Why do you want to be a U.S. Senator?
Over the last few years I have become increasingly concerned with the direction that our government has been heading and its ill effects on our American way of life. I am very dismayed with all of the career politicians and entrenched interests that dominate the U.S. Congress and the course they have chosen, most especially the outrageous fiscal irresponsibility creating unbearable debt loads for our children, grand-children and their children. All of our basic and fundamental liberties are at grave risk. I decided to step down from my business so that I could work full time to use my common-sense based, real world, business experience to help effect a course correction. After careful deliberation, I decided that the U.S. Senate was where I could be the most effective in that effort.

What are the most pressing problems facing our country that you hope to address as a member of the U.S. Senate?
Of course, we have to maintain our anti-terrorism efforts. Isn’t it a bit strange that the liberals have been blaming and complaining about “bad intelligence”, yet they persist in downgrading our capabilities under the false label of improvement (“change you can believe in”)? We must fund our countries defense system instead of cutting it as this administration has elected to do.

We need to halt the attack on the economic viability of the U.S. We have to focus on: Fiscal responsibility, business climate and opportunities, the bloated government largesse, a runaway legal system bent on legislating from the bench, and an incomprehensible tax system. Consumer confidence must be restored. A good start will be when the banks have recouped their bad assets and start to lend correctly again.

As a member of the Senate what specifically would you do to help the country recover from the recession?

• Eliminate the permanent capital gains rate.
• Cut the Corporate Tax Rate to 12.5%.
• Reduce the 25% income tax rate paid by middle class families to 15%, which would create an effective 15% flat tax for 90% of Americans
• Open production of more oil, natural gas, nuclear power and alternative energy sources, providing a reliable, low-cost energy supply to power the American economy.
• Eliminate any property taxes (not real property) on small businesses.
• Offer a three year moratorium on taxes for startups.
• Allow more flexible depreciation schedules. (Up-front expensing)
• Insure the “Uptick” rule is permanent.

What do you think is the most egregious thing your Democratic opponent has done that you plan to oppose if elected in 2010?
Senator Bennett seems to have a difficult time with stating his position. Plus in his few visits around the state he seemed to say one thing in one place and change it in another. Since it is nearly impossible to tell where he might stand, or teeter, I’ll have to just state where I stand:

• I believe in an employee’s rights to a private ballot. 
• I believe in an employee’s right to choose to join a union (of his choice), or not.
• I believe in an employee’s right to choose for themselves the political causes they wish to support, or not.
• I believe that everybody that uses energy should not suffer onerous taxes to enrich the fortunes of political speculators like General Electric and Al Gore.
• I believe that we should foster freedom around the world rather than embracing tyrants.

Has the Republican Party failed to live up to its stated ideals in the past several years?  If so, how?
The traditional Republican Party stands for limited government and fiscal responsibility. To say the least, too many of the career politicians have not lived up to our expectations or have gone over to the “dark side”.

What do you bring to the job of Senator that your primary opponents do not?
I am not a Lawyer and I am not a Liberal and I am not a career politician. I stepped down from my business position so I can dedicate my full time efforts to help our country and the state of Colorado. I believe that the U.S. Senate would benefit from a member that is not a lawyer nor a liberal career politician nor another “old-guard backroom politics” insider. If another career politician is what we need, they would have done a better job. My many years of experience as a tested and proven leader in global relations will position me to better deal with issues in our state and country for the good of America. I bring extensive common-sense based practical experience that is geared toward the real world not the aspirations of career politicians.

What should the federal government’s role be in reducing the cost of healthcare?
Stay out of the Health Care Business and Leave it to the Private Sector.

What specific things would you propose or support?

• Promote the sale and competition of health insurance across state lines. This would bring more choice, better coverage, lower prices.
• Tort Reform.

What kind of laws would you oppose?
I strongly oppose the addition of another massive government provided bureaucracy of any kind, let alone health care. Whatever it is called (“option”, “trigger”, “co-op” etc.) any government run system would not and could not act in fair competition to other non-governmental insurance providers; there is no way for such an entity to provide fair competition, it is inherently anti-competitive and would eventually become monopolistic.

How are you going to deal with the federal government’s deficit spending? What specifically would you cut to balance the budget?
There are two main things that have to happen to get to the problem of deficit spending. First we have to cut the amount of money the government spends. Virtually every program has to be totally evaluated and many of them would have to be eliminated. Secondly, the way out of this deficit spending and our current recession is economic growth. The way to get this growth moving is to cut taxes especially capital gains on the systems and businesses so that investment will flow in for sustained growth. Without these two items we will continue into a downward spiral of high unemployment and high deficits for the foreseeable future.

I would also stop the practice of transferring partially funded state projects onto the federal debt under the guise of “stimulus”.

Would you raise taxes?
Raising tax rates at this time would be counterproductive; and it has proven to be so time and time again. The way you stop deficit spending is you stop spending!

