Randall Yearout, Q&A on 15 topics

RANDALL YEAROUT 1. Why do you feel that you are the best candidate? The general feeling that the federal government has grown too big for its britches has a constitutional remedy, and I appear to be the only candidate who will work towards that remedy. 2. What legislation is your top priority for 2013? To shrink the size and scope of federal reach into the affairs of the people and states. 3. Do you support President Barack Obama’s plan to withdraw combat troops from Afghanistan in 2014? Would you support an American military intervention to help quell potential human rights abuses in Syria? What standards would you use when deciding if you would support American military intervention? 1) I think announcing to the world at large the military intentions of the US is foolish at best, and dangerous for our troops and the Afghan people. I do want to withdraw our troops from Afghanistan, though, and the sooner the better. 2) I do not support an American military intervention into the affairs of Syria or any other sovereign country without an 3) explicit congressional declaration of war stating that withdrawal will come after accomplishment of the stated goals related to American security. 4. Should income tax reductions originally signed into law by President George W. Bush expire as scheduled on Jan. 1, 2013 for everyone, just people who have an income over a certain amount or for no one? Everyone. 5. Do you support the Affordable Care Act, the health care legislation that was signed by President Barack Obama in 2010? I do not; this is a superb teaching moment for America regarding the violation of the public rights to use and dispose of their own property as they see fit. To use the force of government to 1) compel purchase of a private commercial product or 2) subordinate the dictates of religious conscience to our public servants is a clear violation of the public rights, which is Webster’s 1828 definition of a misdemeanor, which is required under Article 11 Section 4 of the Constitution to be dealt with by impeachment and removal from any office of public trust. 6. In retrospect, was the federal government correct to bail out the auto industry and financial institutions, including some local banks in Spokane? In the short term, the bailouts may have appeared to have been useful, but in the long-term, I’m not so sure that we will not have created a monster given the tendency of men to continue a behavior if they are rewarded for it. So no, I do not support bailouts. 7. Do you support the completion of the North Spokane freeway? If so, how much of the remaining project should be paid for with federal money? I do believe that the project should be completed, but another discussion ensues regarding federal funding, and how that could be accomplished constitutionally. If the states insisted on the federal government restricting its taxing authority to support only those delegated powers under the constitution, the states would have the dollars to accomplish projects without federal involvement. The only constitutional remedy for federal involvement would be an amendment allowing it. 8. Do you support same-sex marriage? Do you support the decision to allow gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military? I do not support same-sex marriage, nor their serving openly in the military. Our traditional common law has been informed by our national consciousness of “the laws of nature and nature’s God” quoting the nation’s charter – the Declaration of Independence – and that traditional common law has ever been the seedbed of both private and public virtue in America, which has secured “the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.” It is my belief that the blessings of liberty follow our traditional morality, not the other morality. 9. Do you believe abortion should be legal under all circumstances in which it is currently is legal, limited to certain circumstances, or illegal? Should the federal government require insurance companies to cover abortion if they cover maternity care? Should there be greater exceptions for religious groups or employers who have religious objections to abortion? I think my previous answers give a very good rationale for the answer to these questions. Abortion should be available ONLY in the event that it is required to save the actual physical life of the mother, the federal government has no business whatever dictating what commercial products a private insurance company offers, and certainly is prohibited by the 1st Amendment from inserting itself into the consciences of religious practice. 10. Do you support reforms to Social Security that include diverting payroll taxes to individual retirement accounts? Do you support increasing the retirement age for eligibility for Social Security? I do think SS should be reformed to allow complete op-out. The retirement age should be adjusted to reflect increases or decreases in the life-expectancy and mortality tables used by those who have the best information, but are still disinterested parties in the disbursement of SSI benefits. 11. Would you support legislation, such as the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act, which would allow immigrants who arrived to the United States illigally as minors to become eligible for legal residency if they have lived in the country for a certain period and served in the military or attended college? No I would not. 12. Do you believe that human activity is significant factor that causes global warming? Should the federal government regulate carbon emissions to slow or reduce the impact of global warming? No on both counts. 13. Do you support the legalization of marijuana for adults, including for recreational purposes? If not, do you support the legalization of marijuana for medical use? How would you address the conflict that currently exists between state law allowing marijuana for medical use and federal law banning it? I do not know why marijuana was ever outlawed in the first place, and do not see any reason to continue on our present course of prohibition. The conflict between the states and federal government is at its heart a matter of federal overreach into the sovereignty of the states, and a deliberate ignorance of the 10th Amendment. 14. Do you support proposals to end direct payments to farmers? What level of federal subsidies should farmers receive to insure their crops against weather, disease and low prices? I have struggled with this question, and only know that the present system of subsidies is not a good one. I do believe our domestic food producers must be indemnified from calamity, and made financially viable even if it means import tariffs on foreign food products in order to insure a stable and independent national food supply. 15. Do you support the elimination of any of the following federal departments: Department of Education, Department of Energy or Department of Commerce? I support the elimination of Education and Energy, but Commerce has a role in the administration of the commerce clause of the constitution.