League of Women Voters of Ohio Education Fund
Hamilton, Butler County, OH November 2, 2004 Election
	Rich Stevenson Answers Questions Candidate for United States Representative; District 1

The questions were prepared by the League of Women Voters of Ohio and asked of all candidates for this office.

Read the answers from all candidates.

Questions & Answers

1. What are your qualifications for office?

I am a uniquely qualified student of grassroots politics who can bring that knowledge to bear on the democratic process needed to end corruption in our elections. For example, instant runoff voting will end the crisis caused by the winner-take-all presidential elections of 2000 and the repeat about to happen in 2004. Worked to get Ross Perot and the Reform Party on the Ohio ballot from 1990 to 2000. Elected to the Reform Party Central Committee 1998-2000; Independent candidate for US Congress, OH 1, on the Natural Law Party ballot in 2000. As an independent, I have no special interest strings attached. I am free to solve our national problems.

2. How would you implement your top priority?

A more democratic republic is my top priority. Independents like me are 85 % of all possible voters. I will introduce legislation to make Congress a citizen's legislature. We need term limits, six years for House, and twelve years for Senate. The President has an eight-year term limit. Term limits promote democracy. Every independent elected to Congress will help end partisan warfare that blocks available solutions to our national problems. We need all new independent faces in Congress and in the White House. I can act without any control by a party or by special interests. I owe no one except the people of District 1.

3. What do you see as the two most pressing issues you would address if elected? What plans do you have relative to those issues?

I favor a living wage for all American workers. This will reduce crime and drug activity as the only means for some citizens to survive. Represent people in Congress. Corporate tax breaks should reward the creation of living wage careers in our country, and not reward removal of jobs and production from within our borders. Tax offshore corporations or deny them access to our markets. Minor tax adjustments will save Social Security and Medicare. A 1/10 of a penny tax on each share traded on our busy stock exchanges would not be noticed, and would raise billions of dollars to make capitalism pay a share of the taxes needed to govern for the public good.

4. How would you address the federal deficit?

Give our country back to the economic competition provided by entrepreneurial free enterprise. Give small businesses a chance to compete against international corporations that squash all competition using unfair monopoly practices. We need to encourage domestic enterprises. We need to have a tax system that pays down the national debt and considers the catastrophic problem of $72 trillion dollars in lon-term national liabilities. We are in a very vulnerable position subject to the whim of our foreign creditors. The total value of US assets is around $43 trillion. Our creditors could bankrupt our entire nation nearly twice over at will. A great depression in our nation at this point in history would end our participation in the world economy. Free trade would no longer be our prerogative. We need to realistically face our economic problems. All public policy should work toward responsible reduction of the debt and deficit.

5. What should be the federal government's role with respect to health care?

The American people need health care security. We spend only 1% of our medical dollars for prevention. As a result, our health care system is the most expensive health care system in any developed nation. The profit-motivated pharmaceutical and health insurance industries drain too much money from the delivery of health care to our people. Windfall profit levels prevent the provision of clinical intervention to promote healthy life styles that drastically reduce health care costs throughout extended, healthier patient lives. We need to consider single-payer healthcare alternatives before our doctors, nurses and other health care professionals lose the ability to afford to deliver healthcare. To keep up with the rest of the civilized world we must consider a one-payer system to deliver medical services to patients. All the people I know who have lived under one-payer systems wanted it back and felt it was a much better system than we have here. Doctors and nurses I know want a greater portion of healthcare dollars to be devoted to patient care and intervention. The high cost of private health insurance is a major cause of our weak economy.

6. What plans do you have to promote a more balanced transportation system?

In a country stripped of public transportation in the 1930s and on up to recent times, it is time to take transportation away from the exclusive control of the petroleum, automobile, trucking, and rubber industries. Our two-party system is bought by these special interests. Independents like me will consider all the alternate plans for re-building efficient public transportation systems with no influence from special interests. I will also support switching to alternate renewable fuels to eliminate dependence on foreign petroleum. Switching to bio-diesel, alcohol, solar, wind and hydroelectric power will create jobs and economic activity to foster a prosperous economy. Hydrogen fuel at this point is fifty years in the future, a deceptive lie to gain more time for petroleum to dominate our transportation and energy industries. I will support public light rail and Amtrak expansion. I support legislation to promote innovations such as hybrid fueled automobiles and higher fuel efficiency standards on all vehicles.

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