I am running for Congress because I cannot continue to sit by idly watching our economy and our rights spiraling downward. The representatives in Congress are not helping, rather they are the ones causing the deterioration of the economy and the destruction of our Constitutionally protected rights.

We the People, are struggling to make ends meet with the money that our government allows us to keep, while our paid officials- our hired employees- are squandering our hard-earned money.

Our country has been consumed by party politics, and we need to get beyond the 2-party system, which has blurred so much that it is now unrecognizable, and look at being Americans. The 2-party system has gotten us where we are today, with the ‘good of the party’ taking a back seat only to “what will get me elected next time” being the primary concern.

I want to bring back a Congress that wants what is best for America first and foremost. Term limits would help that to become a reality. If term limits were at 3 or 4 terms maximum for the House and 1- 6 year term for the Senate, we would be much more productive in DC. There wouldn’t be the impetus to worry about your own election as much.

I am running as a Constitutionalist. I belong to the Constitution Party of Oregon. I was a lifelong republican and my husband was a lifelong democrat; we both finally came to terms with the fact that the party lines had blurred so much that the parties had left us. We changed to the Constitution Party two years ago. Although, some may consider me Conservative, I am actually a Constitutionalist. This means that even though I have personal beliefs about some issues, the Constitution is specific about how and by whom those issues should be handled. One of those issues is abortion. I am personally pro-life and would love to see it all banned. However, it and all healthcare, is not an issue which the Constitution empowers Congress. These are powers that are remanded to the states. In that vein, Roe vs Wade needs to be repealed and the power to legislate abortion left to the states. Marriage –gay and otherwise- is the same situation. When it comes to my political stand on these types of issues, some may call me liberal because I don’t call for an outright federal ban of either practice. The logical question to ask here is, “Can you separate your personal views from your duties as a Congressman?” Yes, I can. When I take the oath of office next January, I will swear “ that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.” An oath is not to be taken lightly and I stand by that. Though a Christian, I am not running as a Christian, but as an American. A Christian’s guidebook is the Bible, an American’s guidebook is the Constitution.

In the past, a Constitution party member had little chance of winning an election. I think this is going to be an exciting year, because change is in the air. People are tired of “business as usual”. People realize that all of our so-called representatives in DC are failing us. The buzzword this election season is ‘change’ and people of all socio-economic and political backgrounds want it- bad! This year, there are no Republicans running, which makes this a 2 way race for the seat. Anything can happen. 

While I agree that Mr.Defazio has done some things right (such as voting against the Patriot Act and against the FISA Amendment Act of 2008) and has done some good for our state and our country, he is part of the problem. Mr. Defazio voted for the Government Family Medical Leave Act on Thursday, which takes money out of our pockets and pays for 8 of the 12 weeks of FMLA time for government employees. Now, why should our paid public servants have better benefits than we do? Mr. Defazio co-sponsored a bill (H.R.2634) providing for debt relief for impoverished nations, ignoring the fact that “We the People” are being impoverished by our government taking our money to fund these foreign nations. Mr Defazio cosponsored H.R. 5501 , a bill to provide healthcare assistance for foreign countries. Again, why is it that “We the People” are being forced, by our legislators to pay for other countries when we are struggling to pay our own healthcare issues.

As a ‘common citizen’ who has lived in the real world all of my life rather than in politics, I have had to budget. I had to determine what our wants and our needs were. Sometimes, I had to prioritize our needs because I couldn’t afford them all. This is what we need in DC now; some common sense application of monetary responsibility. We the people can’t live forever on debt; neither can the government. Furthermore, all of us, elected officials and citizens alike, need to understand that the government has no money. The money belongs to the people. The government simply takes it from us in the form of taxes (visible and hidden) to pay for services and social programs.
Second, we need to re-evaluate legislation in place and start repealing that which is unconstitutional. If we returned to the Constitutional foundations on which this great country was founded, we would have none of the problems we have today. An example of this is our economy. Article 4, section 8 of the Constitution puts the responsibility for money squarely in the lap of Congress, yet in 1913 they delegated it to a private company, the Federal Reserve. In fact, Article 4, Section 8 of the Constitution lists the powers of Congress. The Constitution goes on to say in the 10th Amendment (the last part of the Bill of Rights) that any powers not delegated to the United States, are reserved to the states or to the people.
 
