Jim DeMint is a force to be reckoned with. The South Carolina Senator has captured the attention of conservatives from across the nation. Some are even talking about him for president in 2012. What is his appeal? He is unafraid, straight talking and undeniably conservative.
A recent interview with him has appeared on the Bloomberg web site. Here is a taste. I encourage you to look further into this guy.
He has written a book, “Saving Freedom: We Can Stop America’s Slide Into Socialism.” A recent half-hour conversation in his Senate office reveals a low-key and ideologically charged political figure.
In the interview and the book, the South Carolinian preaches dismantling government. He takes issue with the generally accepted wisdom that it was government intervention that avoided a financial calamity last year.
he believes that the bailouts of New York-based American International Group Inc. and probably Citigroup Inc. were a mistake, and that former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s plan to purchase toxic assets was a fraud.
He doesn’t spare Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke. “If you look at his mission, which is to protect the value of the dollar and to protect employment, the grades aren’t good,” DeMint says. He plans to vote against extending the Fed chief’s term for another four years.
Fiscally, he wants to balance the budget and cut taxes, while acknowledging that defense spending will have to increase. “You’ve got the Air Force flying around in 50-year-old airplanes right now,” he says, “and we don’t have anything scheduled to replace the antiquated things.”
DeMint advocates a flat rate of 10 percent on the first $100,000 of income for a couple, and 25 percent on income above that. He would eliminate all taxes on interest income, capital gains, dividends and estates and end the alternative minimum tax.
For businesses, DeMint would kill the corporate income tax and substitute an across-the-board 8.5 percent consumption tax.
He would balance the federal budget in 10 years and then constitutionally require it to stay balanced.
This would call for draconian changes in the big entitlements.
DeMint would allow those currently 55 and older to receive Medicare benefits at 65. The program would be discontinued for younger Americans, who would get a $9,500 yearly stipend when they turn 65 to pay for private health insurance. The federal- state Medicaid
program, which covers health-care costs for poor people, is “financially unsustainable,” he says.The senator has little use for the big-tent approach for his party, believing that Republicans have diluted their brand by sacrificing principles for pragmatism. To the dismay of party leaders, he has come out against such front-running Republican Senate candidates as Florida Governor Charlie Crist and former Hewlett-Packard Co. Chief Executive Officer Carly Fiorina in California. Last week, to the consternation of his Senate colleague, Texas’s John Cornyn, who runs the Republican campaign committee, DeMint embraced a right-wing candidate for a Senate election in the Lone Star state.
He’s sympathetic to the proposal before the Republican National Committee that would establish a litmus test requiring Republican candidates to be on the “right” side of at least eight of 10 principles, including smaller government, lower taxes, “victory” in Afghanistan and Iraq, and opposition to abortion, gay marriage and gun control. Otherwise, candidates wouldn’t be eligible for financial support from the party.
Oh, and by the way, odds are he will play in the Kentucky Senate race this year, maybe even in the primary.
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