GOVERNMENT
Prevention-oriented government. End crisis management through prevention-oriented programs that will both solve existing problems and prevent future ones from arising.
Conflict-free politics. The Natural Law Party supports "all-party government" -- bringing together the best ideas, programs, and leaders from all political parties and the private sector to solve and prevent problems. The Natural Law Party advocates an end to negative campaigning and partisan politics, and supports essential campaign finance reform to eliminate special interest control of government.
Proven solutions. Government should be based on what works -- not what is politically expedient or bought and paid for by special interest groups. There are simple, humane, cost-effective, scientifically proven solutions to all of America’s problems. The Natural Law Party was founded to implement these solutions immediately in government.
Government in accord with natural law. Solve problems at their basis by bringing individual life, and our national policies, into greater harmony with natural law through proven educational programs; natural, preventive health care; renewable energy; sustainable agriculture; and other forward-looking, prevention-oriented programs.
Reverse the current epidemic of individual and social stress by establishing groups professionally engaged in creating coherence throughout society. Scientific research verifies that such groups promote social harmony, reduce collective stress, and improve efficiency in governmental administration.
Streamline the Federal Government by reducing government waste and mismanagement, cutting pork-barrel spending, simplifying redundant bureaucracies, and encouraging decentralization and privatization wherever possible.
ECONOMY
Implement a pro-growth economic policy, with a truly balanced budget (not a "surplus" that exists only as an accounting fiction) by 2002 and a low flat tax of 10% by 2006. Only the Natural Law Party can cut taxes deeply -- and responsibly -- while protecting the integrity of our important social programs through the hundreds of billions of dollars saved annually by our cost-effective solutions to crime, spiraling health care costs, and other costly social problems. Simultaneously, by propelling the economy into a growth phase, our policy will create new jobs, reduce unemployment, and strengthen job security.
Fully harness America's most precious resource -- the unlimited intelligence and creativity of America's 270 million citizens. In today’s information-based economy, intelligence and creativity, innovation and ideas, drive economic growth. The Natural Law Party strongly supports proven educational, job training, and apprenticeship programs that develop intelligence and creativity and prevent school dropouts. Only the full utilization of our human resource through the Natural Law Party’s fundamental commitment to education will ensure America’s competitiveness and future leadership in the family of nations.
HEALTH
Support health strategies that focus on prevention and strengthen the general health of the nation, thereby shifting our national focus from disease care to health care. Recent research shows that at least 50% of deaths and 70% of disease in America are "self-inflicted" -- caused by an epidemic of unhealthy habits. The vast majority of disease is therefore preventable.
Support the introduction of financial incentives that will help prevent abuse of the health care system and ensure high-quality care, including (1) medical savings accounts for Medicare and Medicaid subscribers, which will provide financial rewards for good health; and (2) vouchers enabling Medicare and Medicaid enrollees to choose any insurance plan or health care provider they desire, thereby promoting competitive costs and quality of care among medical providers.
The implementation of verifiable, cost-effective prevention together with the above financial incentives will rescue Medicare and Medicaid from bankruptcy, save the nation up to $500 billion a year in health care costs, and prevent untold pain and suffering.
Promote life in accord with natural law through the reduction of individual and social stress, thereby achieving a lasting social transformation toward more life-supporting, health-promoting behavior among our citizens.
EDUCATION
Support proven educational initiatives and curriculum innovations, including:
The Head Start program, to help children excel from an early age
Proven developmental technologies, such as the Transcendental Meditation program, to directly increase intelligence and boost educational outcomes
School vouchers to increase school choice, foster competition, and improve educational outcomes
Federally guaranteed student loans and Pell Grants for higher education
Higher national standards and the practical means to achieve them
National apprenticeship programs for students who are not college bound
Computer-aided instruction, including Internet instruction
Sound approaches to school nutrition and preventive health education
Effective drug prevention
Policies and programs to upgrade the status and skills of teachers
CRIME AND REHABILITATION
Support systematic, scientifically proven programs to reduce stress in the individual and throughout society -- thus eliminating the root cause of crime.
Target individuals who are at highest risk for crime -- the current prison inmate population -- through proven rehabilitation programs and advanced scientific methods to assess rehabilitation and eligibility for parole.
Implement community policing. Such programs have been credited with reducing crime dramatically. In this approach, police are assigned to high-crime neighborhoods identified by computer tracking, work closely with these neighborhoods, and are rewarded for preventing crime.
Revitalize our overcrowded urban centers -- breeding grounds for violence and crime.
Introduce programs proven to reduce drug dependency and promote mental and physical health.
