LINCOLN COUNTY Farm Bureau Candidate Evaluation Committee QUESTIONNAIRE 2016
1 . Why should voters hire you for this job?
We need a new Representative not a captive of the current inept, timid and bought off Republican Establishment.
Cathy’s reply to the 2014 State of the Union was an example of inept and timid. She had 10 minutes of unfiltered access to the public and gave us a nearly content free Miss Congeniality Speech. I would have called out the president on his then current threat to go around congress and rule by executive order with his pen and his phone. I would have called out the President on Iraq. He was handed a victory in 2009 that cost us 4,000 lives, six years of effort and a Trillion Dollars. He threw it away. It was not his to throw away, it was his to consolidate. Withdrawal from Iraq caused the disaster in Iraq and Syria that we see now was already unfolding in 2014. The President should have been called out on it then as well as now, at every opportunity.
Our establishment Republicans are bought off. Our immigration laws have not been enforced for over 20 years. This is no accident or incompetence. It is dishonest policy of both parties. We have millions of desperate illegals flooding our labor markets and now about a million high tech workers here on H1B visas. These H1B visa holders are effectively indentured to the employer that sponsored their visa. This all helps to hold wages down for the benefit of the big donors, cronies. Crony Capitalism is not Capitalism. The Democrats go along enthusiastically because they know that these immigrants are Democrat voters in waiting. As late as Spring of 2014 Cathy was for the Establishment goal of passing “Comprehensive Immigration Reform” that Summer. She told us that most illegals would get to stay with a “legal status” that was somehow different than amnesty. The whole idea was dropped when House Majority leader Eric Cantor was defeated in a primary election when the immigration issue came up and his opponent, an economics professor, pointed out the effect of illegal immigrants on wages.
- What experience and education qualifies you for this job?
I have 30 years experience in the private sector as an engineer. I was an employee of both large and small companies. I know what it is like to work for a company in the private sector. The incumbent’s total private sector experience is working for her father in a small orchard / fruit stand operation. Other than that experience, her entire adult working life has been in politics.
I was a peace time Marine Corps officer on active duty for four years, ’72 – ‘76. I served as a Tank Platoon leader. In the Marine Reserves I was an Amphibious Tractor platoon leader, in Biloxi Mississippi, for just a short time after training as I changed employment and moved to Spokane.
I worked in a shipyard as an engineer overhauling the Non-Nuclear mechanical equipment on Nuclear Attack Submarines for one year in Pascagoula Mississippi.
I worked for two years in Saudi Arabia as an engineer overhauling and maintaining US and German built Naval vessels.
I have a user and engineer’s eye for a variety of naval and ground force military equipment. This would probably provide some independent perspective in discussions on decisions on military procurement.
As a youngster I lived in the Old USSR for my junior high years while my father was an assistant Naval Attaché at the US Embassy in Moscow. I attended a Russian school for 7th and 8th grades. Dad thought it would be a good opportunity to learn Russian. I saw Communism close up and even to a Jr High kid it was apparent that those people feared their government.
- Do you think the Growth Management Act controlling growth and protecting critical areas is:
X much too strict 0 too strict 0 about right 0 too lenient 0 much too lenient
The Growth Management Act also drives up prices for real estate, the last thing we need.
- A large amount of land is set aside for funding of public schools through the use of natural resources. Do you intend to press for relaxing restrictions on logging, grazing, mining and other revenue producing resources to fund schools?
Yes. The EPA and Forest Service have been captured by people who oppose extractive industry, mining and logging. They need to be reined in at the very least. A better solution would be for Federal land to be transferred to state control.
- Increasing the tax base or providing open space and recreational opportunities such as parks and trails are appropriate uses of eminent domain.
0 agree 0 strongly agree 0 undecided X disagree 0 strongly disagree
The Supreme Court’s Kelo decision was wrong in my view. Eminent domain should only be used for vital public facilities or vital infrastructure such as Schools, roads, railroads, pipelines. Just to increase the Tax Base as in Kelo is not appropriate.
