Benishek is a surgeon from Crystal Falls, MI.  He announced that he would run for office a week before the Stupak vote, and had planned some travel to meet future constituents in the tip of the mitten (Northern Lower Peninsula) in late April and May.

Yesterday, during that campaign trip,  I was happy to have a telephone interview with him, as he traveled from Alpena to Gaylord.  After speaking at the Alpena County Lincoln Day dinner the evening before, Dan had a number of television and newspaper interviews yesterday.

Dan noted on his face book page that he decided to run for office after Congress voted on the stimulus bill.  I asked Dan if running for political office ever occurred to him prior to that.

"Well, every once in a while I would say to myself, I gotta run for congress.  Just amongst conversations with my friends, and earlier this year, I said, well, I'm gonna really do it."

As World Net Daily reports, Dan came across the decision to run while ice fishing with his friends, they didn't catch anything, but they did talk politics, and in the following months, with support from his family and neighbors, Dr. Dan Benishek made his announcement on March 15th.

I asked Dr. Dan why he thought the stimulus bill was so wrong.

"It didn't stimulate anything.  Some people got some money for various little projects, but the states got some money and used it to fix their deficit spending.  Our local hospital  was supposed to get some money from it, but instead, the state didn't have any money left because it all went to their deficit.  It's just disgusting the fact that they would spend nearly a trillion dollars, you know, our grandchildren are going to still be paying for this.  You can't even imagine how much money that is.  We can't spend money like that, if you or I spent like that, we would go to jail, you can't spend money you don't have.  It's just a disaster, like a debt tsunami waiting to hit.  Once the foreign countries decide that they don't want to finance the spending spree in Washington any longer, we're done.  And of course it didn't stimulate jobs.  Jobs is the number one issue.

    The next thing that's going to happen is they are going to raise taxes to try to pay that debt.  So, businesses are worried about what's going to happen, they don't want to hire in a situation where the taxes may go up.
    If we had a fiscally conservative federal government, that paid their bills and worked on cutting taxes, people would be more confident about spending their money, but right now, they are saving it because they don't know what they'll need it for."

It is often said in the past that Michigan always hits recession first, and then the country follows.  Michigan has had the nation's highest unemployment rate for 4 long years, I asked Dan if Michigan does not pull out of this slump, will the nation?  If we are first in, are we first out?

"Michigan needs to change it's tax structure too.  It is a very regressive tax structure, the federal government and the state government is bad for business.  And we need to change who we elect in Michigan.  There are a lot of candidates running on that platform, for governor, house and state senate.   You can see the desperation the businesses are in, many are closing and moving away.  The way Michigan has been running hasn't worked."

"My thoughts are, can't we have some kind of happy balance where people can actually have a job, and a clean environment too?  These people aren't happy unless there's absolutely no jobs, and no development of any resources, that's just ridiculous.  It's a waste of our resources, I mean, we have resources given to our area, and we should develop them.  Where do they think this stuff comes from?  In order to have a cell phone, you need copper, minerals to make things.  Your cars, your homes, it has to come from somewhere.  Let's face it, if we developed those resources at home, we are going to do a better job with the environment than the countries overseas.  China is doing a worse job of protecting the environment than we do here, our coal plant is going to be cleaner than one in China.

    We can develop our resources here in a rational fashion.  I don't want the earth to be trashed when they are done, this isn't like the old days.  I want to have an eye kept on these developers too, but you have to allow them to do it, people need jobs.   If it was so simple to move to get a job, where are we going to go?  Detroit?  There aren't any jobs in Detroit either.  Where do we go for jobs?  It's not like we have a choice.  We need jobs, I don't know, seems like common sense to me."

The Granholm Administration is sitting on the Rogers City Coal Plant air permit, because Jennifer Granholm wants us to use less power and is committed to illogical, unreliable solar and wind energy.  The EPA is going to, since Cap and Trade hasn't passed, start regulating our energy policies by edict. Therefore forcing us to live with less.  I asked Dan how do you fight such an out of control bureaucracy as a legislator?

"We need to limit the EPA, of course it's going to be hard to do unless we get a Republican House, take over the Senate, and a Republican President, of course in order to put those kinds of things into play.  The way to solve that problem is for the people to go out and vote for common sense candidates.  The Congress is out of touch with reality, we can't count on the people that are there to make changes, we have to elect new ones to make the changes.  We need me, and other conservatives to get voted in.  We need to let the people know that these rules are ridiculous and we need to get people in there that will limit the power.  I believe the science is bad, that global warming is being questioned at every turn, the science, to me, is not definite."

And who is all on one side of the debate?  Al Gore, Obama and his entire administration, the Democrats in Congress, Jennifer Granholm, heck, the leading environmental hack trying to kill the coal plant has run as a Democrat in the Traverse City area, and is right now trying to convince the city of Traverse to go with his solar and wind project!  The Democrats have sidled up with the radical environmentalists and at the same time they say they are for the little guy, the workers in the mines and quarries.  The Democrat Party is working against jobs in Northern Michigan.

"Well, it's unfortunate, but like I say, the only answer to it is for Americans to learn more about this problem and vote to remove those people from office.  It's our job to try to educate the people that this is not right.  We have to have less government at the top, not more government at the top.  The way our founders wanted it to be.   You can't have a state deciding to do windmills,  and solar power because that would develop naturally if the market is there.  If people could make electricity cheaper by using wind power, they'd already have been doing it.  When government tries to pick the winner, it doesn't work."

I noticed on Dan's face book page, that his views on healthcare haven't changed since before the vote in Congress.

"Well, the issues are the same.  The healthcare bill passed, but that's not going to solve the healthcare problem, it's going to make the healthcare problem worse.   I don't believe that there will be any more people insured, nor have access to medical care, it is going to get worse.  You will have fewer people with access to healthcare.  That's just what I believe because of the nature of that bill.  They are trying to force the government on the patient/doctor relationship, and it's not going to work.  It intrudes on that relationship, and tries to manage that economy from above.  The way to fix healthcare is interstate competition, my example is, if you could only buy a car from one dealership, and you are not allowed to shop around, they are going to tell you, this is the price, take it or leave it.

    The reason most insurance is employer-based was because after WWII, the government, had to issue wage controls (for all the make-work projects for the war) they started offering health insurance in lieu of higher wages.  If people could buy on their own, they could take it from job to job.  The other thing is tort reform.  The legal system adds a lot of cost to health care. People don't understand all the cost involved, the extra tests, the documentation required to prevent lawsuits, it's out of control.  The other thing is, if people get free medical care, they have no disincentive to go to the doctor.   Something simple like a headache they could as easily go to the pharmacy and get some aspirin.  If you have something free, you'll take it. "

I asked Dan if he plans on repealing the bill.

"That's my goal."

"As I said, we need to elect people to congress who will vote to repeal it, then try to defund the bill as best as we can."

"They're conservatives!  They are worried about their country. I think it's a great thing, I've enjoyed all the tea parties I've gone to, met a lot of great people there, parents, retirees, veterans, all concerned about where their country is headed.  Many haven't been interested in politics before, or strictly the Republican party, some have noticed the Republican Party has strayed a little bit, but they are going to vote for conservatives.  I think that's a great thing, we need a conservative majority in the congress."

Finally, I asked Dr. Dan Benishek how he plans to win back trust in government from the people of the First District of Michigan.

"I will vote with the district.  They will see what I stand for when I speak, I speak from the heart, I cherish values that I hold dear to my heart, and I'm going to vote that way.  I'm not going to let anything change my values.  I'm not a politician, I'm a citizen, taking some time out of my life to devote to my country. "