CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICAN

• Closing the Keystone XL Pipeline, costing the US 900,000 barrels of domestic oil production per dayⁱ
• Throwing open (essentially) our Southern border imposing a cost on Georgia of more than $2 billion per yearⁱⁱ in services to illegal immigrants
• $1,400 “stimulus” checks, even a billion-dollars-worth to prison inmates, including the Boston Marathon bomberⁱⁱⁱ
• Vaccine mandates imposed on businesses, causing staffing shortages and/or necessitating higher wages, in industries vital to our health and the supply of goods in the marketplace.^iv
• Deficit spending, hanging by a thread of getting much worse should the Build Back Better debacle garner another vote or two.

Every time we purchase food or fuel we notice the 40-year high rate of inflated prices; 7.5 percent as of this writing. This costs the typical American household $250 per month.^v Most of us don’t appreciate have $4,000 zapped from our budgets, savings, or investments in a year.

As the battle for Ukraine forges on, inflation could shift into overdrive, especially with an administration unwilling to re-institute our Trump-earned energy independence.

“Inflation is taxation without legislation,” according to Milton Friedman, Nobel Prize winning economist of decades ago.^vi Quantity of money relative to output – meaning productivity — fuels inflation, Friedman taught us.

Squandering our energy independence^vii combined with curbing productivity by discharging workers for refusing the COVID vaccine, and providing stimulus checks and free rent to make employment unnecessary stirs into the cocktail of inflation.

The final ingredient is government overspending. Deficits are then addressed through printing money or borrowing, each of which shrinks the value of the dollar.

Stopping or reversing the terrible policies of the Biden administration is key to taming inflation without having to face higher interest rates dictated by Federal Reserve monetary policy, or a move for wage and price controls.

REFERENCES

i https://www.cnsnews.com/blog/craig-bannister/manchin-keystone-pipeline-could-bring-us-900k-barrels-day-surpassing-bidens-1

ii https://www.fairus.org/sites/default/files/2017-08/USCostStudy_2010.pdf

iii https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/budgets-deficits/nearly-1-billion-in-stimulus-funds-sent-to-prisoners-in-2021-terrorists-and-perverts-got-1-400-checks

iv https://www.heritage.org/government-regulation/commentary/bidens-reckless-vaccine-mandate-risks-severe-economic-dislocation

v https://fee.org/articles/inflation-is-costing-households-250month-moody-s-analysis-finds/

vi https://youtu.be/B_nGEj8wIP0

vii https://www.forbes.com/sites/rrapier/2021/11/14/is-the-us-energy-independent/?sh=6751e7cc1387

In college a couple of years ago, Morgan was stunned by her roommate’s wall posters of Marx, Mao, Lenin, Stalin, and Castro – murderers of about a combined 100 million people.

“She had the best of intentions for our country,” Morgan said in a recent TV interviewⁱ. “She really believed that those values and those ideas would save the future of America.”

Morgan realized that politicians such as Bernie Sanders make strong emotional appeals for what they term “Democratic Socialism,” meaning socialist government with elected leaders. Sanders decries the high cost of health care and health insurance, as well as student debt, enticing a lot of young people. But not Morgan.

She started a group: Young American Against Socialism (YAAS)ⁱⁱ which “injects emotionalism” into revelations of socialism’s horrors by videotaping the stories of people who’ve fled socialistic nations for the freedom of the USA.

Socialism starts as communism lite. If you’re envisioning Denmark or Sweden, those countries rank higher on the Index of Economic Freedom than the United States.ⁱⁱⁱ They’re not really socialistic countries, they are capitalist countries with welfare programs and high taxes.

Venezuela is a Democratic Socialist country. It’s duly elected leaders quickly centralized the money supply, seized power and resources without any accountability, crippled any semblance of a justice system, and unleashed rampant corruption. It’s now a dictatorial regime, presiding over an absolutely horrible crisis^iv.

Do some research on “Agenda 2030,” an initiative sponsored by the United Nations and you’ll see the clear and present danger of socialism taking full effect in America.