- What amount of funds have you raised, and how much more do you anticipate raising for this race?
At this point I have raised about $1,000 and have loaned my campaign about $3,000. I expect to raise and spend another $2,000.
- List all farming, political and business organizations from which you will likely receive support?
None.
- What are the biggest issues facing your position, and what solutions do you have in mind?
NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION
We have developing existential threats, two rogue nations developing atomic weapons and the ICBM’s necessary to deliver them to the USA, North Korea and Iran. At some level these two countries are cooperating with each other on these weapons systems. This is a very serious problem that would be even more serious had we not persisted, in the face of Democrat opposition, to develop a credible anti-missile defense starting in the 1980’s. The rogue nature of these regimes and the unacceptable cost of a nuclear blast on US soil justifies a very strong effort to prevent these countries from achieving a fully operational capability. We are not making that effort.
President Obama’s Nuclear Agreement with Iran was a serious mistake. The Republican establishment leadership chose not to fight to demand that this agreement be treated as a treaty, requiring ratification by 2/3 of the Senate. Instead they gave Obama a fig-leaf, the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015, the Corker – Cardin Bill. This bill turned the Treaty Clause of the Constitution on it’s head. Congress got to vote on the Agreement, but the President could then veto a disapproval vote. To over-ride his veto would then require 2/3 of the House and 2/3 of the Senate. As it happened, the House voted disapproval of the agreement by less than the 66% required to over ride a veto and the bill died in the Senate and never came to a vote. The President got his agreement with Iran and sanctions are being lifted. The Iran ICBM program continues and their infrastructure to enrich uranium remains intact, though reduced in capacity. When the agreement times out in 10 years they will be ready to quickly produce nuclear weapons and should have an ICBM ready. Their neighbors, Saudi Arabia, Gulf Arabs and Turkey are justifiably worried and will have their own Nukes by the time Iran gets theirs. Turkey can build their own and the Arabs will just buy the Nukes from Pakistan, whose Nuclear Weapons program they funded in the first place.
History is not over, so war is not over. The disastrous consequences of Nuclear War, obvious to rational people in the West and Soviet block kept the peace in Europe through the Cold War. This situation is different. These two regimes are unreliable partners in mutual terror. We must stop these two Nuclear Weapons programs. Nuclear weapons in the hands of rouge regimes who may not be deterable is not an acceptable condition. All options should be on the table. Negotiations, sanctions, regime change efforts and direct attack on the programs and regime leaders. We have pushed this problem to the back burner. I will make an effort to get this problem the attention it deserves.
ECONOMIC GROWTH
Our corporate tax rate is among the highest in the developed world. I would push to reduce corporate tax rates and eliminate loopholes such as those allowing GE to make huge profits on operations in this country and pay no taxes in this country. This would spur formation of new enterprises and bring some corporations back home.
Our environmental regulations and permitting processes are now stifling growth and pushing companies to relocate abroad or make their major expansions abroad. I would seek to reign in the EPA, which in reality is going to take a Republican President and his appointees. I would seek to impose costs and risks to organizations that use objections in permitting processes to stifle development. The costs would be bonds required to file objections and loser pay provisions if their objections were found to be without merit.
IMMIGRATION
Nobody has a right to immigrate to this country. Our immigration program should be structured to benefit our country. We can look around the world and see what does not work and we can look to our own history and see what does work.
Europe today provides an example of what does not work. Immigration of large numbers of poor ignorant people from failing states have caused serious social and economic problems in Europe, England and even Australia. Immigration rates have outpaced the ability of these societies to assimilate the newcomers. France, England and other countries have “no go” ghettos in their major cities where newcomers from Islamic countries have created their own little Stans that police avoid and rule of law of the host country is superseded by the customs of the failed societies the newcomers fled. Many of these newcomers are not employed and receive generous payments from their new hosts which allows them to live at a much higher standard than what they are accustomed to in their failed homeland, created by the culture that they want to import with them.
