Blog, Q & A
Asheville Tea PAC Questionnaire
February 15, 2010 by Dr. Dan 4 Congress
If you haven’t made up your mind about which candidate to support yet, you are strongly encouraged to go to the Asheville Tea PAC website and review all of the candidate’s questionnaires.
Once you do, I think you will agree that Dr. Dan is by far the best candidate. Dr. Dan is the only candidate articulating clear and honest answers that not only demonstrate his superior knowledge of issues, thorough understanding and belief in the constitution, and his truly conservative principles, but also providing common sense solutions incorporating the free market!
CANDIDATE QUESTIONNAIRE
1. Please briefly introduce yourself to Asheville Tea Party members.
My name is Dr Dan Eichenbaum. I was born and raised in New Britain, CT, graduated from the University of Michigan with high distinction and honors in Zoology, and graduated from Yale University School of Medicine Cum Laude. After a year of internship in Internal Medicine at Yale, I completed my residency in ophthalmology at The Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in Miami, FL. Immediately thereafter, I served my country as a commissioned officer in the Navy. I practiced ophthalmology in Florida and New York City before moving to Murphy, NC, where I have been continuously since 1986.
During my career, I have published fifteen peer-reviewed scientific articles, written several chapters in ophthalmology texts, and lectured internationally. I have six patents for a variety of devices used in eye surgery. My practice motto has always been, “Compassionate Quality EyeCare regardless of your ability to pay.” In my 23 year’s of practice in Murphy, I have restored sight to tens of thousands of patients, including thousands of injured and emergency cases at all hours of the night and weekend, often at no fee.
In addition to owning and operating my medical practice in Murphy, I have had extensive experience in other entrepreneurial endeavors. For 10 years I served on the board of directors for Contemporary Surgical Systems Inc., a corporation I established with several other entrepreneurs, using my medical patents. This business manufactured, sold, and distributed disposable surgical equipment in the U.S. and abroad. As a member of the Board of Directors and Director of Research and Development, my role was to oversee product development and to interact with the FDA for product approval.
I am also happily married to my wife Rhonda, and we have two college-aged children and a small ranch where we raise and train horses.
2. What has prompted you to seek elective office in general and your present race in particular?
I am a product of the American Dream. About 100 years ago, my grandparents were legal immigrants to our country. They came with nothing but the desire to take their place in the great American melting pot – not to become hyphenated Americans, but to become just Americans. My parents and siblings are educated and successful because of the opportunities for social advancement possible only in our free society.
Last April 15, my wife, daughter and I attended the Tax Day Tea Party protest in Atlanta, GA, only expecting to join with a few hundred other protesters. Instead, we became energized by over 20,000 patriots. We returned to Murphy and, with a small group of local activists, founded, funded, and activated the Cherokee County 9-12 Project group. After blogging about the Constitution for several months, I was approached by members of the Young Americans for Liberty, the Campus Republicans at WCU, and the Young Republicans from Buncombe County and asked to run for Congress in NC11 to oust Heath Shuler.
After months of yelling at the TV, watching the progressive agenda ruin our country and our children’s futures, the meaning of Edmund Burke’s quote (“All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing”) had become obvious and compelling. Without hesitation, I decided I could no longer sit on the sidelines and expect others to lead the struggle to take back our country from those who would shred The Constitution and steal our freedoms. In the spirit of our founding fathers, I am standing up for election to Congress as a statesman, a common citizen, to save our republic.
3. What in your view is the proper role of government?
In 1787, our founders gave us The Constitution, a document that forever changed the relationship between man and government. The founders believed in Natural Law, that our rights are God-given and, therefore, unalienable and not derived from governmental authority. The proper role of government is to protect and secure the rights of life, liberty, and property . . . not amend, restrict, or abridge them.
4. What in your view is the proper relationship of government to citizens?
After studying governmental systems past and present, our founders gave us a republic, a philosophy of governance in which power resides with the people in their local communities and with the states. It is a simple, yet powerful concept that allows for maximum individual freedom within a local community setting while providing for a mechanism for promoting the general defense and welfare of the population. Authority was reluctantly given to the federal government for issues that affect only the entire nation, and those powers were strictly limited to those enumerated in Article I, Section 8 and further reserved to the states and the people in the 10th Amendment. I firmly believe that our founders intended for government to be closest to the citizens, limited in power and scope, and generally un-restrictive of free market interactions among the people.
