February, 2012 -- I met with Matt Dunlap, who is running in the Democrat primary for the Senate seat now occupied by Olympia Snowe. We talked about trade agreements, treaties, education, and the Real ID Act as well as his time as an outcast in his own party after his TABOR actions.
He talked about his feelings about the 10th Amendment and privacy and the role of the federal government versus the role of the state government.
And he answered a "lightning round" of questions about how he would vote on NAFTA, NDAA, the Patriot Act.
On the local economy:
"…we've lost about 85% of our farms over the last 100 years. In Old Town, where we're sitting right now, in 1965, we had 10,000 people on payroll, and 90% of that's gone.”
On trade agreements:
"…Look at the trade agreements that we ratify in the US Senate that hurt us so much. The one we just did with South Korea…We just put $5 billion to support General Motors. It was fairly successful. They're back in business, and…they're once again the number one auto maker in the world. But we just signed a trade agreement with South Korea, where they make Hyundais which are already pretty inexpensive, and now we're going to undercut General Motors and Ford and everybody else even more, and it just doesn't compute in my mind."
On the federal government versus state and local government:
"I think we should be asking about the structure, the separation of government -- you know -- why is the federal government so involved in local education when so much of it happens at the local level?"
On the Real ID Act:
"Take the Real ID issue. The question I used to ask is, how many drivers licenses a day are manufactured and issued by the federal government issue? ZERO. And yet they come up with these sweeping mandates for change to 'secure our drivers licenses" which really just create more databases with our personal information in them controlled by the government."
Listen to the interview here:
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Matt Dunlap's official campaign website, "Matt Dunlap U.S. Senate," is at DunlapForSenate.com