By Wade Coggeshall
AVON — Eric Wathen, Hendricks County Commissioner and Republican candidate for Indiana’s Fourth Congressional District, used a rally Wednesday night at the Prestwick Country Club to bolster support for his campaign and detail his stance on some of the nation’s most pressing issues.
The event almost didn’t happen. Wathen’s mother succumbed to cancer the night before after a years-long battle.
“It’s hard for me to be here tonight, but I think my mom wanted me to go forward,” Wathen said.
He noted how his mother raised him as a single parent. She did so through hard work. Then Wathen said his main interest in being a Congressman is for all the generations after him, including his four children.
“You can grow up to do anything you want to do, as long as you want to work hard and put forth the effort,” he said. “Right now I’m worried, with the path we’re going on in Washington, that our kids are losing that opportunity.”
With the national debt now up to about $45,000 for every U.S. citizen, Wathen’s household holds about a quarter-million in debt by itself. The solution?
“Stop spending money we don’t have,” Wathen said.
Indeed, the entire county budget is down about 6 percent from the year before. County commissioners have cut their budget by 20 percent. Any time there’s an increase in income, Wathen advocates using half that increase to pay debt. If income decreases, then decrease the budget by the same amount.
“That way we’re never spending more money than we’re bringing in,” he said.
But too many in the nation’s capitol, Wathen says, no longer remember what it’s like in the real world anymore. Instead they spend us into oblivion and pass laws meant to help us, but in reality only further limit our freedoms.
“I want to provide an opportunity for our kids — give them the same opportunities I’ve had my entire life and the same ability to succeed,” Wathen said.
The way to do that is “get government out of the things they don’t need to be involved in. Government shouldn’t be picking winners and losers like they are right now (with the stimulus and bailouts).”
Among his other stances, Wathen supports a flat consumption tax, not income taxes. He considers manmade global warming a farce.
“It’s egotistic of people to think we can actually control what’s going on with this planet,” Wathen said. “It’s been around a lot longer than we have.”
And the biggest problem with our health-care system is getting people who truly need help into pre-existing government programs.
“There are a lot of programs out there that are under-utilized that we could get people into,” Wathen said. “I think that’s a more effective way of doing it than a 2,400-page bill.”
Dave Berryman was there to show his support.
“I like what he’s done for the county,” he said. “That’s my motivation for being here. I think he’ll do a good job in Congress too.”
Greg Steuerwald, state representative for District 40, also was at the rally.
“He has a true belief in smaller government,” Steuerwald said of Wathen. “It’s not just rhetoric. He also treats the people’s money as if it was his own.”
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Online:
www.ericwathen.com
wade.coggeshall@flyergroup.com
