Interview with Candidate Doug Keller

Doug Keller is a conservative running for Congress in Oregon’s 1st Congressional district and he was kind enough to allow me to ask him a few questions.  I was told about Mr. Keller’s campaign by someone on Facebook and found him to be a very interesting candidate.  For example, he makes himself available for the people in his district by having a regular “Coffee with Doug” event at a local coffee shop.  Mr. Keller is also a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis and served proudly in our armed forces.  For more information about him, please visit his website, Doug Keller – Join the Resistance.

1.  Why have you decided to run for Congress?

I am running because I am tired of status quo…taxation and misrepresentation.  I don’t like it that we have so many lawyers in Congress.  The height of my frustration came when my Representative voted yes on the biggest spending bill in the history of the country without even knowing what it was about or even reading it.  I said, “That is dereliction of your basic duty, you should be fired.”  I looked for someone to replace him and found no one so I said, “I’m not rich, I’m not a lawyer and I’m not a politician, but someone has to stand up for freedom and against this ever expanding government.”  So, I did.

2.  Who is your favorite character in American politics, past or present, and why?

Toss up, I love all the characters involved with the formation of the United States, but personally, it would have to be Ronald Reagan.  I liked his optimism and I saw the results of his tax cuts first hand.  We need that now.  He was right, “Government isn’t the solution, It’s the problem!”

3.  Health care reform is a big topic in the news today.  What do you think should be done to lower health care costs, and what types of reforms would you be willing to support?

More competition would be better.  I’d like to see reforms that increase competition among insurers like the Auto Insurance industry has.  I’d like to see tort reform because I think that will help with the costs of doctor’s malpractice insurance.  I like some of the ideas I see from people like Congressman Ryan and Senator Jim Demint in the “road ahead” plan.

4.  What do you think the Federal government’s role in education should be?

I’d like to see the government set some standards and then put the power in the peoples hands to choose what is best for their kids.  Specifically, I like school vouchers because they not only provide choice, but will put competition into education.  A natural by product of competition will be new private schools and higher teacher salaries and generally better educations for our kids.  And all this can happen with the government acting as more of a referee than a player in this industry.

5.  What do you think needs to be done to solve our illegal immigration problem and secure our borders?

We must enforce the laws that we have and secure our borders.  Amnesty is not an option for me as I believe it sends people who are breaking the law the wrong message.  That said, we have to go about fixing this problem in the most humane way possible since we haven’t been taking the laws seriously.  I have some ideas about how to do that but don’t have the space here.  I also think we can reform the process of how aliens immigrate legally, both permanently and with work visas.  As a Naturalized Citizen myself (Mr. Keller was born in New Zealand), I know the process is much longer and more complicated than it needs to be.  We can do better for people wanting to come to our country and contribute in a positive way.

6.  What do you think Congress should do to improve our economy and get more Americans back to work?

Focus on supporting business, especially small businesses, with tax cuts and help with regulations that tie their hands especially in relation to foreign competition.  Small business is the engine of our economy, in hard times we need to give the engine more fuel…not starve it.

7.  What do you see right or wrong with the Federal Reserve System?  Would you support auditing the Fed?

I support auditing the Federal Reserve.  I don’t like it that they have so much control over our economy and we really don’t have a say in their actions.  Some would argue that their independence from politics is a good thing though, so I am open to debate on this one.

8. Would you support an amendment to the Constitution similar to this, “Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators and/or Representatives, and Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators and/or Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United States”?

Yes, and also, I would like to see term limits of some kind enacted as well.

9.  Here is a tough one.  Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, and the Prescription Drug Program have a combined unfunded liability of over 100 trillion dollars.  What should Congress do to keep these entitlements from bankrupting our country?

I’m with Jim Demint on this one.  Check out his plan in his book, Saving Freedom: We Can Stop America’s Slide into Socialism.  I think we can not only live up to the promises we made people but we can also improve the system with the addition of some competition and elimination of waste.  We don’t have to go bankrupt to do it, but we will if we do nothing, you are right about that.

10.  Why should voters in Oregon’s 1st district vote for you?

If you want someone different to represent you who has a clear platform and vision for the future, check me out at Keller4Congress.com and “Join the Resistance” to higher taxes and bigger government.  Join me, and set America free!

Thank you Mr. Keller for your time.

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Mr. Keller is not accepting donations from any special interest groups and his campaign is fully funded by individuals.  If you would like to help Mr. Keller in his fight against higher taxes and bigger government, please consider making a donation to his campaign.

If you would like to see a Congressional candidate interviewed on Forgotten Liberty, please email their name and website to liberty@forgottenliberty.com

For my local readers in Virginia’s 5th district, Ron Ferrin, Laurence Verga, and Mike McPadden have agreed to interviews.  I have emailed them some questions and will post their answers when I receive them.

Related posts:

1. Interview with Laurence Verga, Virginia 5th District Candidate