5. What political philosophers most influence your own public policy views?
I have been most influenced by the writings and opinions of Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, John Locke, Patrick Henry, Ludwig von Mises, Barry Goldwater, and Ronald Reagan.
6. To what extent should government intervene in economic life?
I believe in individualism and free markets, the voluntary exchange of private property, goods, and services. Government intervention causes distortion in the natural economic cycles that should reward efficacy, efficiency and success and punish poor performance by failure. Interference in this process forces everyone down to the level of the lowest common denominator. Government can only aid the losers at the expense of the winners, and, as a result, everyone loses. No person or corporation can be deemed “too big to fail”, and taxpayers’ money should not be used as a credit line or a bail out. Instead, those responsible for failure should suffer significant consequences, both financial and criminal (if applicable), and the free market should be allowed to function normally to pick up the pieces. “There is no other means to attain full employment, rising real wage rates, and a high standard of living for the common man than private initiative and free enterprise.” – Ludwig von Mises
7. Regardless of what the Constitution says, do you believe in the strict separation of church and state?
The First Amendment clearly states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;”. The words “separation of church and state” do not appear in the Constitution. In the historical context of the revolutionary era, the founders desired a country in which all could worship God as they chose without having a specific religious denomination forced upon the citizens by a ruler or a government as was the custom in Europe.
Our founders believed in and formed our Constitution on Judeo-Christian values, a system of ethical conduct, moral principles, and justice that is based on Natural Law, wherein freedom and the rights associated with it are derived from God. As such, statements of faith, character, and morality such as the Ten Commandments and prayer itself should not be banned from the public arena.
8. Please share with Asheville Tea Party members your position on these public policy areas:
Health Care Reform – As a practicing physician for the past 34 years, I understand that there are problems with our healthcare system that need to be resolved. The healthcare legislation currently being considered by congress does not address these issues. Instead, the progressive socialists in this administration seek to create a massive government bureaucracy that controls life and death for every citizen. This socialized system of medical care will lead to the premature death of everyone, except the wealthy and the government elite. In spite of their vehement denials, bureaucratic committees and affiliated quasi-professional panels are designed to specify treatment protocols for various diseases based on cost-benefit criteria that will limit and restrict treatment for many Americans. In addition, the “medical home” provisions mimic the “primary care gatekeeper” concept of the 1980s HMO initiatives that resulted in denial of essential specialty care to many participants.
We all know that the most efficient way to improve our medical care system is to allow the free market to function normally. Health insurance should not be tied to employment or employers. Each health insurance policy should be privately owned by the person insured. Health insurance companies should be allowed to compete for business without government mandates on a national scale so that an individual could design his/her own policy based on specific personal needs. Tort reform, an essential part of healthcare reform, must include provisions for limiting punitive damages to malicious intent, requiring a “loser pays” requirement for frivolous suits, pre-screening suits by medico-legal panels, and a legal recognition that a poor result is not grounds for suit. An expansion of tax-free health savings accounts and a national insurance pool for high risk individuals would further allow for all citizens to have access to insurance and to health care.
Energy & Environment – Dependence on foreign oil for our nation’s energy needs and pending climate change legislation “Cap and Trade” pose severe threats to our nation’s security and economic recovery. On the first Earth Day forty years ago, a small group of scientists predicted that by the year 2000 earth’s temperature would have decreased by 11 degrees and that 70% – 80% of the species on earth would become extinct. Today, when meteorologists cannot even accurately predict the weather 2 – 3 days in advance, another small group of scientists claim they can tell us what the temperature will be 2 to 3 decades from now. Meanwhile, although thousands of reputable scientists dispute the entire concept of carbon-based global warming, no scientific debate on this issue has been allowed to occur.
Cap and Trade legislation is not about climate change. It is about taxation, regulation, and increasing the power and size of the federal government. This bill allows unprecedented government intrusion into our personal lives. The federal government could monitor your home electricity use and decide to tax you if you use what some bureaucrat thinks is too much. Other provisions would let the government meter private wells, control your thermostat settings, and would raise the cost of all energy used for transportation, food production, and manufacturing. It would be a national job-killer and especially costly for rural areas like Western North Carolina.
Protecting our planet’s ecosystem is an important goal for all humanity and should be a long term project for our country in conjunction with all other nations. In the short term, however, we cannot sacrifice our nation’s economic growth and the financial welfare of our citizens to appease other nations, especially those who refuse to cooperate with conservation efforts. We must empower private industry to develop energy sources that are more environmentally friendly. At the same time, the government must not prevent the exploration, extraction, and production of the energy from traditional sources here. We have sufficient energy in our own country to be energy independent now and in the near future. We must eliminate government restrictions and regulations currently in place and allow free market forces to achieve this goal.
