Nick Coons

Nick Coons

Coons, Nick (Libertarian)

Phone: (480) 240-2910

Email: nick@nickcoonsforcongress.com

1915 E Harvard Dr., Tempe, AZ 85283
(mail: PO Box 23959, Tempe, AZ 85285)

Age: 31 (born:10/12/78, Phoenix, AZ)

Arizona since: Birth

Occupation: Founder, owner, and operator, The RedSeven Computer Co., since 1997.

Marital: Married (Crystal, novelist/writer)

Religious preference: Atheist

Education: Some community college.

Political experience: Grassroots activism for multiple campaigns, primarily Ron Paul’s 2008 presidential campaign.

Members have included: BNI International; Local First AZ(formerly AZ Chain Reaction); former member, Better Business Bureau; former member, LeTip.

Interests: Racquetball, bowling, camping, hiking, gardening, home remodeling, technology, philosophy and logic, psychology.

Issues

Political influence: Ron Paul. While I’ve been a life-long Libertarian, I was never politically active until Ron Paul announced his presidential bid in 2007. I decided to become involved at the grassroots level of the “Ron Paul R3VOLUTION,” which sparked my initial interest in the political system.

Top priority: This is difficult, because any political action that has a good chance of passing must be politically popular, which changes frequently depending on the current hot topics. While my ultimate ideal would be such that government’s only job is to protect individual rights (without infringing on those rights in the process), we’re a long way from that, and the system needs to be notched back significantly. I would say that at the moment, the economy is of great concern to people, so I would work to remove the government’s involvement in the economy. Their actions through monetary and fiscal policy set the downturn in motion, and their continued involvement is prolonging the recovery process.

Respected opponent: Ron Paul comes to mind because over his entire political career not only has he remained solid on his philosophical views, but he’s stood his ground even if he’s the lone dissenter in the U.S. House. Even though there are areas where I disagree with his positions, the fact that he’s part of the system and has held the same views not swayed by lobbyists and other special interest groups is a rarity.

Wall St bailout: I oppose government involvement in the economy. Just as we have separation of church and state, so too should we have separation of economy and state. The economy can only recover when the problems introduced have been corrected by the market. Any involvement by the government, no matter how noble the intent, will hinder that process.

Stimulus Act: As with the Bush Administration’s bail out, any attempt by the government to fix a problem, which it both caused and has no clue how to fix, will hinder recovery. For the economy to recover quickly and maintain future strength will require removing government involvement. This means cutting both taxes and spending, and loosening regulations that do nothing to protect consumers yet impose extraneous costs on businesses.

Health care overhaul: It’s no coincidence that health care (along with education) is one area where the government is most involved and is one of the worst as far as consumer satisfaction is concerned. Rather than trying to emulate failed socialized systems, people should realize that it is an overabundance of regulations, not a lack of them that is to cause for expensive and inaccessible health care issues. Requiring insurance will cause insurance premiums to rise significantly, just as it did with auto insurance premiums in Arizona in the mid-90s, when auto insurance became mandatory. Insurance should be optional, purchasable from anywhere, and no particular coverages should be mandated by government. HSAs should be available to everyone without being tied to any particular insurance program. The recently-passed federal health care bill takes us in the wrong direction.