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Platform

The New York Young Republican Club has established a policy platform as a means to express our conservative values and serve as an actionable advocacy agenda.

Submit a Policy Resolution

We accept policy resolution submissions from Club members, which may be considered for inclusion in our policy platform. 

Constitutional Government

While there are areas where the government should step in to assist American workers, businesses, consumers, and families, it must seek to avoid unnecessary intrusion into the lives of ordinary Americans. The New York Young Republican Club supports getting back to the Founders’ Constitutional vision of limited and self-governance and rejecting the progressive vision of “government without restraints” consolidated within the executive branch by Woodrow Wilson and other presidents. This means cutting the administrative state and reducing the regulatory burden on new and small businesses in America. 

This also means eliminating the role the government has played in destroying American families and incentivizing marriages to the state. In order to get back to Constitutional Government all policy-makers, politicians, and Americans must ask themselves: does this make it easier to raise a family in this country? 

Furthermore, we do not subscribe to the selective appeal to our inalienable rights so common in our society today. 

We reject the notion that rights should be limited to make some people “feel” better, and we support all ten amendments that comprise our Bill of Rights, with particular emphasis on the first two. 

The First Amendment freedoms of speech, religion, press, assembly, and petition for redress are essential to ensuring our self-governed vision for ordered liberty, while the Second Amendment is imperative to maintaining our free society. 

We have seen during the years of the COVID pandemic what happens to countries without the guaranteed right of self-defense and fair and equal access to arms.

The New York Young Republican Club supports universal access to Constitutional Carry and strongly opposes the introduction of any red flag laws or new regulations on “assault weapons.”

And finally, we support an interpretation of the Constitution that is consistent with what the Founders intended, which spelled out in its Articles what each branch of government can do, and most importantly what it cannot do. 

The structure of America’s Constitutional Government was always dependent on a philosophy, culture, and shared history and destiny. American greatness has come from the bountiful resources of the land and cultivation of these resources as no nation in the world has done before or since. And the goodness of America has come from the generosity of spirit from We The People. In order to form a more perfect union again – and preserve and recover the American Republic, the Constitutional Government of the United States of America must stand in our civics and in the hearts and minds of our citizens. The progressive administrative state must fall. 

Families and Home Economics

In the post-Cold War era, instead of a promised peace dividend, American families have been squeezed by outsourcing, and rising costs in healthcare, childcare, and higher education. These are all areas where the government has stepped in as a guaranteed purchaser and vastly inflated the market, incentivizing growth in the professional, managerial, and administrative costs of these industries, and decreasing American families’ purchasing power. Now, inflation is outpacing wage growth. Marriage and birth rates are at historic lows, and we must do everything we can to repair and strengthen American families by organizing our economy around the interests and everyday realities of households.

The New York Young Republican Club believes we must make it easier to raise a family in this country, and we back policies that encourage intact and strong American families. This is especially true in K-12 education policy, where politicians left our children behind during the pandemic. More than ever before, children suffer the indoctrination of leftist successor ideology attempting to subvert America’s traditions, philosophy, culture, and history. 

  • We support parental empowerment and involvement in their children’s education. Funding should follow the student in the form of tax credits, vouchers, or a mix of both.
  • Wherever public or government schools exist, parents must have direct oversight through elected school boards. 
  • We support the value of homemakers rather than the misguided bipartisan determination to supplant it and outsource all childcare and parenting time. Parental preference shows that most families with young children would like to have a stay-at-home parent, this is also better for child welfare, and in the long run benefits the family as a whole. An increase in homemaking would also have positive societal effects on the national welfare in the form of increased social cohesion and togetherness.
  • We oppose a government-funded and operated system of “universal” child care which will only increase runaway costs further as it did in healthcare and higher education, and we support the expansion of the Child Tax Credit or something structured similar to the Family Income Supplemental Credit by American Compass that pays monthly rather than yearly, complete with work requirements, phase-out at 100K (single), 200K (joint), a marriage bonus (married parents receive 20% boost in supplement), administration through the SSA, rather than a tax credit through the IRS, and two-thirds funded through existing programs.
  • We support significant reforms to the American healthcare system that prioritize preventative care, pro-natal policies like free child birth, and the patient-doctor relationship, and we oppose medical mandates and support medical freedom. 
  • We support the direct accountability of public health officials through all available means.  
  • Phase out the role of the Federal Government in financing higher education and embrace a more holistic approach to higher education, job training, and skills development, by placing focus on community colleges, trade schools, and apprenticeships, as well as reforming occupational licensing.
  • Any student loan relief should come in the form of interest rate reforms financed through taxation on large university endowments, or PILOT (payments in lieu of taxes) programs pursued locally. 
  • Any new government-backed loans should require universities and colleges on the loan as co-signers. 
  • A national industrial policy and organizing the American economy around the real needs of households. A home economics approach and a strong town, community-centric, caretaker and shopkeeper capitalism.