In Congress, I’ll stand against AOC and her squad of capitalism killers because I know few in the 7^th district want anything to do with a government-controlled existence. We’ll also make it true capitalism, not crony capitalism – no special favors, carve-outs, or sweetheart deals for special interests. Of importance to note, our campaign has never taken a penny from anyone or any interest who thinks they can buy my favor at your expense.

REFERENCES

i https://youtu.be/tPFnCtv763s

ii https://yaas.org/

iii^[1][1] https://www.heritage.org/index/ranking

iv https://www.worldvision.org/disaster-relief-news-stories/venezuela-crisis-facts

Strangely, that hyperlink now leads to a dead end. There are reports the CDC is withholding COVID-related data for fear of misinterpretation[ii] so maybe that’s what happened?

Moderna reported vaccine sales of $18.5 billion in 2021[iii], about two-thirds of it profit. A failed Ebola pharmaceutical, Remdesivir, was granted emergency use authorization (EUA) for treating COVID, enabling the company to charge insurers more than $3,000 for the customary five-day treatment.[iv]

Money and mandates seem to go together without much evidence that what’s mandated is effective.

Inexpensive, off-patent therapeutic agents, meanwhile, (i.e. Ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine) were blacklisted, essentially. The Doctors who advocated for these therapeutics with the support of compelling efficacy data were vilified, suppressed and censored.

Let freedom ring.

No mandates.

No vaccine mandates and no mask mandates, especially not forced masking of school children for the entire school day.

There may be occupations, particularly in the medical field, that require a mask, just as a surgeon would wear a surgical mask.

Otherwise, each of us can examine the evidence for ourselves, and make our own decisions.

That’s America.

More than six decades ago, President Eisenhower warned us,[v] “we must also be alert to the…danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific technological elite.”

In his farewell address, memorable for identifying the military-industrial complex, President Eisenhower went on to state:

“It is the task of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to integrate these and other forces, new and old, within the principles of our democratic system-ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free society.”

The supreme goals of our free society is a fight I’ll wage every day in Congress as your Representative.

REFERENCES

[i] https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20211122/us-covid-deaths-2021-surpass-2020-total

[ii] https://news.yahoo.com/cdc-under-fire-allegedly-withholding-161802104.html

[iii] https://www.wsj.com/articles/moderna-beats-profit-estimates-fueled-by-vaccine-sales-11645707646

[iv] https://abcnews.go.com/US/covid-19-drug-remdesivir-cost-3120-us-patients/story?id=71509977

[v] https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=90&page=transcript

Like President Ronald Reagan, Mark Gonsalves’ belief in our nation’s sovereignty is clear and unwavering:

“NO SOVEREIGN COUNTRY CAN REMAIN SOVEREIGN WITHOUT SECURE BORDERS. A COUNTRY THAT CANNOT CONTROL ITS BORDERS CANNOT CONTROL ITS DESTINY.” -Mark Gonsalves, 2019

As a sovereign nation, we alone should decide who comes in and who does not.

I strongly support securing our southern border by finishing the border wall and providing Border Patrol with the latest in technology to get their job done.

We must also better enforce our visa laws as these are often abused.

I stand with those who believe our sovereign nation has the right and an obligation to enforce its immigration law.

Too many in Congress go along with the establishment and lobbyists who spend like drunken pirates, with no regard for the ultimate long-term negative consequences which surely follow.

The United States is now running annual deficits of about $2 Trillion dollars. Our national debt has grown from $6 Trillion to more than $30 Trillion since 2000. That’s a 5-fold increase in just over 20 years. This is unsustainable.

We will soon leave to the next generation a Social Security and Medicare system headed toward bankruptcy. Entitlement and interest costs are now eating nearly 70% of our federal budget.

The Republican Party is supposed to be the party of fiscal conservatism and balanced budgets. It’s time for members of Congress to stand up for those principles and reduce our national debt.

If elected, I will co-sponsor Term Limit legislation to put an end to career politicians.