As your congressman, I will introduce legislation that specifically allows a “drill here, drill now” program for oil exploration, promotes the construction of nuclear electricity power plants, and enables the use of natural gas for transportation and industry.
Gun Rights – The right of self-defense, to protect one’s person, one’s family, and one’s property, is a fundamental part of individual freedom, and, as such is protected by the Second Amendment to the Constitution. The phrase, “the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed”, is undeniably clear. Anti-gun advocates, however, have long tried to use the initial phrase, “a well regulated militia”, to modify and restrict the otherwise explicit meaning of the amendment.
In his book, “The Founders’ Second Amendment”, Stephen P. Halbrook discusses the relationship between the initial “purpose” clause and the substantive “right” clause. The phrase “the right of the people” appears in the First, Fourth, and Ninth Amendments and, in all cases, refers to the rights both of individuals and to individuals as part of a group. The phrase “to keep and bear arms” refers not only to ownership, but also to the usage and the carrying of weapons on one’s person. The phrase “shall not be infringed” is an absolute prohibition as opposed to the conditional wording in the Fourth Amendment regarding “unreasonable” search and seizures.
In terms of the “purpose” clause, it is generally accepted that the founders understood that proficiency in the use of arms was a benefit personally as well as for the protection of the country when a militia was needed. Halbrook then states, “the purpose clause does not negate the right.” Furthermore, in the Constitution, “rights” clearly belong to the people.
The founders also recognized that an armed citizenry was important to prevent a tyrannical central government from seizing dictatorial power. Throughout history, dictators have sought to disarm the population to seize and hold power. Prior to the Revolutionary War, the British attempted to confiscate the colonists’ guns to reduce the likelihood of rebellion. In 1929, the progressive Weimar Republic passed gun registration laws that were used by Hitler in 1938 to seize weapons and arrest persons deemed “undesirable” by the Gestapo. The Gestapo’s 2nd-in-command, Dr. Werner Best, wrote in 1935: “As a rule, we have to assume that firearms in the hands of the Jews represent a considerable danger for the German people.” If we alter that statement using two blanks, (“Firearms in the hands of ________ are a considerable danger for ______”), it is easy to see how any repressive regime can use laws for the registration and confiscation of firearms as a means to control and enslave the population.
I believe that the “right to keep and bear arms” is absolute and will fight vigorously any attempt, legislative or bureaucratic, to infringe on the Second Amendment.
State Sovereignty – As a nation, I believe the US must protect and defend its borders, national identity, and sovereignty against all threats external or internal. The push toward globalism sponsored by the current administration and the United Nations is a direct threat to our personal liberties and the rule of law as defined by our Constitution, and, as such, must be fought with all vigor and persistence. When our Constitution was written, treaties consisted of agreements one nation to another nation. For this reason, provisions were made so that no state could opt out of an international treaty agreed to by senate ratification. These provisions are extremely dangerous now that UN “human rights” treaties deal with citizens’ rights inside a nation. Senate ratification of UN treaties such as those concerning Rights of Children, Climate Change, Weapons, Judicial/Legal rights, etc., would allow international law to supersede state law to the detriment of our citizens. This possibility is unacceptable to me. Until this constitutional loophole is removed, we must actively prevent ratification of any international treaty that would contradict or restrict any rights and provision guaranteed by our constitution.
The States created the federal government, not the other way around. The Tenth Amendment is referred to as the “forgotten amendment.” Our founders added the Tenth Amendment because they wanted to make it absolutely clear that anything that was not delegated or prohibited by the Constitution would be reserved to the states or to the people. Individual states must actively and aggressively take the necessary legal steps to reaffirm and regain the rights that have been usurped by the federal government.
Property Rights – Thomas Jefferson understood that the right to own property was the basis for individual freedom. For centuries, mankind had only the “illusion of freedom”. In feudal times, for instance, people lived on “rented” land owned by the aristocracy. Individuals could work, marry, have families, and recreate, but there was little or no opportunity for social advancement. The lord of the manor maintained his extravagant lifestyle through heavy taxation.
Through the Constitution, Jefferson and the founders protected an individual’s right to keep and own property, both physical and intellectual, from government interference. These protections are found in many different sections of all our founding documents. Property rights are referred to with a repetition and redundancy that serves only to emphasize the importance our founders placed on property ownership as the right so closely allied with our freedom.
