League of Women Voters of Ohio Education Fund
State of Ohio November 2, 2010 Election
	Daniel H. LaBotz Answers Questions Candidate for United States Senate

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 (who have responded).

Questions & Answers

3. What is the role of the federal government in regulating the private sector? (150 word limit)

Corporations today dominate our economy, society, culture and politics. The irresponsible actions of Massey Energy and BP make clear that we must regulate every aspect of the corporations and their greedy, selfish CEOs and boards. Finances, health and safety, labor relations, production, and products must all be regulated. Corporations have too much power and do too much damage. The oil companies, for example, have controlled our economy, thwarted attempts to create better environmental policies and taken the US into foreign wars for their profits. We must bring corporations under the ownership and control of the American people. We need to transform the corporations into socially-owned and managed firms within the context of a national economic and environmental plan. Why should a corporate board have the power to shutdown and ruin a community as DHL did in Wilmington? We the people together can do better than that.

4. How will you address the challenges and opportunities to the United States posed by unauthorized immigrants? (150 word limit)

Most of the 12 million undocumented people in the US came because they could not find work in their own countries that paid a living wage. Some U.S. corporations have gone to great lengths to lure workers and their families here, hiring them to work in their plants as factory workers and their offices as janitors. At the same time, the U.S. government has failed to make available enough visas for these workers, so that they must work under false names using false SS numbers. Many of these workers do not know English and do not know their labor rights. These corporate and governmental policies have permitted an inhumane and vicious exploitation of these workers. We must legalize all of the immigrants here now ASAP and give them residence and rights so that they can join with other workers in union campaigns to improve wages and benefits for all.

5. What specific functions of the federal government can be performed better by contracting with the private sector? What specific functions of the federal government should not be contracted out to the private sector? (150 word limit)

Contracting out is a shortsighted policy that destroys the integrity and capability of government agencies, weakens actual citizen and government control over agencies, and harms unions and workers, as well as consumers and the general public. Governments and private employers often contract out to non-union companies or companies that pay substandard wages. We see the results in the poor performance of U.S. government agencies weakened and sometimes corrupted by contracting out policies. Consider the consequences of the FDA contracting out food surveillance to private companies: outbreaks of E. coli and other diseases. We can also see the result of contracting out in military`s hiring of private mercenaries such as Blackwater which engaged in irresponsible and criminal behavior both in the US and abroad. Contracting out often serves as the first step to privatization of government owned services such as schools and water. Contracting out undermines good government services.

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Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League.  Candidates' statements are presented as submitted. Word limits apply for each question. Direct 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: September 28, 2010 17:13
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