Maj. General Bert Mizusawa (ret), challenging Sen. Mark Warner, says both parties to blame for deficit

RICHMOND, Va. — With early voting underway and Election Day on Tuesday, November 3, less than two weeks away, it's time to meet the candidates.

Each of the major candidates in Virginia's US Senate race and the three Congressional races in the WTVR viewing area has been invited on the CBS 6 News at 7:30 p.m. with Bill Fitzgerald to talk about their priorities.

Ret. Maj. General Bert Mizusawa, a Republican challenging three-term Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, stopped by CBS to offer his plans to tackle inflation, the Iran war, and the Russian war against Ukraine.

As for inflation, Mizusawa said high fuel costs are not the whole picture. "Gas and groceries are up more, but some things are not up more," he said. "Some things are actually lower than they were before. But one of the issues we're facing right now is Iran has been a thorn in the side of our nation, going back decades. I was a brand new lieutenant when they took 51 of our hostages, and so I don't think we should ever trust that regime. Everybody agrees that Iran should not have a nuclear capability. They've already stayed to their intentions, and so the only question is when will we going to prevent them from getting that? That die is cast now. Unfortunately, it has affected our gas prices. So right now, I think we need to focus on getting the gas prices down. But my opponent and the Democrats for decades have prevented us from increasing our domestic production as well as our domestic refining capability because they don't like any of the fossil fuels, so a couple of things have happened. Number one, we've learned not to trust the Middle East for our source of oil, but Venezuela is going to be a wonderful source of oil, both in terms of quantity, but once we get our refining capabilities enhanced, also in terms of quality, and so I don't think we'll be hostages the Middle East anymore after we complete this operation against Iran."

Mizusawa acknowledged that increased refinery capacity would take a year or more to impact gas prices. But with the federal deficit topping $2 trillion, while both houses of Congress and the presidency are controlled by Republicans, he said there is plenty of blame to go around.

"We didn't get here overnight. I tell people that a lot of our fiscal problems were 100 years in the making because we got off the gold standard, the domestic gold standard with FDR in 1933, and we got off the international gold standard under Nixon in 1971," Mizusawa said. "So it's not either party; it's both parties involved. So we need to once again engage in long-term thinking. You mentioned the deficit, $2 trillion this year, with the debt right now slightly over 40 trillion dollars. We're paying over $3 billion a day in interest, and so once again, I will go back to the fact that we need to start engaging longer-term solutions. I want to look at a 50-year plan to get back on the gold standard. That might sound crazy for two reasons. Number one, it sounds kind of anachronistic, but gold has been around for millennia. But also, 50 years would give us plenty of time to adjust to it. We can have five or 10-year milestones, and it won't threaten anybody because it's over a longer period of time, but we can't get out of these problems that were many decades in the making without looking out and not just trying to promise every two years that we're going to start implementing fixes. My opponent's been there for 18 years, two-thirds of the time there's been a Democrat in the White House. He's been there three times longer than this president has been the White House, and so I think it's time we need to start bringing in a fresh set of eyes, and everybody agrees. About half the time we have a Republican in the White House; the other half we have a Democrat. It just makes sense for Virginia to have at least one Republican there, so we can work whoever is in the White House."

Mizusawa said Russia remains an adversary but sees a silver lining in President Trump's recent deal to purchase Russian diesel fuel, which critics say will fund Vladimir Putin's war against Ukraine.

"The diesel issue is very interesting, and I predicted it would give us more leverage over Putin, even though it was counterintuitive, because now Putin will have certain revenues<" said Mizusawa. "And let me make one thing clear: the diesel, the source of diesel, refined diesel from Russia helps America first, and our European allies. "The Western allies in Europe are more dependent on diesel than we are, but it does help our economy directly. It does hurt Ukraine indirectly, and I will concede that point. But now we're going to have some leverage over Putin, and I don't know if you saw the break in news that just came out. Putin has agreed to come back to negotiating table, but not only that, he would help us with Iran because he's one of Iran's biggest benefactors. And so I think this move, even though it was counterintuitive, I think it may get us to the goal that we would like to see."

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