Jeb Bush

Jeb Bush was born in Midland, Texas on February 11, 1953. He graduated from the University Of Texas and moved to Florida, where he worked as a real estate agent and broker. While in Florida, Jeb Bush held his first political position as the state's Secretary of Commerce. He quickly rose through the ranks and in 1998 became governor of Florida. [1]. As Governor, he is remembered for cutting taxes, increasing job growth, and expanding Florida's economy [2]. Jeb Bush now seeks the Republican nomination for the 2016 Presidency.

Official Campaign Website

Tax Reform

"I'm gonna fight as hard as I can to make sure that we shift power away from Washington, simplify the tax code, to spur economic activity in this country."(RD-4)

• • Fact check: Affordable Care Act increases taxes, but the high class is getting a majority of the impact of these tax increases. Subsidies also cushion the impact of the taxes.
    • Tax increases passed by Supreme Court would lead to an estimated cost to taxpayers over 804.6 billion dollars over the next decade [3][4][5]
• Business and corporations

"we eliminate a lot of deductions and cut the rates down. A corporate rate of 20 percent, which puts us 5 percent above -- below that of China, and allows us full expensing of investing. It would create an explosion of investment back into this country, creating higher-wage jobs".(RD-4)

• • Tax Proposal: Lower taxes on small business and big businesses, simplified tax code that is easier on middle class and families[6][7]
  • reduce personal income tax brackets down to three brackets: 28%, 25%, 10% like the Reagan administration’s second tax reform
  • fact check: Reagan’s 2nd tax reform wasn’t like this; it was broken into 4 groups (10%, 28%, 33%, 28%), making a tax “bubble”. Taxpayers after a certain income level paid a flat 28% tax rate [8][9]
  • cut down corporate tax rate from 35% to 20% and change it to territorial tax system (tax only on earnings made in US)[10]
  • 2% cap of filer’s gross income on total tax deductions
  • double size of standard deduction
  • double income tax credit for childless workers
  • eliminate carried interest loophole
  • estimate increasing number of Americans that don’t pay tax by 15 million, bringing the number of filers with zero taxes from 40% up to 50%
  • claims this will help lower and middle class, but this will benefit high earners instead[11]
  • plan estimated to cost up to $3.4 trillion over the next decade without growth
  • businesses deduct new capital investments

Health Policy

Repeal and Replace Obamacare

Jeb bush wants to repeal Obamacare and says that it was "a failure from the start"[12] and take away health control power from the federal government and give it to the states. He believes that states should have the freedom and responsibility to tailor their health care plans to their state and make insurance markets more competitive. He also does not agree with all the mandates that come along with the Affordable Care Act, and hopes to put people in a position "where their empowered to make more decisions for themselves"[13]

Encourage Inovation

Bush wants to modernize the Food and Drug Administration, as well as make "medical record keeping more efficient sharable and secure".[14] He claims that the current health care is over regulated, adding higher costs and complexity to the system.[15]

Bush's Plan

• Provide a tax credit for those without employer coverage
• Make it easier for small businesses to provide coverage for their employees with tax deductions.
• Have transparent information for people to make decisions for themselves
• Open up the insurance market place and "break down the insurance monopolies and let people by health insurance designed for what they actually want".[16]

Drug Policy

On marijuana legalization

Jeb bush openly opposes the legalization of marijuana, voting in florida to ban medical marijuana, but ultimately believes that it is a state decision. He says in reference to marijuana " what goes on in Colorado as far as i'm concerned should be a state decision"[17]

Strengthen Criminal Justice

Jeb Bush wants to enact stronger reprimands for violent drug traffickers, while giving non-violent offenders proper treatment and reducing mandatory sentences so they can get back to their community quicker.(JBW-DC)

Middle East

"We should have a no fly zone in Syria. We should have a support for the remnants of the Syrian Free Army, and create safe zones. If you want to deal with the four million refugees that are leaving Syria because of the devastation there, then we 'ought to create safe zones for them to stay in the region rather than go to Europe. And, that requires American leadership." (RD-4)

"We need to embed our forces -- our troops inside the Iraqi military. We need to arm directly the Kurds. And all of that has to be done in concert with the Arab nations." (RD-5)

Immigration

Jeb Bush plans to strengthen the enforcement of Immigration laws, both internally and at the border through six proposals.

1. A forward-leaning Border Patrol with the flexibility to deploy resources to meet threats.
2. implementing new surveillance technologies such as drones sensors and radars
3. improving the border infrastructure to allow easier access to border patrol agents
4. Reduce the incentive for illegal immigration by decreasing the likelihood that they will be employed through an improved E-Verify system
5. Identify and send home the people who are entering the United States and overstaying their visas or otherwise violating the terms of their admission.
6. Punish sanctuary cities which are impairing the federal government from enforcing immigration laws, by withholding federal law enforcement funds.

For those already within the United States Jeb Bush intends too instate a rigorous path towards citizenship which would require a background check, paying fines, paying taxes, learning English, obtaining a provisional work permit and a job all while not receiving government assistance.

"What we need to do is allow people to earn legal status where they pay a fine, where they work, where they don't commit crimes, where they learn English, and over an extended period of time, they earn legal status. That's the path" (RD-4)

Sources Key

JBW