2020 CANDIDATE INSIDER: Allen Buckley, Candidate for U.S. Senate
2020 CANDIDATE INSIDER: Jessica Szilagyi chats with Allen Buckley who is running for U.S. Senate in Georgia.
His name will appear in the ‘jungle primary’ race alongside 20 other candidates.
Due to the pandemic, AllOnGeorgia did not conduct traditional video interviews as have been done during election cycles in the past. AllOnGeorgia has extended the same interview opportunity for a feature piece to every U.S. Senate candidate campaign.
Allen Buckley will appear on the General Election ballot for the ‘jungle primary’ Senate seat, for which there are 21 candidates. (Note: As of 10/1/20, Republican Wayne Johnson has withdrawn from the race but will still appear on the ballot)
Allen Buckley is a Georgia attorney/CPA, working primarily in the areas of tax, employee benefits, estate planning, business and administrative law. He received his law degree from the University of Georgia in 1985. and the degree of LL.M. in taxation from the University of Florida in 1989. He is married, has two daughters, and resides in Smyrna, Georgia. He is running a campaign titled ‘Save Tomorrow’ and has pledged not to take money from special interest groups.
What led you to run for the U.S. Senate and why this election cycle?
I’ve actually run three times before as a Libertarian, in 2004, 2008, and 2016, and I was always a very moderate Libertaian. I left the Party recently so I hadn’t planned on running, but what happened when Johnny [Isakson] retired, I thought, ‘Well, I’ve thought through all these issues over all of these years and I actually offer many solutions to the problems the country faces,’ so I thought I know these people I’m going to go up against are all virtue signalers and aren’t going to offer any solutions to the problems we face, national debt, healthcare costs, racial unrest, and COVID-19. We’ve got a lot of problems, the main ones are financial and healthcare, and I’ve actually thought through all these issues with a much simpler tax system – I’m an attorney/CPA, so I’m very familiar with the system, having worked it over 30 years.
Running as an Independent
I’m an Independent, which is very important. I don’t have to pledge allegiance to any special interests. I wouldn’t bow down to any industries. I’m fiscally conservative and socially tolerant – wanting people to maximize what they do with their lives while not harming others or the economy.
Important Issues
Maximize what is done by the private sector (i.e. private businesses); it is more efficient than government
Reduce foreign intervention; we don’t need 800+ foreign military bases, when the rest of the world combined has approximately 60 foreign bases
Reduce healthcare costs – reduce the impact of the third party in healthcare.
Protect the environment
Prepare for future crises
About the Solutions
I worked on a plan for upwards of six years and had an article published on it, analyzing the potential tax systems we could use to replace our current mess and it’s relatively simple. Much higher rate of collections, lower collectability, everybody can understand it, and it’s reasonably progressive, a good bit simpler.
It uses Algebra to produce balanced budgets, so basically I propose eliminating the individual and corporate income taxes by making it so that everyone pays Value Added Tax (VAT), and FICA and SECA taxes are paid by only the upper half of the middle class and above. Additionally, credits are granted for poverty, housing, charitable, retirement and health care credits.
Eliminating the income tax altogether while increasing the FICA tax rate from 7.65% to 12% percent
Adding a 12% VAT.
The self-employment tax (SECA) rate would be 24%
The 12/24 percent rate is flexible, and it would be adjusted to balance the budget in non-recession (or worse) years.
A 14% rate for each tax (28% for SECA tax) would roughly have been sufficient to balance the budget in 2013. (The rates are x and 2x.)
“For each non-recession and non-emergency year after the U.S. largely recovers from the Coronavirus (but not doing what was done after the Great Recession–running large deficits thereafter), in addition to balancing the budget, we should place $200 billion in reserve (i.e. run a surplus) to help deal with a future pandemic or other major problem without having to rely on the Fed to print money (QE) to produce relief.”
I also want to reform the entitlement system and stop punishing people for making more money. Instead, “[t]he more money a person makes, the higher the standard of living they have.” In reforming this system, he would propose discouraging ‘planned single parenthood.’
And in addition to all of that, I have already drafted a few bills that I would like to see pass.
Financial Sanity Act – gradually moves back the Social Security retirement age and the Medicare age to 70 years old. The age would then be adjusted every decade based on life expectancy. People get a constant percentage based on life expectancy and what it does, with life expectancy increase, it does push back age in general so it’s designed to address the issue of each generation receiving substantially more from Medicare and Social Security than it has input. More on this plan. Summary of the [draft] Act.
Consumer Protection Act of 2020 – would address problems that arise with companies like AT&T that provide internet, telephone, and cable TV services, but currently prevent class action lawsuits. More on this plan.
REINS Act: This measure seeks to rein in power of the executive branch and the way it takes regulatory agency action.
I offer solutions on plenty of our issues.
On what committees in the Senate would you desire to serve on, given your background?
The Senate Finance Committee would be a natural thing for me, the Committee on Aging, and anything dealing with entitlement reform, including Medicare and Social Security.
Do you see the daily role of a Senator as ‘act now, explain later’ job or more of an educator position and then move once you have people on board?
I would do everything possible to tell people what the Congressional Budget Office has been saying for years: this system is unsustainable. It does not work on a long term basis. The sooner we all wake up and realize that and do something about it, the better off we’re all going to be. Right now, we’re basically just printing money at a rate that equals the amount of debt the government is taking on. The Federal Reserve was, for several months, printing dollar for dollar the amount the Treasury was borrowing, it was creating money and buying Treasury bonds and other assets. That’s inflationary! It may not be inflationary today, but it will be at some point when you’re doubling and tripling the actual money supply. That’s not a long term solution.
The long term solution is to get the debt-to-GDP ratio to under 70%. First, balance the budget every year we’re not in a recession, the economy grows, you’ll reduce the debt to GDP ratio. Last year, we were at a 50-year-low for unemployment and we ran a trillion dollar deficit on revenue on $3.5 trillion. This is all just about – Donald Trump – ‘What can I do to have prosperity now?’ and what can I do to get in power and stay in power. Nancy Pelosi with her $600 per week, that was just a bigger number than the Republicans came up with and that was a vote buying tactic.
This all becomes more unsustainable by the day. We’ve got to get our finances in order. So, I would use every opportunity to speak publicly while proposing bills.
Big Money in Politics
I have mixed feelings on it. Do I dislike the fact that Kelly Loeffler has all kinds of money that she can spend 1% of her net worth and blow away anything the rest of the candidate can do? Yeah, it really bothers me. She was put in that position because she’s rich, or that’s the main reason. Then you have Collins, you look at his voting record and compare that to what he has in his commercials and it’s just not right.
How am I combating it? I’m putting our yard signs, I’ve got them all over the state. I’m using social media and the advertising, and participating in forums. The main people I’m trying to reach are young people, whose future is being destroyed and conservative people who don’t like Trump. My message to them is ‘Trump’s a whack job.’ He’s got some good points, he’s got as many bad points, in my opinion, and I know a lot of Republicans don’t like that. Why vote for Kelly Loeffler or Doug Collins who promise to be 100% with Trump when you can vote for someone who will stand up to Trump or whoever the President is? Trump’s got some good points, too, though. For example, he’s reduced regulations, appointed some good judges, but on the other hand, he’s a jerk as a person and that kills us and he’s financially reckless.
More About Allen
I want to get our house in order. I’m the only one that understands the issues and has a plan to get it done. It’s a reasonable sacrifice by all of us but we’ll all be better off in the long run.
We need to elect competent people, not because of wealth and endorsements. It’s time to get over that stuff. I think I’m competent.