The USA up to the passage of the Hart – Seller immigration act of 1965 was an example of what did work. The situation up to that time may not have been ideal, but it did work. Immigration quotas were low, less than half a million per year, mostly from countries that were culturally compatible with our Judeo – Christian culture. The Hart – Seller act opened the immigration gates to all and in a few years we were bringing in about a million new immigrants per year.
The world is experiencing a population explosion in third world countries. Mexico’s population more than tripled from 35 million in 1960 to 120 Million in 2014. The Mexican government was already corrupt and inept but is now floundering under this load of new people. We are providing a safety valve for Mexico, allowing their poor and desperate to flee to the USA, reducing the pressure for needed change in Mexico. We are doing the same disservice for other corrupt floundering third world countries. We are not going to solve the problems of third world corruption, poverty and dysfunctional cultures by importing the people their societies cannot support, there are too many of them.
Illegal immigration is just that, illegal. We have a full set of laws dealing with illegal immigration that I will work to see are enforced, to the letter. I will propose laws to reduce legal immigration to a sustainable level of less than half a million per year. I think that we do need seasonal guest workers and I would support expanding and improving that program as needed. Key word here being SEASONAL. If a person is employed year round they should be an American. If you can’t find someone willing to work at a job, the solution is obvious, pay more and stop bitching, or find another line of work.
“ the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately,” quote from Thomas Jefferson, ironically, a slave holder.
- What difficulties are facing agriculture and will you do anything to alleviate the problems? If so what?
The EPA and Forest service are overstepping the bounds of the laws passed to establish the agencies and the laws that they are charged with enforcing. In truth, to rein in these agencies it will require a Republican President and his full suite of political appointees running these agencies, a few years, to change their direction. I am afraid that is the reality.
If we do get a Republican administration I would work to speed reining in the EPA and Forest Service, try to change the culture of those agencies and try to reduce their power by shifting custody of federal lands to the states. Specific targets would be:
- “The Waters of the USA Rule” which is expanding the intent of the “Clean Water Act” well beyond the original intent to the point of numerous examples of the EPA and Corps of Engineers wanting to regulate activities around small seasonal streams.
- It appears to be the intent of the Forest Service and BLM to substantially reduce grazing on BLM and Forest Service lane. I would initiate and support efforts to get these agencies to return grazing to historic levels.
- I would support state’s efforts to get the custody of Forest Service and BLM land turned over to the States so that the regulation of this land could be dealt with by the people living closest to it.
- What is your opinion of the Endangered Species Act and its effect?
You can carry a good idea too far. The act is being abused. The Endangered Species Act provides a rational for stopping changes to land use in order to protect some animal or plant from extinction. On the face of it not a bad thing, if applied with good judgment. But, the act has been used to stop resource development by people who don’t really care about the particular animal, they just want to stop development or irrigation that makes farming possible. The act is rife for abuse. I spoke to Federal Fish and Wildlife Service employee at a fish hatchery once who was a fresh water ichthyologist. He told me that if you looked hard enough in any river system east of the Mississippi you could find a fish unique to that river system. I am sure that is true for most river systems. Development projects have been stopped or delayed due to a unique small fish. During the construction of the Tellico dam, a 2” Fish, the “Snail Darter” was discovered. Though the dam was nearly complete, the project was halted for 5 years. Another newly discovered 2” Fish, the Delta Smelt has had a major effect on farming in California. “Efforts to protect the endangered fish from further decline have focused on limiting or modifying the large-scale pumping activities of state and federal water projects at the southern end of the estuary thereby limiting water available to farming. However, these efforts have not prevented the species from becoming functionally extinct in the wild.” The farmers in California’s Central Valley are now in danger of extinction due to lack of water.
- What is your opinion of conservation easements?
I have heard the term but have no personal knowledge of conservation easements. I just looked it up and at first glance it seems like it could be beneficial to keep farmland intact and in a family. Other than that I know nothing about it.
