Thank you Eric for sitting down with The Albers Report today.
So, one of the first questions I want to ask you is what was it that inspired you to decide to run for political office?
That’s a great question. I’ve always been really passionate about Springfield. I feel growing up here I feel some sort of duty to what I think is a great community that gave me a great opportunity. I worked with Springfield Public Schools, I attend church here, and I’ve had good opportunities for jobs here. You know, when I was in high school and in college I worked minimum wage. There’s always an opportunity to work, if you are willing to work. Its now that I’ve been blessed I think by those opportunities and I want to make sure they’re available for other people and that direct sense of responsibility now and I’m very proud to have a daughter that I want to see grow up in Springfield and also to be able to have good opportunities and do well in Springfield. That sense of responsibility to the community that has offered me so much I think is pretty much is the underlying reason why I feel very passionate about running, but mainly a direct reason is I’ve always been a person that’s volunteered whenever there was a need. I volunteered with Big Brothers and Big Sisters, and always volunteered for good candidates that I felt were very supportive of our community and had the right values and the right moral judgement.
I was expecting honestly to volunteer for whoever was going to run for this seat. The more and more that I talked with other people about my running, the more people kept encouraging me to run, and that which is a very humbling position to be in, to have people encourage you to run for office. I often kept thinking it wasn’t the right time for me to run, and the more and more excuses I kept coming up with the more and more of those excuses kept going away, in a sense it felt like I was really being almost called to run and the timing was right and to really refuse it with the what’s clearly being led to do.
Now assuming you are elected, assuming November 5 you are the representative elect of the 136th District, what is your highest legislative priority?
I think creating jobs, and also seg-way that into good quality jobs, is the number one priority. We need to have more people that have health insurance in this state. If you can imagine this, I view it as a teeter totter where we have some people on one end of the teeter totter that are insured, by companies, health insurance, or they’re able to afford medical care out of pocket. The other end of the teeter totter we have a population of people that cannot afford it, they are either on government assistance or they’re just not paying their bills. Those people on one end are leveraging the expenses of the other, and so I feel that we need to get more people on the end of the teeter totter where they are paying their medical bills and that’s a priority. You do that by giving more good quality jobs in this area, quality jobs that pay health insurance, the more people we can get on one end of the teeter totter, the lower all costs will be for everyone and I think it will be an acceleration rate and its very much like a snowball affect, the more people that are actually paying their bills can lower the cost, and lower the cost, the more people that can actually start affording paying their bills.
Let me touch on jobs for a moment, how can the state of Missouri as a government create jobs in Missouri?
Well the truth is that government doesn’t create anything. Its politicians that love to stand up and say I’m going to bring more jobs but truth is we don’t. If anything politicians and government impedes upon jobs and we do that by taxing.
When we create regulations we tax, we’re slowing the effect of the free market, we are slowing the effect of businesses. Now some regulations are necessary and some taxes are necessary, but you always have to keep that in mind, whatever you do its going to impede on the free market and so you have to ask yourself is this what we are going to do, is this tax absolutely necessary, and is this regulation absolutely necessary, because whatever it is your going to do its going to slow the free market.
Honestly, politicians can’t create jobs, you let business create jobs, and that’s what I’m going to do. I think we’ve done a good job of that since 2005, when Gov. Blunt came into office, at one point we gained over 100,000 jobs. We went from being the number one job loss state in the county, to where we gained over 100,000 jobs, and we haven’t been immune by this recession. You know, Missouri for the last few years, amongst those 100,000 jobs, we did take a little bit of a dip, we lost about 20,000 jobs and so overall under Gov Blunt’s administration we are net gaining 70 some thousand jobs, that’s still tremendous even in a huge down turn economy like this. And in fact, last June and August the Ball State research group indicated they declared under their study, that ranked all the states in the United States, that Missouri is the number one state for any business to thrive in and grow jobs. That’s reflective on a fact that last month we were the number one job growth state in the United States. We grew 3,000 jobs alone in the month of September. That’s a good thing, that’s a fantastic thing for people to know about. Now that’s not something the press talks about, but I think its important for the voters to know.
Let’s turn to an issue I think you know a little something about, healthcare.
Right
Jay Nixon, the Democratic candidate for Governor, has been going around saying that we have a healthcare crisis. With your experience in the healthcare industry, are we really facing a healthcare crisis?