Mark will fight all liberal legislation that attempts to remove our 2nd Amendment rights. The Democrats are currently attempting extreme gun confiscation laws around the country. As crime has exploded, you have the right to protect your property and family. We cannot allow unconstitutional legislation to stand.

• Supports National Concealed Carry Reciprocity
• Opposes unconstitutional “red flag” laws.

The current Administration has turned back the clock on Veteran Care. I won’t turn my back on veterans and will take a stand and fight for improving our veteran’s care.

He will fight to put an immediate end to the horrific late-term abortions and will make sure we defund Planned Parenthood once and for all.

Mark will fight to end the barbaric practice of abortion on demand.

I will keep the FairTax fight alive as your next member of Congress.

Assuming Congress stays within its Constitutional boundaries, law and order within Georgia is a matter for the governor, state legislature, local prosecutors and law enforcement – with but few exceptions.

Securing our southern border would slow the flow of illegal narcotics and sex trafficking into Georgia, while also reducing the presence of violent felons entering our neighborhoods. There are various Homeland Security measures, such as e-Verify or whatever is necessary to fight bioterrorism, I support.

Former Attorney General William Barr recently explained actions his department took during his first tenure in the Justice Department, serving under President George H.W. Bush, to curb crime throughout the U.S.[1]

The crime rate in the US in 1991 was almost five times the rate it had been in 1960, according to Barr. He described a “revolving door” criminal justice environment in many major cities, which is now a lot worse.

“We used our federal laws,” Barr explained, “to incapacitate the most violent (criminals), working with the locals, but we also pushed the states to reform their systems. For 22 years from that point forward — if you look at a chart of crime in the US — it hit a stone wall in 1992 and it went down for 22 consecutive years; it was cut in half.

“It only started going up again,” Barr added, “under Obama when people started going back to the revolving door system of justice and demonizing the police.”

Washington’s role, especially anything Congress can do legislatively, is limited. My outcry against anarchy, however, will be loud and clear.

Allowing criminals to go unpunished is not a remedy for perceived disadvantage in upbringing, education, or socio-economic status. The lawlessness in some of our major cities must never be allowed to erupt in Georgia’s 7^th District.

Public safety is the first obligation of government. Much of law enforcement is outside the scope of the United States Congress, but I’ll be right alongside you fighting any effort to defund police, decriminalize violent acts, or bypass prosecution.

Keeping our streets safe and our citizens protected is the first obligation of government. Even when my role in government may not be central to this critical issue, I’ll add my voice to yours in preserving and protecting our most vital freedom; living in safety.

[1] https://youtu.be/HP_Sh9Te3-Y?t=324

Imagine If Jake Matthews decided he could throw a pass better than Matt Ryan. At the snap, therefore, Jake wheeled into the backfield, snatched the ball out of Matt’s hands, and tried to locate Kyle Pitts downfield.

The likeliest outcome of such a play would be either a fumble as Matt and Jake tussle for the ball, or a sack from the defender Jake was supposed to block. That’s because Jake didn’t do his job; he was out of position.

Congress and the Executive branch are out of position routinely. The feds usurp powers well beyond the 18 our Constitution grants it. Those who contend the “necessary and proper” clause along with the commerce clause expand federal powers fail to recognize that the 10^th Amendment as clarification of any ambiguity.

Let me state this more simply.

The Constitution lists 18 powers of the federal government and specifies that it can make any law tangential to those powers. The 10th amendment, ratified after adoption of the Constitution, makes it clear that any issue outside the umbrella of those 18 powers is solely within state jurisdiction.

We should be glad. Here’s why.

Your vote in the 2020 Presidential election was one of 158 million nationally, and one of about 5 million in Georgia. Your vote in the most recent Gwinnett County school board race was one in about 13 thousand (depending on the district), and about the same for Johns Creek officials.

Obviously, the fewer votes the greater the influence of each one; the more likely your call is taken or your letter answered and your voice heard.

The cornerstone of our FREEDOM FIRST! agenda is adherence to the Constitution.

