Armstrong County businessman Tom Smith wants Pennsylvania to send two conservative Republicans to Washington.
A former Democrat - driven out of the party in 2010, he said, for supporting GOP candidates - he is the Republican challenger to the re-election of U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa. The men face off in the Nov. 6 General Election.
In an interview Friday with The Republican-Herald editorial board, he said he had misgivings last year about his party's efforts to unseat the popular moderate from Scranton who supported The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
"With all due respect to the Republican party, I did not see where they had a Pat Toomey-type all warmed up in their bullpen ready to take on Bob Casey," he said.
Smith, who grew up on a family farm, had just sold his mining company which he had started in 1989, which employed about 100 people when he decided to run.
After winning 47 percent of the vote in a primary with 11 candidates, he is campaigning on a pro-business platform hoping to secure future prosperity for his eight grandchildren.
"I see this country, with its economic conditions deteriorating ... I'm blessed. I lived that dream and I see their opportunity diminished."
Taxes, regs stifle business
Smith believes high taxes and excessive regulations hurt business and he supports extending the Bush-era tax cuts on all income brackets, including the most wealthy.
"Those are the very people we need to grow this economy," he said.
However, in the long run, Smith thinks the entire federal tax code - he said it is "ten times the length of the Bible with none of the good news in it" - should be replaced with a simplified flat tax system. Smith said the loopholes in the tax code are put there by "politicians who want to get re-elected."
Smith said he does not know what the flat rate should be because he believes it is equally important to cut spending.
To the usual spending recently completed of federal entitlements - Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid - Smith said they add interest on the federal deficit.
"We are trying to hold down forces that will not be held down forever," he said, warning that the interest rates on the public debt will go up, maybe 100 percent, and swamp the nation's economy. He believes the budget should be balanced and the debt paid down.
In cutting spending, he said all federal agencies need to be scrutinized, mentioning in particular the Departments of Education and Energy. He did not go so far as to call for the abolition of the education department, as did former President Reagan, but he faulted the energy department for being set up to "get the country off foreign oil" and failing to do so.
Smith, with a background in the coal industry, said the federal government is waging a regulatory war to destroy the nation's coal industry.
"We need coal. We need energy," he warned. "We're fortunate to have Marcellus gas."
Obamacare
Smith is on board with tossing the 2010 health care reform law overboard and he said repealing Obamacare is a priority.
To address high health care costs, he prefers tort reform and allowing people and companies to buy health insurance from across state lines.
When asked how the government should protect people with pre-existing conditions to whom companies often refuse to sell insurance, he said some states have laws in place that forbid this practice - which is also prohibited by Obamacare.
When asked about the many uninsured, he said that many refuse to buy health insurance and that the high premiums everyone else pays covers emergency room costs incurred by covering everyone and that no one is denied emergency care.
Smith warned that the uncertainty created by the imposition of Obamacare as well as the uncertainty created by complex tax laws stop businesses from expanding.
Israel support
Citing Israel's right to protect itself, Smith stressed the importance of the United State's alliance with the tiny Middle Eastern Nation surrounded by hostile Arab countries.
He said he prefers using sanctions to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons but would support military action to achieve the goal if necessary. Asked about reports of the Israel government spying on the U.S., Smith was dismissive, saying "everyone spies on everyone."
He also expressed doubts about the Arab Spring as it may put unstable or hostile regimes in place.
Other issues
Now is not the time to jump onto the gun control wagon, in Smith's view, as terrible as the July 20, 2012, Aurora, Colo., movie theater massacre may have been.
"It is never good to regulate out of emotion," he said and summed up his views on gun control simply by saying, "I am a second amendment man."
Smith is pro-life, opposes amnesty for illegal immigrants, and supports term limits.
"We need more common sense and balance in this country," he said of his conservative philosophy which he believes the Democratic party has moved further away from over the decades since he registered to vote.