Champ Edmunds Says Hello

U.S. Senate candidate Champ Edmunds recently visited The Courier office and dropped off this column.

I am Champ Edmunds and I am the conservative choice for the U.S. Senate.

There is a battle going on for our country’s future and it’s not between Republicans and Democrats, it is between those who love liberty and freedom and those who believe that we can’t take care of ourselves.

I want to talk about how we can win the battle and ultimately the war.

Over-regulation is one of the biggest problems for both businesses and individuals. Did you know that a new regulation is created every three hours? The regulatory authority of government agencies run by unelected bureaucrats must be reined in.

If you have a cell phone, an email account or interact on social media, you are under surveillance. We need to understand that our fourth amendment right to privacy is just as important as our second amendment right to keep and bear arms. The NSA must be put on a leash.

We have an IRS that has run amok. If they aren’t targeting conservatives, they are erroneously refunding tax money and child tax credits to illegals. We need a fairer and flatter tax code and an entirely new agency other than the corrupt IRS to handle this for the treasury.

The Department of Energy is useless and wasteful. Their Green Energy loans have cost us $3 billion in losses so far and at least $14 billion is at risk. This agency was created during the Carter administration to reduce our dependency on foreign oil. They have failed and should be eliminated.

The EPA must be stopped. It is enacting ever-restrictive rules that have the force of law costing an estimated $350 billion annually. They have taken it upon themselves to push forward their green agenda. They have successfully put the last lead smelting plant in the country out of business and are fully engaged in a war on coal. Right here in Montana we have a coal plant that will be shutting down soon because they can’t afford to implement the EPA’s new regulations. Additionally, the EPA wants to regulate our ability to burn wood and wood pellets for heat. Many Montanans depend on wood to heat their homes. We need to shut down the EPA and let the states handle environmental concerns within their own borders.

Bureaucrats at the Department of Education are taking it upon themselves to tell us how to educate our children. The latest assault is Common Core. We need to push back against Common Core. Decisions on what and how to teach our children should be made at the local level. We need to eliminate the Department of Education and let the states make their own educational decisions.

With the number of uninsured higher now than when it was implemented, I think we can all agree that Obamacare is a failure. By allowing Obamacare to remain, we are surrendering one of our greatest freedoms, the freedom to take care of our own health and we are ceding it over to the government. We need to get the government out of the healthcare business, and out of the insurance policy writing business. I support a full repeal of Obamacare.

Next is an almost insurmountable debt load. Our country owes over $17 trillion dollars and that number is growing every hour. We must stop the gluttonous spending, along with the rampant waste, fraud and abuse of nearly every department of government. We can get ourselves out of debt by implementing the penny plan.

Lastly, and not least important, we must return to constitutional governance with restoration of our individual liberty and freedom.

If we do the things that I have talked about, Americans will be free of fear of their own government, and be free to create, innovate, invest and grow the economy once again.

I have worked as a public accountant, at a bank, owned my own business as well as spent over 10 years navigating submarines. I’m asking for your support to send me to Washington to help navigate our country out of the mess that we are in.

When I took my oath when joining the Navy, it was an oath to protect our country against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Well, that oath didn’t have an expiration date!

God bless.