Because of this, when it comes to critical race theory in our schools, the proper play is at the local school board and/or the statehouse. Perhaps I’ll see you there to lobby on behalf of education and not indoctrination – with no fumble, sack, or interception.

If elected, I will co-sponsor Term Limit legislation to put an end to career politicians.

• Closing the Keystone XL Pipeline, costing the US 900,000 barrels of domestic oil production per dayⁱ
• Throwing open (essentially) our Southern border imposing a cost on Georgia of more than $2 billion per yearⁱⁱ in services to illegal immigrants
• $1,400 “stimulus” checks, even a billion-dollars-worth to prison inmates, including the Boston Marathon bomberⁱⁱⁱ
• Vaccine mandates imposed on businesses, causing staffing shortages and/or necessitating higher wages, in industries vital to our health and the supply of goods in the marketplace.^iv
• Deficit spending, hanging by a thread of getting much worse should the Build Back Better debacle garner another vote or two.

Every time we purchase food or fuel we notice the 40-year high rate of inflated prices; 7.5 percent as of this writing. This costs the typical American household $250 per month.^v Most of us don’t appreciate have $4,000 zapped from our budgets, savings, or investments in a year.

As the battle for Ukraine forges on, inflation could shift into overdrive, especially with an administration unwilling to re-institute our Trump-earned energy independence.

“Inflation is taxation without legislation,” according to Milton Friedman, Nobel Prize winning economist of decades ago.^vi Quantity of money relative to output – meaning productivity — fuels inflation, Friedman taught us.

Squandering our energy independence^vii combined with curbing productivity by discharging workers for refusing the COVID vaccine, and providing stimulus checks and free rent to make employment unnecessary stirs into the cocktail of inflation.

The final ingredient is government overspending. Deficits are then addressed through printing money or borrowing, each of which shrinks the value of the dollar.

Stopping or reversing the terrible policies of the Biden administration is key to taming inflation without having to face higher interest rates dictated by Federal Reserve monetary policy, or a move for wage and price controls.

REFERENCES

i https://www.cnsnews.com/blog/craig-bannister/manchin-keystone-pipeline-could-bring-us-900k-barrels-day-surpassing-bidens-1

ii https://www.fairus.org/sites/default/files/2017-08/USCostStudy_2010.pdf

iii https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/budgets-deficits/nearly-1-billion-in-stimulus-funds-sent-to-prisoners-in-2021-terrorists-and-perverts-got-1-400-checks

iv https://www.heritage.org/government-regulation/commentary/bidens-reckless-vaccine-mandate-risks-severe-economic-dislocation

v https://fee.org/articles/inflation-is-costing-households-250month-moody-s-analysis-finds/

vi https://youtu.be/B_nGEj8wIP0

vii https://www.forbes.com/sites/rrapier/2021/11/14/is-the-us-energy-independent/?sh=6751e7cc1387

In college a couple of years ago, Morgan was stunned by her roommate’s wall posters of Marx, Mao, Lenin, Stalin, and Castro – murderers of about a combined 100 million people.

“She had the best of intentions for our country,” Morgan said in a recent TV interviewⁱ. “She really believed that those values and those ideas would save the future of America.”

Morgan realized that politicians such as Bernie Sanders make strong emotional appeals for what they term “Democratic Socialism,” meaning socialist government with elected leaders. Sanders decries the high cost of health care and health insurance, as well as student debt, enticing a lot of young people. But not Morgan.

She started a group: Young American Against Socialism (YAAS)ⁱⁱ which “injects emotionalism” into revelations of socialism’s horrors by videotaping the stories of people who’ve fled socialistic nations for the freedom of the USA.

Socialism starts as communism lite. If you’re envisioning Denmark or Sweden, those countries rank higher on the Index of Economic Freedom than the United States.ⁱⁱⁱ They’re not really socialistic countries, they are capitalist countries with welfare programs and high taxes.