Property rights are also at the heart of issues regarding taxation and the dispersal of taxpayer money. The founders allowed Congress to collect taxes (not on income) for the common defense and general welfare. Selective taxation combined with selective disbursement makes a mockery of the term “general welfare”. Property taken from one group by force (taxation, eminent domain, etc.) and given to another creates two classes in society – the provider class and the recipient class. In the process, both classes become enslaved. The provider class becomes the slave of the recipient class through their power to use the government to steal the fruits of the providers’ labors without penalty. The recipient class becomes a slave of the government through dependency on the public dole. The quickest way to stop this abuse of power by the federal government is to enact the Fair Tax, a consumption tax program, and abolish the 16th Amendment. Ideally, of course, we must reduce the size of the federal government so that it could exist using only the taxation power specified in Article I, Section 8.
Monetary Policy – The ebb and flow of capitalism allows for the natural correction of up and down cycles in the economy. While touted as a means to stabilize the economy, the intervention of the Federal Reserve by artificially manipulating interest rates is, in truth, a destabilizing influence that exacerbates booms and recessions. The Fed’s policies and the abandonment of the principle of sound money have allowed the disastrous unsecured borrowing that is plunging us into a debt-interest-inflation spiral that will result in financial catastrophe.
We cannot tax, borrow and print money to solve this economic crisis. That is exactly what has created the current crisis in the first place. The federal government must do what most corporations do when they get into trouble. We must eliminate or privatize government programs that are not working. We must fire federal employees who have performed poorly and layoff federal employees who are no longer needed. A full audit of ALL federal departments, including the Federal Reserve, is necessary to determine excess and target areas for reduction or elimination. The federal government must stop taxing, borrowing and printing new currency to fund programs and items that we can no longer afford. I oppose new deficits, new debt limits, and any further debasement of our currency. Congress has, without constitutional authority, ceded control of our currency and economy to a semi-private group of bankers whose primary interest is the financial health of large corporations and banks. Congress, the House of Representatives specifically, must re-establish control of those areas of the economy as required by the Constitution.
National Defense – Our brave men and women currently serving our nation and our military veterans are true heroes and should be treated as such with honor and appreciation from every citizen. As a commissioned officer in the Navy during the Vietnam era, I believe we must maintain a strong military, superior to that of any other nation, and provide our soldiers the necessary equipment for them to perform optimally and protect them from harm.
I am not conceptually an anti-war candidate. While war can be considered justified and essential under certain circumstances, the consequences of war – loss of life, disability, displacement of innocents – should be abhorrent to morally principled people. In consideration of the above, war must be constitutionally declared, have specific goals, a realistic plan to achieve success, and an exit strategy once the objectives have been realized.
On September 11, 2001, our nation was brutally attacked with the unacceptable murder of over three thousand of our fellow citizens. I believe it was our right and obligation to locate, capture, and punish the perpetrators by whatever means necessary and without the consent or help of the international community. If that goal had been our focus and had been efficiently and successfully prosecuted, our troops would most likely be at home today. Instead, we embarked on a course of “nation-building” both in Afghanistan and Iraq. As a result, eight years later, our brave men and women in uniform continue to be in harm’s way in foreign countries with no end in sight.
There is an historical parallel here in Jefferson’s pursuit of the Barbary pirates in the early nineteenth century. Our nation undertook successful military action against the pirates and the leaders of the nations that harbored them without rebuilding Tripoli in the image of New York City. To continue this thought process, even Jefferson understood that defense of our nation is not limited to military action only on our own shores. True “isolationism”, possible in colonial times, is not practical or safe in today’s world in which a nation can be destroyed in minutes instead of weeks or months. Our federal government has the absolute right and moral obligation to defend our country and our fellow citizens by all justified actions wherever necessary.
We are now at war with an enemy that owns no territory, has no borders, an enemy that exists in cyberspace and can launch attacks against us from anywhere on earth. As a nation, we have been struggling unsuccessfully with this concept since Vietnam. The delicate balance is to protect our nation while preserving the liberties guaranteed to us by our heritage and our Constitution. We can begin by acknowledging that terrorists are lethal and immoral, and their threat to us is real. Granting them rights they do not deserve and posturing submissively is not a successful strategy. Installing indoor plumbing in Afghanistan will not make terrorists like America and abandon their Jihad. Terrorists should be tried in military tribunals, not civilian courts, and, for the safety of our citizens, terrorists should not be brought into the country for trial.