Support effective educational programs to keep children in school, off the streets, and out of the reach of crime. The Natural Law Party’s strong educational focus is the true, long-term solution to the pervasive problem of crime.
AGRICULTURE
Support legislation that will ensure social, economic, and environmental sustainability of agriculture while balancing the following goals: (1) ensuring high-quality, healthy food for consumers that is free from industrial and agrichemical toxins; (2) promoting health and longevity in farmers and in the population as a whole; (3) protecting natural resources and the environment; (4) cushioning farmers from the natural and financial instability unique to agriculture; (5) enabling farmers to better pursue financial profitability; and (6) restoring the vitality of family farms and rural communities.
Mandate the labeling of genetically engineered foods and declare a moratorium on the release of genetically engineered organisms until the ecological impact of such organisms is established.
Shift the U.S. policy focus from "cheap food for the consumer" to "quality food for the consumer on a sustainable basis." Agrichemical use could be reduced 50% by the year 2002 and farm profits could increase through field-tested techniques supported by scientific research, such as integrated pest management, integrated crop management, and organic methods.
ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT
Support the development and use of new, environmentally clean energy sources, such as solar, wind, and biomass by (1) removing federal subsidies for fossil fuels and nuclear energy and (2) taxing fossil fuels to reflect their real cost to the nation.
Improve energy efficiency and self-sufficiency by (1) supporting basic research on energy efficiency, energy storage, and fuel cells, in addition to electric, hydrogen, and highly energy-efficient vehicles, (2) providing financial incentives for home-owners and industry to use available energy-efficiency measures, and (3) setting performance standards for energy-consuming and pollutant-emitting products.
Clean up America’s polluted air, rivers, wetlands, and oceans by eliminating industrial pollution at its source and using waste products productively.
Lead the global effort to prevent the destruction of the earth’s forests, the decimation of the diversity of species, and the potential damage from ozone depletion and the greenhouse effect.
Create new jobs and new industries in energy conservation and renewable energy sources that will simultaneously benefit the environment and save the nation hundreds of billions of dollars.
STRENGTHENING DEMOCRACY
Support long-overdue reforms to ensure (a) equal access to the ballot, the media, and the public for all qualified candidates, (b) the elimination of PAC and soft-money funding of campaigns, and (c) a shift toward public sponsorship of campaigns in order to reduce the undue influence of special interest groups on election outcomes. Such reforms will fulfill every American’s right to complete information about all candidates and their platforms while freeing elected officials to focus on serving their country rather than seeking campaign contributions.
Encourage voter participation in the election process by shortening the campaign season to two months, making election day a national holiday, and abolishing the Electoral College. Restrict lobbying and limit congressional privileges.
ABORTION
Offer prevention of abortion on a realistic basis through proven educational programs to bring individual and national life into harmony with natural law. The Natural Law Party believes that we can reduce abortions more effectively through education than through legislation -- education that develops intelligence, improves moral reasoning, and promotes far-sighted thinking and actions that do not create problems. Our nation's history shows that it is difficult to legislate morality, and the Natural Law Party believes that it is counterproductive for the Federal Government to outlaw abortion.
Encourage a shift from public to private funding of abortion -- specifically, private charity by those who wish to make abortion accessible for women who cannot afford it. Over time, the government should eliminate the use of taxpayer dollars to fund abortion as a method of birth control. (The Natural Law Party would support public funding of abortions in cases of rape, incest, or medical necessity.)
Satisfy both those who are pro-life and pro-choice by (a) decreasing the number of unwanted pregnancies more effectively than legislation and (b) leaving moral responsibility in the hands of those whose lives are affected most.
FAMILY VALUES
Implement programs that resolve the root cause of the breakdown of family life today -- epidemic stress levels throughout society, especially in urban centers. With the rise of greater social harmony, all individuals, and especially parents, will be able to make the most life-supporting decisions in their personal lives and the most nourishing decisions for the lives of their children.
Create jobs, stimulate growth, and ease the financial strain experienced by so many American families through our low-tax, pro-growth economic policy.
FOREIGN POLICY
Create an immediate shift in U.S. foreign policy away from military aid towards a more life-supporting policy based on the exportation of U.S. know-how -- American expertise and technical assistance in business administration, entrepreneurship, education, sustainable agriculture, energy conservation, and emerging environmental technologies -- supplemented where necessary with economic support. This new type of life-supporting assistance will allow many developing countries to become financially self-sufficient and thereby help eliminate global hunger and poverty.
Ensure that our foreign aid resources are applied effectively -- not wasted through inefficiency, mishandling, or inappropriate allocation -- by making foreign aid decisions in consultation with the government and citizens of recipient countries. Through this cooperative focus, promote unity and respect within the global diversity of cultures, religions, races, and economic and political systems.