Foreign Policy and National Security

The failures of military action in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya have demonstrated that the United States should not attempt to be the world’s policeman and that the era of unrestrained globalization economically and globalism politically and culturally has been a failure that has brought the world closer to major war than at any time in the past six decades. 

The New York Young Republican Club stresses a restrained, America-First foreign policy that prioritizes the national interest over all other considerations. In addition, we favor peace through strength and credible deterrence that could have prevented the conflict in Ukraine. Finally, we favor peace with honor for our country in foreign affairs and encourage other nations to do the same.

  • American sovereignty must be prioritized when considering international agreements. In particular, the US must avoid ceding any power to international organizations, including the United Nations. The Paris Climate Agreement serves as a prime example of a globalist intervention that does not serve our country’s best interests.
  • We support the institution of bilateral free trade agreements with countries of relative parity to support American industry while providing American consumers with increasing purchasing power. 
  • We oppose multilateral trade agreements that favor oligarchs and desecrate American industry, like the proposed Trans-Pacific Pact (TPP). 
  • Preserve and rebuild the U.S. manufacturing base by reshoring jobs and shoring new advanced manufacturing jobs to shorten supply lines and increase self-sufficiency in areas vitally important to national security and economic competitiveness. 
  • We support a decoupling from communist totalitarian China as much as possible and banning Chinese nationals from being able to purchase US land and real estate unless they renounce their citizenship and become American citizens.
  • Rebuild the United States military to be the best-trained fighting force in the world with technological superiority in equipment and creativity in strategy, tactics, and war-fighting for the modern battlefield and achieve fiscal and military discipline while doing so.
  • We must go to war only when it is clearly and convincingly in the national interests, and Congress must weigh in and perform its constitutional role and duty again. If these prongs are satisfied, the war should be fought only when it can be won on the actual battlefield, and it should be fought with overwhelming force. Other foreign policy tools are more appropriate everywhere else. Finally, America’s veterans should be honored and utilized as the purpose-driven citizen leaders that they are.
  • Build toward a new system of international alliances that’s flexible enough to give tough talks and hard truths to our friends, open enough to speak to our rival competitors on a case-by-case basis, and courageous enough to speak to our enemies to negotiate the best deals possible for the United States of America and serve our national interests as well as the interests of peace through strength over the impulse toward war and weakness.  
  • The basis and core principle of this new internationalism would be countries committed to mutually helping one another preserve national sovereignty, heritage, and culture, and helping one another preserve an institution that precedes the nation-state itself–the family. 
  • The justification for American involvement in “proxy wars” must meet the justification for direct American involvement itself. 

Immigration and Citizenship

The New York Young Republican Club supports secure borders, economic prosperity, and immigration policy reform. It is imperative that we recognize and rebuke the disregard for the rule of law and the destruction of national security and sovereignty engendered by the tolerance of an uncontrolled border. This economic and societal transformation brought about by the influx of low-skilled mass migrants cannot be understated and is a key objective of the progressive leftist agenda.

Particularly in an age of global terrorism, drug cartels, and human trafficking, the American people deserve a government that protects and prioritizes their interests over popular appeals to leftist dogma. The development of sanctuary cities across the United States is an active and ongoing effort to undermine our society and expand the ranks of the future Democrat voter base.  

Legal immigration is beneficial to America, and we reassert the important economic and cultural contributions that legal immigrants who have assimilated to American society continue to make to our nation. The lack of attention to and the downright dismissal of existing illegal immigration trends discredit legal immigration. 

