VALLEY
PATRIOT EXCLUSIVE
An Interview with
Presidential Candidate
Thaddeus McCotter
Printable
Version
BY:CHRISTINE MORABITO & TOM
DUGGAN, AUG- 2011
Valley
Patriot President Tom Duggan and Tea
Party Columnist (and activist) Christine
Morabito sat down with Congressman
Taddeus McCotter (R) Michigan, in
Concord, NH last month for a one on one
interview about his campaign for
president.
Tom: What is it like
running for president?
McCotter: Its
great. But its a little frustrating
because the main stream media and the
pundits like to tell you who your choices
ought to be. But, as you know
theres social media now so we can
transcend the boundaries of the district
and get our message out without them. We
had obtained about 1% in the polls and
there was a period of time where we were
told that this was all we needed to be
able to participate in the Fox debate. So
my key was to get the threshold
percentage of 1% to get in the debates.
We met the 1% threshold by Fox in Iowa to
get into the debate but they
wouldnt let me in the debate
because they said we needed to be at 1%
nationally.
Tom: Well, they let Ron
Paul in the debate. If he was in the
debate you should have been in the
debate.
McCotter: I just would
have been happy if they told us what they
will and will not accept. We got the 1%
we needed in Iowa and then they tell us,
no, its national polling criteria
where they poll people. Well, if a
candidate has low name recognition
nationwide, how are they going to get
name recognition if they cant take
part in the debates? Pundits and the main
stream news media like to tell the voters
These are your credible
choices. Then the bundlers come in
and they gang up with the money people
and say heres who can win,
heres who cant win. I mean, I
wouldnt want to see Ron Paul be
excluded from the debates. Let everyone
participate. The public clearly says they
want to hear new voices so all I can do
is grass roots campaigning. New Hampshire
is ideal for that, Iowa is ideal for that
and they are very attuned to the
election, and they listen.
Tom: Why you instead of
other candidates? If someone is
considering Perry or Ronmey why should
they choose you over them.
McCotter: Well, Im
talking about restructuring the
government in line with the consumer
based economy we have now. They [other
candidates] arent talking about
taking the welfare state and
restructuring it for the 21st
century. They arent talking about
the failed Wall Street bailouts and how
to actually fix the banks, because the
credit contraction we are going through
is the key problem. The economy is in
deflation, which means their balance
sheets are messed up. Youve got
huge debt overhang, they are taking their
leisurely time recapitalizing, at your
expense, due to quantitative easing and
the credit doesnt get down. You
have to force them to restructure,
recapitalize, break up the insolvent
banks, wall off their assets and put in
leverage limits so they cant
collapse on you again. If you dont
do those things, eventually we will look
like Japan in the 90s. Weve
already started with stagnation. People
like Bernanke (the Fed Chairman) say
I cant figure out what
the problem is.
The problem is the strategy to fix the
banks failed. They are having the same
trouble in Europe. And now the sovereign
debt increases when they try to pay off
the bond holders and the shareholders
with your money, they are doing the same
thing in the EU and now it leads to
higher debt there. But Bernakes not
helping, the toxic assets are still on
the books.
Tom: So whats the
solution?
McCotter: You have to
force debt equity swaps. The bondholders
should be forced to trade debt for equity
into the company to recapitalize then the
ones that arent solvent, wall off
their assets, what I would do is a zero
cap gain for anyone who wants to buy
those toxic assets over the life of the
asset because its a risky purchase.
Then you are injecting more capital into
the system. And you have to set the
limits so they can never come in and get
too debt heavy and collapse on top of
everybody. Right now they have no
incentive to loan. The other candidates
arent talking about this. A lot of
them supported the Wall Street bailouts,
they dont know how to fix it. So,
they are all running around saying the
same things we heard from 1988 on, but
they dont recognize that the
problem is different.
Thats the economic part of it. The
other thing they arent talking
about is communist China. We have to deal
with them as a whole, the security
problem, the economic problem, unfair
trade practices, etc. These are the
things nobody is talking about.
I mean, immigration isnt really
being talked about, either. We need a
comprehensive approach. Its not
just border security; we have to relieve
the pressure on the borders. The way to
do that is to dis-incentivize. The very
logical decision for many of them
[illegals] is to come to the United
States. If you think about it, most of
them are being enticed and exploited
here. When the government doesnt
enforce border security, business offers
jobs and doesnt care if youre
legal or youre not. When sanctuary
cities allow taxpayers money to be
utilized for these individuals, when you
talk about amnesty down the road
I
never blame the illegal immigrants, when
you have government, labor and a business
enticing them to come here its a
very rational calculation for them to
come. So dis-incentivizing them from
coming has to be the top priority. When
you are living under an oppressive
government that wants to kill you and
your family, like what happened to my
father in law, those should be the first
people we let into the country. Then
assimilation is the key and English
should be the official language. That
helps the immigrant to the country.
