League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
	Los Angeles County, CA November 2, 2010 Election
	Candidates Answer Questions on the Issues United States Representative; District 36

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 Herb Peters: ECONOMY The US Economy has historically shown that it works best with less government involvement. We do not want to go back in time; but we can learn from the work ethic and spirit that happened in history. We have a wonderful era that proves the point; look at the statistics from 112 years ago in 1898 we had: an annual trade surplus of $600 million; JOBS WERE HERE, $50,000 daily surplus to the US Treasury, and a $25 per person federal debt; lingering mainly from the Civil War. The above were achieved with: NO Federal Income Tax, NO Federal Reserve System and NO Social Security System. Now our nation is in desperate shape: We have a reckless congress that is spending $4.5 billion per day MORE than it takes in! Congress is spending so much that if the income taxes were raised to 100% we would still have a deficit! Our congress LAST balanced the Budget during the 1957 administration of Dwight Eisenhower. (No balanced budgets during the Clinton years.) We have new REGULATIONS that raise the cost of doing business. To get jobs back to this country we must make living and working in this country more affordable by balancing the budget and reducing taxes and regulations. The best direct boost to more jobs, without increasing government is to repeal the Federal "Minimum Wage." This enables the employer and the employee to agree upon a wage. But it is hard for private sector employees to compete for homes and products when the federal government pays its employees at an average wage that is double the private sector average. We must reduce the number of federal employees and their pay levels. Unconstitutional to reduce judges wages but we can reduce their starting pay. 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 Herb Peters: From our Declaration of Independence We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. -- That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed - Our federal government's job: To SECURE our rights. Our government's budget priorities should reflect its reason for existence; to secure our rights. Our government has drifted FAR from its prime purpose such that the Congress has passed a health care act that the majority of the people did not want. It has created programs that do not work as well as those created by the private sector and the Congress created programs are so expensive that we have a $100 to $200 trillion unfunded liability. Our government has become Imperialistic. President Dwight Eisenhower said: "Every gun that is fired, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children." Our war policies have been imperialistic; information is now available that shows that we went to WW1 and WW2 with treachery and on purpose. I believe that all of our wars in the 20th Century could have and should have been avoided. CHANGING PRIORITIES Congress must restore the balance of power between itself and the Executive Branch. To do this the Congress should reclassify secret documents on a timely basis so that we can know if our government leaders have knowingly lied. I believe that to knowingly mislead with treachery is an act that should be punished and to bring this about Congress should take action to allow exposure of the evidence. Congress must reestablish its constitutional duty to "declare war" and must have appropriate information from the secret services to make a determination. We must establish a missile defense system and maintain a strong defense; AND we must end preemptive wars and we should bring our troops home especially from Iraq and Afghanistan. Our progressive government programs such as Social Security and Medicare are a major expenses; for these two programs Congress has created an unfunded liability of $107 trillion. We must phase out of these programs such that the private sector can take them over. I believe that the private sector will be a sounder approach to better health care and retirement opportunities. 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 Herb Peters: Federal Government; get out of the way so private enterprise can develop cleaner energy. 4. What, if any, changes should be made to current federal policies or programs that promote or provide health coverage for Americans? Answer from Herb Peters: When Medicare was enacted in 1965 the government estimated the cost for 1990 at $3 billion. The actual cost in 1990 was $98 billion. Some of the factors in the cost escalation were: Inflation (government alone creates inflation) Coercion distorts supply and demand (government is force ( = coercion)) The feeling, its free, let's go see the doctor New medical equipment inventions More bureaucracy involvement (government creates the bureaucracy) Tort America once had the best health care system of all time. As government gets involved in medicine, the quality and availability of medical care begins to diminish, fade. Our best option is to restore our health care system to what it was before government involvement. Remember, the federal government's job is to protect our rights. We would be best off if we can repeal all federal government intrusions into the health care field. That would include the repeal of "Obamacare." Level the playing field on taxability of money used for health insurance payments; it is not taxed if paid by employer but mostly taxed if purchased by individual user. This must be changed. I would lean toward all health insurance payments being tax deductible. (I am for immediate tax reductions with a goal of eventually ending the IRS.) 5. What, if any, changes should be made to federal rules on campaign financing or disclosure of political expenditures? Answer from Herb Peters: Allow financing with no limits; with no disclosure. These laws are effectively making the "incumbents" more secure in their reelection efforts. 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.