What would I cut? I would cut the corporate tax rate to 12.5%. I would eliminate the capital gains tax. These two simple changes would help immediately in the recovery of our economy.

I do not agree with raising tax rates and I support cutting the tax rates as I have stated in a previous answer.

What are your thoughts on Global Warming and what do you think about the cap and trade legislation pending before Congress as a solution to deal with the problem?
First, Global Warming in general is a separate issue from that portion of it that is caused by man’s influences. The so-claimed massive effects of man on global warming that have been all the rage in political discourse for several years now have proven to be a fraud perpetuated by junk science and political opportunists; real, rational, scientists that have now taken a deep look into the climate models for “AGW” have realized that models that cannot reliably predict the weather two weeks from now cannot be trusted to make forecasts for decades or centuries into the future. It is worth noting that some of those opportunists stand to reap huge profits from their fear mongering.

The proposed Cap & Trade policies are Ponzi scheme like frauds to be used for huge taxes upon everybody that uses energy, using the false hope of “stemming” global warming as a pretext for political manipulation of all sorts of energy related industries. The taxes from the cap and trade bill would be equivalent to a 15% tax increase, or more, and would continue to increase. This is just not acceptable.

What judge currently on the US Supreme Court most accurately reflects the type of judge you would like to see placed on this court in the future and why?
Chief Justice Roberts demonstrates the most outstanding characteristics of a Supreme Court Justice. He does not strive to legislate from the bench, following social trends or international pressures. One thing that gives him an edge is his understanding of the subtle but important differences in the circumstances that affect our efforts against terrorism and of “providing for a common defense”.

Do you think there is a Constitutional right to abortion?
It is morally wrong to destroy innocent human life through abortion, and it is also morally wrong to take the tax dollars of millions of pro-life Americans and use them to promote or perform abortions at home or abroad.
It seems in my reading the U.S. Constitution; the federal government has no place in dealing with abortion.

Explain your answer?
Read the U.S. Constitution, I believe it is self explanatory.

Would you vote to make abortion illegal?
I do not support abortion and I can not see that being an issue for the Senate to address since it is not something that is governed under the Constitution. You might say this could be voted on at the state level but that would not be something for a US Senator to vote on.

As a senator, I would only have a vote for a newly appointed judge. My consideration of a vote for a judge would be with the same high standards that I place on that of human life.

Would you have exceptions?
On my personal feeling of abortion, I do not support abortion.

Do you think government has an obligation to legally recognize same-sex relationships with a marriage license or some other form of official recognition?
No.

Explain your reasoning.
Clearly there is no such obligation. Marriage licenses are commonly restricted to those that meet the jurisdiction’s several qualifications; these traditionally reserve the term marriage for a union of one and only one female person with one and only one male person.

What do you think is the most pressing foreign policy problem facing this country and what do you think the federal government should do about it?
Without a doubt it continues to be terrorism. America needs to be strident in its efforts to deter and repel terrorism, on and off shore. We really need to treat terrorism seriously and not minimize our efforts into a “police” action. Further, our current trend toward embracing tyrants like Hugo Chavez, Daniel Ortega and their puppets like Manuel Zelaya only hurt our efforts. The same thing goes for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Kim Jong-il.

How would you deal with illegal immigration? What do you think the government should do with all the illegal immigrants living in this country?
We must enforce our laws. We have to stop the inflow of illegals immediately. We can start by completing the fence across our southern border and enforcing our laws at all entry points throughout America. We must enforce verification of anyone for banking, employment, driver’s licenses and any other benefits reserved for citizens or green card holders. Those that are not legally here should be turned over to the proper authorities.
No blanket amnesty, it simply hurts all of our immigrants that have followed the rules and it basically says we do not respect our own laws.

Enforcement mechanisms should be put in place so that all employers that hire any illegals should face stiff penalties. They are breaking the law and cheating the system. These employers are cheating legal aliens and our citizen workers alike. This might sound anti-business but it is not; legitimate businesses do not want competition from other businesses that cheat for an advantage.

Truly criminal illegal aliens, for instance, any murderers, rapists, drug-dealers etc.; should certainly be prosecuted and deported. Legal aliens really should not mind this since they fall prey to these few criminals too.
We will have to deal compassionately with some exceptional cases but we should not have to pay to house illegal aliens in our jails.

Do you think gun ownership in this country is over regulated or under regulated?
Over regulated.

Explain your answer.

I support the second amendment of the U.S. Constitution and the right for American citizens to bear arms. I believe it is very clear. I am committed to safeguarding the rights of law-abiding American citizens, and in the Senate I will be a consistent voice for the second amendment and fight attempts to weaken those rights that are granted in the Constitution.

As a hunter and sportsman, I am a strong advocate for the Second Amendment. I believe the constitution provides law abiding citizens the freedom to keep and bear arms.

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