Restore Traditional America is founded in two fundamental principles; limited government and individual responsibility.

By limited government, we mean a return to the role of government to that more closely resembling that defined in the US constitution. However, it is not our intent to destroy the American safety net. Instead, we can make it stronger and more sustainable over the long term through the application of free market principles. For example, Social Security provides for a basic human need, retirement income. The problem is that it does it so badly. It is run by people who make decisions politically, not rationally. There is no reason why a better system cannot be provided by the free market. This also true for programs like Medicare and Medicaid as well as most other programs run by the government.

Likewise the government has a regulation role that can provide safety for the people. This role has, of recent, been abused and needs to be dramatically curtailed. For example, it makes sense for the government to monitor drugs to ensure their safety, but it makes no sense for them to assess drug effectiveness. It is this second role that vastly increases the cost of drugs and the time to make it to market. They could easily and quickly make sure that a drug won’t kill us. It is much harder to determine if it will do us any good. This second part is better left between our doctor and us.

We also want a clean environment, but the EPA has become a tool of the left to prevent development and undermine property rights. In fact, we have a whole host of government agencies that could be dispensed with altogether or substantially curtailed. USA.gov" lists hundreds of agencies that are supported by your tax dollars.

By individual responsibility, we mean that we must take responsibility for ourselves and our families. It is up to us to find a job, purchase what we want to own, and raise our children. If we want to start a business, we should be able to do so with minimum interference from our government. We reject the notion of a government that “takes care of us”. We, the people, have commissioned the government to perform certain tasks for us. They take orders from us, not the other way around.

This is the end of this module. Click back on your browser to return to the training screen. Click on the box beside “RTA Principles” and click the button at the bottom of the page to save your change.