Freepmail or ping me on the thread to be added to the John Armor for Congress ping list.
Posted on 04/21/2008 1:49:51 PM PDT by MitchellC
"Armor wants to reform Medicare and Medicaid, and he opposes universal health care and congressional earmarks. In Iraq, he favors a continued presence in the country but not “actively fighting for a long period of time.” On the infamous “Road to Nowhere” in Swain County, he favors following the lead of county officials, who’ve opted for a cash settlement from the federal government rather than having the road built.
He said he believes the major issues facing Western North Carolina come down to four words: “That’s jobs, jobs, jobs and education.” Tourism is relatively healthy, he said, but agriculture and manufacturing need attention, partly through better enforcement of international trade relations.
Armor bristles at the notion that the economy is in recession, saying we may be “in a rough patch,” but the media is inaccurately portraying it. While he approves of the recent federal bailout of investment banking firm Bear Stearns because its collapse could have triggered a larger problem, in general Armor says he believes “the markets have their own solutions.”
That goes for gasoline, too, which has skyrocketed in price recently.
“Whether we like it or not, gas prices at this level or slightly higher are stuck with us, unless the government decides to start subsidizing gasoline for private cars or cut its taxes, and the highways depend on those taxes,” Armor said."
Asheville Citizen-Times
John Armor is a great candidate and the kind that the Republican Party is lacking at all levels. We need people in Washington that are going to actually read and abide by the Constitution’s limit of Federal powers. I approve of Armor’s positions on reforming Medicare and Medicaid. Entitlement spending is growing rapidly and will balloon out of control with the retirement of the Baby Boomers. Spending on Medicare and Social Security is expected to reach 25% of the Federal budget by 2050. This has to be dealt with now and we need members in Congress who won’t be afraid to get out there and tackle them.
I disagree with Armor on the “Road and Nowhere” and I made that clear in a post a few weeks ago. It is an enormous waste of money, but other than that he is opposed to earmark spending. He has by far more positives than negatives and would be a quality challenger to Shuler in November.
Freepmail or ping me on the thread to be added to the John Armor for Congress ping list.
Armor for Veep!!
I can agree with that one.
I take the Jeffersonian approach, that government decisions should be made at the lowest possible level, closest to the people who must live with the consequences. Therefore, I do not take an abstract position that the road should be built, or that the feds should pay damages to Swain County for not building it.
Instead, I support the decision of the County Commissioners in Swain County. Years ago, they demanded that the road be built. Now, they have changed, and want damages from the feds for not building it. I support the Swain County current position, because they're the people who must live with the consequences.
John / Billybob
We must treat the DUmmies as the Spotted Owls of politics and make sure that species of political thoughtlessness survives.
I will be broadcasting a live videostream from Haywood Community College on April 26th, probably from noon to 2 or 3pm, including the debate between John Armor, Spence Campbell, and Carl Mumpower. So, if you cannot attend, I'll have the stream up here and on Thunder Pig for you to watch. I may also be interviewing candidates for office as well.
**update** 4.46pm The debate has been pushed to around 2pm...so I'll start the show around noon, and I'll be there for the duration, and will have a debate wrap-up, perhaps with the participants.
The Republican Party's 11th District Annual Convention will be held at Haywood Community College on Saturday, April 26, 2008. Registration will begin at 11:00 a.m. The Convention will begin promptly at Noon. There will be opportunities for candidates to speak. The business of the Convention is to elect three (3) delegates and three (3) alternates to the Republican National Convention and one (1) representative as our Presidential Elector. The Debate between all candidates filed for the 11th Congressional Seat will begin at approximately 2:00 p.m. As there will be no food served, please plan to eat before the convention or after the debate.
He’s definitely the kind of candidate “that the Republican Party is lacking at all levels.”
That'll never fly in this day and age. /s
:)
One of FR’s finest. Thanks for being in the arena, John. Thanks for attempting to make a positive contribution to our country.
John Armor. Blazing new trails in western civilization BUMP!
While I appreciate the acknowledgment that DC politicians need to abide by the Constitution's limits on federal powers, I'd like to point out what I regard as an inconsistency in the above sentences. While the first sentence acknowledges limits on federal powers, and therefore federal spending, ideally Medicare and Medicaid should be recognized as constitutionally unauthorized federal spending programs and stopped immediately while federal taxes are appropriately lowered.
As a side note, for the record, I don't regard simply wiping out Medicare and Medicaid as practical solutions to this very serious constitutional problem.
The reason for shutting down Medicare and Medicaid would be the following. Because the federal Constitution says nothing about public health care, the 10th A. automatically makes health care a state power issue. So if the citizens of a given state decide that they want a health care plan, their state, and not the federal government, should be collecting taxes to finance that state's custom health care program.
The reason that we have constitutionally illegal federal health care programs today is because constitutional flunky FDR butchered 10th A. protected state powers in order to establish his constitutionally unauthorized New Deal spending programs. This post (<-click) in a thread concerning taxes provides more details as to how this happened.
In fact, note that when Jefferson reflected on the Founder's division of federal and state powers, he mentioned that the Founders had trusted the states, not the federal government, with the care of people.
"Our citizens have wisely formed themselves into one nation as to others and several States as among themselves. To the united nation belong our external and mutual relations; to each State, severally, the care of our persons, (emphasized by Amendment10) our property, our reputation and religious freedom." --Thomas Jefferson: To Rhode Island Assembly, 1801. ME 10:262 http://tinyurl.com/onx4jNote that the people can always exercise their Article V power to amend the Constitution to properly authorize the feds to manage health care. Until the states choose to do so, however, health care remains a state power issue.
The bottom line is that the people need to get in the face of the feds, demanding that the feds start respecting the 10th A. protected powers of the states, and stop taxing the people to pay for constitutionally unauthorized federal spending programs.
First post from a Vista machine since my XP box finally crapped out PING.
John, you know I want you to succeed. I wish the best for you.
I have one piece that I will have to disagree with you on. Gas prices are NOT naturally at that level. Government CAN do something about it. Open ANWR for drilling. Open the coastal waters off Florida for drilling. Open the national forest that Clintoon made for his buddy Riyadi to mining. Reduce the environmental restrictions and delays and red-tape that is required to build either refineries or nuclear power plants. All-in-all, we’ve got a lot of things government CAN do that they don’t WANT to do because they’re AFRAID of the environmental whackos that have the ear of the press.
Best of luck to you, John, and I hope not only you win your primary, but your general election campaign as well.
Honestly, I thought about calling Rush Limbaugh’s show and telling him that his “Operation Chaos” while fun, could end up hurting the great guys like you out there who are fighting hard primary battles.
Paul
I agree with you about drilling in more domestic sources of oil. That would ease our dependence in the event of all-out war. But it wouldn't lower the price. Besides, the price rise is little related to oil itself. It is related to the weak dollar compared with other currencies.
The dollar has dropped against the Euro more than oil has risen against its price of a year ago.
You are also right that the only short- and long-term solutions are respectively coal with "scrubber" smoke stacks, and nuclear power. In both instances, we have all the fuel we need, right here at home.
John / Billybob
Bump
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