Well, I mean if you look at the hospitals, I don’t know about the whole State of Missouri, but I can tell you that the hospitals in Springfield, I think saying crisis is really a misnomer, and I think you can ask any healthcare employee, and I don’t think that they would say we have a crisis situation. I think that’s to really stir the pot, as very drastic words to stir and evoke an emotional response. We do have a population that is not insured, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have healthcare. People have healthcare in America. you walk in you need healthcare it will be provided for you and whether you can pay or not. And so, to tell people and to use words to scare people is really inappropriate.
Let me get to another healthcare issue here, access and affordability. Much has been said, in 2005, Gov. Blunt initiated some changes to the Medicaid system, as you know, and some people have said that has led to less in access. How can the State of Missouri improve access and affordability of healthcare short of making it socialized medicine?
That’s a fantastic question, OK. What I see as a problem in healthcare is that we are pushing all healthcare patients into a one size fits all model, so wether you have a fever or a rash, or you have a broken arm, or maybe you’re having a heart attack, everyone is going to the emergency room, and this is a very expensive way to treat people.
This model has to change. if you look at any other model in the free market, let’s take for example, we’re sitting here in a Subway, ok and if you want a good meal this is a good meal at a good price, but it certainly isn’t the quality of some restaurants. The reason why this restaurant is competitive is because people have a choice. If everyone was forced to come to this location, they would probably charge whatever they could get away with, and that’s what hospitals do. Everyone’s being forced to go into one situation and so the hospital in response to this environment, because their response is to provide 100 percent of the quality that they possibly can, because if they don’t, their only repercussion is being sued or being fined by the federal government. So there is no incentive for them to provide cost effective care, so if you want to reduce cost you got to and this may sound strange if people are concerned about cost you just have to start realizing that you can’t have the top quality treatment and expect it to be at a reasonable price.
You know what I’m saying? We cant go into Ruth Crisp Steakhouse and expect a top quality steak at a reasonable price for the price of the Golden Corral, it just isn’t the way the world works.
And to give you another analogy, it would be as if today most people can afford a cell phone. I don’t care what level of income you have, you ask anyone in a room and everyone can pull out a cell phone, but not everyone going to pull out the latest and greatest I-Phone either. What we are encountering in healthcare is the situation where in a sense, the government is forcing everyone to have an I-Phone. If everyone was forced, the I-Phone was the only kind of product available, and few people could afford it and then we would have to come up with ways how do people afford it; well lets subsidize it, let government come in and pick up half the bill, let’s let people have phone insurance. So because everyone has the right to have a cell phone right, I mean this is just common sense and it sounds like a very simplified way of talking about healthcare, but the same common sense should be applied to healthcare.
It’s a long direction but let me get around to this, healthcare is moving in a direction to address some of these issues and if the free market healthcare is moving in this direction and we as legislature’s need to be ready to respond.
For example, we are sitting in a Subway in a Wal-Mart, and I’m looking here and I’m seeing a hearing aide center, healthcare, a nail salon, I see a bank, and I think I see an eye care, people come here because they want quick convenient services, right? Why don’t we see a clinic? Why don’t I see a nurse practitioner, or a doctor in front of the Wal-Mart? It’s definitely needed, but the truth is the regulations are very difficult and the model is difficult. We need to be able to see patients being able to come in just like they’re having their tire and lube done, healthcare should be more convenient and more available, and in ways that are not as expensive as an emergency room. And that what we need to allow as legislature’s. There is no reason why if you or someone in your family has a fever, you are going to Wal-Mart anyway and get the medicine, why can’t you see a nurse practitioner for maybe a tenth of the cost of seeing the doctor in the emergency room. That will reduce the cost of healthcare.
Other things that will reduce the cost of healthcare, maybe you cant go in to see your doctor, take time out of your day, why can’t we allow and encourage more people to to visit their doctor online. Online e-visits is a growing trend in the industry but regulations and its torts or its lawsuits have been slowing this down. It would be a much cheaper and cost effective way treating our patient population and we as legislature’s need to be reactive and be sure that physicians feel comfortable and confident doing what they consider safe medicine over the internet.
Let me move over to education for a moment. On the blog I comment a great deal on education, education funding and results. What do you see as a primary challenge to the state as far as the public education system?
Well the biggest challenge is Medicaid. When you look at eight years ago, Gov Holden, which I think he made one of the worst mistakes in the world, he allowed a growing and out of control Medicaid situation to completely overrun the state budget, and with no concerns for the taxpayers or the students of this State, he reversed the philosophy of over 100 years of the State of Missouri.