DEFENSE
Support the creation of a "prevention wing" within the military -- a group whose primary purpose is to prevent the outbreak of war and to preserve and strengthen national and international peace. Train as few as 1Ð2% of military personnel, comprising one or several groups of 5,000Ð10,000, in the proven peace-promoting technology of the TM-Sidhi program. As well as "inoculating" participating troops against the debilitating effects of combat stress, this prevention wing would help relieve stress in the nation as a whole, prevent incoherence within the government, and protect the nation from negative influences both inside and outside the country -- including terrorism and war.
Responsibly reduce defense expenditures over time by creating a smaller, more flexible force that, when coupled with greater economic and security cooperation, can most effectively serve the nation’s security interests and provide the basis for a more stable world. Encourage incentives to help defense industries diversify into nondefense markets and reinvest private-sector funds and expertise.
REVITALIZING OUR INNER CITIES
Apply proven educational, health, economic, and crime-reduction programs to improve the inner city environment.
Use federally guaranteed loans to stimulate capital investment for start-up industries in urban "enterprise zones." By targeting economically deprived urban areas, we can stimulate economic growth where it is most needed, thereby creating more jobs, a stronger sense of community, and the revitalization of our inner cities.
Help plan urban infrastructure and housing that improve quality of life and restore a sense of community to the inner city. Promote the development of nonpolluting automobiles and public transportation, human-scale housing that discourages crime and supports neighborhoods in which families can grow and prosper, and the development of more parks and green spaces.
DRUG ABUSE
Implement educational programs that directly unfold intelligence and creativity, build self-confidence, eliminate stress, and raise life to be in harmony with natural law, thereby eliminating the tendency towards drug dependence and helping prevent school dropouts -- the principal targets for drugs and drug-related crimes.
Promote programs that have been shown to dramatically reduce drug dependency and to eliminate stress and restore balance in an individual’s physiology and psychology (see our Health and Crime platforms).
Support procedures that will promote cooperation and coordination among the various law enforcement agencies responsible for interdicting, apprehending, and prosecuting individuals and organizations engaged in illegal drug and narcotics activities.
GUN CONTROL
Eliminate the climate of fear and tension pervading America’s cities and towns, which is largely responsible for the proliferation of guns and their use in acts of violent crime, through effective crime-prevention programs (see our Crime platform).
Uphold existing gun-control legislation as an appropriate balance between public safety and the constitutional right to bear arms.
UPHOLDING THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN AND MINORITIES
Support any legislation deemed necessary to uphold the guaranteed constitutional rights of women and of minorities.
Dissolve prejudice and bigotry in society through educational programs that develop broad comprehension, increased intelligence, and improved moral reasoning and by reducing social stress that leads to fear and divisiveness.
Increase participation in government by women and by minorities to bring greater strength and balance to the administration.
IMMIGRATION
Support "balanced immigration" by allocating immigration quotas to each nation, thereby preventing dominance of any one nationality or ethnic subculture in America's "melting pot" tradition. The concentration of uninational subcultures in urban centers precludes acculturation, slows economic integration, and could lead to the birth of a permanent underclass.
Disincentivize illegal immigration by (1) increasing border defense through reassignment of selected military personnel and resources (see our Defense platform), and (2) improving economic conditions in neighboring countries through a foreign policy emphasizing technical assistance and U.S. know-how (see our Foreign Policy platform).
Gay Rights/Same-Sex Marriage
The Natural Law Party will support any legislation deemed necessary to prevent discrimination and uphold the constitutionally guaranteed rights of all American citizens, including all minorities. At the same time, the Party believes that legislation alone will never be able to eradicate prejudice and bigotry in society. For this we need more effective educational programs -- programs advocated by the Natural Law Party that develop broad comprehension, increased intelligence, and improved moral reasoning, and that reduce the social stress that leads to fear, divisiveness, narrow-mindedness, and disharmony.
The Natural Law Party also believes that, in principle, government should not attempt to legislate morality or to intervene in the private moral decisions of its citizenry; the Federal Government was not created for this purpose. Therefore, on principle, the Natural Law Party will not draft legislation to discriminate against, nor to actively support, same-sex marriage. (It should be pointed out that under the Natural Law Party's low flat federal tax plan, marriage will confer neither a tax benefit nor a tax penalty. Therefore, from the standpoint of federal tax law, there is no issue that would force the Federal Government to involve itself in this issue.)
Legalization of Drugs
Although the legalization of drugs would substantially cut drug-related crimes, only about 20% of total drug-abuse costs are crime related. The remaining 80% of costs are tied to health, absenteeism, lost productivity, etc. Therefore, the legalization of drugs, even if it increased drug use slightly, could result in increased costs that would overwhelm any crime-related savings.
