U.S. REPRESENTATIVE, CD10

QUESTIONNAIRE:  U.S. REPRESENTATIVE, CD10

I tend to be a little long-winded because it is extremely hard to express a concept or a plan in three or four words. I probably go as far as to say it’s impossible. I will do my best to answer your questions about my opinions but I also remember that running for these offices is more about finding out the opinions of the people I represent. These are quick answers to quick questions so please try to understand the thought or the concept, we can and will talk about the details later.

1. Please describe the qualifications, including education, elected offices, and life experiences that make you the best candidate for the office of U.S. Representative for CD10.

I have been talkin about politics since my early 20’s, which was before Reaganomics. I decided that I either needed to shut up or get involved, so here I am running for Washington State congressional district 10. To become your US Representative.

I am a proud working-class, blue jeans and t-shirt kind of guy. I have been an IBEW union electrician for the last 20 years. I understand that in government it is not about my opinions, it’s about your opinions. If elected, I will vote and represent you, the people of Washington.

I am extremely interested in the people’s voice in their own government because I believe in democracy, so I’m running as a Democrat.

I believe I am everything people keep saying they want to represent them. I am not rich and I do not have tons of political experience although I do understand how the system works. I am interested in representing the people of America and I have lots of new ideas that I believe would function very very well.

I believe in Building Systems that don’t need a lot of people to operate them. If you want to make a river it’s best if the water flows downhill.

I have helped change and modify laws both in Eugene and Springfield Oregon and also in the state of Oregon. I am aware of the process and have been down that road a handful of times.

I am aware of how messed up our government has become and understand that the only way to fix it is from the inside.

2. Do you live in CD-10? If not, do you plan to move there?

Yes. I live in Olympia. 

I spent many years in the Eugene, Springfield area of Oregon, in about 2008 I moved up here looking for work. Lives in various locations from the Seattle area all the way to Olympia. We finally settled into this house in 2013 that is between Lacey, Olympia, and Tumwater with an Olympia address. 

3. Please describe what you believe are the most significant issues in this race and why.

My biggest concern is that the people of this country are being heavily polarized and our nation’s fiber is being ripped in half. Divided this country will fall. That scares the hell out of me. 

Unless we can find ways to heal this wound this country will cease to exist. If that’s not a big concern I don’t know what is. 

The bones of this system of our government are strong and they are doing it and have been doing an excellent job for us but now our information systems have learned they can profit from trying to convince us that our governing systems are falling apart. They are painting rips, tears, and cracks on everything, showing us shortcuts of videos trying to scare us because doing this seems to turn us into dedicated and repeat listeners and that’s how they make more money while doing the same amount of work. Let’s understand what we have in our government and how amazing it was to get this system in place and just repaint and move in and get back to being a country.

I truly do believe there is a conspiracy going on in America but it’s not the one people are expecting. We were warned that hanging on to this Republic / Democracy was going to be tough because there are many forces that don’t want us to succeed. Some are doing it for money, Some are doing it for popularity, and others are doing it to prove our system of government doesn’t work. 

This is a perfect storm of WTMI way too much information, and America has never been through this before and doesn’t know how to handle it.

4. Do you plan to accept corporate PAC money for this campaign? Who is your single largest campaign donor? 

I am trying to run a zero donations campaign. The only people I want to owe anything to are the voters. After all, the voters are who I’m supposed to be working for. 

I tell people if you want politicians to run with fewer ads, fewer yard signs, and less noise then vote for the people like me that are doing that. Politicians will do what works so show them what works for you. 

I am depending on organizations like this to get my name out there, this way will show any citizen could find themselves being able to run for office. Our government is supposed to look like a cross-section of the people and right now it just looks like a cross-section of the rich.

5. Please list any notable endorsements you have already earned.

I’ve been talking about politics for many many years and I have a lot of my friends saying they will vote for me. Democrats and Republicans. They say that because they can see my willingness to try to find a way for all of us to survive on the same piece of dirt that we call America. We all need to live together and we’re all looking for the same thing, we’re just looking in different directions to get it.