Over 100 years, we said that education is the top funding priority of this State and the children and their future is the number one thing. By making promises they couldn’t keep in healthcare, they shortchanged all the students in this state, and the education system, and that was a mistake. Honestly, they don’t want to hear this kinda thing, but Medicaid and the funding of Medicaid and it’s out of control growth is the greatest threat to education that this state has.
Let me move on with education as well. A lot has been said about some people supporting vouchers particularly when you have the difficulty in St. Louis and Kansas City. Is vouchers something that you would support?
I wouldn’t support vouchers and I don’t think many private schools want vouchers, because any time you take money from government there are strings attached. Now I’d be willing to listen to options because I think that parents that take their children to private schools, and that homeschool their children should be applauded, because they are doing what every parent should be doing and which is being involved in their child’s education and they’re taking that to a greater extent and I think we need more of that.
I think, philosophically, its unusual that my daughter for example,she’s in a daycare and I don’t have to pay taxes on the money that my wife and I are spending for her to go to a daycare. Now when she goes to college, when she is in preschool the same thing, we won’t have to pay taxes on the money we spend on pre-k education. When she is in Kindergarten until she graduates high school, in that age, if we happen to send her to a private school, we can’t get a tax break, we have to pay taxes on that money. If we send her to, after high school, either a private college or state college we get a tax break on either one. Now tell me that makes sense, that doesn’t make sense, I think it would benefit students, it would benefit teachers, benefits education in general for us to encourage people to spend more money on education all around.
If parents are wanting to invest more in there child’s education by taking their children and putting them in a private school, that does not hurt state schools. It does not hurt a state school for a child to go to a private school, if anything it is benefiting education in general for kids and parents to be investing more money in the education system in general. I would not be in favor, lets take taxpayers money, and funneling it to these private schools, I don’t think that’s a good thing.
It seems everyone is talking about taxes these days. From Joe the Plumber now famously known across the country, on a national level, Barack Obama’s spread the wealth around and debating wether or not it’s socialism, but that’s for another day, I want to get your thoughts on state government and taxes.
I think that we need to simplify the tax system. People talk about the Fair Tax, I think that’s a great idea, but initially one of the things I would like to see done away with and not for sure it will happen, it all depends on which Governor is elected, but I think that we would do the citizens of this state a great service, if we get rid of the personal property tax of vehicles.
I think it’s ridiculous that people who purchased a vehicle, they are paying taxes when they put fuel in the vehicle, they paid sales tax when they bought it, they are paying a fine or a fee just to put a license plate on there. Why do we then, every year, charge people for what they already own. This is not right. The founding fathers would be adamantly opposed to something like this, and so I would be 100 percent in favor of repealing the tax of personal property in this state.
Two years ago, Amendment 2 was passed by the voters in a narrow way, and it seems almost every year a Constitutional Amendment passes by around the one or two percent point margin. It seems every year our voters are asked to amend the Constitution and in some cases it comes down to we are changing the constitution by that narrow one or two percentage point margin. Some people have suggested that what we can do is move the Constitution more aline with some other states who require at least a 60 percent majority. Is that something you see as a viable option.
Yeah I would like to look at it more. I think that other options, I’m not really taking a stand at this point, but I think that we need to do something because Amendment 2 I think fooled a lot of voters. Whether you agree with the amendment or not there are voters that felt that they were voting against human cloning, and then they felt like what they did was voted to allow human cloning.
I think you need to do something, one of the other things that’s concerning is that you have people that are collecting signatures that are being paid. They’re being paid to stand out in front of the Library Center, it seems like every time I go to the Library Center someone’s thrusting a notebook in my face trying to get my signature. I think that it would be a good thing for the State to require either these people collecting the signatures be citizens of the state because a lot of them aren’t even citizens, I mean they are citizens of other states, but they are being pulled in here paid to collect signatures.
People are coming in from like Illinois, Arkansas, and that kind of thing.
Yes, I just think that if you are going to be collecting signatures you should believe in the cause because a lot of people who are standing there don’t really even know what they are collecting the signatures for.
Keeping in line with that. What is your position on stem cell research?
