NEW MADISON — With Ohio’s March 15 primary election closing in fast, Congressional candidate Scott George visited the New Madison Community Center Wednesday night to discuss his campaign with voters.
A Tipp City businessman, but born and raised in New Madison, George is running against a sizable number of other Republican candidates hoping to fill the 8th District U.S. House seat vacated by former Rep. John Boehner in October.
George, 48, told those assembled at the center that his dissatisfaction with the “business as usual” attitude in Washington D.C., and the feeling that he was not being represented well in Congress compelled him to throw his hat in the ring.
“I stepped into this challenge back in August,” he said, noting that he and one other candidate, J.D. Winteregg, had declared their candidacy for the GOP primary before Boehner’s resignation announcement.
“I saw our former representative as a big part of that establishment,” said George. “I was a big supporter of his when he first went into office, but the guy that was there 25 years later is not the same guy we sent there.”
“I think the question that the [other candidates] should have to answer is, ‘Why did you wait?’ Why were the people that jumped in after [Boehner’s resignation] not willing to do that before?” he said.
George has held executive positions with companies such as Iams, Proctor & Gamble and Aileron. Having corporate experience, he contends that the government needs to scale back regulations and taxes on businesses and cut spending.
“The first thing we have to look at is ‘What are the regulations we put on businesses?’” he said. “They’re killing jobs.”
“We’re looking at about $20 trillion in debt. The current president has doubled — doubled — the national debt of all presidents combined.”
George says he is an advocate of the “Fair Tax,” in which the federal income tax would be eliminated and the government would have to rely on a sales tax placed on newly sold items for its revenue.
“I am a really big proponent of the Fair Tax,” he said. “Our corporate tax rate is 39.1 percent. It’s the highest in the world. Most of the countries we do business with are around 24 percent. Our American companies come right out of the gate at a 15- to 20-percent disadvantage in the global market.”
“If we don’t do something about corporate tax, that’s why these businesses are moving offshore. What our government wants to do is penalize them for those things instead of fixing the problem.”
In regards to national security, George counts himself as one in favor of heavily restricting immigration.
“The natural thing to do is say, we are going to stop all immigration until these two things happen,” he said. “One, we’ve secured our border and have proved that we’ve secured our border. The second thing is that we have have fully drafted and documented a principle-based immigration policy. Unbridled compassion cannot be our only principle for immigration.”
George also contends that the U.S. military needs strengthening.
“We need a strong military. We have depleted our military.” he asserted. “We need to rebuild the military. This may require increased funding, and I would also say the military has a lot of room to cut out waste.”
The candidate also criticized President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal between the United States and Iran.
“I can’t for the life of me figure out why we would ever negotiate with a country like that,” he said. “It’s preventing them from getting a nuclear weapon for the next 10 years. I would think we’d want to prevent them from getting nuclear weapons period.”
George also told the audience he is a pro-life candidate, supports the 2nd Amendment and is a firm believer in term limits. He supports the repeal of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).
The candidate next heads to Troy, Ohio, for a 1 p.m. meet and greet at the Hayner Cultural Center on Sunday. He will also appear in a candidate forum in St. Henry, Ohio, on February 1.
To learn more about George and his stands on the issues, visit his campaign website at www.georgeforcongress.com.
