I spent a few minutes on the phone yesterday and today with Dr. Joe Agris, who recently filed as a Republican for the Texas Senate race.
As previously mentioned, Dr. Agris is a plastic surgeon who has done numerous good works, many in association with late Houston broadcasting legend Marvin Zindler (who frequently made use of Dr. Agris services). Dr. Agris waged a campaign for Texas House District 134 in 2008, losing in the general election. “That was Obama’s year. All Republicans in Harris County lost.”
I asked why he was running. He said that voters will “trust a doctor” more than politicians, who he accused of having “constipation of thought and diarrhea of words.” He said his biggest issue was the budget deficit. “The federal government needs a balanced budget amendment.”
ObamaCare was also a particular target of the doctor’s ire: “This Obama medical bill is just an atrocity. We have to get rid of it. The medical care in this country is just going downhill.”
He also had some stinging criticisms of the current state of American healthcare, noting how rules might require a patient to undergo an increasingly expensive series of tests, when only the first and last may be necessary. “If you don’t do things step by step, Medicare and insurance won’t pay for it. 50% of the doctors in my hospital don’t take Medicare. If these cuts go through in February, it will be closer to 100%.”
Dr. Agris also complained about the short-sighted nature of the federal government. “China is our biggest threat. They have plans out to 100 years, and we can’t plan out two weeks. We just have knee-jerk responses. We need 1-year, 2-year, 5- or 10-year plans.”
Given his concern over the deficit, I asked him which programs would he cut. That gave him pause. He finally named foreign aid and military deployments overseas.
He was particularly critical of our efforts in an area he’s visited many times. “I just got back from Afghanistan and Pakistan. We’re not doing any good over there. They just want to take our money.”
Dr. Agris said he had the financial resources to wage a serious senate campaign. “I’ll self-fund some, and we’ll raise some.”
Dr. Agris sounds like an interesting guy, and might have more resources to campaign with than some other longshots. But he’s entered the race very late indeed, he’s virtually unknown outside of Houston, he’s facing three well-organized, well-funded candidates who have been running hard most of the year (plus a fourth, Craig James, who has much higher name recognition than Dr. Agris), and so far it does not sound like he’s thought through the intellectual and organizational demands it takes to run a serious Senate campaign in state as large as Texas. And the good doctor’s Brooklyn accent may not play well statewide.
But I do thank Dr. Agris, both for his many previous good works and for taking the time to speak with me.