Breaking: TEXAS FREEDOM FIGHTER GOHMERT TAKES ON D.C.
One of America’s most courageous freedom fighters is Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert. Just like many conservatives, Rep. Gohmert is not thrilled with the lackluster performance of some of his colleagues in D.C.
Rep. Gohmert has given PolitiChicks.tv the exclusive scoop regarding his newly released GOH Conservative PAC and as always, Rep. Gohmert doesn’t mince his words or monitor any of his opinions.
A-M: As usual, you’re trying to save America so thank you for that. Why a PAC?
Rep. Gohmert: The inspiration was from Jim DeMint, when he was in the Senate and decided to start a conservative fund. The problem Congressmen run into, and Senators, is you’re trying to stand up and do the right thing and then you’re told, ‘the leaders of our party are the ones that raise you the money and help you out in your next campaign’. They tell you that regardless of what you think you should do, you need to help out the team.
I believe the team ought to be America, not a Party. Let’s save America first–let’s help America; doing the right thing has it’s own reward. We started the PAC in order to be a source that can show people that you can be conservative and raise money, and we will help you. When this PAC gives money to your campaign, people across America will know that this individual has lived up to certain perimeters, following the Constitution, doing what’s right for America. This is a PAC that will help true conservatives.
A-M: What’s going on with Congress; is there any type of unity happening?
Rep. Gohmert: Of course we have a Republican conference meeting once a week, like the one this week where Speaker Boehner announced that we were not going to demand anything in return for raising the debt ceiling, which is basically going to be a trillion dollars that we just say, “Oh sure, go spend that, go do what you will.” These people don’t have a problem with spending a trillion more in the upcoming year. It’s just immoral–we’re spending future generation’s money! These folks have waged a war on our children; that’s what it amounts to.
A-M: Seriously, what the heck happened there? Why was there no fight for the debt ceiling at all? Is this perhaps some genius, diabolical political to set up the Democrats for the upcoming elections or was it just plain stupid?
Rep. Gohmert: I wish I could say it’s part of a plan. The truth is it feels very much like what was announced to us at our annual retreat back in 2006. Republicans had the super majority yet our Speaker of the House and our newly elected Majority Leader, John Boehner, announced to us that because there was a tiny chance we might lose our majority in the next election, we were not going to do all the things we promised with tax reform and all of that. He said we’re just going to ‘try to get through the year without raising any fusses’ so that we can retain the majority. And that’s kind of what it feels like now. We’re going into pre-defense that allows the other party to score trillions of dollars of debt that we don’t have coming in.
It’s just wrong, it’s immoral, and we at least ought to fight; we at least ought to try to take a stand. But some said no, the mainstream media will blame us for shutting down the government like they did last fall. Even our own Speaker said we shut it down when it was Harry Reid! The good thing is that more and more conservatives are getting elected to Congress and I suspect there will be more elected this time. But they need help, and they need to be shown that you can raise money and if you’re standing true to conservatism, you have things like GOH PAC that will help you.
A-M: Many of your colleagues seem to be terrified to do the right thing, to fight for our conservative principles. How can this change, and do you think it ever will?
Rep. Gohmert: We have to assure members of Congress that are more worried about getting reelected–which has been drilled into them–that you can stand up and do the right thing and still raise money, still have a conservative PAC like mine that will help you raise money, will help you fight the battle and it makes it easier to stand up for what’s right.
In my first week going through orientation before I was actually sworn in to Congress, my fellow freshmen were told repeatedly was the most important thing you can do for your country is get reelected. Well I didn’t believe that then, and I don’t believe it now, but it’s been instilled in so many people on both sides of the aisle. Sometimes you just have to take a stand and say things that may not initially be popular, but you’ve still got to do it. But in the meantime, we’ve got to grow the number of people that are willing to stand up for what’s right at any cost–and it helps when they can be encouraged that there are people who will financially stand with them.
A-M: It sounds like you’re describing our fellow Texan Senator Ted Cruz. He was beaten and bashed like a piñata after he stood up for us.
Rep. Gohmert: (laughs) I was thrilled when Ted came into the Senate, that’s why I stayed up with him all night in his filibuster. We talk time to time and try to strategize between the House and Senate, so I’ve been absolutely thrilled that Ted has stood strong despite the slings and arrows that sometimes come when you do the right thing.
