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NEW! Comprehensive Energy Plan | Win the War | Secure the Border | Free the Economy
Respect for Life | Protect the 2nd Amendment | Free Speech | Free Markets | Free People
Win the War
Congress’s first priority has to be the defense of this great nation. Our Congressmen have the easy job here. No one is asking them to kick a door down, or build coalitions between rival sects in a once violent village. All our Congressmen have to do is provide our military men and women with the tools, the training, and the mission they need to defend us. Over the past year, we’ve found a mission that’s working. Paul Hodes said the surge was “too little, too late,” and now he’s been forced to admit that it’s working. But he won’t admit that he was wrong.
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Paul Hodes had an opportunity to support our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan last year when a bill to provide them with emergency funding came before Congress. Instead, he sided with Nancy Pelosi and Jack Murtha, who saw such an essential bill as the perfect opportunity to pass more pork barrel spending at the expense of the American taxpayer. Paul Hodes voted for this bloated and irresponsible bill, and he opposed all efforts to remove this waste and corruption from the overall package. Fortunately, Congressional Republicans insisted on passing a clean military funding bill, and they prevailed. Paul Hodes voted against it.
Secure the Border
The American public has lost faith that Congress is serious about addressing illegal immigration. Congress approved a border fence, and has refused to fund it. Paul Hodes voted against funding it. The American public can not be asked to support any changes to our immigration system until this basic promise is kept. Paul Hodes thinks a virtual fence can provide actual border security. I think he’s wrong.
We need to update our visa system, prosecute unscrupulous employers who willfully break our immigration laws, and provide a way for those in this country illegally to get in line for legal status. But we can not provide amnesty, and we can not let them skip ahead of legal immigrants who have followed the rule of law.
Free the Economy
After several years of robust growth, our economy is slowing. The only thing more powerful than the American economy’s ability to generate jobs and prosperity is Congress’s ability to spend. Democrats and Republicans have supported reckless increases in federal spending, and adopted a corrupt system of “earmarks” and pork barrel projects that shreds any respect for taxpayer dollars. We don’t need earmarks to make sure valuable programs are funded. We only need earmarks to help Members of Congress who want to buy your vote, with your own money. Paul Hodes promised to reform earmarks, and he’s failed. We can’t reform this corrupt system. We must abolish it.
See editorial: Grant Bosse: Trying to help, Congress makes economic situation worse
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I am pro-life. I do not support taxpayer subsidies for abortion services.
We do not need to create human embryos to advance scientific research. Prohibiting federal funds for this unethical practice has led to great advances in other areas. Ongoing research into adult stem cells is proving far more promising everyday, and could eventually lead to fantastic medical breakthroughs. I support this research, which shows that we need not sacrifice our morality in the name of science.
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It protects the rest. The right to keep and bear arms is guaranteed to each of us in the Constitution. It is a civil liberty, and the first and last line of defense against tyranny. Politicians often try to cloak their contempt for gun owners by talking about the importance of hunting as part of our rural heritage. They need to know that the Second Amendment is about much more than hunting. It’s about the inherent right of each of us to protect ourselves and our families.
The basic freedoms to speak, believe, and pray as we choose should never be
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infringed. Incumbents should never be allowed to rig the rules of the debate in order to protect their seats. And the First Amendment should never be used as a weapon to prevent people of faith from practicing their religion publicly or privately.
We do not need to trade a portion of our civil liberties for national security. We can protect both. We can provide our intelligence agencies with the tools the need to track and stop foreign terrorists without compromising the rights of American citizens.
Congress has too much power over our daily lives. It has meddled in our schools, interfered with our doctors, and is now trying to make decisions on how 300 million Americans get their energy. Congress doesn’t know best. Its interference has driven up the price of health insurance, raised the price of gasoline and electricity, and even made basic foods like bread, beef, and milk more expensive. Reducing Congress’s ability to interfere with free markets will unleash innovation and risk-taking in our economy, and help improve the lives of all Americans.
Free People
The greatness of America doesn’t come from our government. It comes from 300 million individuals each making decisions every day to help themselves and their families. The combined power of those individual decisions has given us the freest and most prosperous civilization in history. My guiding principle as your Congressman will be to maximize freedom. That will mean lower taxes, open and accountable government, and the safety and security to enjoy this freedom. I’m not running for Congress on a promise to make your life better. I’m running to get the federal government out of the way so that you can decide how to make your life better.
Comprehensive Energy Plan
Market-based reforms to lower gas prices and promote new energy sources
(Hillsboro) Republican Grant Bosse today unveiled a comprehensive Energy Plan to lower gas prices, promote new sources of renewable energy, and lessen Congressional interference in the energy marketplace. Bosse also announced that former State Senator Jim Rubens and New England Wood Pellet founder Steve Walker will head up the Bosse campaign’s Energy and Environmental Council, advising Bosse on these complex issues.
“For the American economy to recover in the short-term, and prosper long-term, we need to find a better way of getting the energy we need to power economic growth,” said Bosse. “My comprehensive Energy Plan will make all forms of energy more affordable, provide incentives for renewable energy breakthroughs, and protect the environment.”
The Bosse Energy Plan contained ten changes in federal energy policy which would reduce Congressional interference in the energy marketplace, increase supply of both traditional and new energy sources, and lower prices for American consumers.
- End ethanol subsidies and mandates.
- Provide permanent tax incentives for renewable energy sources.
- End subsidies for fossil fuel development, such as royalty-free extraction in deepwater offshore wells.
- Increase access to domestic energy reserves, such as Alaska oil field and oil sands in the Western United States.
- Streamline siting and environmental requirements for new oil refineries.
