The Issues
Healthcare
- Lower Premiums & Deductibles: Restore a statewide,
high-risk pool to make the individual market healthier.
Allow a tax deduction on the insurance premiums on
those not on group plans. - More Choices: Allow entities other than employers to
offer group health insurance plans. Industry competition
will lead to lower health care costs, and provide more
options for coverage. - Improve Efficiency: Make it possible for Minnesota
residents to purchase coverage directly through insurance
agents and still receive tax credits. Remove burdensome
regulations, and transition from MNsure to an open,
competitive marketplace.
Transportation
The Republican platform also recommends:
- Reforming provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) as a means of speeding up and lowering the cost of transportation projects.
- Repealing the Davis-Bacon Act, the 1931 federal law that requires local prevailing wages be paid to laborers and mechanics on public works projects, which Republicans contend “drives up construction and maintenance costs for the benefit of unions.”
- Reversing the policy that allows Transportation Security Administration personnel to unionize.
- Allowing private ventures to provide passenger rail service in the northeast corridor to compete with Amtrak, which the platform describes as “an extremely expensive railroad for the American taxpayers, who must subsidize every ticket.”
- Ending federal support for California’s high-speed rail project.
Immigratation
The Republican Party believes in immigration laws and immigration reforms that address the needs of national security. The party has always been divided on to exactly what extent immigration laws should be tightened, but as a whole the party believes that a system needs to be in place to ensure that immigrants who enter this country illegally are not provided with the same benefits that legal citizens are. They believe in warmly welcoming those who enter the country through legal methods, while devoting extra resources to keep out those who try to enter via illegal methods, as well as keeping track of those who enter and when they leave. The party believes that amnesty towards those who have broken immigration laws only encourages future immigrants to enter the country illegally rather than legally. While Republicans recognize that the number of foreign immigrants traveling here has enriched our country, they also believe that requiring them to do so legally is vital to the safety of Americans.