THE EVERYDAY PARTYParty Members: Noel Mark, Kara Slick, Mitchel Weber, Callie McAdoo, & Maddy Machon

ABOUT US

Symbol: The Grizzly Bear because they are strong, caring, and intelligent

Party Colors: Green, Blue, Purple, and White

Ideology Type: We consider ourselves Libertarian because we are fiscally conservative and socially liberal

Slogan: “Making everyday a great day”

Song: It’s My Life by Queen

PARTY PLATFORM

IMMIGRATION

Our party believes that immigrants should not be here illegally, and that it is unfair for them to be taking social welfare from legal American citizens. However, deportation of all 11 million illegal immigrants is impractical and would cost a tremendous amount of federal money. Instead, we believe that keeping the wall up at the border of Mexico and slightly increasing the border patrol will help decrease the amount of illegal immigration.

Pros:•Less illegal immigrants in the United States•Protection of our country's borders•Creation of more jobs

EDUCATION

Our party believes that every child is entitled to an education, however, we also believe that charter schools shouldn't exist. We believe that they are a waste of tax-payer's dollars. One way we propose to stop this problem is to take away charter schools all together, since they are just private schools running of community money. If a child is extremely unhappy with their public school, and their family can pay for the transportation, the child can change public schools. Also, if there are many complaints about a specific teacher, then we propose putting in better teachers, in order to allow them to have a better education. Onto the topic of college admissions, we believe that a college degree is a very important thing to obtain in order to make more money, however, there is not much we plan to do in order to lower the admission rates for certain universities. If a student has financial troubles and wishes to attend a college or university, then they can apply for financial aid or one of many scholarships offered by many universities. On the topic of standardized testing, we believe that they are useful in testing a child's intelligence, however, they are not accurate in testing a teacher's teaching abilities. In order to test that, students should review their teachers performances, as well as the school's administration.

Pros:•Students can make more money with college degree •A citizen is less likely to live in poverty if they attend college•Taxes will be lowered with the elimination of private schools•Standardized test help 93% of children’s achievement levels

ENERGY SOURCES

Our party believes that while fossil fuels are a dependent, efficient source of energy for the time being, we also believe that work should be put into developing extremely efficient alternative energy sources, such as biofuels, solar power, and In conclusion, our ultimate goal is to use alternative energy to replace the use of fossil fuels. However, we do understand that they are not ready to be used for complete replacement at this time, and that completely eliminating coal and oil as fuel will result in a major loss of jobs.

Pros:•The gradual transition will greatly improve the environment and reduce CO2 levels•Not completely eliminating oil and coal will allow many to keep their jobs and keep an efficient source of energy available•Once efficient alternative resources are developed, they will never run out

NATIONAL DEBT/SPENDING

Our party believes that the national debt should be significantly reduced. In order to do this, we propose the cutting of less important government programs and also greatly lessen government spending. We do not plan on increasing taxes for any American citizen. Another thing we believe that the government should not bail out business that are foreclosing. Our party also believes that banks should be privately own, rather than the large, national banks we have now. This would help avoid another great depression.

Pros•Reduce the national debt•Credit standing in the world will go up•No tax increase will keep citizens happy

HEALTH CARE SYSTEMThe main point of the Affordable Care Act is to provide all Americans with affordable, quality healthcare. Our party disagrees with this. We believe that the cost of this healthcare outweighs the benefits. Because of the increase of Americans receiving affordable healthcare, taxes will be raised and some workers will be paid less. Companies are being forced to pay for insurance if they have more than fifty full-time employees. Many companies can’t afford this, which is leading to an increase in unemployment. Our party wishes to take away the Affordable Care Act, since it is not doing what it was supposed to do, and also because most citizens have not signed up for it. We also believe that preexisting conditions should be covered, and that companies should provide healthcare to their employees.

Pros•Less taxes•Citizens can choose the healthcare plan they want•Smaller companies will stay in business•Not spending money on healthcare will reduce the national debt

GUN CONTROL

According to the Second Amendment, every citizen has the right to bear arms. We believe instead of taking away the right to have a gun away that we should look into why people use the gun against unarmed vulnerable citizens. The problem is not the guns; it's the mental state of the people buying the guns. Therefore, we do not believe in gun restriction. In order to help those with mental illnesses, we want to create a better psychiatric treatment system.

Pros:•The right to bear arms is a second amendment right•Having arms can deter crime•Most gun owners are law biding citizens

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

Our party believes that every United States citizen deserves to be given equal opportunities. In saying this, we believe that affirmative action should be used to an extent to ensure that racism doesn't occur, however, not to the extent of reverse discrimination. That means that minorities get chosen over whites, who may be more qualified, because they are minorities. An example of this would be Regents of the University of California v Bakke, where 16 places were set aside for minority applicants at the University of California, Davis, medical school. A white applicant, Allan Bakke, was refused admission even though he had higher test scores than some of the minority applicants. What our party hopes to accomplish is that every citizen should be treated equally, regardless of their race.

Pros:•Everyone has equal opportunities•No favoring a single race•No reverse discrimination

ABORTION

Our party’s opinion on the subject of abortion is pro-choice. We believe that a women should have the choice to do whatever she wants with her body.

Pros:•This can empower women by giving them control of their own bodies•Personhood does not begin until the fetus is able to survive outside the womb•Doctors believe that the fetus cannot feel pain until the cortex has developed after the 26 week period, long after an abortion is to be performed•Abortions are safe procedures that don’t cause any long lasting health issues•Making it nearly impossible for a women to get an abortion can lead to her getting an unsafe procedure done which can cause for further complications. •If a women is forced to carry a child into term, she may not be financially ready to care for it. •An unwanted child being brought into the world will not be cared for the way a wanted child would be cared for.

GAY RIGHTS

Our party is in full support of same-sex marriage and believe that it should be legal in every state. This goes along with our belief of equal opportunity for all, and that every citizen should be able to marry who they love, no matter if they are the same gender or not. Legalizing gay marriage would actually be beneficial in the economy, according to The Williams Institute at UCLA law. The positive economic impact in legalizing same-sex marriage in New Jersey would be $248 million over three years, creating 800 jobs, and receiving another $19 million in government revenues.

Pros:•Same-sex couples will be able to celebrate their love publically in the same way heterosexual couples are able too•Same-sex couples will be allowed the same benefits enjoyed by heterosexual couples•Marriage has been redefined as society's attitudes have changed; most Americans now support gay marriage•Same-sex marriage is protected under the Constitution's promise of liberty and equality

OUR SOURCESImmigration:http://immigration.procon.org Educational:http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2012/01/comparing_charters_and_regular.htmlhttp://ies.ed.gov/ Energy Sources:http://enlightenme.com/alternative-energy-pros-and-cons/http://alternativeenergy.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=001792 National Debt/Spending:http://money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/articles/2011/03/31/how-the-national-debt-affects-you Health Care System:http://obamacarefacts.com/obamacare-pros-and-cons/ Gun Control:http://www.hngn.com/articles/43653/20140925/shootings-in-america-have-doubled-over-the-past-7-years-says-fbi.htm Affirmative Action:http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/_/dict.aspx?rd=1&word=Affirmative+Action Abortion:http://abortion.procon.org/ Gay Rights:http://gaymarriage.procon.org/http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0761909.html