  • We believe in stepping up the penalty for immigrants illegally entering the United States from misdemeanor to felony, and we oppose amnesty in all forms for those who break our immigration laws.
  • We support the construction of a security barrier across the Southern Border and sufficient law enforcement or military personnel to patrol every point of entry into our country.
  • We believe that government service providers, as well as voting polls, should require proof of citizenship prior to receiving these services and prior to executing the right to vote. 
  • We believe in immigration reform to meet the technological standards of the modern day in order to implement and encourage an operationally efficient and merit-based system that emphasizes the economic contribution that each prospective immigrant can add to our nation.
  • We believe that jobs should be made available to American citizens first and legal workers first, and that any workplace enforcement addressing illegal immigration should be tailored in a way that does not sacrifice Americans’ privacy and impose the costs of immigration and the failures of politicians on small businesses and workers. 
  • We believe that asylum reform should tighten up asylum laws so that those seeking protection in the United States are doing so from a “credible fear” standard that is limited to state actors rather than the overbroad definitions currently allowed. 
  • Return to a “Remain in Mexico” policy while asylum seekers and others are awaiting a hearing, and exert pressure on the country of origin to cooperate with U.S. immigration and border officials regardless of the status being sought.
  • We support designating the Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations.
  • Protecting the nuclear family by ending chain migration and limiting sponsorships to spouses and minor children only.
  • Ending birthright citizenship to further discourage illegal immigration, save American taxpayers money, respect American citizens, and give relief to our border enforcement agents and immigration courts.
  • Ending dual citizenship to further protect the meaningfulness and distinction of the privileges, rights, duties, obligations, and responsibilities of being an American citizen.
  • Preventing all non-citizens from being able to own U.S. land.
  • Greater coordination and cooperation between federal and local jurisdictions to implement U.S. immigration law to the letter of the law. To do anything else, to encourage or tolerate the practice of “sanctuary cities,” is contrary to the U.S. Constitution and the federal government’s role and responsibility over immigration law. Jurisdictions that become sanctuaries for illegal immigration of any sort should have their funding threatened if they are non-compliant. 

Crime and the Rule of Law

The New York Young Republican Club supports the rule of law and the protection of citizens as a fundamental pillar of the role of any government in society and further maintains its essential role in the ordered liberty of this country. In recent years, after years of improvement, crime has gone up across our cities, the rule of law has been disrespected on our streets, and the quality of life has gone down. We unequivocally denounce the Marxists and mob mentality movements on the streets that are incorrect on facts and authoritarian in behavior. 

This country does not just face a crisis of rising crime, but a crisis of fatherlessness, moral decay, and declining standards in our civics and quality of life that are felt every day by the ordinary and decent law-abiding citizens of this country. 

  • Restore public safety in our cities and public confidence in our criminal justice system.
  • Repeal bail reform laws that have contributed to a rise in crime and begin collecting and utilizing data on repeat offenders. 
  • Fire progressive District Attorneys who have operated “turnstile Justice” systems in major cities through whatever means necessary, legal, political, or public pressure. 
  • Reform mental health and civil commitment laws to make involuntary commitments easier to do so as to not stress social services in areas where they are not the best fit and not getting the help they need. 
  • Amend the “Diaphragm Law” to include a mens rea standard, requiring prosecutors to establish as an element of the offense that officers intentionally applied a prohibited neck restraint and intentionally stood, sat, or knelt in a manner that compressed the diaphragm. Create an exception in the class of cases in which the subject is actively physically resisting arrest, and restrict the attachment of criminal penalties to cases involving physical injuries proximately caused by the violation of the statute. 
  • Experiment with new officer recruitment strategies to help with staffing shortages and the damage already done to the law enforcement profession by irresponsible and uninformed politicians. 
  • The restoration of public safety and order and the end to our disastrous turnstile era of criminal justice must be balanced with the Constitutional rights of self-defense, the 5th amendment right of non-incrimination, trial by jury of peers, and the criminal procedure that has long been associated with putting the burden of the proof on the state. 
  • The maintenance of the rule of law and future of civilization depends on valuing the sanctity of life and the protection of children. We therefore call on the Supreme Court to revisit and reverse its 2008 decision in Kennedy v. Louisiana to allow states to seek the death penalty for those who rape minor children.

Election Integrity

Securing and ensuring the integrity of our elections cannot be emphasized enough. If the citizens of the United States of America do not have confidence in their elections, then they do not have confidence in governmental actions that follow those elections. Failures of election integrity pose a key risk because they erode the integrity of one’s citizenship. Just as a country needs borders, a democratic and constitutional republic needs meaningful citizenship and voting to have any real legitimacy.

The New York Young Republican Club calls for states to continue their constitutionally given role in legislating and implementing their elections; United States federal elections are in-fact a series of state elections, and the integrity of legal votes and the election process by the letter of the law is instrumental in maintaining the American Republic. The federal government must allow states to act in a manner free from onerous regulation and which addresses local concerns of election integrity. 

Towards these ends, we support each state:

  • Requiring government-issued photo ID and proof of U.S. citizenship to obtain and submit an absentee ballot as well as for in-person voting, for all future elections. 
  • Allowing absentee voting only for people ages 65 and up, voters with permanent disabilities, voters who are away from their home county on election day, to include military ballots, and people who have to work while the polls are open.
  • Banning in-person delivery of absentee ballots by a person other than the absentee voter. 
  • Banning ballot drop boxes and ballot harvesting.
  • Regular independent checks on the accuracy of state’s voter rolls, such as True The Vote’s IV3 project, a web-based app that enables voting citizens with an automated way to confirm accuracy, identify ineligible records, report findings to local authorities, and stay up to date on recent changes to local voter rolls.  
  • Strictly adhering to the Electors Clause of the U.S. Constitution — Article II, Section I, Clause II — as well as the election laws specified in their state constitutions.   

