By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
Just as the Sixth Congressional District race begins heating up, Republican Gary Palmer appealed to the Rainy Day Patriots for their votes.
Palmer grew up in Hackleburg skidding logs with a mule. He was the first person in his family to go to college. Gary Palmer worked as an engineer for eight years before co-founding the Alabama Policy Institute (API), which is widely regarded as the most influential conservative policy think tank in the state of Alabama. Palmer resigned his position as the President of API to run for Congress.
Palmer said, “I own a gun and I know how to use it and I own a tractor and I know how to use it.”
Palmer said that everybody running in this race will say that they are Christian and they conservative and they believe in smaller government. Palmer said however if is elected that he is the candidate that is best prepared to find solutions for the nation’s problems.
Palmer said, “We have got to replace Obamacare with something.” Palmer said that going back to the healthcare system we had before Obamacare would cause more problems.
Palmer said that the Republican Party has known what to do for a long time but have been reluctant to actually implement a plan because of divisions within the Republican leadership.
Under the Palmer plan everybody gets a tax credit. That money either goes to pay for health insurance or for a Health Savings Account. The money in the HSAs that people don’t use will roll over into their account next year.
Palmer said that the benefit laden Obamacare compliant policies are not workable. “I am 60 and It is a good bet that I don’t need prenatal care,” for example.
The federal government needs to set money aside to fund a high risk pool for people who aren’t insurable. Moving those people to a separate pool will help make health insurance for most Americans more affordable than it is now under Obamacare.
Palmer said that this plan will cost a fourth of what Obamacare costs.
Palmer said, “On the other side we have got to get our economy growing.
The good news is that we are on the verge of a decade of American dominance of the energy market. There are 3 trillion barrels of oil in the green river formation alone, this country has over 400 years of coal reserves.
The Chinese hold $1.3 trillion of our debt and Japan holds $1.2 trillion of our debt. We can pay down our national debt by paying them off with energy. “If we open up our energy reserves we make OPEC irrelevant.”
Palmer said that he supports the REINS Act which will require a vote of congress for any new regulation. Palmer said that this will fundamentally change the regulatory environment
“The Constitution is routinely violated by Democrats and Republicans alike.” Palmer said that it is unconstitutional for them to delegate their law making authority to federal regulatory agencies. “They need to live by the Constitution.”
Gary Palmer said that putting caps on damages is critical to controlling healthcare costs.
Palmer says that the gross domestic product (GDP) is $16 to $17 trillion a year and the government is borrowing roughly a trillion a year. Palmer said that the market has already adjusted to the deficit spending so that money is not helping grow the economy significantly.
Palmer says that he supports either a FAIR tax or a FLAT tax. Either would be an improvement over the current complicated tax code.
Palmer said that former Congressman Steve Largent is a very good friend of his and he tried to get a consumption tax or a value added tax to replace the income tax.
Gary Palmer wrote in August, “At this point, the best course of action for the Alabama State Board of Education is to join other states that have reevaluated tying themselves to the federal education bureaucracy, formally break all federal government ties to Common Core, and adopt their own standards.”
In Alabama’s Sixth Congressional District Republican Primary Gary Palmer joins state Senator Scott Beason from Gardendale, longtime Harbert executive Will Brooke, Tom Vigneulle, state Representative Paul DeMarco from Homewood, Indian Springs orthopedist Chad Mathis and Robert Shattuck.
The winner of the June 3rd Republican Primary will face Democrat Avery Vise in the November general election. We had previously reported that there was no Democrat in the extremely conservative Sixth District because the list we received did not have either him or first Congressional District candidate Burton Leflore, but that list from the Alabama Democratic Party has since been updated to include the two additional congressional candidates.
Longtime incumbent Spencer Bachus (R) from Vestavia is not seeking another term.