Tom: How about building
a wall?
McCotter: You have to
punish the employers who hire them. If
you do the things I talked about and dis-incentivize
and
you also diplomatically engage these
countries so they have certain developing
free market democratic institutions, we
need to put pressure on them to make
their countries better. You can never
build enough walls, you cant build
enough anything if they still have an
incentive to come here. Because of the
human calculation nothing is going to
change their way of life where they are
and people are going to want to continue
to come here illegally. We also have to
get serious with other countries that are
encouraging their people to sneak over
the border.
Tom: So you dont
support a wall?
McCotter: Well I
supported the wall, I supported the
fence, yeah. We need something to slow it
down but the wall isnt the complete
answer. Building a wall is part of an
overall package.
The national guard clearly has to be
deployed by the states, I dont want
the federal government doing that, we
have a clear problem with the drug
cartels. The other problem [is that] the
federal government is punishing states
like Arizona who want to enforce the
federal laws, and at the same time they
are rewarding sanctuary cities who are
violating federal law. Thats crazy!
Christine: We are
dealing a lot with Secure
Communities in our area. Our
governor refuses to sign on to it.
(Secure communities is a program where
local police can share their arrest
information with the federal government
and immigration). Some of the public
hearings we went to were such an eye
opener. We actually had a city
administrator from Chelsea Massachusetts
get up and say that she was proud to make
that city a sanctuary city.
McCotter: Thats
crazy! Its crazy because I
dont think they understand what the
underlying philosophy is. The ability of
a municipality or a state to nullify a
federal law is called nullification. It
was the brainchild of John C. Calhoun.
Its the theory that lead us to the
civil war, and whether or not federal law
was supreme, or a state can nullify. The
philosophy behind Sanctuary Cities is
that they think they can take federal law
and nullify it and do whatever they want.
Well, thats anarchy. Its the
height of arrogance of the leftists.
Its ridiculous. And again,
its the combination of big
government and big labor who want to get
their hands on these [illegal]
immigrants, to depress wages, get more
low skilled employees, and its not
fair to those people who came here
legally! The wages should rise with the
free market, but if you can depress it by
breaking the law and bringing in people
illegally and employing them, and having
the taxpayers pick up the tab for all
their services, thats just crazy.
Christine: Another thing
that that candidates arent talking
about is China.
McCotter: Communist
China!
Christine: You have
talked about how China is manipulating
the currency and stealing our
innovations. [Radio host] John Bachelor
was talking about how large sums of money
have disappeared from the Chinese
treasury, nobody knows where its
going, and I also heard recently that the
Chinese are buying up huge portions of
real estate in New York and other cities.
What do you think is their ultimate goal
and why should Americans be concerned
about them?
McCotter: Theyre
clear about what they want. They want the
21st century to be the century
of communist China. They want to be the
hegemon, which means superpower
behemoth. And when they talk about the
hegemon, nothing good for America can
come from that. They believe that the 21st
century will be theirs, they have our
manufacturing, they have our capacities,
they continue to drive us to a
consumptive economy where we have to
borrow money to pay for the welfare state
to make up for all the lost, stagnant
wages and everything else. So, weve
got this vicious cycle. Then what they
are doing with a lot of the reserves that
they hold of our dollars is that they
come her and buy up our real estate,
which helped fuel the housing bubble.
They have to park that money somewhere,
because its not a free market over
there. The government decides where that
money is going to go. So to me, its
clear. This isnt my supposition.
Its what they say themselves.
Im not speaking out of school,
here. So when you see how they are
operating, when you see the tactics they
use, its a very stealth, very
indirect means, but the goal remains the
same.
The trouble is that a lot of Americans
are awake to what their leadership is
doing. Theres a whole lot of money
to be made on that regime by sending our
jobs over there. I would argue that one
of the reasons we have problems with tax
reform, regulatory reform or energy
policies in the United States is that
there are so many of these business
people who shift their jobs overseas and
they dont worry about the economic
climate in the United States. Thats
the reason you dont see a lot of
businesses trying to produce taxation
regulations and tort reform as much as
you see the left trying to impose it.
Because the left cant go overseas.
But business can just pick up and ship
everything over there. Its very
frustrating. Whats the first thing
the communist Chinese government told us
we had to cut because of out debt? It was
our military, while they put out their
new aircraft carrier at the same time. We
cannot lose the strategic technological
superiority we have.
