Art Robinson telephone Town Hall on August 25, 2010

Click here to listen to the telephone town hall.

Art Robinson wins Independent Party Primary

Art Robinson won the Independent party primary on July 30th with 56% of the vote versus 39% for DeFazio.

On May 18, he won the Republican party primary receiving 79% of the vote. He has also received the nomination of the Constitution party and has been selected by the Oregon Libertarian party.

Art's message of fiscal responsibility, smaller government, lower taxes and greater individual freedom is being well received by voters throughout Oregon District 4.

Art is committed to improved quality and reliability of public schooling, social security, medicare and veterans affairs and honoring O&C contracts. The Federal budget must be balanced by ending profligate spending and unnecessary programs and by reducing taxes and regulations which prevent economic recovery and destroy jobs and prosperity.

Economic Armageddon – And How We Can and Must Avoid It!

We all hear that the Federal Reserve is holding interest rates down to help the economy and diminish personal bankruptcies. This is, at best, half of the truth. The more serious reason is that, if interest rates rise, the federal government itself will be quickly bankrupt. Among all of the world’s debtors, the U.S. government – with its expenditures managed by Nancy Pelosi, Peter DeFazio (who votes with Pelosi 86% of the time), and their friends in Congress and the White House – is by far the largest and most vulnerable.

Since U.S. government debt is guaranteed by the citizens of the United States, we are all facing national bankruptcy. The current interest-bearing national debt is more than $13 trillion and is rising at about $2 trillion per year. Already this debt is approximately $150,000 owed by every household in the United States, including all of those in Oregon District 4.

U.S. government income now consists of about $1 trillion per year in ordinary taxation and another $1 trillion per year in Social Security and Medicare. Since Social Security and Medicare are no longer paying their way, Congress can no longer loot these “trust” funds for spending money. The total income is just the $1 trillion from taxation. Nor can Congress collect more in taxes, since taxes have already surpassed the level that the American economy can productively pay. Tax increases above current levels will reduce private enterprise economic activity and personal income so much that they will actually reduce overall tax revenues.

If interest rates were to rise to 5% (a little below the average of recent decades), U.S. government annual interest payments would be $650 billion, 65% of federal government income.. Moreover, at the current rate of debt increase, three and a half years from now interest payments at 5% would consume 100% of the entire federal tax income – leaving nothing for any government programs. At that point if not before, national bankruptcy will be declared.

Already, the situation is dire. The U.S. government is borrowing or printing half of the money it spends on ordinary programs and all of the money it is spending on so-called stimulus programs. Much of this money is borrowed from China and other potentially hostile sources.

The personal salaries of Barack Obama, Peter DeFazio, and Nancy Pelosi are actually being paid, in significant part, by money borrowed from Communist China!

DeFazio and Pelosi advocate more government spending, more government borrowing, and higher taxes – the very policies that have created this problem. This will just make our situation worse and accelerate the coming bankruptcy. Continuing to entrust our government to the same career politicians who have caused these problems is very unwise.

We can still avoid national bankruptcy! To do this, we must replace the Congressmen whose actions have caused this danger and elect Congressmen with common sense – who will sharply reduce government spending and reduce the taxation and regulation that is currently strangling American free enterprise.

Our government must do what everyone else must do when times are difficult – work harder and spend less. It must end wasteful programs, end interference in the private enterprise economy that produces American wealth and jobs, and lay off government employees who are no longer needed. If those who hold American debts see that we are doing this, they will gain confidence to give us time to reduce and eventually pay our debts.

If elected Congressman from Oregon District 4, I (Art Robinson) will work to reduce government expenditures and eliminate expensive unneeded government programs. The money saved will be used to lower taxation, so that the private sector can earn more, create real jobs, and produce products for sale at home and abroad. Over time, these policies will allow Americans to pay their debts and to avoid the financial and economic nightmare that we are now rapidly approaching.

We must get the government off our backs, out of our pockets, and out of our way – before it is too late!

A message from Art Robinson on Campaign Financial Support

The Art Robinson campaign recently received it’s 2,000th contribution from concerned voters, far exceeding the individual campaign support of his opponent. Individual concerned Americans from Oregon and throughout the United States are helping to bring Robinson’s message of restoring freedom by reducing regulations, taxation and government sponsored litigation to the voters of Oregon.

His opponent claims that, “his [Robinson’s] largest number of donors and biggest segment of money raised come from Wall Street and the financial services industry”. DeFazio’s claim is entirely false (see FEC reports www.fec.gov). The Robinson campaign is a grassroots movement driven by the people of Oregon with 100% of the donations thus far coming from individuals, virtually all of whom work outside of Wall Street and the financial services industry.

What is true, however, is that Mr. DeFazio received 60% of his campaign support from Unions and Special Interests outside of Oregon for whom he does favors in Washington, D.C.

Art Robinson lives and works on the farm that he and his family have occupied in Southern Oregon for 30 years. Peter DeFazio lives mostly in Washington D.C. and plans to retire to the home he purchased in New Zealand, a country which lacks many of the taxes that Mr. DeFazio has helped levy on the American people.

A message from Art Robinson on his support of public schools

Why, after 23 years of Mr. DeFazio’s representation, have he and his political friends in the “education” unions failed to improve the disastrous public school situation in Oregon? U. S. public school students score near the academic bottom in comparison with other developed countries, and, even in this uncompetitive environment, Oregon students rank 43rd out of 50 in U.S. public schools.

