Earl L. “Buddy” Carter is an experienced businessman, health care professional and faithful public servant. For over 32 years Buddy owned Carter’s Pharmacy, Inc. where South Georgians trusted him with their most valuable assets: their health, lives and families. While running his business, he learned how to balance a budget and create jobs. He also saw firsthand the devastating impacts of government overregulation which drives his commitment to ensuring that the federal government creates policies to empower business instead of increasing burdens on America’s job creators.
I am proud to represent a large part of Georgia’s agricultural community. As Georgia’s top industry, the hard work of our farmers, ranchers, and producers significantly contributes to the safest, most abundant and most affordable food supply in the world.
To assist our farmers, Congress must provide the agriculture industry with a guest worker program that works. The failed H-2A system needs to be rewritten in order to make the system viable for farmers. Additionally, our farmers need to be shielded from overregulation, especially from the Environmental Protection Agency, to ensure they are able to accomplish their important work without Washington standing in the way.
I will fight for Georgia’s farmers and ensure their voice is heard in Congress.
The national debt is the single biggest threat to our national security and, unchecked, threatens to leave future generations to a life indebted to other countries. I believe it is time for Washington to finally take a cue from hard working families, small businesses, and states, counties, and municipalities by living within its means and learning to balance a budget.
Congress owes Georgians a responsible, balanced budget that preserves the economic opportunities, personal freedoms, and individual liberties of our children and grandchildren. I will continue to fight to end Washington’s out of control spending addiction.
As a Member of Congress, I have voted to cut more than $5 trillion in waste from the federal budget which reaches balance and begins paying off the national debt within ten years without raising taxes.
Education decisions are best made by those closest to the student: families, teachers, communities in states. While the federal government’s involvement in elementary and secondary education is at an all-time high – including a four hundred percent increase in spending over the past thirty years – student achievement has not budged. In fact, American students are falling behind their international competitors.
It’s clear that our education system is not adequately serving our children and it’s not going to be fixed by Washington bureaucrats who think they know what is best for our children. We need to get big government out of the classroom and empower our schools and districts to innovate in order to meet the needs of their students.
As a former member of the Education and the Workforce Committee, I support legislation to put restraints on the Washington bureaucrats, rein in the Department of Education, support school choice, eliminate the train wreck of Common Core, and put the keys to our children’s education and future back in local control.
I support an all-of-the-above energy approach. This begins with increasing domestic production of all forms of American energy. We must also promote new, clean and reliable sources of energy and cut bureaucratic red tape on American-made fuel and energy. By doing this, we will create jobs, reduce energy prices, grow our economy and reduce our dependence on foreign sources of energy from often hostile nations.
As gas and home energy prices continue to be unpredictable causing uncertainty for Georgia’s families, we must change our focus to ensure energy independence while creating jobs in the process.
As a pharmacist, I have seen the devastating impact of Obamacare first hand. It’s driving up costs, taking away choices and putting bureaucrats between patients and their health care providers.
Improving health care in America begins with repealing this disastrous law. I have voted to repeal it in its entirety and am part of the conservative Republican Study Committee’s Health Care Taskforce working to identify solutions that will empower patients with more choice, lower cost, and better services.
Serving the health care needs of thousands of patients in South and Coastal Georgia for over 30 years, I have identified reforms we can enact to accomplish this task.
First, we must re-introduce free market principles to our health care system. The worst thing Obamacare has done to our health care system is to drive the free market out. The result is the consolidation of health care and the elimination of competition which drives up costs and takes away choices.
Second, patients and health care providers must be put back in charge of health care choices and the role of big health insurance companies and government bureaucrats must be controlled. Obamacare has done more to take decision making away from patients and providers than anything I’ve ever seen before.
Finally, health care delivery must come through a comprehensive approach that empowers all aspects of allied health. Although doctors will always remain in charge and recognized as the leader of the health care team, modern health care requires the whole host of health care professionals to expand their role and increase their interaction with patients.
American families deserve better than Obamacare. As a Member of Congress, I will not rest in my fight to repeal the law in its entirety and replace it with market-oriented solutions that get government out of the way of more affordable, accessible, and patient-centered health care.
Our nation’s immigration system is broken. While our nation is one of immigrants, it is also one of law and illegal immigration continues to threaten our national security.
The first step to reforming our immigration system is enforcing the laws we already have to discourage illegal immigration. We can do this by ensuring that all jobs are only made available to those authorized in the United States by requiring the use of the E-Verify program. This must be coupled with guest worker reform to ensure those unable to fill their jobs with American workers have access to a legal workforce.
We also must secure our borders. As a former member of the House Homeland Security Committee, I had the opportunity to see the dire situation at the Southwest border firsthand and got a real sense of the threats coming through the border.
One of my top priorities in Congress is improving our nation’s economy and getting Georgians back to work. As a small business owner for more than thirty years, I learned how to balance a budget and create jobs. I also saw firsthand the devastating impacts of government overregulation which drives my commitment to ensuring that the federal government creates policies to empower business instead of increasing burdens on America’s job creators.