The Natural Law Party is fundamentally dedicated to the development of the full potential of the individual. Apart from economic considerations, long-term use of even mild hallucinogens like marijuana has been shown to decrease EEG coherence -- the orderly and integrated functioning of the brain. Brain wave coherence is linked to intelligence, creativity, learning ability, academic performance, moral reasoning, psychological stability, and emotional maturity. Legalizing drugs could send the wrong signal to the youth, implying that drug use is not that harmful.
At the same time, outlawing narcotics has not proved effective in reducing their usage. To get to the heart of the drug problem, we have to reduce the desire and the demand for drugs -- which the educational programs supported by the Natural Law Party have been proven to do.
Welfare
Welfare should not be a lifestyle, but a short-term safety net to assist individuals who have lost employment or who are out of work to obtain new employment. The Natural Law Party is in favor of recently enacted welfare reforms to incentivize work, including child care support and a two-year limit on welfare benefits. However, it is of limited use to incentivize people to work if there are no jobs available. The Natural Law Party's pro-growth economic policies will create an abundance of good jobs which will place an ever-increasing premium on the value of the worker. In this expansionary economy, which will create more jobs than there are workers, workers will increasingly be able to dictate their terms of employment -- their salary and work conditions.
Existing state and federal welfare programs should be brought under one administrative umbrella at the local level. Structures to oversee welfare administration need to involve the entire community -- a partnership between local government, businesses, nonprofit organizations, and community residents -- with an emphasis on economic development and community self-help. Through programs to improve the financial and quality-of-life conditions at the basis of welfare, we can broaden the idea of "welfare" from a notion of cash or in-kind goods to a more expansive notion of physical, psychological, emotional, and spiritual well-being.
Affirmative Action
The Natural Law Party believes that affirmative action is a necessary evil -- a stop-gap measure to prevent discrimination in the workplace and in school admissions policies. However, the Party does not support quotas, since we feel that representatives of all sectors of society find quotas to be demeaning and a source of resentment in the workplace. The Natural Law Party upholds laws guaranteeing equal opportunity, not equal outcomes.
In addition, history has shown that it is difficult to legislate equality; government cannot be present in every business and school to ensure that people are always treated fairly. Therefore, the Natural Law Party places its strongest focus on education programs that can develop broad comprehension, increased intelligence, and improved moral reasoning, thereby reducing the social stress that leads to fear, divisiveness, and narrow-mindedness.
Right-to-Work/Unions
The Natural Law Party believes that our working citizens have a right to associate and to engage in collective bargaining to ensure good working conditions and fair compensation. Therefore, unions have a role to play and will continue to play this role in the future.
However, the Natural Law Party feels that most powerful way to improve the job conditions and earnings of American workers is to stimulate job growth, which will make the American worker the prized commodity he or she should be. When, through the Natural Law Party’s pro-growth economic policies, more jobs have been generated than there are workers to fill them, then America will be a seller's market from the worker’s perspective. He or she will be able to pick and choose jobs and to dictate salary and conditions -- and to do so far more effectively than a union can when jobs are scarce and workers are plentiful.
Trade Issues
Trade is vital to a thriving U.S. economy. Trade stimulates competition that gives American consumers more choices, better product quality, and lower prices. Especially today, with America leading the global information revolution--the largest technological and economic explosion in history--it is vitally important to U.S. jobs and the economy that we achieve broad access to the international marketplace with American products. Unfortunately, as in other areas of U.S. government policy, our trade policies are dictated by special interests. Current trade policies
leave American workers and businesses at an unfair disadvantage;
threaten our environment;
undermine U.S. sovereignty and that of other nations; and promote human rights violations.
The Natural Law Party supports a balanced, tailored trade program that
promotes the economic welfare of all our citizens;
provides markets for our domestic small businesses;
safeguards American employment and labor standards--and upholds our ban on the import of products of child and slave labor; and
ensures that imported goods meet our environmental and product safety standards.
America's crucial trade treaties, such as NAFTA, must be revisited and vigorously renegotiated--with adequate representation by labor, environmental, and human rights proponents to ensure that America's interests are truly upheld. In particular, the World Trade Organization (WTO), with its sweeping authority to adjudicate international trade disputes, has become a tool of multinational corporations, which have inside access to WTO negotiations that typically occur in secret. The Natural Law Party would give the WTO twelve months to adopt more open, democratic procedures--with adequate labor, environmental and human rights input--or would withdraw the U.S. from the WTO and negotiate individual, tailored trade relationships with America's various trade partners.
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