The rights of the people need to be restored. In recent years, our rights have been systematically destroyed with acceleration of that since September 11th. Benjamin Franklin said, “Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.” By passing the FISA Amendment Act of 2008 last Thursday, Congress effectively removed our rights of Habeus Corpus. The ACLU defines it as this: Habeus Corpus is not a fancy legal term, it’s the freedom from being thrown in prison illegally with no help and no end in sight. With the passing of the Homegrown Violent Radicalization Act , we all become subject to the label of potential terrorist based on our psychological makeup. In fact, by voicing discontent with the current administration, we can be targeted for ‘surveillance’ by our government. Now, the bill does say that these certain ‘risk factors’ when coupled with violence indicate terrorist tendencies, but what is violence? When I was a child, calling names was no big deal. You know, “sticks and stones…”. Now, though, if I call someone is called a ‘mean’ name, they can be brought up on hate crime charges. We have really gone overboard.
If we simply kept our money to take care of our citizens and did not support the citizens of other countries (i.e. Illegal Immigrants and aid to foreign countries), our economy would improve tremendously. We do not ‘owe’ food, housing and healthcare to noncitizens. We cannot continue Robin Hood taxation to take care of the world. Charity belongs in the private sector. By definition, you cannot be charitable with someone else’s money and that is exactly what our current government is doing.
Other than that, I feel that the 111th Congress needs to start with the most recent unconstitutional legislation and work backwards repealing all programs and bills that are unconstitutional.
The healthcare system is broken. We do not have a ‘right’ to healthcare, but the federal government can make healthcare available for all Citizens by giving a tax credit for individuals and families so that they have a direct write-off of all insurance costs. At this time, we cannot buy insurance across state lines. Health insurance costs vary wildly from one state to the next for exact same coverage. With a free market for health insurance, prices would drop and services would improve. That is what happens with competition.

Likewise, patients and only patients should decide what provider to use. This could be medical doctor, an osteopath, an herbalist or acupuncturist or chiropractor. It should be the patient’s decision only.

Insurance companies have no business rationing our healthcare. There was an article in the Oregonian last week about a woman with cancer that Oregon Healthplan denied coverage for chemotherapy, but will allow palliative care including euthanasia (euphemistically referred to as ‘assisted suicide’). Is this what we want? In Germany, the ‘elderly’ are given a little pill to take so they ‘go to sleep’ and never wake up. Is this what we want? It is cheaper to let people die (or help them to die) than it is to treat them. This is what Socialized (a.k.a. Universal Healthcare) is. I grew up in a border city with Canada, which has socialized medicine. Canadians cross the border in droves to pay cash for medical care for life-threatening health issues. Even for elective surgeries, they come to America. Why? Because the waiting list is several years long. They are hoping you die first. It’s cheaper that way. Is this what we want? When Ted Kennedy had his brain tumor last month, one of the doctors was on FOX who agreed that if we had the healthcare program that Ted Kennedy is promoting, he would have died. He would not have had a choice in hospitals, doctors or in treatments. Socialized does not allow cash deals. This is essentially where we are with HMOs now.

I cannot talk about healthcare, however, without talking about our vets. This is the one and only place where I believe healthcare should be provided by the government (people). All Americans owe our vets for the sacrifices they made for our freedoms (which Congress is systematically taking away). These me n and women have put their lives on hold; they risked their lives for our country. We owe it to them to make sure that their needs, healthcare and otherwise are met. I also think that they should be able to use the health care providers and facilities of their choice at taxpayer expense. Often, vets need to travel many, many miles to see VA doctors and go to VA hospitals which is inconvenient for them and is a costly waste of fuel. These proposed veteran Government paid healthcare benefits do not extend to government employees unless, of course, they are a veteran, also.

As I said earlier in this interview, Peter has done a lot of good for this state. I acknowledge that publically and in private correspondence with him. On the other hand he has been in office for 22 years and is a career politician. He can’t relate to his constituents. He does not know what it is like to struggle to pay bills, to put gas in the car and food on the table.
Besides these things, our founding fathers did not intend this position being a full time, career. The idea was to go to congress for a session, deal with the issues that the enumerated powers gave you to deal with (again, that is Article 4, section 8) and go home to your ‘real’ job. Mr. Defazio is a career politician having been in Congress for 22 years, County Commissioner for 4 years and legislative aide for 5 years.
I was in healthcare for 25 years in various capacities, was a teacher for 3 years (1 in a private school and 2 in government schools), have homeschooled for 10 years. In addition, I was a single parent for 10 years. I am married to a Vietnam veteran. I have had and do have a ‘real life’ allowing me to be a true representative of the people.
Our timber industry, our state economy has been all but destroyed by the federal government, yet Mr. Defazio, along with Mr. Bluemnauer (D3) is trying to give more of our land to the feds. If we were to remove the federal land from Oregonian land mass, we would be one of the smallest states in the republic. And Mr. Defazio wants it to be smaller.
 
Mr. Defazio has argued for the continuance of the timber ‘safety net’, true. His colleagues are getting protest letters from their constituents who do not want their money taken from them to ‘give to Oregon. Understandably! Would you want to give up your hard-earned money to give to, say Iowa? Perhaps that will be next with our Congress mandating corn to be used for Ethanol production. When our county land was taken over by the feds, the contract stated that the land would be logged with the counties receiving 75% of the revenue. The land is not being logged, therefore the contract is null and void. The federal government has defaulted on the contract and should return the land to the counties (not the state) where it belongs. The county then determines whether to log the land or sell it off to private buyers, returning it to the tax rolls. Bureau of Land Management is a redundant agency and can be absorbed by the Forest services. All of this costs the federal government (i.e. the taxpayers) nothing, and Oregon gets a giant boost to the economy.

I urge people to check my website (http://germond4congress.com) and contact me by email (germond4congress@gmail.com) or by phone (541.515.9690).

If you would like to support my campaign financially, donations can be given through the website, or you can send a check to:
Germond for Congress
7298 Lookingglass Rd
Roseburg, OR 97470

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