- Streamline application process for nuclear power plant construction.
- Simplify siting process for electric power lines.
- Cap-and-trade emissions from power plants.
- Promote X-Prize system for new energy breakthroughs.
- Reform energy research programs through New Energy Block Grants.
As oil prices reach record highs, gasoline and diesel prices make every fill-up painful, and New Hampshire continues to pay the highest electricity prices in the nation, we have to ask ourselves; why does Congress keep making energy more expensive?
This comprehensive energy plan will help lower energy prices, and bring new sources of energy to market, by rolling back decades of Congressional interference in the energy marketplace. Restrictions on domestic energy reserves, regulations that prevent new energy infrastructure, and politicians picking winners and losers among emerging technologies have all hampered economic growth, retarded progress in energy research, and harmed the environment.
Taxes and Subsidies
The current tax code provides a shifting and uncertain series of incentives for renewable energy development. Ethanol production is heavily subsidized through production tax credits, and its use is mandated. Not only does ethanol cause more harm than good to the environment, the rush to cash in on ethanol subsidies has pushed farmers to grow corn in place of other crops, driving up agricultural prices nationwide.
- End tax credits for ethanol production and federal mandates for ethanol use.
The tax code gives businesses and homeowners tax credits for certain renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind. High efficiency biomass systems, such as wood pellet furnaces and boilers do not receive equal treatment. Geothermal and other renewable sources receive even less support. Because all of these tax credits are temporary, entrepreneurs and investors are reluctant to invest in new technologies, for fear that Congress will let the tax incentives expire. If Congress is going to provide tax incentives for renewable energy use, it should not choose which emerging technology is appropriate for businesses and homeowners.
- Make renewable energy tax credits permanent and technology neutral.
Mature technologies such as coal and oil extraction still receive significant federal subsidy. Congress continues to support subsidies for Coal-to-Liquids development, despite the fact that such technology has been in planning stages for sixty years. Taxpayers should not be forced to pay for development of this industry any longer. Similarly, due to an error by the Clinton Interior Department, oil rigs operating in many deepwater wells in the Gulf of Mexico are allowed to extract oil in public waters without paying royalties. This mistake will cost taxpayers upwards of $10 Billion over the life of these wells. No company should be allowed to extract resources from public lands or waters without paying royalties determined on the open market. However, ending subsidies is not the same as increasing taxes.
- End federal subsidies for fossil fuel development, rather than increasing taxes on gasoline.
Domestic Reserves
Congress has placed unreasonable limits of the use of American fossil fuel reserves, such as the estimated 7.7 billion barrels of oil available in the 1002 area of the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge. Using these reserves to provide just 5% of America’s daily needs would increase supply for between 12 and 32 years. Current technology would extract these resources safely and responsibly, greatly reducing the environmental impact of extraction.
There are also an estimated 32 billion barrels of oil trapped in tar sands in deposits in eastern Utah. Canada is currently using similar deposits in Alberta, but Congress has prohibited the Department of Defense from using fuel derived from this source. Lifting these bans would allow a new source of domestic energy to complete with oil imports.
- Repeal Congressional bans on domestic energy reserves.
Energy Infrastructure
Convoluted procedures, a maze of shifting regulations, and endless appeals of nuisance lawsuits discourage and often completely block efforts to build new energy infrastructure. While domestic and worldwide demand for energy is exploding, the U.S. energy infrastructure has only gotten older. No new oil refineries have come on line in nearly thirty years. No nuclear power plants have been commissioned in twenty years. And regulations and lawsuits are blocking the construction of new power lines which would allow New Hampshire’s North Country to develop wood powered electricity generation.
- Streamline siting and environmental requirements for new oil refineries.
- Streamline application process for nuclear power plant construction.
- Simplify siting and appeals process for electric power lines.
Emissions
Emissions from electric power plants that rely on fossil fuels threaten air quality and increase the atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. Use of a market-based cap-and-trade system would lower emissions of sulfur, nitrous oxides, carbon dioxide and mercury, while providing financial incentives to shift to cleaner forms of power production. The United States should not repeat the mistakes of the Kyoto Accord, which allocated emissions credits based on the whims of bureaucrats, but should insist that emissions credits are auctioned in the open market. 100% auctioning of emissions credits will prevent government interference in the energy marketplace, and ensure that the cost to release these substances into the atmosphere is based on the true impact of these emissions.
- Institute a cap-and-trade system for emissions of multiple pollutants from power plants. All emissions credits should be auctioned on the open market.
Energy Research
Current federal support for energy research is infected by the same pork-barrel habits that have so corrupted federal spending policies in other areas. Earmarks and special interest provisions direct taxpayer support to favored projects and researchers, regardless of merit or results. Reforming federal energy research programs would boost their effectiveness and provide tremendous incentives to bring new technologies to market.
- Promote X-Prize system for new energy breakthroughs, which provides large cash incentives for achieving concrete and replicable results.
- Reform energy research programs through New Energy Block Grants, which would shift federal support from earmarked projects to a merit-based system administered by the states.
Clean and affordable energy is a key component is America’s future economic growth. By implementing the ten listed reforms, Congress can start to rollback the failed policies that have interfered in the development of new sources of energy, driven up gas prices, and put domestic energy reserves off limits.
The next generation of billionaires will come from the energy sector. Entrepreneurs and investors who find new ways to power the American and global economies will be richly rewarded. But first, Congress must get out of the way. The Bosse Energy Plan would increase consumer choice, reduce the price of energy in all forms, and create the regulatory framework necessary for the next century’s energy breakthroughs to benefit us all.