6. What is your top priority for CD10 in the next session of Congress? 

I spent a lot of time thinking about what keeps throwing our economy into loops, up and down, up and down, up and down. This needs to stop. My Philosophy is if you’re going to aim, aim big. Our banking system needs to be completely remodeled. The charging of interest will bankrupt any country or economy that allows it to happen and when you start running the numbers every country I’ve been able to look at is financial upside down and it’s all because we owe much more than we have borrowed. 

I wrote a book in 2016 sarcastically called If Eric ran the world, money, and banking. This is something that truly needs to be done. If we could truly create an American money system then we could use it to help our own citizens. We could save each citizen in America many hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars each month from their house payments and this will also cause the price of a rental to go down. If anything gets attack ads running against me this will probably do it. And the GOP will likely jump on board because they work for big business.

For the first home that I purchased, I used a title company and for $8.50 they divided up all the money and sent it to the people that needed it, they did all the math and made sure everybody was doing the right thing. If the people use the people’s money to create Home Loans then there’s no reason to charge interest. If we let the title companies go back to what they used to be doing we don’t need a bank. This thought will likely get Mr. Banker right out of his chair. This is just a little bit of the idea it would go on for pages if I wanted to talk about the whole thing. And even though I don’t consider myself a bible thumper this is a Biblical concept.

We will need to find a way to work with the banking system and see if we can get them to give back the Home Loans portion of this system so the people can help the people to buy a reasonable and affordable house.

7. Do you support a “clean” path to citizenship for the eleven million undocumented immigrants?

I assume you’re talking about the dreamers. Whoever thought these kids would be turned into a political football. 

Yes, I support a clean path for the dreamers to be able to become American citizens because they already are, they just need the paperwork.

These kids were brought over here by their parents at a time when people were regularly crossing the border to work the fields. Their parents decided to stay because they could find places to settle where the system would leave them alone. And now there are people out there trying to get us upset at these families and their kids for doing what at the time was considered to be normal. 

These kids are trapped between two countries, the one of their birth and the only one they have ever known. These kids had no ability to decide, these decisions were made for them, completely out of their control. They do not know the places that they’ve come from, the only thing they know is this country. And now for some reason, they are hated by some people from the country they love. What a miserable place to be, dammit Congress, dot the I’s cross the t’s and let them in so they can live in the only country they’ve ever known as home.

8. Do you support a U.S. federal renewable energy standard to achieve 100% renewable electricity on our way to reaching net-zero global emissions by 2050? 

This is the only planet we’ve got, why would we want to hurt it. People are being told this is a natural cycle and yes it’s true sometimes the Earth naturally will become unlivable but there are also many many things the human beings are doing which could be and are having an effect. 

We have the technology to keep this planet whether this change is natural or man-made, all we have to do is agree to use it. But if no one cares about the future that is beyond their own life, how are we going to get people energized for a future they don’t know, understand or believe in.

If yes, what strategies would you use to achieve this goal?

There are so many options, everything from seaweed being put into cow food that will eliminate that type of methane to complete and total electric vehicles. Solar and wind are becoming much more effective. And if petroleum becomes more and more expensive, wind and solar will become more and more popular. 

The most important thing for me to remember is that I’m not an expert. I need to find people who are the experts, figure out what they’re trying to do, and do what I can to help move us and them all in the same direction. 

If we don’t save this rock everything that we know and love won’t have a place to live on. We will end up killing all of our past and all of our future with no one left to talk about who we were and where we came from.

9. Do you believe that the US should move swiftly toward a system that reaches universal health care coverage?

Yes. There are so many good examples of universal healthcare around the world. All we have to do is find one with an economy similar to ours and start applying what they’re doing. Proof-of-concept of what already exists. Wouldn’t be tough once again we just have to agree. As long as there is a portion of the government that is working for the interest of big business that will be hard to do because big business doesn’t like change. 

Once again we need to find experts and figure out how to promote them and their ideas. For the People by the people of the people. We the people need to govern and guide ourselves. The government needs to create a path that gives us the ability to fix our own problems. We also need to stop believing that just because we see it on some screen in front of us doesn’t mean that person has been judged to be accurate, fair, and honest.

