By Virginia Drye
EAGLE TIMES STAFF
Ryan Binkley, a pastor from Dallas, is running for president of the United States. He said he is a candidate focused on unity.
He made his first stop in New Hampshire at Dartmouth College, in Hanover, with a stop in New London last week. The Eagle Times met up with him there before he headed out for a meet and greet in Manchester.
Running in a crowded field in the Republican primary, Binkley is running on a message of unity, tackling debt, and transforming healthcare.
Spending most of this campaign in Iowa, Binkley said he is excited to be in New Hampshire.
“We are going to do really well here because I believe New Hampshire has a heart,” Binkley said. “From what I understand, for our country that’s so strong, it’s a very diverse group of people that really want to see our nation united again and I believe this is the heartbeat of our message.”
Binkley said he sees himself as an alternative to both former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden. He said some people may feel stuck with that as an option for the nominees. That possibility is a cause for division in the country, particularly to young people, he said.
“It’s time for our country to move ahead; we need to move forward as a party to address the biggest needs facing Americans,” Binkley said. “And we need to connect to more people in America, particularly in urban America and college students. The big thing is that I’m a uniter. You know, every other candidate is trying to throw mud at every other candidate or the other party and they’re dividing our culture even further. We have to unite, but not unite on nothing, I’m actually giving us some things to unite on, which is something we all share together, the finances of our country, healthcare and the border.”
Binkley said the biggest issue is facing small town America is the economy and the national debt.
“Right now, we’re $32 trillion in debt, or 8% of our budget is paying interest,” he said. “In eight years, we are on track to be $50 trillion in debt with 14% of our budget being interest payments. We can’t afford any of that because they don’t have money for it now, so we’ll borrow money from ourselves by printing money, and when we do this, this is what causes inflation.”
If elected, Binkley said he will institute a seven-year plan freezing expenditures and cutting unnecessary spending.
Transforming healthcare is another issue for Binkley, particularly when it comes to tackling monopolies in the healthcare system.
“The only thing we purchase as Americans, where we have no idea what it costs, is when we walk into a hospital or doctor’s office,” he said. “We no longer ask because we’ve been trained to think it’s too complicated for us to understand, or that we’re not smart enough, one or the other, and neither one of those are true. We have to fix healthcare and I believe [we can do that] through competition and putting the patients back in charge.”
For more information, visit his official website at https://binkley2024.com/.
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