Christine: What happened
to the patent reform bill, where does
that stand?
McCotter: Thats
over in the senate. I voted against it.
Tom: Why?
McCotter: To me it was a
bill that was against the little guy. It
allowed the big corporations to gain
advantage over the little entrepreneurs.
They passed it anyways. I hope Im
wrong on that.
Tom: When Ron Paul was
asked: If Iran dropped a nuclear bomb on
Israel would he defend Israel? He said:
No! Why should I? Your
thoughts?
McCotter: The problem
with Ron is that if you seek to be liked
rather than respected you will be
neither. What Ron misses is that our very
existence as a free people makes us a
target. You have to realize that the
tyrants and the terrorists who are
oppressing their own people know that the
more successful we are here with liberty
and self-government, they will have to do
something about it there. Because,
otherwise their own people will start
demanding it. You saw the Soviet Union go
into the trash can of history not too
long ago. Now, you are seeing the Jasmine
revolution in China, the Green revolution
in Iran. So, in the age of globalization
where you can talk to anyone in the world
with a blackberry or a laptop,
theres no fortress America anymore.
The people who will kill your allies will
eventually kill you! Weve already
seen this. What Iran will do with a
nuclear weapon is continue to export
terror by using that nuclear deterrent
against anyone trying to stop them. That
would make for a hellacious world. This
will not only impair American security
but cost American lives. It will also
impair our prosperity because without
security there is no free market, our
ability to trade with other partners. We
will be under a greater threat from these
regimes. You cant just say you
dont care what happens in other
countries. The world is getting smaller
whether we like it or not. So, to me, you
have to defend your allies or you will
have no allies. As the United States, we
cannot abandon our allies over there or
your next.
Tom:
So how would you defend Israel?
McCotter: Number one is
we have to make clear that the Unite
States strategic partnership with
Israel is solid and strong, and they know
that if they are threatened we will have
their back. Lets face it, they are
the only real democracy in the Middle
East. We have to support with economic
and peaceful means, the revolutions in
Iran and Syria where they want to get rid
of the Assad regime, and the Tehran
regime just like Reagan did with the
Soviet Union. The way to avoid war and
debilitate terrorism is to have free
people collapse these rogue regimes that
support terror, and govern their own
lives with free markets and democracy.
Which is an opportunity we blew in Egypt
with this administration not being
concerned about the Muslim Brotherhood
and Imams coming in and the
precipitous removal Mubarak.
Lincoln said that by expanding liberties
for others we ensure our own democracy.
Im not talking about military
action in Iran or Syria, we didnt
use that against the Soviet Union.
Tom: If it came to it,
would you be willing to use the military
to go into Iran as we did in Iraq to
depose the Muslim Mullahs?
McCotter: : I dont
like to play hypotheticals because it
assumes your policies have failed.
Tom: But, if you win you
will be taking over for a president whose
policies are failing.
McCotter: Yes, they are
failing. But I am talking about the
policy I laid out of supporting those
freedom movements like in Iran and China
and Syria and reversing the direction
they are going in because their influence
is expanding. If you dont do that
you end up in a very lonely and much more
dangerous world. You cant just turn
a blind eye to what is happening in the
rest of the world. It wont work
now, any more than it did in the
1930s. When people were saying
just let Europe go under, it
cant be saved and why should we
care? Think about all the trade and
liberty and advancement of freedom
because eventually the United States
didnt do that. We had people who
understood what we had to do. But there
was so much more we could have done
earlier, like kick Hitler out of the
Rhineland when he was vulnerable. If we
had called his bluff, think of all the
lives that would have been saved.
Now, in the age of globalization you
cant just sit back and say
this wont affect us, of
course it will. Remember the first
country the Nazis invaded was their
own.
September 2001 was a wakeup call, it was
this generations Pearl Harbor. We were
hit at home by people who wanted to kill
themselves, willing to kill their
children and use any means to kill you
and your family. They did it here.
Its not as if they are going to go
away if we just bring all our troops home
and abandon our allies. You cant
walk away from something thats
going to follow you home. I mean, I like
Ron Paul we just have a difference of
opinion. Hes a very nice man. The
thing I like about Ron is that he is
genuine. He sincerely believes what he is
saying. He gets raked over the coals all
the time, but he is sincere.
Tom: Is there room for
Ron Paul in a McCotter administration?
McCotter: Yeah, I think
Federal Reserve oversight would be a
great place for Ron. A lot of the things
he has said about the Federal Reserve and
how its unaccountable is right on
target. And Id put him in a
position to do something about it.
