“Where I stand”

No State Income Tax

• Being a founding member of the original “Tea Party,” Sen. Beavers joined alongside fellow conservatives Marsha Blackburn and Diane Black (the three were given the nickname “the Killer B’s”) and led the fight to defeat the state income tax in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

• She voted this year for a Constitutional Amendment that would allow the citizens of this state to plainly state whether an income tax is unconstitutional in Tennessee.

Lower Taxes and Reduced Spending

• Sen. Beavers believes the state government should operate like your family operates – that is, to live within its means and to leave our grandchildren debt-free.
• She votes against budgets with tax increases or income taxes on small businesses, and does not believe in plugging holes in our budget with federal stimulus dollars to fund recurring expenses.
• Sen. Beavers sponsored and passed the only sales tax reduction in recent history – a law that lowered the sales tax on food.
• She believes in taking stands against unnecessary pork, while at the same time making sure the citizens of District 17 are returned some of the tax dollars they pay into the system via sound road, bridge and other infrastructure projects.

Strong Family Values

• Sen. Beavers is solidly pro-life, being given a 100% rating by the Right to Life organization and having been repeatedly endorsed by them in the past.
• She supports traditional marriage between one man and one woman.

Opposes Illegal Immigration

• Sen. Beavers believes she it is no longer even a question about the legality of immigration, but a matter of economic survival for the legal citizens of Tennessee and the United States.  She believes in legal immigration, but thinks that for too long we have fostered a system where hard-working Tennesseans go without jobs while paying taxes to support illegal immigrants.
• She is the co-sponsor of a bill that would require sheriffs to check citizenship status of criminals and to notify homeland security when they believe a criminal is an illegal alien.
• She is the co-sponsor of a bill that required employers to verify the citizenship status of their employees.
• She is the co-sponsor of the resolution that praised the state of Arizona for finally saying ‘enough is enough,’ and passing their own immigration law when the federal government refuses to do its job.

Strong Supporter of the 2nd Amendment

• Sen. Beavers is a member of the NRA and a lifetime member of the Tennessee Firearms Association.  She is routinely endorsed by these organizations for her strong leadership on 2nd Amendment issues.
• She is a proud Handgun Permit Holder.
• Sen. Beavers believes in the right to keep and bear arms, and believes Tennessee’s record in regards to permit holders is excellent and should only be restricted when the public safety is at risk.

10th Amendment Champion

• Sen. Beavers is a strong supporter of the 10th Amendment, and believes the federal government continues to tread in unprecedented and uncharted waters when it comes to over-reaching, overbearing, and unconstitutional regulations and involvement in the lives of the citizens of Tennessee.
• Sen. Beavers sponsored and passed the Tennessee Health Freedom Act – which said that the citizens of Tennessee can participate in health insurance of their choosing and that the feds or the state cannot force a citizen to purchase a certain product from a private company.
• Sen. Beavers sponsored and passed the Firearms Freedom Act, which limited the federal government’s over-regulation of certain industries in Tennessee.