I am opposed to embryonic stem cell research. I think it is cloning or what they call Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer, I don’t know what else you would define as cloning. To me that is what you are doing, if you were to take that cell and put it in an environment it would grow to be a human being. Just because of its environment, just because of the location that it is, doesn’t mean its not a human being. I mean, if we put you on Mars, you clearly won’t be able to survive there does that mean that you’re no longer a human being? I don’t think that our definition of what’s human is by its location and that’s the issue that I have and other than that it was a bad law because it really handcuffs the funding to organizations that engage in stem cell research, so if an organization is conducting stem cell research, we as legislature’s have no control of the money that they are getting or no control over any kind of reductions and oversight of that money. Its a very poorly written amendment and something’s going to have to be done.
Let me just clarify though, you do support adult stem cell research?
Yes I do, because I think that if people are truly looking for cure’s they will be against cloning research and for adult stem cell research. It’s a huge open plan tier until such recently. The reason there is so much money behind the embryonic stem cell research is because they can actually copyright the research. So if you were to somehow, they’ve never been able to do it, find some therapeutic cure with an embryo, a human clone, then they would be able to cash in a great deal of money. But with the adult stem cell research if they find a cure with that they can’t cash in because they’re not able to copyright that.
The travel industry is something I care a little bit about. The American Society of Travel Agencies and Travel Agents is pushing a lot of states to tighten up their registrations and this has to do with a lot of multi-level companies signing up people and selling it to regular citizens, hey you can be a travel agent for $500.00 with little or no training. Would tightening up licensing requirements in Missouri be something that would be an option you would look closely at or have you really looked at that at all?
You know that’s a really good question, but I haven’t looked at that at all and I would be interested in hearing more.
What do you think of Prop A?
I think that Prop A is a, again its really concerning to get bad legislation through. You have to tie it to people, tie it to children and I’m against it, because its not necessarily going to benefit the schools. If we want to help schools let’s get more money to schools, but lets not fool ourselves buy saying that basically we are making a deal with the devil and taking advantage of people that are gambling. Anytime it just seems that you want to pass bad legislation through you sell it to the public as this is going to benefit the sick, the elderly, or the children. If I wrote as a voter, now anytime I hear a bill or something or an adult that’s talking about how its going to help the kids, that’s when you should start really listening because there probably isn’t a lot of truth to it.
Question 1 here in Springfield looks at changing how our judges are elected, really eliminating the election part of it turning it into more of a selection. What is your position on Question 1?
I honestly don’t have a position. I have heard both sides of the argument and myself will probably make up my mind the day of the election. I know it seems like a cop out, but I really at this point have to say that honestly I’m still looking into it. I understand both sides of the argument.
With your experience in the healthcare industry, Proposition B changes nursing home regulations and some have said its a right to live independently, if Proposition B is going to be put out there. Have you looked at that in depth?
No I haven’t, that’s one of those ballot issues that I haven’t looked into.
What is the number one reason that voters in the 136th should elect Eric Burlison?
I think that experience is the defining difference between myself and my opponent. Having been able to work in a private community outside of a government job, and working in healthcare has given me a lot of understanding of some of the problems that we face and not only that, but what I do as a profession is to reduce waste, and expenses, and be able to reduce paper.
I think also my values are completely different than my opponent. I’m a pro-life candidate, and I’m not afraid to say that, but I think its interesting that my opponent, when asked, ducks the question every chance he can. I’m not afraid to tell voters what I believe in and how I feel, because if they believe differently then God bless ‘em, we live in America and people have the right to choose a different person.
I want people to know where I stand and be able to easily make a decision. I feel my understanding of the school system here, having graduated from Springfield Public Schools and being very passionate about the school system, that people will feel confident that I will do what’s best for our public school system.
While you have been out campaigning for the last year and a half, what have you learned about yourself?
That is a really good question. I learned that my favorite part of campaigning is actually talking to voters, going door to door, knocking on doors and having very interesting conversations with people, and whether I win or lose it’s that time I’ve had with voters that makes me realize it was worth it, even if I lose, it was worth spending that time.
I had some personal experiences that were very inspiring and some people that I met that had inspired me and made me feel a lot better about America then sometimes the media portrays. It just brings you down. If you pay attention to the news you sometimes just get depressed. I tell you when people start feeling that way, all you got to do is talk to your neighbors, go next door, and find out about their lives, what they’ve done, and what they believe in and it will make you feel a lot better about living in America than you thought.
Eric, thank you for coming on The Albers Report, I hope you will come back after the election.
Editor’s Note: This interview was transcribed from a recorded interview, and was not written responses to questions.