Venezuela is a Democratic Socialist country. It’s duly elected leaders quickly centralized the money supply, seized power and resources without any accountability, crippled any semblance of a justice system, and unleashed rampant corruption. It’s now a dictatorial regime, presiding over an absolutely horrible crisis^iv.

Do some research on “Agenda 2030,” an initiative sponsored by the United Nations and you’ll see the clear and present danger of socialism taking full effect in America.

In Congress, I’ll stand against AOC and her squad of capitalism killers because I know few in the 7^th district want anything to do with a government-controlled existence. We’ll also make it true capitalism, not crony capitalism – no special favors, carve-outs, or sweetheart deals for special interests. Of importance to note, our campaign has never taken a penny from anyone or any interest who thinks they can buy my favor at your expense.

REFERENCES

i https://youtu.be/tPFnCtv763s

ii https://yaas.org/

iii^[1][1] https://www.heritage.org/index/ranking

iv https://www.worldvision.org/disaster-relief-news-stories/venezuela-crisis-facts

Strangely, that hyperlink now leads to a dead end. There are reports the CDC is withholding COVID-related data for fear of misinterpretation[ii] so maybe that’s what happened?

Moderna reported vaccine sales of $18.5 billion in 2021[iii], about two-thirds of it profit. A failed Ebola pharmaceutical, Remdesivir, was granted emergency use authorization (EUA) for treating COVID, enabling the company to charge insurers more than $3,000 for the customary five-day treatment.[iv]

Money and mandates seem to go together without much evidence that what’s mandated is effective.

Inexpensive, off-patent therapeutic agents, meanwhile, (i.e. Ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine) were blacklisted, essentially. The Doctors who advocated for these therapeutics with the support of compelling efficacy data were vilified, suppressed and censored.

Let freedom ring.

No mandates.

No vaccine mandates and no mask mandates, especially not forced masking of school children for the entire school day.

There may be occupations, particularly in the medical field, that require a mask, just as a surgeon would wear a surgical mask.

Otherwise, each of us can examine the evidence for ourselves, and make our own decisions.

That’s America.

More than six decades ago, President Eisenhower warned us,[v] “we must also be alert to the…danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific technological elite.”

In his farewell address, memorable for identifying the military-industrial complex, President Eisenhower went on to state:

“It is the task of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to integrate these and other forces, new and old, within the principles of our democratic system-ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free society.”

The supreme goals of our free society is a fight I’ll wage every day in Congress as your Representative.

REFERENCES

[i] https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20211122/us-covid-deaths-2021-surpass-2020-total

[ii] https://news.yahoo.com/cdc-under-fire-allegedly-withholding-161802104.html

[iii] https://www.wsj.com/articles/moderna-beats-profit-estimates-fueled-by-vaccine-sales-11645707646

[iv] https://abcnews.go.com/US/covid-19-drug-remdesivir-cost-3120-us-patients/story?id=71509977

[v] https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=90&page=transcript

Like President Ronald Reagan, Mark Gonsalves’ belief in our nation’s sovereignty is clear and unwavering:

“NO SOVEREIGN COUNTRY CAN REMAIN SOVEREIGN WITHOUT SECURE BORDERS. A COUNTRY THAT CANNOT CONTROL ITS BORDERS CANNOT CONTROL ITS DESTINY.” -Mark Gonsalves, 2019

As a sovereign nation, we alone should decide who comes in and who does not.

I strongly support securing our southern border by finishing the border wall and providing Border Patrol with the latest in technology to get their job done.

We must also better enforce our visa laws as these are often abused.

I stand with those who believe our sovereign nation has the right and an obligation to enforce its immigration law.

Too many in Congress go along with the establishment and lobbyists who spend like drunken pirates, with no regard for the ultimate long-term negative consequences which surely follow.

The United States is now running annual deficits of about $2 Trillion dollars. Our national debt has grown from $6 Trillion to more than $30 Trillion since 2000. That’s a 5-fold increase in just over 20 years. This is unsustainable.

We will soon leave to the next generation a Social Security and Medicare system headed toward bankruptcy. Entitlement and interest costs are now eating nearly 70% of our federal budget.

