solution — we also need employee verification and entry-exit tracking. But the fence is part of the solution. Are you going to obey the fence law?
A fence seems to work quite well around the White House, even though every few months somebody climbs over it. Do you favor getting rid of the fence around the White House because it doesn't offer 100% protection?

Will you veto any plan to put illegal aliens on a path to citizenship without going home and getting in line for lawful immigration?

Why do you think some politicians keep telling us that putting illegals on a "path to citizenship" is not amnesty? Do they really think we are too stupid to see that it's just the same thing?

Will you veto any plan to put illegal aliens into our Social Security system under the State Department plan called "totalization"? That would bankrupt the system just when baby boomers are retiring.

Illegal aliens do not deserve to get Social Security benefits. The 40% of illegals who work in the underground economy don't pay any Social Security taxes. Illegal aliens who do pay under a phony or stolen Social Security number are doing something illegal (and should not be rewarded), and furthermore they have already been reimbursed by getting the taxpayer handout called Earned Income Tax Credit. So, will you promise not to put illegal aliens in our Social Security system?
It takes U.S. citizens ten years to qualify for Social Security benefits. The State Department plan to put illegal aliens into our Social Security system would let Mexicans qualify for benefits after only 18 months. What are you going to do to stop this costly ripoff from happening?

Will you veto any plan to bring in more foreigners called "guest workers" to take American jobs?

If not, how many so-called "guest workers" do you plan to bring in?
Do you plan for "guest workers" to get U.S. citizenship, or to go home when their visa expires?
How are you going to force the "guests" to leave when their visa expires — force them on buses?
Since "guest workers" have never departed from any country that invited them in, what is your proof that "guests" will ever leave the U.S.?

Will you enforce the federal law that makes states stop issuing driver's licenses to illegal aliens?

This is not just a state matter since driver's licenses are what we all must show to board a plane. If we don't prevent the states from issuing driver's licenses to illegal aliens, how do you plan to keep hijackers from boarding planes by showing their driver's licenses, as the 9/11 hijackers did?

Will you enforce U.S. laws prohibiting employers from hiring illegal aliens, and assess appropriate penalties and fines?
Since millions of U.S. citizens have no health insurance, will you sign a bill to repeal the federal requirement that forces hospitals to give free medical care to illegal aliens (an unfunded mandate that has bankrupted many hospitals and increases the price of medical care to Americans)?
After the government arrested illegal aliens working at Swift & Co. meat-packing plants, hundreds of U.S. citizens lined up to apply for the vacated jobs. Last year, when a new Wal-Mart store in suburban Chicago announced that 325 jobs were available, Wal-Mart received an amazing 25,000 applications. Will you now admit it is a lie that illegal aliens take only unpleasant or low-paid jobs that Americans won't take?
Congress ordered the creation of an entry-exit system called US-VISIT back in 1996, and our government spent $1.7 billion to develop the program. In December, the GAO (Government Accountability Office) said an entry-exit system still doesn't exist and the government has abandoned plans to create it. We know that some of the 9/11 hijackers entered the United States legally on visas, and then just never departed when their visas expired. What are you going to do to make sure that visitors leave the U.S. when their time is up?
Will you rescind Clinton's Executive Order 13166 that requires anyone who receives federal funds (such as doctors and hospitals) to provide all services in foreign languages?
Do you favor strict health screening of foreigners entering the U.S. in order to stop the big increase in cases of tuberculosis, malaria, hepatitis B, intestinal parasites, Chagas, and West Nile virus?
Will you sign a repeal of Ted Kennedy's Diversity Visa Lottery, which admits 50,000 aliens per year, mostly from non-Western countries including countries that sponsor terrorism?
If my son attends the University of California, he has to pay at least $10,000 a year extra in out-of-state tuition. California allows illegal aliens to pay about half the tuition price that my son would pay. Will you enforce the federal law that cuts off federal funding to state universities that give lower in-state tuition to illegal aliens?
Will you revoke the citizenship of naturalized citizens who betray their oath of U.S. citizenship by claiming "dual citizenship" with their native country?

"Dual citizenship" cannot be legally shared with an immigrant's native country. The naturalization oath says: "I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen."

What will you do to stop the racket of smuggling very-pregnant aliens into the United States so they can give birth to their babies in the U.S.?
Will you sign a bill to stop granting U.S. citizenship to "anchor babies" born to illegal aliens?
Do you favor abolishing federal requirements to provide foreign-language ballots, since the ability to speak, read and write basic English is a requirement to become a U.S. naturalized citizen, and only citizens are eligible to vote?

