League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
Santa Clara, San Mateo, Santa Cruz Counties, CA June 3, 2014 Election
	Bruce Anderson Answers Questions Candidate for United States Representative; District 18

The questions were prepared by the League of Women Voters of California Education Fund and asked of all candidates for this office.
Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

Questions & Answers

1. In this time of high unemployment and budget deficits, what are the most important steps that should be taken to improve our nation’s economy and sustain job creation?

The most important steps are to make it more rewarding for potential employers to offer work and more rewarding for potential employees to find work.

For both employers and employees, simplifying taxation and entitlement benefits will greatly increase productivity in our nation's economy.

For prospective employers, separating retirement and health care programs from employment removes significant conflicts of interest from hiring and scheduling decisions; and employers can more easily match business needs with employee abilities. Reduced fixed costs enable more flexible employment arrangements.

For prospective employees, a low, effective marginal tax rate makes work more rewarding. With Universal Social Security, there is no loss of benefits for any person who earns income.

It is tempting to try to 'guarantee' outcomes; but guarantees are rigid and inflexible. Rigidity is the enemy of structural strength in a modern economy.

2. What, if any, changes should be made to federal health care policies or programs?

We need to start over with federal health care policies and programs.

The first thing is to make our economy more healthy and productive. A healthy economy and healthy people are mutually reinforcing.

Second it is important to dismiss the insurance fiction. Because medical expenses are largely predictable for individuals, insurance is not a good model. What we usually call insurance is really pre-paid coverage with much cost shifting. For example the Affordable Care Act depends on enrolling younger people in order to lesson costs for older people. But this is not appropriate: younger people have many needs; but subsidizing health care for older people is not one of them.

Third it is important to separate health care from employment. Health care with employment is an artifact of WWII price controls and as a large fixed cost for employers is a pernicious conflict of interest that is detrimental to employment.

Health care has a personal health care component and a public health comnponent.

For personal health care, a good plan would be one with three parts:

1) Universal, single payer, catastrophic coverage: Each person pays $100 per month. Use 80% of revenue to indemnify 80% of expenses exceeding a large deductible and use 20% of revenue for administration. With a catastrophic coverage foundation, private insurers have less cause to be hyper vigilant concerning higher risk clients.

2) Competitive Markets: Regulate health care to foster pricing transparency and competition nationwide. Effective markets will help manage costs and encourage innovation.

3) Personal Resources: Each person has a Universal Social Security benefit and each worker has a Mandatory Savings Account to help with unusual medical needs.

For public health that addresses statistical measures of population health, the important parts include prevention, education, immunizations,food and drug safety, environmental protection, research, and prizes for orphan drugs.

3. What are your priorities with respect to our nation’s energy policy?

The first priority is to replace existing energy subsidies and regulatory mandates with a carbon tax that replaces part of the VAT that funds Universal Social Security. The tax should be carefully structured so that global industry with its carbon production does not simply relocate to countries without carbon taxes.

The second priority is to fund a modest, diversified portfolio of fixed-price projects for nuclear power, wind power, solar power, conservation, and grid improvement.

The third priority is to continue funding ARPA-E for high-risk, high-reward research.

4. What, if any, changes should be made with respect to our nation’s security, including our national defense or anti-terrorism measures?

The most important change is to improve the economy. A strong economy is the essential foundation of national security. A strong economy can afford to defend itself and is less fertile ground for demagoguery and adventurism and can more easily recover from injury.

By maintaining a stable dollar that the world can depend on, the Federal Reserve makes a very important contribution to world peace and national security. To help the Fed manage a reliable dollar, congress needs to balance its budget.

For national security, it is important to not only react to insult but to actively promote cooperation between countries. Trade is an important part of international cooperation.

A stronger economy enables a stronger military. The military needs to be strong enough and flexible enough to act in a measured and predictable manner. A modest policing role is good for world peace and security and can prevent some humanitarian disasters.

5. What is your position on the issue of immigration reform? What, if any, changes to legislation or policy would you support?

Immigration is for both economic and humanitarian reasons. To reform the system, implement one visa market for all applicants of good character. The price of a visa would then be a good measure of the demand for immigration and congress could use pricing information to help set the quota. Technology, agriculture, humanitarian and other interests would compete for visas in a transparent way.

There should be no amnesty, but those who are illegal or undocumented should be able to regularize their status by purchasing a visa in the market and by paying a financial penalty. The penalty should be no higher than necessary to encouraging compliance with the law.

Any law should have broad support for enforcement or the law should be changed. It isn't fair for those who play by the rules to not enforce the rules for everybody; and lack of enforcement teaches disrespect for the law.

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Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League.  Candidates' statements are presented as submitted. References to opponents are not permitted.

Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

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Created from information supplied by the candidate: May 27, 2014 14:33
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