Politics & Government
Goldstein declares energy inflation puts stress on families
Physician and attorney is collecting petition signatures to force August 9 Republican primary in Fourth Congressional District
Michael Goldstein Jim Himes Jayme Stevenson
Joe Biden Gary Rose Barack Obama
By Scott Benjamin
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GREENWICH – Congressional hopeful Michael Goldstein says soaring heating oil prices, a record $3 trillion federal budget deficit during the last fiscal year and increased interest rates will result in “higher taxes.”
Goldstein, an eye doctor and an attorney from Greenwich, is collecting signatures to run against former Darien First Selectman Jayme Stevenson, the Republican convention-endorsed candidate, in an August 9 primary in the Fourth Congressional District, which covers much of the southwest part of the state including the wealthy Fairfield County Gold Coast.
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Stevenson garnered 156 of the 174 delegates at the May 5 convention at Fairfield University, which left Goldstein below the 15 percent needed to automatically qualify for a primary. He needs to submit valid signatures from at least 2,067 registered Republicans in the district by Tuesday, June 7, at 4 p.m.
Goldstein lamented that in less than a year and a half under Democratic President Joe Biden home heating oil has increased from “under $2 a gallon” to “$6 to $7 a gallon.”
Joseph Montanaro of Greenwich, who seconded Goldstein’s nomination at the convention, told Patch.com in a phone interview that prices would be much lower “if our president didn’t reverse every energy success that we had from 2016 on.”
In an interview with Patch.com, Goldstein declared, “The heating costs could go from $2,000 a year to $6,000 a year. This is placing severe economic stress on a lot of families.”
“We have in the last year or so this major escalation in energy costs. A lot of middle class and poor people are suffering because they can’t afford to heat their homes,” Goldstein commented. “[Seven-term Democratic Congressman] Jim Himes [of Greenwich] has been silent. I have to think that is because Jim Himes has won elections by such wide margins [he annexed 62.2 percent of the vote in 2020] that he thinks his accountability is to the mainstream Democratic Party leadership in Congress rather than to the people of Connecticut.”
After being contacted by Patch.com via e-mail, Francesca Capodilupo, Himes’ campaign manager, stated that their campaign would “not be making a comment” on Goldstein’s criticism of the congressman’s record on energy costs.
The Sabato Crystal Ball rates the Fourth District as “Safe Democrat.”
Goldstein remarked, “I don’t think that as a country that we have technology to go from petroleum directly to renewables.”
He said the surge in inflation is partly due to the $1.9 trillion stimulus that Biden signed in 2021, which led to a record $3 trillion budget deficit for the last fiscal year.
“In prior years we used to think that $1 trillion was a horrible thing,” Goldstein said.
“As interest rates rise there’s going to be a much higher annual cost on servicing that debt,” he said. “We’re going to hit a point of higher taxes.”
The last time the federal government had a balanced budget was 2001. How does the country return to that point?
“I think we need to reassess how we spend federal money,” Goldstein said. “There is a natural tendency for an agency to expand its powers.”
However, he said he supports spending “a little more on defense,” noting that China has become a greater threat.
What would he bring to the campaign that would differ from Stevenson’s resume, which includes 10 years as first selectman in Darien and an unsuccessful bid for the 2018 Republican nomination for lieutenant governor?
“I’m not a politician by trade,” Goldstein said. “I’m a physician and an attorney.”
Montanaro called Goldstein “a common sense conservative.”
Goldstein remarked, “I bring a lot of skill sets. As a doctor, I’ve tried all my life to be a healer.”
Goldstein has served as the chairman of the New York County Medical Society Board of Trustees,
He said that the federal government could trim the cost of health care, “which is 20 percent of the economy.”
“About $1 trillion [annually] is spent on administrative costs,” Goldstein said. He insisted that with a more efficient system, some of that money could be used to “cover those who do not have insurance. We can lower premiums.”
He declared that American health care is riddled with regulatory overreach.
“The average doctor spends probably 20 hours a week doing regulatory compliance,” Goldstein exclaimed.
Additionally, he said, “It can cost two and half to three billion dollars to get a drug approved by the FDA [Food and Drug Administration]. These costs are passed on to the consumer.”
Goldstein said that Democratic former President Barack Obama’s health care package needs reform, describing it as “basically catastrophic health care insurance.”
“The major flaw is that it is a high deductible insurance plan,” he explained. “Many people could have $6,500 deductibles before they see a penny from the plan. It is basically a catastrophic health care insurance.”
Goldstein also complained that there are limited networks and except for emergencies the coverage is not portable if you are “not in your home state.”
He said he shares some of the criticism from Democrats on former Republican President George W. Bush’s 2003 Medicare reform, which provides prescription drug coverage for non-hospitalized senior citizens.
“The problem with that plan is that there is no negotiated drug process,” Goldstein remarked regarding how the prices are established.
Westport Representative Town Meeting member Sal Liccione, a Democrat and a Himes supporter, said the “top issue right now [in the Fourth Congressional District] is guns” following the recent shootings at the Robb Elementary School in Texas.
Goldstein said, “There has to be a response. But it also has to be a rational response.”
Goldstein added that he is “fine with [federal] background checks.”
He said that Connecticut already has “some of the strictest laws in the country.”
“In some ways it needs to be state specific,” said Goldstein, noting that the laws in Wyoming and Montana: are “different than for gun owners in New York, California or Connecticut.”
Regarding the recent report at Politico.com on the draft U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling on abortion, Goldstein said, “It is stirring a huge controversy.”
“I don’t think that it is a federal issue,” he said. “I don’t think that the federal government should get involved at all. I think it is essentially a state issue.”
Gary Rose, the Government Department chairman at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, has said that suburban women, who typically had voted in equal numbers for Republicans and Democrats, had trended more Democrat in Connecticut in the 2018 election because of their opposition to Republican former President Donald Trump, who was not even on the ballot that year.
Liccione said that this November more suburban women may vote Democratic because of an apparent lack of concern by Republicans on gun responsibility and a women’s right to choose an abortion.
On another topic, Goldstein said the United States should be making more microchips.
Fortune has reported that the legislation that has been approved in the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate and is now in conference committee, would boost funding to the National Science Foundation.
Goldstein said as a result of the limited number of microchips, “many medications are manufactured overseas.”
On another topic, he said he opposes plans to have the federal government pay for some college student loan debt, a proposal that Biden endorsed during his 2020 campaign.
Goldstein remarked, “People take loans with the express purpose of investing in your future. The expectation is that you should do that wisely.”
He added, “Nobody looks at why college tuition is so high. Why are college costs going up higher than the rate of inflation?”
Geographically, with just 17 municipalities – including the first, second and sixth largest cities in the state in Bridgeport, Stamford and Norwalk – the Fourth Congressional District is the smallest of Connecticut’s five congressional districts.
Nevertheless, Goldstein said that, “There is a huge diversity economically. There is a huge diversity politically.”
“There is a huge number of independent voters,” he said. “I think the independent voters really determine the outcome of elections. But they have the lowest turnout rate.”
Goldstein said that after the pandemic began a little more than two years ago, the district has benefitted from the migration of residents from New York City and surrounding areas that are now working from home and have chosen to live in suburban Connecticut.
“They can have a back yard and they can have more space,” Goldstein explained.
He remarked, “I think it is the only thing that has saved the congressional district.”
Resources:
https://fortune.com/2022/04/18/congress-legislation-semiconductor-manufacturing-chip-shortage/
https://patch.com/connecticut/...
https://www.washingtonpost.com...
https://www.wsj.com/articles/c...
