DOWAGIAC — Republican U.S. Senate candidate Peter Konetchy of Roscommon says to remain the greatest nation on earth, the United States must address “serious challenges” — free people always provide for their own needs and those of their community better than government, so “get the federal government out of our lives”; “mismanaged and bankrupt,” Social Security and Medicare must be restored to solvency using proven business models without cutting benefits to existing enrollees; federal entitlement programs are “devastating to both the recipient and to society, cultivating dependency, encouraging sloth, punishing productivity and eroding self-respect,” so transfer the safety net back to family, friends and community, where it belongs.
Konetchy, first of the GOP contenders to face Democratic incumbent Debbie Stabenow in 2012 brought here by the Cass County 912 Tea Party — next will be Gary Glenn Oct. 19 — was interviewed by Leader Publications at Zeke’s Tuesday in between forums at Cass County Council on Aging, Ontwa Township and Cass District Library.
Konetchy, accompanied by his wife, Zhanna, believes our elected representatives ignore the U.S. Constitution and instead impose their will on the people.
“If elected,” he says, “I will honor the Constitution and fight to limit federal influence to the powers enumerated within Article 1 Section 8, “further reinforced by the ninth and 10th amendments.”
Those powers to collect taxes, to borrow money on U.S. credit, to regulate commerce with foreign nations, to establish post offices and roads, to establish uniform naturalization rules, to declare war, to provide and maintain a navy and to coin money, among many others, cover the back of his campaign brochure, along with the answers to a two-question quiz on the front:
Where in the U.S. Constitution is the federal government granted authority to control health care, education, energy policy and retirement?
There is no Constitutional authority for health care, energy policy and retirement.
Secondly, What are examples of Constitutional duties the federal government is neglecting?
Securing our borders and honoring the Bill of Rights.
Another flier summarizes politicians’ “fiscal irresponsibility” with charts.
Of this “unsustainable debt,” Konetchy points out that in 1980 debt was less than $1 trillion, compared to more than $14 trillion today. The father of five insists on balancing the federal budget — but stops short of an amendment — eliminating deficit spending and addressing our debt so our children won’t have to.
Konetchy’s graph illustrates how from 1787 to 1930, the federal government “restrained itself” to its Constitutional duties with spending averaging 2 to 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). No income tax, no debt.
But in 1930, government began spending taxpayer money “on massive programs well outside of its Constitutional authority, increasing federal spending 10-fold. These programs failed, resulting in crushing debt, the breakdown of society and dependency on government.
“I’ll work to restrain government back to its Constitutional duties, and once again allow the people, free market or states to address,” Konetchy says. “The entire concept of non-Constitutional federal spending is based on the false premise that government bureaucrats are more capable of spending money than those who earn it. It’s a ridiculous premise and amounts to nothing more than government theft.”
He argues that the government “accumulates” power by “addressing” problems it never intends to solve.
Born in Massachusetts, Konetchy moved to Michigan at 14. During more than 40 years here he lived in Detroit, Farmington, Novi and Byron before Roscommon.
He graduated from the College of Business at Michigan State University in 1979 with a bachelor’s degree in accounting.
“Throughout my life,” he says, “I have always followed politics, but have never served in an elected political office.“
Working in small business for 35 years, Konetchy is “not a politician.”
During high school and college he worked at a small manufacturing company and drove a delivery truck.
After college, he worked as a custom programmer, developing software for many industries, including mortgage processing, property management, vending services, manufacturing and legal time, billing and accounting.
In the 1980s, he started his own firm serving the time, billing and accounting needs of law firms, originally in Michigan, but now throughout the nation.
“I”ve gone through many good times, as well as some tough times, allowing me to appreciate both,” he says.
“I’m running for the Senate because I understand the greatness of the United States. I appreciate the Constitutionally-restrained government our founders provided, which allowed this country to prosper and develop into a world-class beacon of morality, personal liberty, economic dominance and military strength. We have a government of and by the people whose purpose is to protect our God-given rights, including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
“The majority of our current ‘citizen’ representatives in Washington do not share my perspective,“ says Konetchy, a Republican precinct delegate for Higgins Township and a National Rifle Association life member.
“Their role has morphed from securing our God-given rights to becoming our lifelong rulers. Their actions are based on the accumulation of personal political power rather than what is best for the people. They want to completely control the thoughts and actions of the citizenry of the United States. Far too many of them believe in the omnipotence and omniscience of the federal government to which the people should cower and obey. They act as if all the wealth, resources and production of this great nation are owned by the government, and that the ‘rulers’ within the government should decide how to allocate the bounty to whoever they consider worthy. They act as if the citizens of this great country should accept with gratitude whatever the government allows them to retain. I cannot accept this philosophy. It is at odds not only with our founding principles, but also with the entire American experience. Unless it is stopped, our country will cease to exist as a free nation. Our Declaration of Independence and Constitution will be nothing more than historical documents. And our children will be ruled — not free.”
