By Paul Chabot
The first editorial published by Congressman Elect Aguilar titled, “Executive Action Not Enough on Immigration Reform (December 14th)” is astonishingly out of touch with the real issues affecting families in the Inland Empire. Instead of addressing the core concerns that citizens are worried about, including jobs, K-12 education, healthcare, public safety, social security, veterans, terrorism, rising cost of tuition, housing, etc., Aguilar instead chose to run to the left of Pelosi and Obama, which in itself is difficult for most Democrats to do, but apparently not Aguilar who has put his foot down and said the President’s Executive Order allowing 5 million undocumented immigrants to remain in the U.S. did not go far enough. Really Congressman Elect Aguilar? The President himself said seven times in the past that he was against an Amnesty Executive Order because he didn’t have the authority, and today most Americans agree that Obama was wrong in using an Executive Order in such a fashion, yet you believe he didn’t go far enough?
The United States of America is a nation of laws and when we lose that foundation, we disregard the men and women who fought and died to preserve our democracy. The Constitution should be honored, preserved and valued, not disrespected and trampled upon.
The core issues affecting this district’s citizens need real leadership. Families are hurting while many struggle with unemployment or under-employment and are finding it hard to buy Christmas gifts.  The Inland Empire is ripe with talented and dedicated workers who simply want to find good paying jobs.  Yet, the slow economic recovery has largely left us all behind.
Many in the Inland Empire have lost their doctors because of Obamacare and families are finding it hard to pay for the new increases in premiums, which even the Obama administration admits will rise in 2015.  A year after the implementation of the law, it remains highly problematic and unpopular at best. At worst, families are seeing canceled health care plans and out of reach expenditures that rations health care. If the United States government cannot run healthcare effectively for our military veterans, it surely cannot to do so for the entire nation. And let’s not forget the words of Obamacare’s Chief Architect, Jonathan Gruber, who said last year that a “lack of transparency and the stupidity of the American voter helped Congress approve Obamacare.”  We need to start over.
Children need a great education and parents should not be forced to send their kids to failing schools.  Equal opportunity for a strong education is the right thing to do. Focusing on ensuring our children can succeed is the role of every parent, teacher and elected official.
Our immigration system must secure our borders, enforce the law with dignity and respect, while addressing the core issue of illegal immigration in the first place. Mexico is a mess. Corruption is rampant with judges and police who are on the take, yet our Nation looks the other way and continues to provide foreign aid with no accountability measures. We must help Mexico help themselves and when we do, we will no longer see the flood of mothers, fathers, and children fleeing that nation. America must replicate measures of Plan Colombia of the 1980s which helped set Colombia on the right path.  When America gets serious about mandating that our foreign aid goes towards rooting out corruption, violence and lack of societal rule of law, Mexico will prosper and families will no longer flee and many already here in the United States will return to Mexico; it’s a beautiful country, but in desperate need of real help.
Terrorism is spreading across the globe. ISIS grows, Russia and China advance their military capability while our United States Armed Forces are being reduced to levels of pre World War II.  Reagan clearly understood that in order to preserve our nation, we must have the mightiest fighting force in the world. His peace through strength vision lead to the fall of Soviet Union – our enemies feared us and our allies trusted us. Sadly, today, that is not the case and the world is a much more dangerous place.
America is in trouble and needs real leadership. Next month, Congressman Elect Aguilar will take an oath to uphold the United States Constitution. We can only hope that he abides by that oath and puts his radical agenda to rest.
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Dr. Paul Chabot is President of Chabot Strategies and the 2014 Republican Nominee for United States Congress in the 31st District. He resides in Rancho Cucamonga.