In America, 99.7 percent of all employers are small businesses and they employ more than half of America's workforce. However, these hardworking job creators are under attack. Since 2008, more small businesses have closed than opened. This is the first time business deaths have exceeded business openings since data has been recorded on the issue.
In Georgia alone, 1.5 million workers are employed by small businesses and the burdensome and costly regulatory framework needs to be simplified to get the government out of their way. I am working diligently on legislation to address these issues to change the trajectory for America's job creators to build them up instead of bringing them down.
It’s an honor to represent a district which houses four major military installations, every branch of the military, and thousands of veterans who have served our country so honorably. With this unique military footprint, our district’s defense elements are important not just to our state and region but to the nation and America’s interests around the world.
The First District is the proud home of Fort Stewart and Hunter Army Airfield. As the largest Army installation east of the Mississippi River and home to the “Rock of the Marne,” the 3rd Infantry Division (ID), Fort Stewart has a long and storied past and plays a vibrant role in today’s national defense missions. Its level of significance and contributions continues to be a point of pride for the district, from spearheading the advance into Baghdad during Operation Iraqi Freedom to the deployment of soldiers to West Africa to help contain the Ebola outbreak.
Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base is located in Saint Marys. Kings Bay is the home port for the Atlantic ballistic missile submarine fleet. The fleet of submarines located at Kings Bay plays an indispensable role in our nation’s security as an element of our nuclear triad. It is currently home to 8 Ohio-class submarines, six of which are ballistic missile submarines and two of which have been converted to guided missile submarines.
Moody Air Force Base in Lowndes County is home to the A-10 fleet operated by the 23d Wing. The Close Air Support provided by the A-10 Warthog is unparalleled. The fleet gives our troops the ability to look terrorists in the eyes as the plane displays its remarkable weapons system and operational effectiveness.
With our rich military heritage, these issues are extremely important to me. I’m very proud of the men and women who serve in our military and it is my intention to do everything possible to ensure they continue to be the best equipped, most highly trained, and well cared for fighting force in the world.
As a healthcare professional, father, grandfather and Congressman, I strongly believe life starts at conception and support the sanctity of human life. More than 56 million innocent babies have been denied the right to life since the tragic and injudicious Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade more than forty years ago.
It’s time for the United States Congress to stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves and pass permanent federal legislation that will protect the most innocent of lives. I am a proud cosponsor of the Sanctity of Human Life Act, which protects life from conception with no exceptions.
Additionally, under no circumstances should American taxpayers be responsible for footing the bill for ending a precious life before it begins. However, thanks to Obamacare, some Americans could end up paying for abortion services, possibly without their knowledge. I support banning all federal funding for abortions and have supported legislation to prevent this.
Our founding fathers believed so strongly in the right to bear arms that they ensured it in the Bill of Rights. I won’t back down when it comes to supporting the Second Amendment.
Efforts to expand gun control and restrict access to legal gun use have proven ineffective in reducing crime. In fact, they leave guns in the hand of criminals while leaving ordinary, honest, law-abiding citizens defenseless. We can reduce crime by holding criminals accountable for their actions, not by adding unnecessary layers of gun control.
I will do everything in my power to protect and defend our Second Amendment rights and turn back efforts that threaten them on them at any level.
America’s antiquated and overly burdensome tax code is the greatest threat to economic opportunity in this country.
My first act as a Member of Congress was to co-sponsor the Fair Tax, which would create a simpler, fairer and flatter tax code to build a stronger economy. The Fair Tax scraps the tax code, abolishes the IRS and eliminates all personal and corporate income taxes, the death tax, gift taxes, and the payroll tax. It replaces them with a single national consumption tax on retail sales.
With the highest corporate tax rate in the world and an overly complex tax code, I believe eliminating the IRS is one of the best moves we can make to empower all Americans to achieve the American Dream.
Transportation infrastructure serves as the arteries for economic growth and job creation. With our prominent ports, airports, manufacturers, highways and tourists attractions, the First District is a transportation hub for the State of Georgia and the nation.
I have seen firsthand the transformative impact investment in infrastructure can have on our area. As Mayor of Pooler, I led efforts to build key infrastructure improvements without acquiring debt. As a result, Pooler is a leader in job creation by attracting new businesses and generating robust economic growth. In the Georgia General Assembly I helped lead the fight for transportation infrastructure including advocating for the State of Georgia to put forward its share of the funding for the vitally important Savannah Harbor Expansion Project.
In Congress, I continue my focus on infrastructure by standing up for the Ports of Savannah and Brunswick, advocating for important rail and highway projects, and serving as the voice of South and Coastal Georgia when it comes to ensuring the federal government meets it obligations to our infrastructure.
America’s veterans put everything on the line to protect our freedom and they deserve the best possible care when returning home. I am proud to represent so many veterans in the First District and their employment, benefits and health care are a top priority for me. However, currently, the Veterans Administration is not providing the care our veterans deserve.
To address this, I introduced an amendment to target a deceptive practice at the VA intended to cover up the backlog of veterans waiting for care. I will not sit idly by while bureaucrats at the VA attempt to hide their incompetence and deny veterans the care they need. It’s the very least we can do for those who served our country so honorably.
If you are having issues with the VA, please do not hesitate to contact my office by clicking here. We are here to help you.