Q & A With Jack Hoogendyk (R-MI)

Interview

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to talk with US-Senate candidate Jacob "Jack" Hoogendyk who is running against 30-year incumbent Carl Levin. Below are my questions and Jack's answers. My comments and discussion on these various topics will follow in the days to come.

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Q: Why do you want to be a US Senator?

HOOGENDYK: I want to have an opportunity to serve the public. Our government is too big and doing too many things for people that they should be doing for themselves. My main goal is reduce the size of our government and its intrusion into our lives.

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Q: What do you think of the record profits posted by oil companies in the 2nd quarter while Americans are losing their homes and having trouble feeding their families because of exorbitant gas prices?

HOOGENDYK: I have no problem with the oil companies profit margins (they are lower than telecommunications companies/pharmaceutical companies). Oil companies have about a 9% profit margin. They pay dividends, they hire more employees, they give raises and bonuses, they spend billions in exploration. A tax on profits will lead them to off-shore their money and then pay no taxes (look at the Carter years). You can't regulate how much profit someone makes.

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Q: Do you support the FairTax?

HOOGENDYK: I co-sponsored the fair tax legislation here in Michigan and would co sponsor it at the federal level. We need to get it out there, at least to get the discussion going. I think the Fair Tax or something like it is inevitable.

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Q: The rights of parents to raise and educate their own children are being challenged from California to Michigan and beyond. Talk about your views on education in general - DOE, public schools, federal/state/local - and specifically about homeschooling. If elected to the US Senate, how will you fight for parents rights and the right to homeschool?

HOOGENDYK: The closer the decisions about education are to the schoolhouse door the better those decisions will be. The primary decision maker must be the parent. Teachers should teach on behalf of the parents. The farther away you get from the school house door, the lesser the quality of the decisions about education. The fed. govt should get out of education. The doe was developed by Carter. Education has suffered at the hands of the federal government. Return the money and the control to the parents, the local district and the state.

Parents are the primary educators of their children …. if parents want to utilize public education, they should have that right. If they chooose to educate them themselves, they should have that right without regulation …. empower and encourage parents to be responsible for the education of their child, no matter where that child goes to school. If they reach 18 and did not receive an adequate education, the responsibility falls on the parent first and foremost. (see Benjamin Carson)

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Q: What will you do as Senator to protect the lives of the unborn, the newly born, the infirmed, the old?

HOOGENDYK: I believe our Declaration of Independence affords protection of human life. Science has proven it begins at conception and ends with no brainwave/heart rate … no matter what age of life. All get the same protection. I would fight to repeal Roe v Wade. I do think the states need to step up and take a stand for life as well. We need an amendment to the constitution that clearly states the protection of human life.

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Q: Carl Levin has been in office for 30 years. Some argue that his experience is needed as Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee in this time of turmoil. Others argue that the State of Michigan needs his senate seniority to bring federal money into the state. How do you address those arguments?

HOOGENDYK: With regard to senate armed services, experience is always valuable, but what is more important is philosophy and core values in regards to any area - military being one of them. Levin has 53 staff members that maintain his knowledge base for him. The philosophy of the role of government in the military is what is most important.

I am not going to congress to bring home the bacon to the district. I would work for parity in spending across the states, but money for local constituents is not the reason I'm going to Washington.

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Q: Do you think US Senators/Reps should be on term limits, just as you are as a state rep in Michigan? Why/why not?

HOOGENDYK: Yes, I do. Incumbency has become almost a LOCK for most seats at all levels. The onset of stricter campaign finance laws makes it almost impossible to unseat an incumbent. It is at a point where only incumbents or millionaires can win elections.

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Q: Senator Levin has a considerable record of using earmarks within Senate legislation to bring the bacon back to Michigan. In the 2008 fiscal year alone he sponsored/co-sponsored earmarks for Michigan colleges/universities totaling more than $430 million. Some of the largest single benefactors of this money are located in the Detroit/Flint areas of the state. Research at institutes of higher learner is certainly necessary and vital in areas such as health care and manufacturing. However, when the money is doled out through earmarks, it bypasses the normal federal grant process that requires accounting and a competition to determine who qualifies for and receives federal money for research. Any thoughts on this?

HOOGENDYK: I am flatly opposed to earmarks of all kinds. This type of unregulated spending is not the way to run our government.

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Q: The economy is destroying lives across the country. What solutions do you propose (long term and short term) to get our economy back on track?

HOOGENDYK: Michigan is of course - because of the auto industry - having an especially difficult time right now. Mostly, the government should not interfere though andallow the economy to rise and fall on its own.

Three areas in which the government affects the economy are: taxes, regulations, and labor policy.

* Tax policy affects everybody …. 35% corporate level federally, is the second highest in the world. The Bush tax cuts expire in 2010/2011 and Sen. Levin wants them to expire. This would return the death tax, marriage tax, cap gains tax …. this will be about $2000-$2500 a year increase in taxes for families. This will mean fewer jobs. Obama supports this as well - this will be a trillion dollar tax increase over 10 years.
* Regulatory policy supported by Levin - CAFE standards - have been especially hard on the big three automakers, which then of course adversely affects Michigan due to our high percentage of jobs related to the auto industry.
* Labor policy: The Employee free choice act is anything but a free choice. The problem is union folks hanging around a shop and intimidating workers to bring in the union. This is very bad for the economy. The jobs are going to Right to Work states, not to Michigan.

(Note any links provided above were put their by me for information/background purposes only. The information at these sites should not be presumed to represent or refute any of Rep. Hoogendyk's positions.)

My thanks to Jack for granting me this interview.

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