Chuck Donovan, Libertarian Candidate for U.S. Senate, Georgia *** UPDATE

UPDATE: Tea Party Endorsement! For a libertarian? YES

http://www.donovanforsenate.com/releases/daily-tea-party-endorses-donovan/

Getting close, and here's another great choice for Tuesday.

www.DonovanForSenate.com

"The mission is liberty.

The vision is now."

LW: As of 9/21 you are still the only candidate to sign the No Pork Pledge. However, some would argue that part of a Senator’s job is to attract jobs and business to their state. What is your plan for increasing jobs availability, and enabling businesses to do what they do best in Georgia?

CDonovan: First of all, Pork is not a way of bringing jobs or prosperity into the State. It might appear to be a winning deal when money comes in from Washington, but that overlooks two things. First some of that money comes from other States. There is no reason why taxpayers in Kansas for example, should pay for a project in Georgia, especially after their money passes through Washington. Secondly and more importantly, Federal money also comes from Georgians.

The current game is the Federal government plunders the states and heaps the money up in Washington, D.C. Then Senators, Representatives, and Governors fight their way to the money and return to their electorate displaying what they got for us. They didn’t get anything. They got back only some of what was plundered from us after the Federal government took its cut. Even worse, the money comes back to the state with a big Federal string attached.

This has to stop, and I am drawing the line. The Federal government has nothing it hasn’t taken from others. It is time the states kept their production and made their own economic decisions. There is no authorization for earmarks or Pork in the Constitution and it is about time the practice stopped.

Pork, subsidies, stimulus and bailouts pick winners and losers in the economy. It is not government’s job to pick the winners and losers. Government is supposed to be making the United States the most business friendly country in the world, and by doing so we will expand prosperity in an economically sustainable way.


LW: I’ve been seeing ads on TV from Ontario, Canada enticing business to relocate there due to their tax structure. Of all things, Canada is now becoming a tax haven!! What would you do to enable business to stay here? How can we stop the loss of business from American shores?

CDonovan: As long as our government continues to pick the winners and losers via special deals, special interest tax breaks, subsidy, stimulus, bailouts and intervention, entrepreneurs who lose in the deal will look for another place to do business. In addition, every business in America has to run a gauntlet of regulations. A small businessman recently told me he is not afraid of competition. His main fear is the EPA, OSHA, the IRS, and the Georgia Department of Revenue.

We have to concentrate on making the United States the most business friendly country in the world. Simplified tax law, tort reform, reduced regulations, and most importantly a better understanding among Americans about what an honestly free market would look like, would all stop the loss of American businesses and jobs.
To begin with, we should eliminate the EPA, OSHA, FDA, FCC, the Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Commerce. We have to shrink the tax code to less than 100 pages, and we have to bring the highest corporate tax rate in the developed world down from 35% to 25% or less.


LW: What are your three top priorities for action in the Senate and what do you see as your main impediment to accomplishing these priorities.

CDonovan: My top three priorities are to: 1. Cut “discretionary” and “mandatory” spending2. Shrink the size and scope of government 3. Stop inflation

There are two main impediments to achieving these priorities. The first is the lack of leadership in Washington, D.C. coupled with a lack of understanding as to the magnitude of these problems. The second impediment is the misunderstanding by Americans about what government is, and what it should be doing. To paraphrase Orwell, the “proles” have realized how powerful they are, but they are choosing to use that power to expand, government instead of shrinking it.

LW: Federal Reserve – audit or eliminate?

CDonovan: The Fed is the blank check written on the backs of working Americans and working American businesses. It is the source of our bubble economy. It is at the heart of the current housing crisis. There is no other government function that has failed so completely. The Fed was supposed to smooth out the economy and eliminate bubbles. There have been about 63 bubbles since its inception; all caused by the fake credit the Fed pumps into the economy. The Fed was supposed to stabilize the Dollar, but the Dollar is now worth about 5 cents compared to what it was worth when the Fed was put in place, and the Dollar continues to decline in buying power.

Auditing the Fed is not enough. Listen closely to those in favor of the audit. Most of them are just looking to change the management of the Fed.

If there was only one thing I was allowed to change in the Federal government, I will immediately, totally, and forever eliminate the Federal Reserve Bank and all centralized banking from our government.

LW: Talk to us some more about your idea of eliminating the “Certificate of Need” for medical facilities. For those who don’t know, also explain what those are.

CDonovan: The Certificate of Need (CON) is issued by a federal or state regulatory agencies to ensure planned medical facilities are required to fulfill the needs of a community. So, the government decides if a medical facility should actually be built. The decision is not in the hands of entrepreneurs in the health care industry. In this arrangement, government and the medical cartels connected to the government are the winners, and patients and health care consumers are the losers. Supply is restricted and prices increase as a result.

Through the CON, the government imposes a one-size-fits-all approach to medical care, saying that it is applying a consistent standard to hospitals in all states. It sounds good when stated that way however, it amounts to centralized control. Two things are consistent. One, centralized control increases government power not consumer power. It allows the government to pick winners and losers in health care, both on the provider side and the patient side. Second, centralized control drives up prices.

Increased prices are the last thing we need in health care. There is no other sector of the economy that has consistently grown in price faster that inflation.

We are stifling the health care industry and driving up prices with all this government interference. Instead we have to open up opportunity for innovation and competition. If you really care about people in need, you will release the medical industry from the control of centralized government. Abolishing the CON is a step in the correct direction.