League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
	Alameda County, CA November 2, 2010 Election
	Candidates Answer Questions on the Issues United States Representative; District 9

The questions were prepared by the League of Women Voters of California and asked of all candidates for this office.     See below for questions on Economy, Federal Budget, Energy, Health Care, Campaign Financing Click on a name for candidate information.   See also more information about this contest. 1. In this time of high unemployment, what are the most important steps that should be taken to improve our nation’s economy? Answer from Dave Heller: We need to radically shift our tax system. Corporations and the super-wealthy are not paying enough. The burdens have been shifting onto the shoulders of the working class for decades and this trend MUST be reversed. A vibrant economy cannot have 5% of the population controlling 80% or more of the wealth. We should institute a global minimum wage through the United Nations and abide by the UN Charter on Human Rights. This will help with not only our own immigration problems, but those in other countries. Gross inequities in income levels are what fuels these problems and it all works against the working class of both countries. Workers need the ability to organize and environmental protections should be extended across borders. NAFTA should be repealed. We should create tax incentives for worker owned cooperatives so that everyone has a vested interest and equity within the industry they choose to work. Corporations and people who profit from the labor of others should be taxed at a much higher rate. Trickle down economics has been tried for the last 30 years and things have only gotten worse for the Tricklees while the Tricklers keep amassing more and more wealth. Answer from Gerald "Jerry" Hashimoto: Eliminate these taxes: Payroll tax Corporate Income tax Alternative Minimum tax Estate tax Capital Gains Tax Income tax on interest and dividends 2. How should federal budget priorities be changed, now and into the future? How will you balance the costs of military action overseas and national security with the costs of domestic needs? Answer from Dave Heller: We must immediately pull out of the occupations and wars of aggression in both Iraq and Afghanistan. We will never have a secure nation as long as our energy needs are mostly supplied from foreign lands. We must shift our costs away from the petroleum industrial complex. We need to spend the hundreds of billions of dollars we currently waste on weapons and their development into sustainable renewable energy sources. Wind, solar, tidal, hydro-electric. Borrowing trillions to support our military can only make our country less stable and secure. Answer from Gerald "Jerry" Hashimoto: The spending of the Federal Government should correspond to that specified by the Constitution. the federal budget should be balanced except in times war or national emergency (the bank meltdown of 2008 would qualify as an emergency) the president should have the line-item veto defense spending should be increased transfer of wealth programs need to be curtailed 3. What, if anything, should be done by the federal government to address our dependence on fossil fuels or spur the use of clean energy? Answer from Dave Heller: As mentioned above, the brain power that is now wasted devising new ways to destroy things and kill people needs to be concentrated on developing new clean energy sources. We should have a goal of 25% of US homes with solar heating and electric by 2020. With increased production and competition will come reductions in per unit cost. Answer from Gerald "Jerry" Hashimoto: Coal needs to eliminated. Although we have abundant domestic supplies, it requires strip mining and pollutes the air. We have plentiful supplies of natural gas, and we should use it to run our cars and trucks. Honda and some bus producers already have function natural gas vehicles. We already have the perfect solution to all the political objections to our current mix of energy production: nuclear power. It is clean, safe, efficient, and does not pollute. And, we can use them to power electric cars, which should also be part of the solution. We have centuries of domestic supplies. 4. What, if any, changes should be made to current federal policies or programs that promote or provide health coverage for Americans? Answer from Gerald "Jerry" Hashimoto: The so-called 'Obamacare' bill must be immediately and completely repealed. It is clear that it will cause the cost of healthcare to increase dramatically in the next decade, and we simply cannot afford it. Now would be a good time to start the long, slow procedure of converting Medicare and Medicaid into the private insurance industry along with Federal vouchers for those who cannot afford it. Answer from Dave Heller: The Health Insurance industry has shown nothing but contempt for patients health and have been exempt from anti-trust laws since the 1940's. According to the New York Times, President Obama guaranteed the insurance industry that no form of Universal Health Care would become law. We are now being forced to buy a product we know is flawed from corporations which only care about their profit margins. Corporate health insurance should be the option, NOT the rule. American health costs are out of control and only getting worse. We should look to France, which has one of the best health care systems in the world, for a model of how to run our system. All citizens should be covered. There should be a tax put on any product we know that is bad for our health to pay for the system. Broccolli would be exempt from taxes, soft drinks with high fructose corn syrup, cigarettes, pesticides, GMO foods would be taxed accordingly. This would encourage people to eat healthier and allow citizens to be covered no matter their financial situation. 5. What, if any, changes should be made to federal rules on campaign financing or disclosure of political expenditures? Answer from Gerald "Jerry" Hashimoto: I am in favor of rules requiring the disclosure of campaign contributions, say on a website within a specified period of time that the contribution is made. However, I oppose all efforts to limit campaign contributions, as well as the public financing of political campaigns. Answer from Dave Heller: First and most importantly, we should pass a Constitutional Ammendment specifically stipulating that corporations are not people and are not guaranteed the rights and privileges that us DNA based people enjoy. Corporations have run roughshod like a cancer into our political system and need to be banned from political discourse of any kind, including donating to campaigns even in small amounts. Endless money should not be equivolent to free speech. We should have a Public Financing system similar to Maine. We should use Instant Runoff Voting and Proportional Representation as election systems. Having a ranked ballot allows people to vote FOR their hopes and dreams rather than AGAINST their worst fears. The airwaves belong to the people, not the corporations who use them. Congress should make a law allowing some free air time on radio and TV for ALL candidates that qualify for the ballot. Too many billionaires have been buying themselves into office. I personally don't feel that billionaires represent the interests of the working class. I'd much prefer to have a working stiff, who understands the trials and tribulations of the average American represent me than someone who's never broke a sweat in their life. We must create rules that will level the playing field and allow ALL people to be represented in proportion to their numbers. I would also make the salaries of elected officials based on a function of the average or median income of a citizen. Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League.  Candidates' responses are not edited or corrected by the League. No candidate may refer to another candidate in the response. The order of the candidates is random and changes daily. Candidates who did not respond are not listed on this page.