By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
On Thursday, Congressman Jo Bonner announced his retirement from the U.S. Congress, in order to accept a position with the University of Alabama System. News of this vacancy has led to numerous potential candidates contemplating running for the office. The first to announce was columnist Quin Hillyer.
American Spectator contributor Quin Hillyer announced on TV and online that he is running for the seat. Hillyer said in his American Spectator announcement, “At 2 p.m. central time Thursday afternoon in Mobile, word spread that U.S. Rep. Jo Bonner, a six-term Republican from a dark red district, would announce that he is resigning mid-term (Aug. 15) to take a big job with the University of Alabama system of colleges. He made the announcement at 4 p.m. On the local 5 p.m. news, I announced that I intend to form a committee and expect to run for his seat. I am a constitutional conservative—and an “opportunity society” conservative as well, hearkening back to the Reagan-Kemp era of prosperity and liberty. Free men and women, with free minds, in a free market, produce abundance and a vibrant society.”
Hillyer continued, “Readers of this site know I am a full spectrum conservative. Mostly libertarian on economics, firmly for a strong defense, and for traditional values. I abhor racism and was a founding board member of the Louisiana Coalition Against Racism and Nazism, which defeated David Duke in the 1990s. I have a long record of volunteer service through churches and with educational foundations. I am a movement conservative, with a Madisonian love of our constitutional system. And I love my adopted home of southern Alabama, which is developing into one of the greatest areas of growth in the country.”
Hillyer is an American Spectator contributor and is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Individual Freedom.
Hillyer has a massive amount of writings. For example before the election Hillyer wrote: “If Barack Obama gets four more years to spend us into oblivion, issue authoritarian executive orders, seed the bureaucracy with radical leftists who make administrative rulings inimical to the American tradition, use the Justice Department to abuse the law and bully his opponents, populate the federal courts with anti-constitutional power-trippers and trans-nationalists, undermine the military, and betray American alliances and interests, it is a serious question whether this nation as we know it can survive.”
Recently on eliminating the corporate income tax: “The deficit problem clearly is caused by over-spending. But one thing I would emphasize is that cutting corporate rates probably would not add anything to the deficit; indeed, the sort of parallel tax cut, that of cutting capital gains tax rates, has consistently resulted in greater total revenues from capital gains actually coming into federal coffers. The added economic activity really has “paid for itself,” and then some. But, as I said, I would go farther. As I’ve written here and elsewhere before, I would completely eliminate corporate income taxes. Gone. Kaput. Finis. Nada. And, obviously, if the rate is zero, there would be zero revenues from that particular tax, so of course the “more than paid for itself” argument would go out the window. But that doesn’t mean eliminating the tax would cost much or any revenue, total, to the feds. Indeed, it was a left-leaning, former Democratic Capitol Hill budget staffer who first suggested to me the idea of completely eliminating this tax, and he, as a number cruncher, explained that he thought it would be almost revenue neutral. Some of the ‘lost’ taxes would be recouped immediately via higher receipts from capital gains taxes and dividend taxes (because corporate profits obviously would be expected to rise), and some would be recouped through substantially higher economic growth, and some would be recouped due to a huge rush of companies repatriating their business operations. And so on, as I’ve explained elsewhere — including some savings on the spending side due to cutbacks in no-longer-needed IRS enforcement.”
Hillyer announced Thursday that he was setting his writing aside as he pursued Alabama’s First Congressional District. He wrote, “There will be much more to say in the coming weeks, and major endorsements to announce. But now I must set aside my cyber-pen for The American Spectator, which has hosted me for seven years. I am honored to have been a part of this publication, which has enlightened and entertained the world of American letters for nearly half a century—and my thanks go to Bob and Wlady and to the whole team that does such a good job here. I also thank the readers for making this not just a magazine, but a conversation. This is going to be a great adventure.”