The Republican Party is supposed to be the party of fiscal conservatism and balanced budgets. It’s time for members of Congress to stand up for those principles and reduce our national debt.

If elected, I will co-sponsor Term Limit legislation to put an end to career politicians.

Mark will fight all liberal legislation that attempts to remove our 2nd Amendment rights. The Democrats are currently attempting extreme gun confiscation laws around the country. As crime has exploded, you have the right to protect your property and family. We cannot allow unconstitutional legislation to stand.

• Supports National Concealed Carry Reciprocity
• Opposes unconstitutional “red flag” laws.

The current Administration has turned back the clock on Veteran Care. I won’t turn my back on veterans and will take a stand and fight for improving our veteran’s care.

He will fight to put an immediate end to the horrific late-term abortions and will make sure we defund Planned Parenthood once and for all.

Mark will fight to end the barbaric practice of abortion on demand.

I will keep the FairTax fight alive as your next member of Congress.

Assuming Congress stays within its Constitutional boundaries, law and order within Georgia is a matter for the governor, state legislature, local prosecutors and law enforcement – with but few exceptions.

Securing our southern border would slow the flow of illegal narcotics and sex trafficking into Georgia, while also reducing the presence of violent felons entering our neighborhoods. There are various Homeland Security measures, such as e-Verify or whatever is necessary to fight bioterrorism, I support.

Former Attorney General William Barr recently explained actions his department took during his first tenure in the Justice Department, serving under President George H.W. Bush, to curb crime throughout the U.S.[1]

The crime rate in the US in 1991 was almost five times the rate it had been in 1960, according to Barr. He described a “revolving door” criminal justice environment in many major cities, which is now a lot worse.

“We used our federal laws,” Barr explained, “to incapacitate the most violent (criminals), working with the locals, but we also pushed the states to reform their systems. For 22 years from that point forward — if you look at a chart of crime in the US — it hit a stone wall in 1992 and it went down for 22 consecutive years; it was cut in half.

“It only started going up again,” Barr added, “under Obama when people started going back to the revolving door system of justice and demonizing the police.”

Washington’s role, especially anything Congress can do legislatively, is limited. My outcry against anarchy, however, will be loud and clear.

Allowing criminals to go unpunished is not a remedy for perceived disadvantage in upbringing, education, or socio-economic status. The lawlessness in some of our major cities must never be allowed to erupt in Georgia’s 7^th District.

Public safety is the first obligation of government. Much of law enforcement is outside the scope of the United States Congress, but I’ll be right alongside you fighting any effort to defund police, decriminalize violent acts, or bypass prosecution.

Keeping our streets safe and our citizens protected is the first obligation of government. Even when my role in government may not be central to this critical issue, I’ll add my voice to yours in preserving and protecting our most vital freedom; living in safety.

[1] https://youtu.be/HP_Sh9Te3-Y?t=324

Imagine If Jake Matthews decided he could throw a pass better than Matt Ryan. At the snap, therefore, Jake wheeled into the backfield, snatched the ball out of Matt’s hands, and tried to locate Kyle Pitts downfield.

The likeliest outcome of such a play would be either a fumble as Matt and Jake tussle for the ball, or a sack from the defender Jake was supposed to block. That’s because Jake didn’t do his job; he was out of position.

Congress and the Executive branch are out of position routinely. The feds usurp powers well beyond the 18 our Constitution grants it. Those who contend the “necessary and proper” clause along with the commerce clause expand federal powers fail to recognize that the 10^th Amendment as clarification of any ambiguity.

Let me state this more simply.

The Constitution lists 18 powers of the federal government and specifies that it can make any law tangential to those powers. The 10th amendment, ratified after adoption of the Constitution, makes it clear that any issue outside the umbrella of those 18 powers is solely within state jurisdiction.

We should be glad. Here’s why.

Your vote in the 2020 Presidential election was one of 158 million nationally, and one of about 5 million in Georgia. Your vote in the most recent Gwinnett County school board race was one in about 13 thousand (depending on the district), and about the same for Johns Creek officials.

