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Retirement:  “There are those who say Americans must choose between security and freedom. They are wrong . . . We accept the mandate which others have abandoned: to keep faith with both the past the future by saving Social Security. For starters, congressional Republicans stopped the annual raids on the Social Security trust funds by balancing the federal budget without that program’s surplus . . . For half a century, the Republican Party fought to repeal the Democrats’ earnings limitation on Social Security recipients, which took away a dollar for every three they earned.

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Education: “In recent years, America seemed to move away from some of the qualities that make her great, but we are now relearning some important lessons . . .We’re coming to understand that a good and civil society cannot be packaged into government programs but must originate in our homes, in our neighborhoods, and in the private institutions that bring us together, in all our diversity, for the works of mercy and labors of love . . . We believe that every child in this land should have access to a high quality, indeed, a world-class education, and we’re determined to meet that goal. It’s long past time to debate what works in education. The verdict is in, and our Republican governors provided the key testimony: strong parental involvement, excellent teachers, safe and orderly classrooms, high academic standards, and a commitment to teaching the basics. For dramatic and swift improvement, we endorse the principles of Governor Bush’s education reforms, which will: Assist states in closing the achievement gap and empower needy families to escape persistently failing schools by allowing federal dollars to follow their children to the school of their choice, and will help states ensure school safety by letting children in dangerous school transfer to schools that are safe for learning . . . Qualified teachers are the vanguard of education reform . . . We advocate merit pay for them . . . We will continue to work for the return of voluntary school prayer to our schools and will strongly enforce the Republican legislation that guarantees equal access to school facilities by student religious groups . . . We also support a reasonable approach to Title IX that seeks to expand opportunities for women without adversely affecting men’s teams.”

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Health Care: Medicare needs a new lease on life. It’s time to bring this program, so critical for 39 million seniors and individuals with disabilities, into the twenty-first century . . . It’s time to give older Americans access to the same health insurance plan the Congress has created for itself . . . The doctor-patient relationship has been eroded, and in some instances replaced, by external decision-making and managed care bureaucracy . . . Simply put, patients deserve more protections if we are to achieve a patient-centered system that offers high-quality affordable care. The parents of a sick child should have access to the nearest emergency care. A patient in need of a heart specialist’s expertise should be allowed to seek that opinion. A woman with breast cancer should be able to participate in a potentially life-saving clinical trial . . . We must open up the free flow of information concerning medical errors, both to protect patients and to reduce the cost of modern medicine. Patients who are genuinely injured should be rightly compensated, but the punitive and random aspects of today’s litigation lottery cry out for reform.”

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Abortion: “We renew our call for replacing “family planning” programs for teens with increased funding for abstinence education, which teaches abstinence until marriage as the responsible and expected standard of behavior  . . . Because we treasure freedom of conscience, we oppose attempts to compel individuals or institutions to violate their moral standards in providing health-related services . . . We support a human life amendment to the Constitution and we endorse legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children."

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Crime: “A Republican president will advance an agenda to restore the public’s safety: No-frills prisons, an effective program of rehabilitation, where appropriate, reforming the Supreme Court’s invented Exclusionary Rule, which has allowed countless criminals to get off on technicalities. We will reopen Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House as a symbolic expression of our confidence in the restoration of the rule of law . . .We renew our support for capital punishment for drug traffickers who take innocent life.”

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Environment: “Our way is to trust the innate good sense and decency of the American people. We will make them partners with government, rather than adversaries of it. The way current laws have been implemented has often fostered costly litigation and discouraged personal innovation in environmental conservation. We need to get back on a common track, so that both people and their government can jointly focus on the real problems at hand . . . We link the security of private property to our environmental agenda for the best of reasons: Environmental stewardship is best advanced where property is privately held . . .For reasons both constitutional, therefore, we will safeguard private property rights by enforcing the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment and by providing just compensation whenever private property is needed to achieve a compelling public purpose.”

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Political Reform: "We will end the harassment of small businesses by federal agencies. In the case of OSHA, we will withdraw its proposed ergonomics standard, ban its bureaucracy from the homes of telecommuting workers, and change the agency from an adversary to a partner for safer productivity  . . . The threat of abusive lawsuits must not be allowed to cripple the capital formation that will drive the Information Revolution . . .  We oppose discrimination based on sex, race, age, religion, creed, disability, or national origin and will vigorously enforce anti-discrimination statutes. As we strive to forge a national consensus on the crucial issues of our time, we call on all Americans to reject the forces of hatred and bigotry. Our country was founded in faith and upon the truth that self-government is rooted in religious conviction. While the Constitution guards against the establishment of state-sponsored religion, it also honors the free exercise of religion. We believe the federal courts must respect this freedom and the original intent of the Framers. We assert the right of religious leaders to speak out on public issues and will not allow the EEOC or any other arm of government to regulate or ban religious symbols from the workplace. We condemn the desecration of places of worship and objects of religious devotion, and call upon the media to reconsider their role in fostering bias through negative stereotyping of religious citizens. We support the First Amendment right of freedom of association and stand united with private organizations, such as the Boy Scouts of America, and support their positions. Because we treasure freedom of conscience, we oppose attempts to compel individuals or institutions to violate their moral standards in providing health-related services. We believe religious institutions and schools should not be taxed . . . We support a human life amendment to the Constitution and we endorse legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children . . . We defend the constitutional right to keep and bear arms, and we affirm the individual responsibility to safely use and store firearms . .   The First Amendment enshrines in our Constitution and guarantees indispensable democratic freedoms of speech, press, and association and the right to petition our government. The Republican party affirms that any regulation of the political process must not infrint upon the rights of the people to full participation in the political process. Governor Bush’s agenda for more honest and more open politics meets that standard. It will: stop the abuses of corporate and labor “soft” money contributions to political parties, enact “Paycheck Protection” ensuring that no union member is forced to contribute to anybody’s campaign, level the playing field by forbidding incumbents to roll over their leftover campaign funds into a campaign for a different office, and preserve access to the Internet for political speech and debate . . . Effective government requires regulation for health, safety, and other concerns. By the same token, regulation requires regular review – for efficiency, economy, and plain common sense . . . The sound principle of judicial review has turned into an intolerable presumption of judicial supremacy . . . We applaud Governor Bush’s pledge to name only judges who have demonstrated that they share his conservative beliefs and respect the Constitution. Reform of the legal profession is an essential part of court reform. Today’s litigation practices make a mockery of justice, hinder our country’s competitiveness in the world market and, far worse, erode the public’s trust in the entire judicial process . . . To protect clients against unscrupulous lawyers, we will enact a Client’s Bill of Rights for all federal courts.”

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Defense:  “Handed the torch by generation that won great battles, our generation of Americans with its allies and friends can build a different and better world, promoting U.S. interests and principles, avoiding the economic convulsions and perilous conflicts that so scarred the century just past. Through a distinctly American internationalism, a new Republican president will built public support for a new strategy that can lead the United States of America toward a more peaceful and prosperous world for us, our children, and future generations . . . Republicans are the party of peace through strength. A strong and well-trained military is the world’s best guarantee of peace . . . We believe the military must no longer be the object of social experiments. We affirm traditional military culture. We affirm that homosexuality is incompatible with military service . . .We support the advancement of women in the military, support their exemption from ground bomat units, and call for implementation of the recommendations of the Kassebaum Commission, which unanimously recommended that co-ed basic training be ended . . . America is now unable to counter the rampant proliferation of nuclear biological, and chemical weapons and their missile delivery systems around the world . . . The new Republican president will deploy a national missile defense for reasons of national security."

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