A-M: I interviewed Sen. Cruz soon after his filibuster and asked if he had been shocked at the backlash. He said yes, and that he understood why so few politicians are willing to swim against the tide. You’re one of those rare politicians unafraid to speak out, too. What do you and Ted Cruz, Mike Lee seem to have so much more courage than others?
Rep. Gohmert: Well, it comes from having your feet firmly implanted on the foundation and I know all three of us have a firm belief in God and when you know that there is eternal truth, you know what C.S. Lewis realized after having been an atheist, that there must be an absolute standard of right and wrong, justice and injustice, and if there weren’t then we could never know that there was justice and injustice. Once you know that, then you know that you are standing for more than just a temporary gain or loss; you’re standing for truth that will be there when time on this earth runs out.
My late mother did a powerful job; she was a brilliant woman but she used to embarrass me and my other siblings when she was at a church or town meeting–up she would stand, to make a point or take somebody on and I’d say ‘Mother, please sit down, you’re embarrassing me!’ and now I’ve pretty much turned into my mother (laughs). But right is right, wrong is wrong.
A-M: The first priority listed on your PAC site is, ‘Re-establish National Security and Defense Standards’. What do you mean by this and how can your PAC help?
Rep. Gohmert: It’s easy to make it happen if you have enough members of Congress, House, and Senate that will hold the government accountable when they don’t secure this country. This president is going the other way–his administration says we’re loosening up the requirements in order to get asylum. In essence, if you helped a terrorist in some way, but maybe you didn’t do the actual killing yourself, we’re going to loosen things up and let you in for asylum, just like the Tsarnaev (Boston Marathon) brothers.
These things have to stop if we’re going to secure our country. We just need to start enforcing the laws we already have and with local law enforcement, when they stop people and they have an expired Visa, they need to be able to detain and deport them.
A-M: When we hear “immigration” most people only think of our Mexican neighbors but you’re saying we need to be concerned about the more nefarious illegals.
Rep. Gohmert: Right. The Hispanics who come here, generally speaking, have a love of God and have a devotion to family and a hard work ethic. These are the type of people who helped make America great, but we have to have to be a nation of laws, where the laws are applied across the board. The fact is there are people that come in to this country that want to harm us. And when this administration has Muslim Brothers who ultimately want a worldwide caliphate, when they’re advising this administration, and they’re complaining that people are trying to educate what radical Islam is, and they have our training materials purged, then we’re not doing the proper job in securing this country and we’ve got to get back to that.
We need to tell the president that after you secure the border, as confirmed by the Border States, then we will amaze you with how quickly we’ll get an immigration reform bill passed. But until then, there’s no use talking about it.
A-M: Another priority listed on your PAC is ‘Repeal Obamacare’. Please make this one happen! I know you had your own plans to reform healthcare before Obama forced his socialized medicine on our country. Is it really even possible to repeal it at this point, and what would you and your PAC replace it with?
Rep. Gohmert: You’re right, I had a proposal nearly a year before Obamacare was passed. I think the biggest threat to Obamacare staying in place is those who are saying ‘Obamacare will fall on its own weight’. If that belief gains enough traction among Republicans, then Obamacare will never be repealed and people will suffer and die prematurely.
The reason that Obamacare, like any socialized medicine, will not fall on its own weight is because socialized medicine doesn’t collapse. Socialism does, but socialize medicine doesn’t fail because you end up putting people on lists to get treatment and many of them die before they can get the treatment that was prescribed, or even dying before they get diagnosed. And that keeps the system from going from completely broke.
What I’m pushing for is to get back to healthcare that doesn’t require you to go on a list. You get treatment when you need it and you don’t die waiting on a list like one of my friends did, waiting 2 years for bypass surgery. If all the president wanted to do was help 30 million people without health insurance, then the way to do it isn’t to destroy everyone’s health insurance and making people get maternity care when they’re in their 80’s. What you do is deal with those who cannot afford to help themselves–and that was doable without breaking the entire system. But that points to the fact that this was never about healthcare; this was all about the GRE–the Government Running Everything, including our lives.
A-M: The fifth priority on your PAC is ‘Defend 1st, 2nd and 10th Amendment’. If this were a normal world something like this wouldn’t even be an issue. How do you intend to protect the foundations of our country when it seems many of the progressives in America today are determined to destroy it?