I would like to explore a business-based idea of how to create a highly functional reasonably priced Healthcare System. I’m a great believer in trying to build things so that they almost work themselves. We’ve had so many people with their hands in our Healthcare System that it has so many weird little rules that no longer apply that nobody can figure out how to follow them. 

The Healthcare System is giving us exactly what we’re paying for. Think about it for a second. The only time they get money out of us is when we need their help when we’re sick when we need medication and doctors. It is when we have what we don’t want and at that point, we are not working so no money is coming in. 

I would like to explore the idea of building a system that we pay for when we have what we want, which is our health. And we don’t pay them when we have what we don’t want, which is being sick, unhealthy, or injured.

10.  Do you support efforts to lower prescription drug prices by allowing the federal government to negotiate the prices we pay, including for Medicare beneficiaries?

As long as we have for-profit medical systems and for-profit health insurance I’m not sure how easy it would be to do that. 

I understand that these are some big scary steps and I realize how easy it would be to knock this idea off its rail, even before it gets started but we need to figure this out, we all want a healthy life and it’s kind of something we all owe to each other. I help you when you’re sick, you help me when I’m sick. Once again we need to find experts and their ideas and promote them. The American citizens are incredibly smart and if we can keep them involved in the process I think we can keep this working and move in the right direction for all of us. We can’t just leave it up to our legislators, we sometimes have to do it ourselves for ourselves.

Go to my website and look for the Post called, the poop cure at ericmahaffy.com

11.  Do you support raising the federal minimum wage to at least $15 an hour,   indexed to inflation, and eliminating all subminimum wages such as for tipped workers and workers with disabilities?

Yes. If we raise the minimum wage to a set dollar amount then eventually that will be too little. We have to come up with a basic system that will make sure that the basic or minimum wage will fulfill the basic and minimum needs of the people working those kinds of jobs in that region, District, or area of the country. 

What does it take to live in your community and what does that translate into a basic minimum wage? This would allow that number to adjust as things around you change.

12.  Do you support raising taxes on large corporations, financial institutions, and people making over $400,000, including through a financial transaction tax on securities trades? 

I think the basic idea is good but once again I don’t believe it goes far enough. All of these experimental Republican tax cuts that are supposed to create jobs and wealth for the average person have failed. Wouldn’t it be better to start proposing that we repeal some of these failed tax cuts for the extremely wealthy? I think people would be less scared of getting rid of failed tax cuts than they would be of creating a new taxing system or rules.

13.  What are your ideas on how to curb the high inflation we are currently experiencing?

Unfortunately, I believe this is one that is just going to have to work itself out. There are things we can do that will help it but the harm has already been done. Be careful who you vote for, it does have consequences.

The two biggest problems that Trump has created are being blamed on Biden.

1, If you want to cause runaway inflation you pump the economy full of money, the biggest way of doing this is by artificially keeping interest rates low, which is something Trump was proud of doing. This is wonderful while it’s happening but then you’ve got to pay it back. Now Trump is out of the office and we have to start paying these loans back, so money is being taken out of the economy and that’s part of what crushes the economy.

Six years ago we had under 4 trillion dollars of cash in America. Last time I looked on USdebtclock.org we’re closer to 22 trillion. Their history button will show a different number now but I was writing a book at the time and that’s the numbers that were there then.

This means if everything was equal everybody would have five times more money but these low-interest loans mostly benefit the rich.

All of this new money in the system is causing runaway inflation and runaway inflation is making it harder for the people at the bottom of the system to be able to pay for their stuff. 

The idea of a loan is to pay back more than you borrowed which landed the economy in a worse place than when this whole thing started. 100% caused by Trump. Trump got to throw the party and Biden gets to clean up the mess. 

This is a standard method of operation for the Republican Party. Republicans throw a party so everyone’s having a good time and let the Democrats clean up the mess and nobody likes cleaning up the mess so the Democrats look like the bad guy.

