Volume 1, Number 16

In This Issue

New Oil Gets Us to a New Day

It's About Business

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New Oil Now: The Bridge to Our Future

One thing on which most Americans agree is that we all want to be energy self-sufficient. It is a matter of National Security, an issue of fiscal responsibility, and just as importantly, a statement of common sense.

But how do we get there from here?

The more than 90 million trucks and automobiles on American roadways today depend on gas and oil. Millions of homes are heated with oil and natural gas today. Many of our consumer products are made with rubber and plastic today. Oil is now and will continue to be a major component of the American way of life for years.

Calling for electric cars, wind powered lighting and solar heating now, while refusing to immediately explore and produce in our vast untapped domestic oil reserves, is not a responsible answer. We need oil today. We'll need oil tomorrow.

The next decade will be the crucial Bridge to the Future in our quest to develop those much discussed alternative sources of energy.

Oil can be cheap and plentiful again if Congress will just get out of the way and unleash the potential of American enterprise. We have enough crude oil under our feet and our oceans to satisfy our needs during those decades of transition while we develop alternative energy sources.

But we must act now. A wallet sucking $4 a gallon price tag for gasoline is giving us our most jarring wake-up call ever! High oil prices stem from market manipulation but they can be reversed through decisive action.

A vote by Congress which will allow American oil producers to initiate new domestic exploration will have an instant psychological impact on speculation and immediately drive down the price of oil. Actual exploration and production will begin to secure our future, while we continue our nation's transition to alternate sources of energy.

The bottom line is that we must act now, and we need leadership that will pave the way. Parroting liberal nonsense like, "drilling will destroy the environment" is hogwash. Or, "there is only about 90 days worth of oil and will only lower gas prices by a penny" is an outright untruth.

The United States has more than enough oil reserves to satisfy our energy needs for decades. Our economy is an oil economy for now. The only way to bridge the transition of our country and economy to the alternative energies of the future is by electing new leadership with vision. Our unwavering goal should be American energy independence. We still need oil for now to get us there and we especially need the entrepreneurial spirit that created our economy to kick into high gear and make this new vision of the future into reality.

The Business of America is Business... Small Business!

Friends & Neighbors,

Each week this Campaign for Congress seems to have a different point of focus. Each week there's a different imperative or a different obstacle to be overcome. Tackling each of these successive weekly challenges feels like moving up one level in a video game. Mastering them is what moves this fight forward, however.

This week it was good old fashioned grunt work, right down in the trenches with the voters.

Rhode Island law requires congressional candidates to be Nominated by at least 500 voters. The process is that the voters must sign petitions. When completed, each petition must be filed with the Board of Canvassers in the town where those voters are registered. After validation locally the petitions are forwarded to the office of the Secretary of State where they are certified and counted.

We had 10 days to collect a minimum of 500 signatures. Everyone associated with the campaign lent a hand. Volunteers patrolled the Post Offices and Shopping Centers of the 20 towns. They carried clip boards and wore bright smiles. It was an image sure to make many an approaching voter avert their eyes and walk in another direction.

When we completed the task, though, everyone was even more deeply invested in the success of the Campaign. All of the volunteers who collected signatures and all of the voters who stepped up to do their part by signing had formed a bond that moved us closer to success on Election Day.

What will our new challenge be in the week ahead? Tune in next week to find out.

- Mark Zaccaria

Sometimes the Clue that You're Doing the Right Thing Comes In from Outside. Please read this article contributed by one of the readers of this weekly Newsletter:

Supporting Business

Small business in America is the core of the economic miracle that has made us a great nation and provided the wherewithal to keep us Free. The US Chamber of Commerce claims that Companies employing fewer than 100 workers provide the jobs for more than 96% of America's work force. Governor Carcieri reminds us that of Rhode Island's roughly 34,000 businesses, 31,000 of them have ten employees or less. All this points to the fact that small business the iron backbone of the American Economy.

To keep our country thriving we have to help our small businesses continue to grow. That means creating a business environment and an entrepreneurial culture that will combine to let small firms everywhere operate and innovate without the drag of burdensome regulation and unnecessary taxation. The last thing our economy needs right now is higher taxes and more bureaucratic control.

Let's not use the term, 'The Bush Tax Cuts.' Do you feel like your taxes have been cut? Let's talk, instead, about the Bush Tax Levels.

Letting these Tax Levels revert to their previous highs would cause small business owners and workers to bear an especially heavy burden. The US Chamber estimates 27 million small business owners would face an average tax increase of more than $4,000 per year. The rate increases would hurt Subchapter-S corporations, partnerships, and many LLC's that pay their business taxes at the individual rates. Taxes on capital gains and dividends would soar, discouraging the investment needed to expand. And, of course, the death tax would return.

The US Chamber of Commerce has been the champion of both large and small business for over half a century. The organization also rates members of Congress based on their votes. The individual grades they hand out reflect the percentage of time the representative voted for the organization's preferred position.

Rep James Langevin scores an average of only 39% since 2001, which the US Chamber indicates is an anti-business voting record in Congress. From a disappointing low of 27% to a high of barely 45%, James Langevin has consistently sided with the Democratic leadership in Washington who want to raise taxes and put their special interests above those of small businesses and the working men and women who make this economy run.

Congress should act now to make the relief of the President's Tax Levels permanent. Over the past seven years, President Bush has signed more than $1.3 trillion worth of tax relief into law. Unless Congress acts to make these reductions permanent, this tax relief will expire at the end of 2010. As a consequence, 116 million taxpayers would see their taxes go up by $1,800 on average and our economy would suffer accordingly.

Calls for Mr. Langevin to do the right thing and break from his political bosses in Washington, have fallen on deaf ears. That's little wonder. He has never had to live on a private sector pay check, or run a small business. He doesn't understand how much raising everybody's costs would hurt families in Warwick, Cranston, Westerly, and all across the Second District.

The only way we will ever rescue our economy and have Leadership, for a Change, is to remove Mr. Langevin from office and elect Mark Zaccaria to Congress. It's Time to Liberate Our Economy.

The Point of it all is that You have to hire real Leadership in November so that substantive improvements can be made that will benefit the People of this country. I will keep highlighting the simple, direct ways I plan to provide that leadership. I will also keep overcoming those weekly challenges so that we can all get to Election Day with a clear view of what happens next.

Sincerely,

Mark Zaccaria
Mark Zaccaria for Congress

For Americans to Prosper, America Must Grow

America is a Beacon for the World

Paid For & Approved By Mark Zaccaria for Congress