- What do you think the main issues are regarding resource management and wildfire
response? What solutions would you propose?
I think Public Land, meaning BLM and Forest Service and State land should be managed for multiple use. This includes logging and grazing at long term sustainable rates for the benefits of the resource and the communities that are sustained by the resource.
In our part of the country, a little dry, the forests are going to be harvested or burned or eaten by bugs. I would prefer that we manage our forests to get a sustainable tree harvest and reduce wildfire danger by harvest plans, grazing and controlled burns. We need a change in attitude of the custodians of our public lands who seem to oppose logging and grazing and consequently have let the fuel load in our forests get too high.
We cannot afford to maintain wildfire response capability at the level needed to control the huge fires we are now experiencing due to the fuel load we now have on our public lands. We need to reduce the fuel load.
- What is your view of water usage, allocation and ownership?
I can truthfully say that I know little or nothing about this issue and I will prove it here. It seems to me that changes to water rights should be undertaken only for legitimate public benefit and recognize and respect the economic impact of any changes to water rights and compensate those affected by changes to historic water rights.
- What is the proper relationship between government and the people?
The relationship laid out or implied by our founding documents, The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.
- How much more land do you think the state and federal government should buy, or should
some of what is currently owned be turned to state or private ownership?
Considering the huge percentage of our western states lands now owned by the Federal Government, most of it should be transferred to state custody and a lot of it should be in private ownership.
- Do you support payment of PILT to the counties?
Since logging and mining have been restricted by Federal agencies and counties no longer get the tax benefit of logging and mining, PILT is needed to keep rural counties from going even broker. It is a poor bargain. Federal lands should be reopened to allow mining and logging.
- What do you propose as the best way to improve the economy and create jobs?
Covered above under the Biggest Issues Question.
- Should there be more legislation to address global climate change?
No. I believe that the earth has been warming since the end of the Little Ice Age that lasted 500 years from about 1350 to 1850. I don’t believe that CO2 is the cause of this warming. If I did believe that, then I would also believe that whatever CO2 reductions we made would be more than offset by increased energy usage in China, India and the developing world. People all over the world want to live well, like we do. That takes energy and they are going to use the cheapest energy source available, coal.
- What is your position on the mining and use of coal?
Coal is the cheapest form of energy, so that is what China and the developing world are going to use to fuel their development to increase their standard of living. They will get the coal from somewhere, there is lots of coal. Our coal is among the cleanest burning, so there are environmental benefits as well as economic benefits to us in selling our coal to the world market.
- What would you do to make us independent of foreign oil?
I would reopen oil leasing on Federal land and the continental shelves and ANWAR. I would rein in the EPA and other agencies putting unreasonable regulations on our drillers and frackers.
- What is your position on alternative energy such as wind power, solar, geo-thermal, nuclear?
There is no way to store electricity on a utility scale except for the few sites suitable for Pumped Hydro storage. Until there is, since wind and solar are intermittent, there must always be a dam or a fossil fuel fired power plant in hot running back up mode ready at all times to pick up the load from wind and solar when the wind stops or the sun goes down. Wind and solar projects are mostly boondoggles that would not exist without mandates and subsidies. I would work to eliminate mandates and subsidies for wind and solar projects. The net result is higher cost for energy through higher rates and the taxes that fund subsidies. Look real close at the projects and you will probably find some cronies benefiting.
Some geo-thermal projects may make sense as reliable base load generation. If they can’t provide base load generation at a competitive cost they should not be built.
I am in favor of Nuclear power. Development of the technology of nuclear power plants has continued. We have 99 Nuclear plants on line in the USA providing us with about 20% of our electricity. Our newest Nuclear power plant, put on line in 2015 was under permitting and construction with fits and starts since 1972. The obstacles to Nuclear Generation are now political. We have had a pretty good safety record since this industry started in 1958 and since then we have learned enough to do this right.