Bell listed the following themes on his campaign website.
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Restoring Middle Class Prosperity: "America was founded on the idea that hard work gets you ahead. But that social contract has withered away owing to dysfunctional government policy that favors the wealthy while necessitating huge budget deficits to provide a safety net large enough to support those left behind. Despite advances in technology that have improved the standard of living, it has become harder for working people to support a family and for young people to establish a career. The next U.S. Senator from New Jersey must be a tireless advocate for solutions that restore the middle-class prosperity that was once a hallmark of this nation."
Real Universal Healthcare: "How is it, so many ask, that America is the richest country in the world and so many people here can’t afford healthcare? This is because we have essentially priced ourselves out of a marketplace for healthcare. The emphasis on employer-based insurance at the expense of individually-owned coverage has destroyed the prospects for competitive pricing that exists in most other areas of the U.S. economy. We must change this by enabling individuals to purchase and control their own health insurance with a tax credit."
Education Our Children Deserve: "The opportunity for a quality education should not depend on where a child lives, as Gov. Chris Christie has emphasized in his town hall visits throughout New Jersey. That’s why programs to expand school choice, through vouchers and tax credits, have been worthwhile for those states that have done it. I believe Education Savings Accounts make the most sense as the appropriate vehicle for school choice. These provide parents with a pre-funded account (in Arizona, where it was first implemented, it’s 90 percent of average student spending) that can be used to purchase tuition, but also textbooks, education therapies, and tutoring. This provides for a holistic funding mechanism for education where we fund children rather than institutions and spending decisions are in the hands of parents, not bureaucracies."
A Culture of Life: "Abortion is one of the saddest facts of modern America. There are over one million abortions per year, and a total of 53 million since Roe v. Wade enabled abortion on demand in 1973. In New Jersey, the abortion rate is 26 percent, among the highest in the nation. Rather than seek to reduce the number of abortions, the Democratic Party has promoted a culture that misrepresents abortion as consequence-free and morally neutral. In 2012, a Democrat committee co-chaired by Cory Booker removed the word “rare” from the phrase “safe, legal, and rare” coined by President Clinton that had been in the party platform. Abortion is not only tragic on its own terms: it violates the founding principle in the Declaration of Independence of a right to life. The need to apply this self-evident truth to the unborn has become much more apparent in the last four decades because of discoveries in the field of DNA and advances in the technology of the sonogram."
Religious Freedom: "It is dismaying that religious freedom is under attack by government. Whether it’s Obamacare’s HHS mandate or judges overruling voters on the definition of marriage, it has become harder than ever to be a person of faith in this country without the government abrogating those beliefs. The institution of marriage in particular has been subject to this trend. Marriage began as a religious concept, but now the courts, including in New Jersey, have decided that its definition is up to them rather than the people. If this trend continues, how long will it be before our churches can no longer act according to their beliefs on marriage? Cory Booker implied that those who believe in traditional marriage are akin to the segregationists who tried to keep Jackie Robinson from playing baseball. Is that what it has come to in New Jersey – a U.S. Senator who compares believing in traditional marriage with racism?"