Christine:
Youve been friendly with the Tea
Party. How do you feel about our Senator
John Kerry saying the media should censor
the Tea Party, as well as others on the
left saying we were acting like
terrorists?
McCotter: Well, I am a
Generation X guy, Im not a baby
boomer. (Laughing) The irony is that
Senator Kerry, who was very active in the
Vietnam protests, now that we have
another popular movement at the grass
roots level today, protesting and calling
for accountability in their government,
he thinks they should be muzzled.
Its absolutely absurd. He has no
sense of the irony of this. I mean his
entire generation prides themselves on
the left that they took to the streets
during the Vietnam War, they were
peaceful, they did all kinds of protests
and demonstrations and sit ins, so
how is it wrong when its the Tea
Party now? You know, despite what the
media portrays the Tea Party to be, they
are just looking for more responsible
government. So, for him to not see the
parallels it shows you that the left is
just upset because their narrative is;
only they go out and engage in peaceful
and popular protests. And now that people
on the right are doing that they
dont know how to respond, so all
they can do is spread hate. Which is sad
because I thought his generation was all
about love
The problem the Tea Party has to face,
and I said this during the debt ceiling
debate, is that the Tea Party was getting
set up! There was a real effort to use
this debate to split the Tea Party by
having some in the party pushing to keep
the debate going and default. And what
would have happened is that the liberals
would have blamed the tea party for our
default and you would have a fractioned
movement. Thats the quickest way to
kill any movement. So, the Tea Party,
being a real organic, community based
operation at the grassroots level,
its not one monolithic club, but
you want to make sure that because of
that you dont end up with
splintered off groups that weakens the
message and the goals of a more
responsive and responsible government.
You see, the passion of the people who
are in the Tea Party is what gives it
strength but it also makes it very
vulnerable to people who want to tar and
feather it and run it out of town like
Senator Kerry. The Tea Party has to move
forward together because otherwise we get
dragged down and the movement ceases.
Tom: In the debt ceiling
discussion that took place recently,
there was not one word discussed about
all the money we are spending on illegal
aliens and to me it seems like you
cant even have that debate without
discussing how much money we are spending
on citizens of other countries who
arent supposed to be here. Sam
Meas, a guy who ran for congress last
year, said that he thinks we should bill
the countries these people are coming
from. And if they dont want to pay
the bill, take it out of the billions in
aid that we send to those countries. What
do you think about that?
McCotter: Well the first
thing that needs to be done, except for
emergency medical services, is to stop
using taxpayers money to pay for
their services. I would also sick the
Justice Department on sanctuary cities.
That would be administrative and within
the power of the president without
needing congress approval. Then I
would restrict the funding at the federal
level to make sure its not going to
illegals. I would argue that if there are
American businesses enticing them to come
here I would not punish the home country
but those countries who are abetting them
in coming here, then yes, we should
punish those countries. But the key to
illegal immigration is stopping them from
coming in the first place.
Christine: Im
reading your book (Seize
Freedom!: American Truths and Renewal in
a Chaotic Age (Culture of Enterprise) and its
fascinating. I absolutely love it. You
have such a way with words. To what do
you attribute your mastery of the English
Language?
McCotter: Well I think
its a low bar these days. My
parents were teachers and I was ugly
growing up, I still am so I spent a lot
of time reading
Christine: Did you take
a lot of writing courses? This is so well
written.
McCotter: No, when I
took English in Detroit as an undergrad,
English 150, I had an old professor named
Cyrus Gross, who taught us how to write
an entire paper with only one period,
just colons and semi-colons and all that.
Tom: In laymans
terms, for the average voter, how is a
President McCotter going to change the
daily lives of Americans, how are you
going to improve their lives?
McCotter: Because I
trust you to self-govern, to utilize your
liberties to pursue your own happiness.
You are the ones who are going to fix it.
Unlike President Obama, I dont
think government is the solution I think
you are. He trusts government, I trust
you.
To find out more about Congressman
Thaddeus McCotter you can visit his
website: mccotter2012.com
Christine Morabito is a
resident of Haverhill a member of the
Merrimack Valley Tea Party and a
columnist for The Valley Patriot.
You can email her at christine.morabito@hotmail.com
Tom Duggan is
president of Valley Patriot, Inc., a
former Lawrence School Committeeman,
former political director for Mass
Citizens for Marriage, a Police Survivor
and hosted the Paying Attention! Radio
Program from 2001-2011. You can email
your comments to valleypatriot@aol.com .
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