Fiscal and Monetary Policy

The New York Young Republican Club believes that current fiscal and monetary policy in the United States has moved too far in the direction of reckless financing of wasteful and unnecessary government programs, as well as overbearing taxation preventing Americans from choosing to spend the great bulk of their hard-earned dollars the way they see fit (as intended by the Founding Fathers). 

We also believe that current regulatory policies towards the market badly distort the prices of goods and services and greatly increase market inefficiencies, as well as arbitrarily limiting occupational freedom. Accordingly, we call for drastic reductions in total government spending, the tax burden on Americans, and the abolition of both price controls and occupational licensure reform. We propose to do this by eliminating onerous and unnecessary taxes on individuals and passing constitutional limits on total government spending as well as government interventions in the market.

  • Work toward eliminating the income and payroll taxes, or “work taxes” on individuals and corporations, and replace these with a simple graduated (at purchase price) or flat tax on consumption for a broad base of goods and services. The tax rate could be well below 20% but enough to amply finance the essential (and much more limited and constitutional) government functions at the Federal, State, and Local levels that we’ve outlined in this platform. This could be accomplished with Value-Added Tax (VAT). 
  • A VAT at no higher than 10%, and a work tax rate no higher than 20% while phasing out payroll taxes altogether could apply, with a two-thirds vote being needed to raise taxes going forward. If there is an individual income tax, no taxes will apply to the first $50,000 in income for individuals or the first $100,000 for families. 
  • A 0% individual income tax for working adults up to age 25. 
  • A 0% individual income tax for those who become mothers up to age 30.
  • A 0% individual income tax for those with at least four children. 
  • Eliminate property taxes at the state and county level for those over 65 years old so seniors can age and stay in their homes with dignity, eliminate the double-taxation on Social Security through the non-taxation of Social Security benefits while phasing out and renaming all mentions to the word social unless referenced in the context of civil society and families.  
  • Pass constitutional amendments at the Federal and State levels requiring a balanced budget plus a limit on total tax revenue. The amendment would require that total tax receipts for the government not increase from one year to the next by a greater percentage than the prior increase in national income. Any surplus of tax revenue would have to be used to pay down the public debt of the U.S. until there is none. Holding taxes below that prior increase would have the ratchet effect of limiting future increases and make possible a gradual reduction in government spending of tax dollars as a fraction of national income. It would also force the achievement of a balanced budget through a reduction in government spending rather than an increase in taxes unless Congress was willing to resort to an escape clause that requires a supermajority to raise taxes above the specified limit. Spending cuts would also be forced by requiring a reduction in spending whenever the inflation rate exceeds 3%. Such an amendment was proposed by the Republican Party in 1982 and passed the Senate before being voted down in the House. The 1982 amendment could simply be revived, with little or no changes.
  • Abolish the Federal Reserve and return to a system of decentralized private banking; but insofar as that is not yet politically feasible, pass a constitutional amendment requiring the Federal Reserve to follow a rules-based monetary policy unless Congress is willing to resort to an escape clause that requires a supermajority to deviate from the rules-based monetary policy. In our view, the ideal rules-based monetary policy – the so-called “K-percent rule” – would require the Federal Reserve to only grow the money supply as close to a constant rate each year as is possible (say, equal to the historical average rate of real GDP growth in the U.S.). This would maximize stable GDP growth and prices of goods and services keeping inflation under control as much as feasible.                   
  • Pass a constitutional amendment that eliminates wage and price controls so as to create a freer market. This would be an exact counterpart of the First Amendment, as prices determined in a free market are a form of free speech (they transmit information about the preferences of buyers and sellers): “Congress shall make no laws abridging the freedom of sellers of goods or labor to price their products or services.”    
  • The freedom to choose one’s occupation is an essential component of economic freedom, and another area where state regulations distort and reduce the efficiencies of the market. Hence we propose the constitutional amendment: “No State shall make or impose any law which shall abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to follow any occupation or profession of his choice.”  

Big Tech and Reindustrialization

The opportunity to innovate and the government’s support of new business and technological innovation have been a cornerstone of American greatness and economic strength since its birth. The policy must support progress and innovation in technology without stifling small business production or the right of American citizens to their free speech and/or privacy.

