Update: see the bottom of the post.
Well, we may not like everyone politically but we DO want to give everyone a chance to talk to our readers and listeners directly and unvarnished by our bias if we are reduced to merely writing about them and their stances. On GrokTALK! or on video, either works better than the written word. I had reached out to the Innis campaign (US Congress, CD-1) quite some time ago when he had first got into the race (at the official NH GOP birthday in Exeter) but never heard back. Well, long term NH political operative Paul Collins is now Dan Innis’s campaign manager and sent out an eblast on 3/31 (reformatted, emphasis mine):
On 3/31/2014 3:47 PM, Paul Collins wrote:
Dear Skip,
Please allow me to give you a quick update on Dan’s campaign. Since he announced that he was running for Congress Dan has outlined specific solutions to replace Obamacare with common sense health care reforms, fix our broken budget process and remove barriers to job creation that will unleash American entrepreneurs and help get our economy back on track. The response to Dan’s issues oriented campaign has been terrific, with conservative Foster’s Daily Democrat newspaper proclaiming, “Here’s a Republican with a plan!” We are grateful for the positive feedback and Dan will be rolling out additional solutions on energy, education and infrastructure in the near future. Stay tuned!
Along with focusing on the issues Granite Staters care about, Dan is committed to running a grassroots campaign that will allow him to personally meet and hear from voters in every corner of our district….
So, seeing that [mine] bolded part, I figured that I’d try again, so I emailed Paul back:
On 3/31/2014 5:38 PM, Skip Murphy wrote:
Paul,
Would Dan be willing to come onto GraniteGrok’s weekly podcast show, GrokTALK! (which is syndicated nationally and livestreamed)? We’ll keep the banter to the issues and certainly let him get his message out. We may not hold to all of his views but we do want our listeners and readers to hear all of the NH based candidates.
-Skip
co-founder, GraniteGrok.com
Still waiting for an answer. So, I guess I’ll have to go digging for myself. NH Journal has done a bit of work already – here’s a couple of snippets:
Innis released a statement supporting an increase in the nation’s debt limit sought by President Barack Obama saying, “a debt default would trigger a financial crisis that would do immediate harm to our economy and negatively impact the lives of all Americans. Failing to raise the debt ceiling does nothing to address the two underlying big problems that Washington currently faces – a failure to cut spending responsibly and a failure of Presidential leadership.”
Innis is correct – but wrong and incomplete.
- Irresponsible spending: Yes, the underlying problem is but remember,
- It is Congress that makes the appropriations and has the ultimate weapon against that spending in the “power of the purse”. The problem is that the Republican leadership in the US House has failed to use it – by shutting it. Yes, I expected them to “fight to the death” over how much hock our kids and grandkids are now in – that’s a primary reason why the TEA Party sprang up. Enough is enough
- Presidential leadership: but if believes that this is a failure of , he’s been watching the wrong game in the wrong stadium in the wrong city. Obama IS providing leadership – Progressive leadership in line with Determined Weakness ™. While some debt is helpful, too much is too bad – and anyone that has been on the wrong side of that line knows that too much takes away Freedom. It constrains and weakens the entity in debt as opportunities that were usable or takable before are now out of reach. For the Federal Government being that entity, it has national ramifications on all programs and worse case will end up in really deep sneakers for us all.
- Priorities – His answer, however, is very telling by what he doesn’t say. He brings up irresponsible spending but doesn’t say WHAT or WHERE the irresponsibility lies. Budgets are animals of priorities; what would his be?
He also doesn’t say what many have discussed and I agree with: we don’t have to raise the debt ceiling. Period. But that requires one thing that is lacking in DC and certainly Innis skirts around it as well:
- We have trillions of revenues coming in
- We have hundreds of billions of debt service to pay
- Pay the debt – we don’t have to default at all
- Stop low priority programs and spending.
Pay the bills – there would be plenty to use if the political will is there. And THAT is the problem – very few are willing to stand up and say “no further!” and do something about it. Very few are willing to say “The government doesn’t have to do that” and stop it. Very few are willing to say AND do “if we do not reel in this out of control government, we are doomed so put it on a diet”. And the number that are willing to stand up and say that becomes fewer again when it comes time to “put your votes where your mouth is”.
After all, during the shutdown the EPA sent all of its non-essential workers home – 94% as it turned out. Let’s put the green eye shades on – if 94% of your staff are non-essential, that is irresponsible spending. By definition, their programs are low priority; the ones worth keeping should be staffed by essential workers. Remember, too, the States have their own versions of this department and they would know better what the problems each of them has. The EPA is just a one example – there is just a MASSIVE amount of low hanging fruit that could be plucked to the betterment of we poor taxpayers and to take away more opportunities to “make more decisions on our behalf” (and restore some measure of our Liberty and Freedom as well).
But one has to ask yourself – why wasn’t this offered by a former Dean of a biz school? I find it hard to believe he would have just left it out – it had to have been a conscious decision. That strongly leads me one hard to shake conclusion:
Can we trust him to be willing to “Stand Up” and dismantle Big Government?
If you are not willing to constrain it anyway you can, by leaving options off the table, the answer kinda brings itself.
TO BE FAIR – this was just a campaign eblast – but given it was just laying on the floor, I picked it up and used it. So let me ask this:
So Paul, let me ask again:
Would Dan like to join us on GrokTALK! so he can get his message out directly without my filtering it?
Update: So WHY didn’t he even mention it in the eblast?? From the Innis website (emphasis mine):
Pay the debt first
During every debt limit showdown, the President and Congress threaten the nation with default on the nation’s debt. Such brinksmanship does nothing to address our long-term fiscal challenges, and in fact forces Congress to adopt short-term stopgap measures to avoid default. But even when we reach the debt ceiling, incoming federal revenues are more than enough to pay the interest on the national debt. Congress should direct the Secretary of the Treasury to pay the debt first, removing the threat of default and allowing us to address the consequences of the $17 trillion national debt.
Pfft! Had to put that up – mea culpa for not seeing it the first go round and when we mess up, we do try to make it right.
Offer still stands to come on GrokTALK!
