As a U.S. Senator Dick Zimmer will fight for the same fiscally conservative principles he has championed his entire career. When Dick Zimmer first ran for Congress, he pledged to vote against any broad-based tax increase. He kept that promise. Zimmer believes that the federal government can and should balance its budget, and should do so by cutting spending rather then raising taxes. He believes that you should keep more of your hard-earned money in your pocket.

While others talk about fiscal responsibility and cutting spending, Zimmer has an unmatched record of fighting on behalf of New Jersey taxpayers. Zimmer was instrumental in persuading the House to phase out the obsolete wool and mohair subsidy, saving taxpayers more than $500 million over five years. He worked hard to protect taxpayer money from being spent on wasteful government programs and pork barrel projects. Zimmer supported $700 billion in specific spending cuts, which would have balanced the budget.

Zimmer played a significant role in drafting the tax-relief package that passed the House in 1995, which cut taxes $353 billion over seven years. This package included a $500-per-child tax credit and an expanded individual retirement account savings plan. He was the principal architect of the package’s 50-percent capital gains tax cut, which was based on a bill Zimmer co-sponsored in the previous Congress.

Zimmer has led by example and practiced fiscally responsible policies in his congressional office. He returned a portion of his office budget to the U.S. Treasury every year – totaling more that $600,000 for the six years he served. And, because of a bill sponsored by Zimmer and signed into law, all unspent portions of members’ office funds starting in 1996 are now applied to deficit reduction.

• The National Taxpayers Union three times named Zimmer the most fiscally conservative member of the entire Congress based on the net savings of legislation he sponsored.
• Citizens Against Government Waste designated Zimmer a “Taxpayer Hero” every year he served in Congress except the two years he was named a “Taxpayer Superhero”.
• The anti-deficit Concord Coalition honored Dick as a deficit hawk and placed him on its “House Honor Roll,” rating him in the top 10 percent of Congress.
• Zimmer never failed to receive the Golden Bulldog Award from the Watchdogs of the Treasury for his votes in Congress.

Dick Zimmer understands that New Jerseyans are having a hard time making ends meet and that our exceptionally high tax burden is driving jobs out of our state. He believes that allowing federal tax cuts to expire will stifle our economic recovery by penalizing people who save, invest and take risks to create jobs.

He supports expanding markets around the world for our goods and services and reducing the burdens of taxation, regulation and litigation on small businesses.

Zimmer believes that America’s immigration policy should be based on what is best for America. An essential part of being a sovereign nation is the ability to protect its own borders. Zimmer believes in order to protect our nation from out-of-control illegal immigration, we must build a physical fence on our border and augment it with state-of-the-art detection systems. To reduce the economic incentives for illegal immigration, he supports tamper-proof employee identification and strict employer sanctions. Zimmer opposes amnesty for those who broke our laws to come to this country. It is wrong to reward those who have cut in line while punishing others trying to immigrate legally. America was built on legal immigration and we need to ensure that the law is being enforced.

Just because the U.S homeland hasn’t been attacked by terrorists since 9/11 does not mean that we are immune from an future attacks. We witnessed the destruction of the World Trade Center from here in New Jersey. We know first-hand the homeland security threats we face in the modern age of terrorism and must seek out those who wish to do us harm and destroy them.

Congress has wrongly used politics to distribute Homeland Security funding. This must stop. When elected to the Senate, Zimmer will fight to ensure that Homeland Security funds are sent to the areas such as New Jersey with the highest threat from terrorism.

Our troops in Iraq are doing an exceptional job. They have dramatically reduced the level of violence and give the Iraqis the opportunity to create a stable democratic state. We need to extricate our combat troops as quickly as possible, using a tough and pragmatic strategy to avoid creating regional chaos and a failed state that would become a haven for Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups.

Zimmer believes that the Iraqi government must spend its increased oil revenues on its own national security, reducing the current burden on U.S. taxpayers. We must allow our military leaders to assess the situation and develop plans to withdraw our troops in a responsible manner. Zimmer believes that setting an arbitrary deadline for withdrawal without regard to the military and political realities would be a terrible disservice to both our courageous troops and to the Iraqi people.

Dick Zimmer has a long record of fighting for America’s veterans. He strongly believes that government has a commitment to care for those who risked their lives to serve their country, and his record reflects this belief. While he has fought to streamline the federal government, he has consistently opposed any cuts that would hurt veterans’ benefits and programs.

Zimmer fought to protect Veterans Affairs funding. He voted to restore $206.1 million for the Department of Veterans Affairs that had been rescinded as part of the Clinton “Peace Dividend”. He supported legislation ensuring that veterans’ benefits, as well as patient health and safety services of the Veterans Health Administration, would not be adversely affected by budget battles between Congress and the President.

Over the years, he voted in favor of numerous bills supporting veterans’ medical, housing, and employment benefits. He also co-sponsored a number of bills aimed at resolving unanswered questions concerning missing American military personnel from the Vietnam and Korean wars, including legislation establishing a Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs.

Zimmer promises to all of those who currently serve in our armed forces and to those who have served in the past that he will continue to fight for them when he is in the Senate.

One of Dick Zimmer’s signature achievements is the federal “Megan’s Law.” Named for Megan Kanka, a seven-year-old New Jersey girl murdered by a sexual predator, the law ensures that neighbors are notified of the presence of sexual offenders in their communities.

He wrote and won passage of “no frills prisons” legislation to make sure prisoners are not provided with perks and luxuries at taxpayer expense. The legislation eliminated perks such as in-cell cable television, R-rated movies and martial arts training.

As a Senator Zimmer will continue to fight to protect the safety of New Jersey families.

Dick Zimmer believes that health care should be accessible and affordable for all Americans without imposing unwarranted government controls, damaging the principle of patient choice, or sacrificing America’s quality of medical care, which is the best in the world.

Zimmer has consistently opposed the creation of a government-run national health care system, warning that this would result in higher taxes, the erosion of patient choice, and a decline in quality of service.

Zimmer supported legislation to help reduce health care costs and ensure better access to health care through a variety of measures, including litigation and insurance reforms, portability provisions, paperwork reduction measures, tax incentives, and the elimination of preexisting health exclusions.

When elected to the Senate, Zimmer will fight to build on the reforms he has advocated and continue the fight to ensure that all Americans have access to affordable medical care.

Dick Zimmer knows the importance of education. A product of New Jersey public schools, he won a full academic scholarship to Yale, from which he graduated with high honors in political science. He then went on to graduate from Yale Law School, where he was a member of the board of editors of the Yale Law Journal.

Zimmer believes the future of America depends on how well our children are educated and believes that every child should have access to a quality education. Local communities should have the principal responsibility of running public schools, with the federal government identifying education methods that work and helping parents hold their school districts accountable by providing reliable measures of performance.

Zimmer believes that to address our growing energy problems we must urgently promote energy efficiency and energy conservation. He is in favor of increasing fuel mileage standards on cars and SUVs. Zimmer supports streamlining the regulatory process to allow more nuclear power facilities to come on line and increased energy exploration and production on public lands, consistent with public safety and environmental protection.