North American Integration

Do you support the Security and Prosperity Partnership with Canada and Mexico that was announced by President Bush at Waco in 2005, and reaffirmed at Cancun in 2006, and is now being implemented by 20 Working Groups of the three countries in the U.S. Commerce Department?

If not, are you going to cancel it? Bush started it on his own authority, so the next President can certainly cancel it.
If you support SPP, will you make all its deliberations available to the public and publish all regulatory changes in the Federal Register with time for public comment and rejection?
Have you looked at the SPP.gov or White House websites that describe the Security and Prosperity Partnership? If not, why not, since this is a major initiative of the Bush Administration?
Why do you think the U.S. State Department posted on its website a document published by the Council on Foreign Relations describing a plan for the integration of Canada, Mexico and the United States, with one common border around all three countries, and free movement of goods, services and people among the three countries? Will you oppose such a plan?
Tony Snow denies that the Bush Administration has any plans to put the United States into a North American Union. However, Bush has made a lot of statements supporting the economic integration of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. Do you favor the economic integration of the three countries of North America, which would allow the free movement of goods, services, capital, and people among the 3 countries?
The idea of a common currency for the United States, Canada and Mexico has been talked about for several years, and has been named the "amero." Will you state flatly that you will never agree to replacing or combining our dollar with the money of any other country?

Do you support building a NAFTA Superhighway from Mexico to Kansas City, Missouri, and then up to Canada?

The contract for a 10-lane tollroad, called the Trans Texas Corridor, has already been signed by Texas giving a Spanish company the right to collect tolls for this highway for the next 50 years. Do you favor this kind of sale?
Why do you think the Trans Texas Corridor is planned to bypass major cities, and thus will not facilitate travel between Texas cities? Is the real purpose of the Superhighway to bring in additional Asian products through a Mexican port, ship them directly to heartland America, and avoid customs inspection until the goods reach Kansas City?

Do you favor selling American infrastructure to foreign governments and companies, such as the sale of the Texas tollway to a Spanish company?

Other parts of American infrastructure have already been sold to foreign companies, including the Indiana Toll Road, Virginia's Pocahontas Parkway, and the Chicago Skyway. Do you favor selling American infrastructure to foreign companies?
Did you support or oppose the Dubai Ports deal that was cancelled in the face of tremendous public opposition?

Will you publicly oppose "Totalization" - the plan to put illegal aliens into our Social Security system? Will you support legislation to require a congressional vote before any Totalization can take effect?

Jobs and the Economy

What is your plan to deal with the fact that we have lost 3 million manufacturing jobs in the last 6 years, and the people who lost those jobs have had to switch to lower-paid jobs, usually in service industries?

What is your plan to deal with the loss of middle class jobs?
What is your plan to get the Reagan Democrats (who voted for Reagan, but did not vote Republican in 2006) to vote Republican again?

Do you think American workers should be forced to compete with Asians who work for 30 cents an hour?

Please explain what benefits you would take away from U.S. workers in order to make us competitive with 30-cent-an-hour Asians.

What is your plan to deal with the way foreign countries discriminate against U.S. products by subsidies called the Value Added Tax (VAT)?

Do you believe it is fair to U.S. producers for our government to allow the importation of foreign goods and services that are subsidized by VAT rebates from their home governments?
We have anti-dumping laws. Isn't the VAT subsidy just as much a violation of free trade as dumping?
Do you think it is fair for American exports to be subject to double taxation: (1) U.S. corporations pay income tax here, and (2) foreign governments impose a tax when our products enter their country, called a Value Added Tax (VAT)? Why does our government permit this unfairness to Americans, and what will you do about it?

What is your plan to deal with the way foreign countries discriminate against U.S producers?

Will you work for a plan to offset the advantage foreign countries have over American products?
If elimination of the VAT discrimination requires a confrontation with the World Trade Organization, will you support this?

Will you oppose any increase in H-1B visas, which allow corporations to bring in foreigners to take engineering and computer jobs away from Americans?
Do you support a "global economy" — which forces Americans to compete against pitifully low wages, slave labor, and discriminatory practices imposed by foreign countries?

Respect for Life

Will you support a law prohibiting the cloning of human beings through somatic cell nuclear transfer or other means?
Will you, as President, by Executive Order prohibit federal funding of all scientific research involving human embryos?
Will you publicly support legislation establishing that the unborn child, from the moment of conception, is a person under the U.S. Constitution?
Will you oppose any change in the pro-life plank in the Republican Platform, which has been virtually unchanged since 1984, and states that "the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed"?
Will you oppose any change in the plank of the 2004 Republican Platform which supports traditional marriage as the "unique and special union of one man and one woman"?