Rep. Gohmert: Of course I think we need to throw in the 4th Amendment, too, with the NSA spying on Americans. But we also need to enforce the 2nd Amendment to keep and bear arms without infringement as is constantly going on. As Jefferson said, ‘the price of liberty is eternal vigilance’. We’ve got to stay vigilant.
And the 1st Amendment, who would’ve dreamed that in our lifetime Freedom of Religion would be encroached upon? It’s unbelievable, but there are so many people across America that have not been concerned about this administration telling the Catholic Church that we’re going to make you pay for things that you believe are sinful or harmful to man. It’s all under attack and that’s what happens when forces that are anti-liberty, who want socialism, who want more of a totalitarian government, when they get in charge then the only people that it’s okay to be intolerant of are those who want freedom.
A-M: For an administration that supposedly supported Occupy Wall Street movement and defended the 99%ers, they certainly seem to continuously kiss up to all-things-corporate. How will you combat this strange dichotomy?
Rep. Gohmert: Some people think that Big Brother or totalitarian government is hurtful to big business where we’ve seen that it’s actually small government that gets hurt. They become partners so often with the ultra-big business because they can kill their competition. We’re seeing it in banking, in so many areas in America where government partners up with General Electric and other corporations and both become bigger and stronger, taking away more of our privacy and more of our ability to control our own lives.
I’m all for having fairness across the board, where if one group is going to get deductions for their costs then all of them should. But I’d rather go to a flat tax and get rid of all those things so people will be freer to succeed or fail on their own terms. I think the flat tax is the way to do that; I know a lot of people who would like to see the fair tax, and frankly I’d like to just have the debate–let’s go for one or the other.
A-M: Texas has been battling everything from abortion to education, including Common Core. What is your PAC’s stance on that?
Rep. Gohmert: Yes, there’s a major battle that’s being fought over the education of our children. Children are being taught at an early age that socialism is good and that freedom in the marketplace is evil and that we need to not have equal opportunity but instead equal results.
Common Core is doing exactly what I’m talking about, trying to teach people that we’re all better off if the government tells everybody what to do and how to do it. Common Core continues to creep because while it’s a good thing that the Obama administration is giving more waivers for states to opt out of No Child Left Behind, unfortunately they put strings and say, if you want this or that funding you’ve got to teach Common Core because they know that teaches children that they can’t live without the government telling you how to live and it’s got to stop.
A-M: Okay just for fun and to prove you’re not a boring, stuffy politician, what’s your favorite movie?
Rep. Gohmert: (without hesitation) Pollyanna. The message is all about America, helping the poor, the church being the center of the community and having a big heart. That was when it was okay being a Christian and going to church. People say, ‘don’t be a Pollyanna’ but she had such a beautiful outlook on life that it would allow her to withstand even the toughest blows, and not be delusional but just to look for the good in people, like the Bible says and as she often quotes, ‘Look for the good and you’ll find it’. Look for the evil and you’ll find that, too, but there’s a lot of good in America and that movie represents so much of that. If you haven’t seen it, you absolutely must and Ann-Marie, especially with what you’re doing, you should watch it; it will give you such an uplift. It makes ya laugh, makes ya cry, it’s just the perfect movie.
A-M: Favorite music?
Rep. Gohmert: Christian might take the lead, but I have very eclectic taste in music. I learned to play the guitar at 8 years old; I love just about any music you can name. James Taylor, Simon and Garfunkel, the Beatles. I was in a band when I was 12 years old called ‘Paul and the Pirates’ and we were awesome. We could cover just about any song out there, we were really, really good. Paul didn’t sing but he had a portable keyboard back when nobody in Mt. Pleasant had keyboards other than Paul.
A-M: Wrapping up, will you be at CPAC?
Rep. Gohmert: I’m coming, but I don’t think they’ve invited me to speak yet, I think probably part of that because every year I’m so outspoken about the threat of radical Islam and I know they wish I’d back off some. But don’t worry, I’ll keep saying what’s hurting America and what’s helping.
For more information about GOH PAC:
Website: http://gohconservative.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GOHConservative (Hashtag: #GOHTeam)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GOHConservativePAC
Donate: https://gohconservativepac.nationbuilder.com/donate
