League of Women Voters of Ohio
Hamilton, Warren, Clermont Counties, OH November 7, 2000 Election
	Rob Portman Answers Questions Candidate for United States Representative; District 2

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 specific measures would you support to increase equal access to health care?

Congress must do more to see that the roughly 44 million Americans without health coverage have access to affordable insurance. Along with a good Patient's Bill of Rights, I support a 100% tax deduction for health insurance premiums for those paying over 50% of their premiums; an additional exemption to care for elderly family at home; 100% deduction for the self-employed; and allowing small businesses/self-employed to pool together for insurance purchasing clout like large companies.

2. What measures would you support to reform our campaign finance system?

I support reform of the system and have introduced my own legislation to ban contributions by non-citizens; require 60% of contributions to be raised in House candidate's district or a Senate candidate's state; ban PACs; and greatly increase disclosure of soft money and other contributions. To break the current deadlock, I also support an independent commission - a majority of the members coming from outside government - to make specific recommendations to Congress for reform.

3. Should the US pay its dues to the UN in full?

Yes, but it should be conditioned on needed reforms, most of which the UN Secretary General says he supports. I supported this year's appropriations bill for the State Department which contained full payment of our share of UN dues with the release of funds conditioned on compliance of several reforms, including reducing our unfair share of the UN general operating and peacekeeping budgets, and semi-annual certification that the budget of the UN is not increasing.