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The questions were prepared by the League of Women Voters of California Education Fund and asked of all candidates for this office.
See below for questions on
Economy and Jobs,
Health Care,
Energy Policy,
National Security,
Immigration Reform
Click on a name for candidate information. See also more information about this contest.
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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?
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Answer from Ted Lieu:
As the son of hard-working immigrants who achieved the American Dream, I am committed to strengthening the middle class by focusing on job creation, raising the minimum wage, making higher education more affordable and helping workers save for retirement. Here are my economic, job creation and Middle Class priorities:
Extending to students the same low interest rates on their college loans that the federal government currently charges to big banks.
Protecting Social Security and Medicare and stopping plans to privatize them.
Raising the federal minimum wage.
Overhauling the federal government's approach to workforce investment by focusing precious resources for job training in areas where there is a pathway to a good, high wage job.
Expanding investment in research and development to directly help job growth around Silicon Beach and UCLA.
Expanding job creation by investing in infrastructure and improving our transportation system.
Answer from Elan S. Carr:
Taxes: "Although taxation is a necessary feature of good government, our tax code today is neither fair nor efficient. We need to make our tax system simpler, reduce the many burdens placed upon job creators, and close the many loopholes so that all of us pay our fair share."
Jobs: "Too many Americans today are not finding the kinds of opportunities that our economy provided only a decade ago. The Government's top priority must be to implement a tax and regulatory structure that rapidly grows our economy and encourages job creators, so that all of us, and our children, will be able to find the jobs and careers that they deserve."
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2. What, if any, changes should be made to federal health care policies or programs?
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Answer from Elan S. Carr:
Healthcare: "We need a healthcare system that covers all Americans while maintaining our country's qualitative edge in terms of medical care and expertise. As the husband of a medical doctor in private practice, I believe that we need to balance universal coverage with a reimbursement system that will allow patients the broadest possible choice of doctors."
Answer from Ted Lieu:
I support strengthening the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and will fight to protect Medicare in Congress. As a legislator, I have voted regularly to support the ACA, including the creation of the health exchange, setting a minimum level of benefits and expanding MediCal.
Additionally, with the increase in health insurance marketing to communities whose first language is not English, I authored and passed a law to ensure that for insurers who advertise in a language other than English, the documents must also be in that language.
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3. What are your priorities with respect to our nation’s energy policy?
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Answer from Ted Lieu:
We must be aggressive in our approach to ending the use of fossil fuels. I believe Congress needs to enact a renewable portfolio standard the way California has done. We also need to create national policies that incentivize the installation of solar and wind projects, including mandating solar net-energy metering and permanent federal tax incentives for large and small solar and wind projects. Coupled with an energy tax incentive for solar energy, California and America would be able to exponentially expand the installation of small business and residential affordable solar. Increased installation means more jobs.
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4. What, if any, changes should be made with respect to our nation’s security, including our national defense or anti-terrorism measures?
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Answer from Elan S. Carr:
National Defense: Only by maintaining the ability to project U.S. power around the world can we ensure the safety of our citizens and our allies. Having spent a year on military deployment in Iraq, I know full well the tragedy of war. I also understand from personal experience that the only way to avoid war is through maintaining an unwavering posture of strength and leadership.
Answer from Ted Lieu:
As an Air Force Reserve Officer, I am committed to protecting our Country and Constitution. When it was revealed that the National Security Agency was violating our privacy, I authored bi-partisan legislation to stop our state government from cooperating with the NSA's spying on American citizens.
For years, the National Security Agency has been violating the Fourth Amendment rights of all 317 million Americans, including more than 38 million Californians, through its searches and seizures of our phone and other electronic records.
Not only is the NSA's massive dragnet unconstitutional, the NSA has produced little to no evidence that the program has been effective.
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5. What is your position on the issue of immigration reform? What, if any, changes to legislation or policy would you support?
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Answer from Elan S. Carr:
Immigration: As the child of immigrants who came to this country in pursuit of the American dream, I believe that immigrants have played a central and critical role in building the United States into the prosperous power we have become. Our country should continue to welcome new immigrants into our communities and economy, establish a secure guest worker program for foreigners who wish to work here, secure our borders so that criminals or terrorists do not threaten us, and provide a pathway to citizenship for the many honest and hardworking undocumented residents currently living and working here.
Answer from Ted Lieu:
Looking for a better life and opportunity, my parents immigrated to the United States when I was three. With the support of hard-working parents and a country that provided limitless opportunity, I would attend Stanford and then Georgetown University for my law degree. I am in public service because I want to ensure that the opportunities provided to me and my family are open and available to everyone. Comprehensive immigration reform must happen. Last year, I lobbied Republican Members of Congress from California to push for immigration reform.
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.
The order of the candidates is random and changes daily. Candidates who did not respond are not listed on this page.
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League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
