Candidate Bio & Platform

Candidate Biography

I was born into a blue-collar family in east Baltimore. My father was a Republican; my mother was a Democrat. I adopted my father’s conservative fiscal beliefs and my mother’s liberal social beliefs. I was never comfortable with the Republican Party or the Democrat Party. I found a political home years later when I found the Libertarian Party.

My father, an airplane mechanic who dropped out of high school as a young man, encouraged me to get an education. I earned a B.S. degree in Finance from the University of Central Florida when I was 22.

After college, I moved back to Baltimore where I joined one of the largest CPA/consulting firms. This was a dream job for a blue-collar boy who had worked in every imaginable job from newspaper delivery boy (age 12) and grocery bagger (age 14) to assembly-line worker, steelworker, apartment painter, gas station attendant, and taxi cab driver. I passed the CPA exam and had the opportunity to work with the best-and-brightest in a wide variety of industries. I especially enjoyed my work in the banking industry.

I entered the banking industry full-time in 1985. I was promoted to Chief Financial Officer and served in that role for ten years. I had a chance to see the destructive impact of misguided Federal government policies up close. I predicted the collapse of FannieMae, FreddieMac, and the mortgage-loan market many years before it happened.

During my years in banking, I had the opportunity to teach courses part-time in accounting, finance, and economics at a local college. I found teaching to be very rewarding. While still working as the bank’s CFO, I began work on my Masters and Ph.D. degrees in hopes of teaching full-time at a university.

In August of 1997, I joined the faculty of The Bryan School of Business & Economics at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro. I have thoroughly enjoyed teaching there for the past 13 years. It has been an honor to contribute to the educations and careers of so many young people.

In addition to teaching, I have also been working as a management consultant. Some of my most rewarding consulting work has been as a volunteer for not-for-profit organizations.

I have published two successful business books, which are used in MBA programs. And I have published a book about my political philosophy entitled “Rational Individualism: A Moral Argument for Limited Government & Capitalism.” I am delighted to say that all three books continue to sell very well.

In 2008, I was asked to become the host of “Free Markets,” an internet-radio show that focuses on economic and political issues from a Libertarian perspective. I have enjoyed the interviews with economists, policy analysts, business leaders, and politicians.

In the summer of 2009, I was asked by the Chair of the Libertarian Party of North Carolina to run for the 2010 nomination for U.S. Senate. I gladly accepted the challenge. It has been exciting to offer a political alternative to disenchanted Democrats and Republicans. With enough volunteers and donors, we can get America back on track in 2010.

I am the proud father of three adult children. My wife and I live in Guilford County between Greensboro, Winston-Salem, and High Point. I thoroughly enjoy living in North Carolina and I am proud to be an American. I’m looking forward to the responsibility of serving North Carolinians in the U.S. Senate.

Platform

I believe individuals should be free to make choices for themselves and should accept the responsibility for the consequences of those choices. I believe no individual, group, or government has the right to initiate force against any other individual, group, or government. The role of government is to protect individual rights. The government exists to serve individuals, not the way around.

As a Libertarian, I am conservative on fiscal issues and liberal on social issues.


Fiscal & Economic Issues

1. Jobs: Chronically high unemployment is not acceptable. Small businesses are the engine of job creation. Small businesses should have their taxes and regulatory compliance burdens reduced. As a business consultant, small business owners tell me horror stories of dealing with State and Federal agencies. The anti-small business government attacks must stop. Small businesses are critical to job growth in North Carolina and across the country. Small businesses owners and entrepreneurs are the heroes of our economy, not government bureaucrats.
2. Cronyism: Big businesses in bed with big government (cronyism) must end. Big businesses buying influence with big government is disgraceful. Big businesses continue to receive favors from government in various forms, including the passage of regulations to crush smaller competitors. Cronyism grows as government continues to grow; it is a form of government corruption that must be stopped.
3. Corporate Welfare: Corporate welfare must be abolished. Corporations in financial need should turn to investors not to taxpayers.
4. Balanced Budget: The Federal government’s irresponsible spending must end. All Federal government agencies and programs must submit to an independent audit. Ineffective agencies and programs must be abolished; any criminal activity must be prosecuted. Congress must not approve budgets in which expenses exceed revenues. The Federal government must operate within a balanced budget that includes a systematic reduction in the national debt.
5. Taxes: The income tax and payroll tax should be abolished and replaced with the FairTax or a national sales tax. It is estimated that approximately 22% of the cost of everything Americans buy has an “embedded tax” for current taxes and the cost of tax compliance. The current tax system has countless loopholes for special-interest groups and is hopelessly complicated. The 16th Amendment should be repealed. The IRS should be abolished.
6. The Federal Reserve: We must demand an audit of the Fed. It is a lie that the Fed is controlling inflation; the Fed is the cause of inflation. The Fed’s uncontrolled creation of new dollars (through printing and electronic credits) will inevitably lead to a crash in the value of the dollar and extreme inflation. The Fed’s behind-closed-doors activity must be audited by independent auditors.

Social Issues

1. Education: Public (government) schools have failed us. A recent international achievement study for students in 30 countries ranked the United States 25th in science, just ahead of the bankrupt countries of Greece and Portugal. In a competitive world where reading skills are critical, only 31 percent of American 8th graders showed adequate reading skills. The dropout rate in 17 of America’s 50 largest cities exceeds 50 percent. The near-monopoly in education by government must end. A one-size-fits-all approach to education clearly has not worked. We must offer alternatives for children and young people; this means we must reward the entrepreneurial spirit in education. Students should be able to choose between competing schools.
2. Wars: I support the rapid withdrawal of American forces from Iraq and Afghanistan. The purpose of the U.S. military is national defense, not international nation-building or empire-building. The best thing we can do for our troops is to bring them home. America cannot afford (nor does it have the authority) to serve as the policeman of the world.
3. Gay marriage: Government should not be involved in marriage. Marriage is an agreement between two individuals that does not need the approval of anybody.
4. Abortion: I hate the idea of abortion. But the government should not be involved in the abortion decision. The woman involved must make the decision with her physician (and minister or anyone else she wishes to consult). While I personally do not like abortion, I realize nobody (including me) has the wisdom to impose his/her will on the decision. I condemn state-funded and state-mandated abortions.
5. Immigration: A healthy economy naturally attracts immigrants. Many of us were lucky enough to be born in America; many other people from around the world want nothing more than the same opportunity. The role of the government is to protect us against criminals not peaceful immigrants. U.S. immigration policy must include a reasonable “path to citizenship.” Hard-working immigrants are important part of America’s future success.
6. Drug Policy: We must decriminalize marijuana. The war on marijuana has wasted billions of dollars and destroyed the lives of many young people. Keeping marijuana illegal tragically keeps profits high for drug cartels. Our current drug policy is bankrupting the government, overcrowding our prisons, and rewarding drug cartels with big profits.
7. International Relations: America should have trade with all nations, but military entanglements with none.