The Empire Page

Background: Among the Democrats seeking to challenge Kirsten Gillibrand for the Democratic Party's nomination in 2010 is Dr. Scott Noren, a dentist who lives in Ithaca who calls himself a "Fiscally Conservative Democratic. 

 

Empire Page:  What prompted your decision to run for the U.S. Senate?    Have you ever run for public office before?   Are you working on your campaign full time?  How much money will it take to get on the primary ballot?

Dr. Noren: There are many reasons that prompted me to run for US Senate that exist both at the local and Federal levels. I saw that it was futile to try to get local governments to rein in costs as an individual trying to make that happen. I also saw that the trend in the Senate and House is to to write long complicated bills, mainly authored with the quill of Lobbyists or Lobbyist influence, and that the politicians pander to whomever is expedient.

I have not run for public office before yet have spent inordinate amounts of time being at or studying the proceedings at local and Federal governmental policy meetings. I have lobbied with medical groups in Washington without giving money to politicians for doing so. I have been in the Halls of the US Congress and am dissatisfied with what I see.  I am not satisfied that common sense does not prevail in many instances that affect the security, fiscal soundness, constitutional integrity and continued success of this country.

I am working on my campaign part-time since I must support my family as a small business-owner and do not have the funding to do this full-time. It will take thousands of dollars to initially get my name out to get ballot signatures. I am avidly working on this over the next 2-3 weeks.

 

Empire Page: Some voters focus on a candidate’s personality, record and accomplishments.  What do you want voters to know about you as a person?

Dr. Noren:  I want voters to know that I am for a process and an office that is responsible to the public and not about egos. I am a hard worker that wants many of the same things they want: they want a safe place to live and raise a family, have a level playing field with big corporations.

They should know that my background is diverse; I have been blue-collar and white-collar; lived in the North and South, city and rural environments. I have served my country honorably in the US Army for 6 years, have been a health care worker in the public and private sector, and I have run a small business successfully myself now for 5 years.

I am raising 3 kids at home with my wife and that includes a multiply-disabled daughter. My appreciation for special-needs issues far surpasses any understanding of my opponent.  I also serve on the Governmental Affairs committee in the County Chamber of Commerce and on the Surrogate Advocate committee for NY State for those needing help with medical decision-making instead of a court when possible.

People should know that they will get the truth from me on any issue whether the answer 'sounds good' or not.

 

Empire Page: Other voters focus on a candidate’s platform.  What issues do you feel are most important for New York’s Senators to focus on and what are you positions on those issues?

Dr. Noren: New York needs to lead the nation in becoming a 'maker of goods' and especially green energy infrastructure. China is fast becoming the global producer of windmill, solar and other green energy hardware and software. I am not a believer that the US must dominate in every sector of life, but we certainly need to contribute heavily in this sector and create jobs and well-being for our country. Capping monthly health care premiums Federally and developing more advanced robotics and automated machinery can assist New York and other states in an economic recovery.

I also am the right person to emphasize personal responsibility regarding health, fitness and decreasing alcohol and substance abuse to reduce our national debt when it comes to billions of dollars in unnecessary health care costs. Today, I participated in the Empire State Games Olympic weightlifting tryouts (132 lb snatch and 220 lb clean and jerk). I do not expect others to do things at this level, but I do expect those who are healthy enough to do some exercise, eat better, reduce weight and smoking, and teach their children the same. I practice what I preach.

New York must have safe drinking water....period.

 

Empire Page: What specifically are you critical of in the performance of Kirsten Gillibrand as New York’s Junior Senator?

Dr. Noren:  Firstly, this Governor-appointed Senator was not elected. She had family political ties and 'behind the scene' connections to get where she got. She represented big-tobacco Phillip Morris as an associate attorney and reaped thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from that firm but is now an 'anti-tobacco' advocate.

She has flip-flopped on several issues over the last two years; she has received the most amount of Lobby money from Commercial Banks of all members of Congress (both Houses). She has advocated for raising the national drivers license age because of obvious safety concerns but at the expense of rural America where 17 year olds depend on unrestricted licenses for evening jobs and extra-mural activities.

She has not, as I would have, called for an immediate installation of remote switches on all remaining US controlled deep-well marine oil platforms which is scary and irresponsible. She has no health care background like most in Congress and has proceeded to run the health care system further into the ground by instituting "bean-counter" regulations in a health care bill that was written by the Insurance Lobby. It opened the door for forced coverage, no cost controls and nothing to address the physician shortage or crappy reimbursement to primary care physicians in any meaningful way.

Anyone can get pork-projects for individual communities in this State to get voters to 'like you'. What you don't hear from her for example is why we got a credit card bill that didn't cap the credit card rate...again, Wall-Street friendly and main street unfriendly.

 

Empire Page: Your platform calls for complete withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan?  Wouldn’t such an action be a death sentence for thousands of people who US forces today are protecting against the Taliban in Afghanistan and against warring factions including Al Qaeda in Iraq?