Outstanding teachers in Oregon schools are not able to teach effectively because more than half of school funds are wasted on unneeded bureaucracy and other non-teacher perks, while federal bureaucrats dictate curriculum and testing standards. This situation has caused millions of American parents, including many in Oregon, to withdraw their children from these schools and find alternative academic opportunities.

Dr. Robinson wants to return to the locally-controlled, teacher-friendly, high quality American public schools that he and his wife and their friends and colleagues attended – schools that prepared him for admission to the California Institute of Technology and a distinguished career in science.

Unwilling to subject his own six children to the low quality, unionized, federally-controlled schools that Mr. DeFazio supports and has helped foster, Dr. Robinson himself provided their elementary education. Subsequently, all six obtained BS degrees in science – five at Oregon public universities, with three of the six completing the usual four-year curricula in only two years. Three of these young adults have earned doctoral degrees in science and medicine, and the other three are now working toward doctoral degrees in nuclear engineering at Oregon State University.

Art recently said, "Oregon no longer has truly "public" schools. It has instead, bureaucratic, union controlled institutions that prevent Oregon teachers from doing their jobs and prevent Oregon students from obtaining the education that they need.

The union bureaucrats who dominate these institutions should be fired; the institutions as they now exist should be abolished; and the schools should be returned to the control of the teachers, parents and local school boards in the localities in which they are situated. The public schools should be returned to the quality offered to American students in the 1950's, 1960’s and 1970's before Peter DeFazio and his union friends wrecked them."

Half Slave Half Free

“Our country is on the wrong road. The U.S. Congress has wrecked our economy with profligate overspending, crushing taxation, and runaway government regulation. Moreover, it has reached into our personal lives in many unacceptable ways. We can fix these problems! We need not continue to endure this situation.

“When Abraham Lincoln said, “I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free”, he referred to the fact that, in 1858, slavery was permitted in half of the United States and that some Americans were free and some were slaves.

“Now, we have another form of tyranny. Each American is half a slave and half free.

“Each American is required to turn over half of his earnings to government and to spend half of his time rearranging his life to conform to government edicts and regulations. Even those Americans who do not directly pay high taxes are similarly enslaved because everything they purchase costs twice as much to pay the taxes of the producer.

“This situation has reduced the productivity of the American people to such a low level that they can no longer produce as much as they consume. As government has taken away our individual freedom, it has also taken away our prosperity – our jobs, homes, savings, and the futures of our children and grandchildren.

“Yet those in power in Congress, including especially the incumbent 12-term politician who represents District 4, vote for more profligate spending, more taxation, and more regulation. This enslavement of our country need not continue! You and I and our families, children, and grandchildren have a bright future ahead. We can reclaim our freedom in the November 2010 elections.”

Art Robinson
Candidate for Congress
Oregon District 4

Robinson DeFazio Debates Scheduled

The Robinson campaign has scheduled the first two debates between Art Robinson and incumbent Peter DeFazio. The Robinson campaign is scheduling seven debates, one in each of the seven counties in District 4.

The first debate will take place at the Valley River Inn in Eugene on August 12 at 6:00 pm. The second debate will take place at the Douglas County Fairgrounds in Roseburg on August 17 at 6:00 pm. Other debates are now being arranged.

These debates will be conducted in the traditional one-on-one format, in which the two debating individuals speak for equal alternating timed intervals. By mutual agreement, the debaters may alter the interval lengths. No one other than the two debating individuals will speak. A time keeper will signal appropriately.

Following each debate, there will be a period for audience and press questions, wherein the candidates will have mutually equal times to answer questions.

These debates will take place even if Peter DeFazio does not attend. If he does not show up, surrogates will represent him, basing their presentations upon DeFazio's published statements.

During the past seven weeks, Robinson and DeFazio have exchanged seven letters four from Robinson and three from DeFazio. Copies of these letters are attached to this e-mail press release. During this exchange, Peter DeFazio has:

1. Refused to agree to a debate schedule. DeFazio says that he does not want to discuss a debate schedule until late August. Given the congressional schedule that eliminates a large block of time thereafter, even if DeFazio did then agree to arrange a debate schedule, the debates would probably occur so late in the campaign that the value to the voters would be very significantly reduced

2. Stated that he will not agree to one-on-one debate. DeFazio prefers to be protected by a monitor who controls the substance of the discussion and prevents real debate. Moreover, the monitor DeFazio insists upon is the League of Women Voters in District 4.

There are five chapters of the League of Women Voters in District 4. A total of 46 of the officers of these chapters are identifiable registered voters in District 4. Of these, 42 are registered Democrat, 1 Republican, 1 Independent, and 2 Unaffiliated. Moreover, the League has taken positions on many of the political issues of importance in this election. Their Internet postings show that the League's positions are strongly in line with Democrat Party positions.

3. Stated that he wants the debates limited to only four of the seven counties in District 4. He has not yet stated which three counties he wants to exclude from the debate schedule.
In view of DeFazio's refusal to even schedule debates and the restrictions DeFazio calls for in his letters, Robinson has concluded that DeFazio is actually afraid to debate at all.

Dr. Robinson says, DeFazio apparently is afraid to debate. Instead, he hopes to appear in carefully orchestrated settings late in the campaign with those appearances arranged and controlled by an organization dominated by Democrats an organization which promotes DeFazio's political agenda. This is, of course, not debate.”

Therefore, Dr. Robinson has decided to schedule, finance, and hold the series of seven debates one in each county of District 4. It is likely that DeFazio will realize that, in view of public support for fair and honest debates, he should participate. If Peter DeFazio still does not participate however, he will be represented by more courageous surrogates.

For more information or to interview Dr. Robinson, please call 541-255-2785.