2, Also Trump gave the rich an extreme tax break and what’s happening right now is those rich people, who know how to use the money to make money, are buying rental properties and they’re willing to pay way too much which is causing the cost of housing to go through the roof. Also, 100% of the blame for this incredible rise in the cost of housing is on Trump and yet because it’s happening when Biden is in office and he’s getting the heat for it.

It takes two to six years for the economy to react when a change is made to it, this long lag time between action and effect is something that the GOP uses to their political advantage. The Republicans get to throw the parties and pass out the presents and the Democrats get to clean up after them. 

Trump came into a growing economy that was set up and built by Obama but Trump took all the credit for it.

14.  What do you believe is needed to address gun violence? Do you support banning military-style assault weapons? 

I believe this is much more of a mental health problem than it is a gun problem. 

People who understand guns tell me that the same bullet can be put in a different barrel and still create the same amount of damage. Doesn’t matter whether it’s an assault rifle or a hunting rifle. Banning an assault rifle for looking different is kind of like Banning somebody because they have the wrong color skin.

The GOP uses this issue to help to continue to divide America. I think we should be the ones that make the offer to drop this issue of banning guns. It’s the wrong direction for the results we are trying to get and it’s doing harm to the Democratic party.

There are guns and gun owners everywhere around this country, there are entire Industries everywhere creating guns, parts, ammunition, clubs from skeet shooting, target practice, and yes even pretending to play army man, don’t forget hunting. And I will tell you that almost every last single one of these people does not have an urge to go out and randomly kill people. 

There have been a handful of reports from other countries that thought about invading America and decided not to because we have way too many guns in the hands of way too many citizens. So all of these guns have actually stopped us from being invaded.

America was born around the idea of having the ability to be able to defend yourself even from your own government if necessary. 

This is a mental health problem, the people who want to kill will find some way to do it. Remember the Boston Marathon that was things from the kitchen and the garage to make a bomb. We need to invest heavily in Healthcare including mental health.

I believe that one of the things that would help is there are groups, podcasts, and other information systems that are amping and ramping these people up to the point of making them want to go out and do these horrible things. I believe those people should be held responsible for the actions of their followers. America does not have the freedom of speech to incite people to do harm to others.

15.  Do you believe women have a right to control their personal healthcare needs including contraception and abortion?

Yes! I hate this issue. I believe it is being misused to guide us toward a path that will eventually take away everybody’s freedom. This issue is being misused to put some big Nails in the coffin of democracy. 

The process of enforcing an abortion ban would set up the biggest Big Brother spy system than you could ever imagine. And it would likely all be funded by your tax dollars.

About abortion, I wish that nobody felt they had to make that decision, I would rather see good education and proper knowledge of birth control and teach that making that decision both for the man and the woman is something they will never forget. 

Abortion should not be regulated by the government. The people who believe that is okay believe they have solid reasons for what they think, the people who think that it is horrible and believe it is killing babies, feel like they are saving lives. 

The government should never stand in the middle of their country and its people and be asked to pick one side or the other.

Roe v Wade is a reasonable guideline and I believe it should stand. Be careful there’s a lot of misinformation about what Roe v Wade stands for.

16.  What should the United States government do to stop the war in Ukraine? What can the government do to prevent a nuclear-equipped country from invading a non-nuclear country?

If America itself wanted to try to stop the war in Ukraine? Is that the first half of this question? Then our citizens would have to be okay with our kids dying to do it. 

I think Biden and the other countries around the world are handling this very very well. 

What can the American government do to stop nations with uneven military forces from fighting? Is that the second half of this question?

I think once again this comes down to a mental health issue not only of the person asking this question who seems to have unrealistic expectations of what a government can do but also for all the governments out there and maybe if we all had a clear head and a reasonable understanding of each other we would stop trying to fight.

We have tried a couple of times to be the world’s police force and it normally doesn’t work out very well for us. As long as there are people out there currently in charge of countries with military forces that have nuclear weapons this is going to be a problem. A diplomat facing down a crazy person with a gun doesn’t always end well for the Diplomat.

This might be the only chance you’re going to have to get to know me. 

Talk to me on Facebook at V4ME2022 

or ericmahaffy.com on the net.

Thank you for all the questions. 

Eric Mahaffy