“We have big problems at the federal level,” he said, “but my position is that every single problem facing the United States domestically is really due to the government overstepping its authority and imposing its will onto society where it shouldn’t be. That’s why I have so many positions on my Web site (www.PeterKonetchy.com). Any intervention into business — minimum wage, unemployment — is a total misapplication of the Commerce Clause, so I want to make sure people know my stand.
“Separation of church and state is another misnomer. There’s nothing in the Constitution that says there has to be a wall. No one ever looks at the second part of the phrase, which says Congress can’t establish a religion, nor prohibit the free exercise thereof … If a valedictorian wants to get up and give praise for the good in their life, so be it. That’s a free exercise of religion. I (posted) where I stand on abortion, Social Security, everything. Politicians on their sites say, ‘I’m for family values,’ and then you say, ‘What’s that?’
“We know government doesn’t want to solve problems because they get some sort of agency, throw money at it which has unintended consequences, then they have to throw more money to address those. It’s like that 1950s movie, The Blob, which keeps getting bigger. Government destroys everything it touches now. The greatness of the United States was its limited government whose only purpose was to take care of national functions that could not be handled by the people of the states, primarily defense, then immigration. Everything capable of being handled by the people or the states includes everything else — parenting, health care, welfare, retirement.”
Konetchy wants to unleash domestic energy resources, which could rival “all of the OPEC nations combined,” but “most of it is on federal land and the government prohibits private investment to extract it. I don’t think the federal government should own the vast majority of land west of the Mississippi. It should divest it to the states or to the people. It should be opened up to private investment, with no government subsidies. We should not only be energy independent, we should be an exporter, just like Canada to the north, because we have so much energy here. I strongly suggest new refineries or we can’t do anything with the oil. I strongly support nuclear power outside the auspices of government. I want private companies to develop it. Coal over in China, they’re building at least two new plants every single week. Coal is a great source of power.”
Australia’s dependence on burning coal for 80 percent of its electricity and its leading export is being blamed for destabilizing one of the most advanced nations on the planet and a predictor of what climate change has in store, for the vulnerable island nation has seen a 15-year drought, rivers drying up, reefs dying, wildfires and flood.
“I don’t believe in manmade climate change,” Konetchy replied. “There are normal fluctuations in temperature — peaks and valleys. Earth’s climate is changing, but NASA has studies that show climates on other planets, Mercury, Venus and Mars, are also rising comparable to what’s happening.
“There’s no conclusive evidence that man is responsible for climate change. Then you had those Climategate e-mails from Britain that stated the evidence wasn’t being fairly presented. I’m not a proponent of any type of energy. I want to let the free market figure out the most efficient energy that can be developed using free enterprise.
“The main cause of the housing crash in 2008 was the Community Reinvestment Act. Congress forced banks to make loans to low-income individuals who couldn’t necessarily qualify for regular loans,” Konetchy said. “We had trillions of dollars of bad loans. In an economic downturn, people couldn’t pay their mortgages, so the housing market collapsed — due directly, in my opinion, to the federal government getting involved and forcing banks to change lending practices. The government wanted political advantage from gaining favor with a class of people who couldn’t afford mortgages. They should never have been involved in that and there shouldn’t have been TARP to buy troubled assets to avert a worldwide financial meltdown. The Secretary got this money and didn’t buy troubled assets, he used it to pay political favors, so GE was reclassified as a bank to get funds, and so were other crony companies. It was a fiasco.
“I did some research and found out that for the last three years, the average corporate income tax collected in the U.S. equaled $175 billion a year. If we want to create jobs in this country, rather than having the government take $1.5 trillion out of the private sector for stimulus and virtually wasting it bailing out banks overseas or giving it to Solyndra, which went bankrupt, and other politically acceptable groups, why don’t we perhaps cut the corporate tax in half? Private enterprise creates jobs and we have one of the worst corporate tax rates in the world, almost 40 percent. Get rid of some of the stupid regulations and make the United States a friendly business environment, encourage domestic job growth and encourage companies that fled to foreign shores to come back. We have great infrastructure, education and a willing and able workforce. That would have cost the government virtually nothing. We know that when you cut oppressive taxes under Reagan, Kennedy and Bush, revenue to the federal treasury increases. It doubled” during Ronald Reagan’s two terms.
Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan “do drain a lot of resources. I’m a very strong supporter of the military. The primary purpose of the federal government is to provide for the common defense. If there’s a demonstrable threat to the United States — and George W. Bush was right, there was, Islam was at war with us for the last 25 years, since Reagan with the Beirut bombing — I want the United States to use overwhelming force if we are attacked and wipe out our enemy, but then bring our troops home. I don’t want silly rules of engagement, I don’t want nation-building and I don’t want the military building permanent installations. Have Iraq hire private contractors from their oil revenues.”
Two of his children have seen military service.