Obviously, the fewer votes the greater the influence of each one; the more likely your call is taken or your letter answered and your voice heard.

The cornerstone of our FREEDOM FIRST! agenda is adherence to the Constitution.

Because of this, when it comes to critical race theory in our schools, the proper play is at the local school board and/or the statehouse. Perhaps I’ll see you there to lobby on behalf of education and not indoctrination – with no fumble, sack, or interception.

Eight percent of Americans approve of it. That includes 87 percent of Republicans, 73 percent of Democrats, and almost 80 percent of independents – about as bipartisan a consensus as ever could be.

Those are the results of a survey of 1,000 general election voters conducted in March 2021[i] by a group advocating for Congressional term limits. If you suspect the group’s bias may have skewed results, just consider your own views about restoring statesmanship to public service — instead of creating career politicians who utilize the power of incumbency for a 98 percent re-election rate.

In a lot of endeavors, experience is an asset, but how did we end up $30 trillion in debt?

Appearing before a Senate subcommittee in June 2019, Jim Demint provided an interesting perspective.[ii] After the Tea Party influence in the 2010 midterm elections, there was a zest for limited government and a balanced budget, recalled Demint, then a senator from South Carolina.

But a 10-year plan to balance the federal budget met resistance “from all the senior members, particularly the appropriators, in the Senate, including and especially the Republican leadership.”

Within two years, Demint resigned from the Senate halfway through his second term. He had earlier served six yours in the House. That was a total of about 15 years, not even half of:

• Joe Biden’s 36 years in the Senate
• Nancy Pelosi’s 35 years in the House
• Mitch McConnell’s 37 years in the Senate
• And several who have served in the House and/or Senate for a total of more than 40 years.[iii]

Also addressing the Senate subcommittee in 2019, Nick Tomboulides, executive director of US Term Limits, leveled a blow.

“When people run for this office,” he said, “they call it a swamp. But once they get here, it becomes more like a hot tub. They get comfortable. They start enjoying the perks, the privilege, the power, the prestige and they never want to go home.”[iv]

Tomboulides’ group is working toward proposal of a constitutional amendment through a convention of the states, not Congress. The reason is obvious.

“If this were a trial,” he told the senators, “you’d all have to recuse yourselves because there is a colossal conflict of interest…We’re asking you to do what’s right and listen to the people you represent. It’s time to bring the gravy train into the station; end the reign of career politicians and give Congress back to the people.”

Recent polling shows that only about 18 percent approve of the job Congress is doing.[v] But incumbents – and I’ll likely be running against one – rake in about 9 times the funds from special interests that a challenger can raise – if the challenger so desired, and I don’t.

But special interest money buys a lot of TV ads presenting unchallenged assertions and false/distorted impressions.

Returning to the balanced budget initiative following the 2010 midterms gives a good example as to how incumbency festers and perpetuates itself. Then serving in the Senate, Demint remembers the red wave that was out to bring the fiscal house into order only to meet the entrenched power structure.

“Everyone told them their expectations were too high,” said Demint. “ That’s what this place does to you – it dumbs down your expectations within weeks of getting here.

“Cutting anything in Washington,” he added, referring to the budget, “has so much punishment associated with it from every constituent of every program that no reasonable person is going to do it.”

This is why so many budget-related issues are kicked down the road – until after the next election, and then after the next, and then the next. But a day of reckoning is coming.

“We have all the incentives in place to destroy our country, Demint warmed. “One of the only ways to change those incentives is to bring new people up here who know they’re going to be here for a short period and they’re going to give it everything they’ve got for their country and one way or another they’re going to go home.”

That’s me. And you can hold me to it.

[i] https://www.termlimits.com/

[ii] https://youtu.be/9Rvuk2dbfQ4

[iii] https://stacker.com/stories/3563/longest-serving-members-congress

[iv] https://youtu.be/TnwGdl1YrQ8

[v] https://www.statista.com/statistics/207579/public-approval-rating-of-the-us-congress/