Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/303912
24 UCW APRIL 30 - MAY 6, 2014 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM The United States Congress has the lowest approval rate in recent history. What can be done to improve Congressional performance and oversight (and if you are currently sitting in the Congress, why is America so disappointed in you?) This is up to the voters. As a first time candidate, voters have a chance to send a citizen candidate to Washington who has a record of getting things done with honor, commitment and dedication, instead of politicians who they are dissapointed with. What are your thoughts on term limits and would you vote for them? Again, voters set term limits. All term limits will do is empower the professional staffers in Washington who will guide newly elected officials under term limits. Our Constitution does not mandate term limits, and a Constitutional convention to enact term limits is unrealistic. Voters need to know how they have been represented, and vote accordingly. The Department of Defense has announced sweeping slashes to force size because of laws put in place by the Congress. Do you agree with these cuts and how do you feel they impact the security of our nation? The greatest deterrent to aggressor nations and our enemies is a strong, well equipped, well trained military force. Our spending on defense today is a fraction of the Gross Domestic Product spent earlier in our modern history. Military spending is not a burden on our budget. As a 30 year Military Veteran I have actually lived through three "Draw Downs" in the Department of Defense I know cutbacks are never about improving the military, they are about taking money from defense for other government programs. If the Department of Defense saves money streamlining the military during times of less war, every dime should go right back into defense to ensure the benefits, retirement pay, medical coverage, and the VA disability claims are taken care of as promised to those who serve, have served, and the families who support them. Obamacare has its problems. What is your opinion of the program (if you are currently sitting, did you vote for it?) And how can it be fixed? We need to correct and simplify the current system with a "state of the art" website that sells health insurance across state lines like home and auto insurance. The American people should pick thier plan and pay what they think, not the government. The only role of government should be to ensure that large insurance companies do not swallow up the little ones and create a monopoly on health care costs. Our health insurance program can be a low cost, efficient free market enterprise for the American people, not a government takeover of our health care industry. The deficit. What can be done, and how will you work to curb government spending? The government is like an American family making 28 thousand dollars a year, spending 38 thousand dollars a year, with a 150 thousand dollar credit card bill. First, the government must exist on the money it brings in only. Then, with tax reform, the removal of red tape and unnecessary regulation on our small business community, the 25 million under employed and unemployed will bring in hundreds of billions in new tax revenue to start pay in the principle on the national debt, not just the almost 300 billion dollars in interest payments which go into a black hole never to be seen again. Immigration reform is a hot topic. What is your take on immigration reform and how do we address issues concerning illegal aliens in our country? I have written, draft legislation in bill format, posted on my website www. chrisandradeforcongress.com which solves the immigration problem. I can introduce this bill on the floor of the Congress as soon as I arrive. My bill has secure borders to the North, South, East and West. A biometric fingerprint database and photo ID guest worker program, that holds immigrant labor and employers accountable. No federal assistance to guest workers, and they pay taxes. And absolutely no blanket amnesty. We cannot effectively create jobs without dealing with the 16 million undocumented workers in this Country. Chris Andrade The United States Congress has the lowest approval rate in recent history. What can be done to improve Congressional performance and oversight (and if you are currently sitting in the Congress … why is America so disappointed in you?) The congress needs to get back to taking care of the business of the people and stop playing political games. The country is in a lot of trouble and needs the collective minds of all elected officials regardless of party affiliation to work together to solve problems. If we can work together on the local level to solve problems in our local communities without party affiliation mattering we should be able to do the same in Washington. I am retired law enforcement and when we worked together with other agencies we solved problems and the political party of the workers never mattered. What are your thoughts on term limits and would you vote for them? The citizens have always had the power of term limits by their vote. I really do not have strong feelings either way, if term limits were developed I would think two terms for the Senate and four terms for the congress. The Department of Defense has announced sweeping slashes to force size because of laws put in place by the Congress. Do you agree with these cuts and how do you feel they impact the security of our nation? If the command staff in the Defense Department has determined the size to be adequate to maintain the level of security needed we should listen to them. We have trained them and given them access to the necessary security briefings and intelligence reports to make the decisions they made. Again with my background in law enforcement we used intelligence information all the time to plan raids and conduct investigations. I was also a member of the military before I entered law enforcement and I am confident that the military command staff will make decisions based upon facts and not politics. News media often asks politicians this question and I personally think it is a bad question because most politicians and citizens are not qualified to give an opinion and for most citizens qualified to judge if the answer is correct. Obamacare has its problems. What is your opinion of the program (if you are currently sitting, did you vote for it?) And how can it be fixed? I see the program as a first step. It is not perfect and I would like to see the law apply to 40 hour employees instead of 30 hour employees because most Americans could work an additional 9 hours per week increasing their income if the company was trying to avoid paying health insurance. The single payer system would decrease cost also. I think we could still sell health insurance across state lines to bring down the cost with the plan. I hate the fact so much bad information has been given to the public about the law that few people really know what the truth is about the ACA. The public has been misled and citizens should be angry about it because our elected officials should not be lying to the American people and that is dangerous. I would not support throwing away such a large investment as some has proposed. I don't think any of those same people would throw away investments they made with their own money as easily as they propose we do. The deficit. What can be done, and how will you work to curb government spending? Government spending with continue to decrease as citizens go back to work. The federal government could have never expected for revenues to be down as low as they have been since 2007. We must remember when the government passes spending bills to pay for a program or purchase items the government assumes revenue in future years will be consistent over a period of time. When an event such as the great recession occurs it throws everything into a whirlwind with a downward spiral. The federal government also spent money to help businesses and the unemployed at the same time. The government has continued to deal with low revenue and increases in money paid out to the unemployed to literally keep citizens from being homeless and hungry. I support the training programs taking place at community colleges across the country to reduce unemployment. I would also support low interest loans from the federal government to local and state governments to do repair on infrastructure. Many cities and states have fallen behind in their repairs and this would provide jobs and improve the long term value of the cities and states to attract businesses because of improvements in the infrastructure of both. Immigration reform is a hot topic. What is your take on immigration reform and how do we address issues concerning illegal aliens in our country? We made mistakes years ago and we need to acknowledge we did not take the necessary steps to secure our borders and move forward. The American people should be told the truth about immigration. I was a police investigator for most of my career and we discussed immigration in a training I went to several years ago. I am also a private investigator by trade since retirement. It would be extremely difficult, costly and most likely not very successful to identify people who are here illegally. I suggest a fine, a work visa and a pathway to citizenship that is earned. We need to use modern technology to secure the boarder. It is not in our best interest to investigate immigration crimes that may have taken place 20 or 30 years ago. I always hear people talking about no amnesty but they never mention prosecuting the people who hired them knowing they were illegal. Walter Martin