The other question is the policy effect on US troop casualties; clearly the following link shows this policy has increased troop casualties due to increased troop numbers: http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2010/03/ap_afghanistan_032710/

Regarding civilian casualties, there has been a decrease; this benefit is out-weighed by the resultant deaths of troops who even survived previous tours of duty successfully, only to die on their 2nd or third tour. The multi-national effort is gone and the brunt of the security is borne by our country, specifically the same families of vets over and over again.

The cost of waging this 'war' is unsustainable and again is best shared among several nations instead of mainly ours. The time has come for the Afghan population to demand a better government instead of a drug-controlled/influenced economy at the expense of American troop lives.

It is not the mission of the United States to create a Democracy in Iraq or Afghanistan; it is the responsibility of their country to do so if they desire; for a detailed account of some reasons why this occupation is failing and not even lawful, go to: http://www.ivaw.org/faq#12.

For us to assist the Afghani people against Taliban oppression and their drug trade, we should have multi-national support. Saying we don't and just doing it in a 'go-it-alone' approach was well argued against by Paul Wellstone and others.

 

Empire Page: Am I correct in interpreting part of your plan to provide better health care involves saving $300 billion per year associated with obesity and smoking?  Government, including our educational system, and the medical profession have tried to make an impact on both issues.  What would you do differently that would result in such a large annual savings?

Dr. Noren:  Accomplishing the reduction in obesity and smoking requires multiple and simultaneous potential initiatives. We must exponentially redesign nutritional education from K through 12. We must put mandatory nationally based physical fitness programs in K through 12 at a much more aggressive program design. We cannot mandate exercise and eating correctly; however the potential effect of starting more aggressive nutritional and physical education from K through 12 may reduce the over $300 billion per year in obesity and smoking costs by a significant percentage in this future population.

Doing nothing or the same thing is an irresponsible option. Better education of adults through media on nutrition and exercise needs to be more aggressive also. There is also the possibility of making it harder or blocking the ability to buy cigarettes and qualify for public assistance; from a fiscal standpoint it is a hard argument to win helping someone on their electric bill when they smoke $800 a month; I know of a couple here that smokes $780 per month, every month. This is unsustainable from a state budget standpoint.

Annual savings from personal responsibility improvement is not the only key to fiscal solvency in NY and the Unites States. The massive entitlement programs such as automatic pension increases or salary increases, massive school budgets with top-heavy numbers of administrators has NOT been addressed by Senator Gillibrand vocally; we need a US Senator that sticks their nose into the face of the very State that is asking for Federal dollars and is one of the most socialistic States in the country when it comes to entitlement programs. Without tightening the belt there and also demanding more tax burden from big corporations getting free rides at the expense of taxpayers, the state budget here and elsewhere will only grow bigger and bigger deficits. Don't believe me; read the NY Times article and let it sink in:  http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/18/opinion/18mon2.html.

Reimbursing primary care doctors better for time spent on preventative care is absolutely needed immediately, and not in the 'slap-in-the-face' fashion currently done. If a primary care physician is told that they will essentially get $10 more for a visit when they many times aren't even covering overhead, that is the proverbial 'wrong-answer' to the medical community. The message from the Congress must also not be a pandering one; smoking and obesity continue to bury the medical system fiscally and the public needs to know that no matter what DC does they will need to improve this area personally to make it work. Stimulus dollars should have gone to low-cost community fitness center construction and similar projects.

Safeways' Healthy Measures program works well and should be looked at and rewarded by government for their stellar reductions in health care costs; see this link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124476804026308603.html

 

Empire Page: You seem to have only two planks in your economic platform --  green energy and personal responsibility.  The President, Governor Paterson and I presume Senator Gillibrand are already on board when it comes to green energy, but can green energy truly fix New York's economic problems? 

Dr. Noren:  In addition to numerous other platform initiatives, I think the most significant one is my plan for a coalition of Lobby-money free US Senators who reboot the Senate into a more transparent and honest body of lawmakers. Kirsten Gillibrand is the among the worst examples of the exact opposite ideology to real campaign finance reform.

I feel that I have potential solutions for many problems facing New York and this country. Regarding Ms. Gillibrand, she has done nothing to improve the BIG picture of this state's economy and this state like others is headed for socialistic financial ruin. I am a Democrat who firmly believes in exactly what I said in the past; fiscal responsibility of government, leveling the playing field against big corporations to allow individuals and business prosper; reducing tax loads and programs that we cannot pay for, and personal responsibility that the public has just not owned up to.

Listen to Jackson Brown's song "Lives In The Balance" from quite a long time ago. Amongst the lyrics that still hold true:

You might ask what it takes to remember
When you know that you've seen it before
Where a government lies to a people
And a country is drifting to war

And there's a shadow on the faces
Of the men who send the guns
To the wars that are fought in places
Where their business interest runs

On the radio talk shows and the T.V.
You hear one thing again and again
How the U.S.A. stands for freedom
And we come to the aid of a friend
But who are the ones that we call our friends
These governments killing their own?
Or the people who finally can't take any more
And they pick up a gun or a brick or a stone
There are lives in the balance
There are people under fire
There are children at the cannons
And there is blood on the wire

There's a shadow on the faces
Of the men who fan the flames
Of the wars that are fought in places
Where we can't even say the names

This song rings true today as it did decades ago.....