In addition to re-shoring outsourced manufacturing jobs and pursuing Made in America policies, it is also vital to re-shore vital chip technologies to the United States. These policies of bringing back the old and consolidating the new right here in America serve the purpose of supporting our own workforce, and our families, and building a productive economy and society. 

Furthermore, globalized large tech companies that jeopardize the national security of the United States through their relations and business dealings with totalitarian communist China should be intensely scrutinized. 

  • We believe that technology mediums across the spectrum should be held accountable to allow citizens the right to communicate with one another free from unlawful intrusion. They should be held accountable for intervening with freedom of speech and expression on any discriminatory basis.
  • We believe in balanced protections for intellectual property.
  • We believe that universal broadband coverage should be promoted and permitted to thrive, as refraining from doing so prevents rural America and small business people from operating in line with the world’s producers. 
  • We believe in incentives for investment and innovation and partnership between all levels of government with individuals and industries in technology.
  • We believe that policy should protect data privacy while fostering innovation and growth and ensuring the free flow of data across borders.
  • We believe in prioritization of energy grid expansion to avoid an aging grid that is vulnerable to cyber/terrorist threats and is unprepared to serve our energy needs, instead, we should assist American consumers and businesses to have access to affordable and reliable electricity.
  • We believe in constructive regulation and tax provisions for cryptocurrencies and emerging blockchain technology to enable technological innovation and avoid losing talent and business in this new area of growth to countries abroad.
  • We support simplification of the tax code and reduction of corporate rates and capital gains rates. We should reduce the occupational licensing laws that prevent potential workers from establishing entrepreneurial careers. We must revise the regulatory burdens created by the Dodd-Frank law that impedes community banks that cater to savings and loan services for small businesses and agriculture. 

Energy and Agricultural Dominance

In the 21st Century, the country that achieves physical security, food security, and energy security will be the best positioned in the world. Last decade, for the first time in years, we achieved energy independence from foreign oil, especially from unstable regions of the world. This breakthrough was made possible through innovations in hydraulic fracturing and the shale revolution. Yet, the extreme and radical anti-human and anti-civilization environmental lobby has all but squandered this, and the Biden administration has indulged. 

The New York Young Republican Club stands for a technologically, economically, and engineering-sound strategy of delivering cheaper energy to all Americans as well as becoming export rich in this area through a competitive all-the-above, let-the-best source win strategy. Currently, this means cleaner and abundant natural gas, nuclear energy as the most viable alternative, and innovative companies not clouded by an ideological agenda. If there is a technological breakthrough in a new energy area, that’s great–but science and technology must come first, not rule by “The Science.” In the area of agriculture, the United States has the most efficient farming technology in the world and abundant farmland and natural resources to go beyond independence in this area as well. Like in previous eras when national ambition and imagination ran higher, and success and excellence weren’t looked down upon – the United States should set itself on the ambitious task of becoming so export-dominant in agriculture that feeding the world becomes a possibility. 

  • We must open up new pipelines and streamline domestic energy production to bring down prices for consumers.  
  • We must recommit to the most viable and stable form of alternative energy in nuclear. New plants in this area will build out a US energy portfolio that can go beyond independence and be adjustable and resilient in the medium and long term.
  • To streamline this, Congress should pass permitting reforms that both cut bureaucratic waste but also shorten production schedules. 
  • Open up more domestic mines, so we don’t end up relying on China for key minerals and resources. Opening up mines like the taconite mine in Northern Minnesota, for example, could be a massive boom for economically depressed regions of the country, revolutionizing opportunities in these states and regions. 
  • Reclaim the rich legacy of conservation as a means to push back against the radical environmentalists of the progressive left so dominant in the Democratic Party, and stand for the truth and future of civilization and against rhetoric that implies that humanity has no future, which is irresponsible and nihilistic.
  • Improve and shorten supply chain management to further bring down costs for consumers and build out new export-oriented supply chains instead for the future of U.S. energy and agriculture. 
  • Fight for and protect small and mid-sized family farms as an American way of life and ban foreign nationals from being able to purchase U.S. farmland and other important lands full of natural resources. 
  • Split up the farm bill into two appropriations bills, separating public nutrition programs from the rest of the farm bill.  
  • Due to the impending demographic collapse of the world’s population in many countries, including nearly the entire developed world, the next decade should reorient American agriculture in finance and fertilizer capacity to set ourselves up to be able to go from food and ag independence to dominance. In the area of energy production, security and independence are not sufficient, we should set a goal as a nation to produce enough energy to go from independence to dominance. A country that can secure itself physically, feed itself, and power itself, has the capacity and potential to overcome and outlast what is not working elsewhere in its society and civilization. 
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