Clint Didier: "Some hell to pay"

Clint Didier is a lifelong farmer. Sure, he took a few years off to play professional football: seven years with the Washington Redskins, two with the Green Bay Packers, and two Super Bowl victories to top it off. But Didier was born and raised in Eltopia, where he and his wife still farm today.

Eltopia, originally, was called Hell To Pay, by the laborers who first settled there and did their work in the hundred-plus-degree heat. Didier takes that history to heart.

"When I get back to D.C. this time," he said, "there is going to be some hell to pay."

Didier sees so many areas where change is needed, it's hard to know which to talk about first, he says.

One thing he's passionate about it private property rights and the government's encroachment on them. As an example, he cites the attempt to expand the scope of the Clean Water Act. The law as it stands gives the federal government jurisdiction over navigable waters, while states retain control of non-navigable water. The Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers are pushing to expand federal control to include any waterway that connects to a navigable waterway.

"Even areas where water only travels a certain portion of the time, of the year, for a few months, they want that to be declared a navigable waterway," Didier said. "They take authority over it. And if they take authority over our waterways, we lose our private property rights."

The move could have some far-reaching effects on things like fertilization and spraying. Didier said the EPA plans to impose a 1,000-foot no-spray zone around waterways. He calculates that this will place 73 percent of the Basin's farmland off-limits to herbicide, fungicide and insecticide, effectively rendering it unfarmable.

It's not about water, Didier said. The whole gamut of government agencies needs to come under some scrutiny.

"Presidents, with a stroke of a pen, create a new agency," he said. He cited the examples of the EPA, created by Richard Nixon in 1970, the Departments of Education and Energy, which Jimmy Carter established in the late 1970s. Some of the first bills he wants to introduce, Didier said, will be to defund those agencies.

Didier takes a tough line on illegal immigration, advocating combination of strong borders and tight regulation.

"I would like to see our borders secure. How are we going to do that? Well, I've proposed a plan that we ask the landowners on the southern border æ and the northern border - to allow an easement for training our military personnel. Put our military on the border with a easement from the landowners so that we can use that area to train. And when we have a presence there like we did in 2007, nothing crosses the border. So when you leave it unmanned, we see what happens. We not only have an influx of illegals coming in, but we've also got a high amount of drug traffic coming across that border, and there has been information that terrorists are crossing the border.

"What do we do with the ones that are here? Well, we give them the option: Either come forward and register right now, or if we do find you, we are going to deport you. If you've committed a crime in America, you're automatically out. If you're here illegally, you go to the back of the line and you've got to pay a fine. But we need this workforce, so we've got to have a visa program that works, a one-year visa plan. Every year, every person that comes here and works has to re-up. How do we get them to re-up? We let a independent businessman create a business that will keep track of every immigrant and where they're working at. They need to send in 20 to 25 percent of their paycheck, which is like a withholding that (the business) holds on to. When the year is up, if they haven't committed a crime and they re-up, they get the rest of their paycheck and they keep working. That's how we keep track of our guest workers."

Didier is opposed to raising the minimum wage, saying that good workers will make themselves worth more in a competitive market. He also favors loosening child labor laws for farm work. Currently, he said, a single underage worker on a farm can allow the Department of Labor to seize the entire crop, as hot goods. This not only wastes food, it's also not good for the kids who are being idled by the law.

"There's nothing wrong with work. It's not torture, for crying out loud. I started out weeding beets on my dad's farm, and that was torture, but I had to do it. But you know what? I developed a work ethic that took me all the way to the NFL. Because hard work pays off. And we've got to get back to teaching our kids to work. The majority of kids who know how to work these days are the farm kids."

The death tax is another issue Didier wants to tackle. If he and his wife were to die tomorrow, he said, his sons wouldn't be able to afford to keep his farm.

More government equals less freedom, Didier said.

"I'm the only candidate in this race that's made this pledge: No new taxes. No increase in existing taxes. Anything that grows the size of the federal government, regardless of party, I will vote against, so help me God."

Editor's note: We invited all the contenders for the 4th District Congressional seat to submit a guest editorial or, alternatively, be interviewed on their positions. These articles are for introductory purposes only. The BBJ does not endorse any candidate.