League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
State of California June 5, 2012 Election
	Dan Hughes Answers Questions Candidate for United States Senator

The questions were prepared by the League of Women Voters of California Education Fund and asked of all candidates for this office.
Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

Questions & Answers

1. In this time of high unemployment, what are the most important steps that should be taken to improve our nation’s economy?

It's time for leadership that encourages job creation and protects our American tradition of innovation, creativity and opportunity.

The United States currently has one of the highest corporate tax rates in the developed world. Businesses and opportunities are leaving our shores in alarming numbers because our policies are no longer competitive with the rest of the world.

I have decided to endorse, adopt and be a leader to implement the 9-9-9 plan in its entirety. I have spent many hours conversing with the architect of 9-9-9, Rich Lowrie, and I believe that this plan achieves the goals of being fair, transparent and will make the U.S. more competitive in the world marketplace. The highlights from my perspective are:

• 9-9-9 taxes the broadest possible base at the lowest possible rates

• 9-9-9 is fair, simple, transparent, efficient. It taxes everything once.

• 9-9-9 gets Washington out of picking winners and losers

• 9-9-9 unites Flat-taxers with Fair-taxers

• 9-9-9 unites eliminating deductions with lower rates

• 9-9-9 unites income and payroll taxpayers so we can all pull for low rates

• 9-9-9 gives us a clear direction and gets government out of the way

2. How should the federal budget deficit be addressed, now and into the future? How should budget priorities for defense and domestic programs be adjusted?

Excessive government spending is destroying America.

Even as unsound federal laws distorted lending rules and destabilized our once solid housing market, excessive government spending has caused dire concern about hyper-inflation of our currency and uncertainty in the American economy. Excessive spending combined with corrupted regulations + the picking of winners and losers of questionable value + have further distorted the marketplace.

Consequently private job-creators across the economic spectrum have lost confidence that their business ventures will be successful. They've delayed further investment and further hiring; and recession leery consumers have cautiously put off spending.

Washington D.C. has created the perfect recipe for economic decline.

We must stop the government spending addiction.

As your U.S. Senator I will ask this question about every government expense: is borrowing money for it so important, so critical, that it is worth putting our economic sovereignty in the hands of Saudi Arabia or China or any other nation to pay for it?

The U.S. Dollar must be returned back to a sound monetary footing. I support a complete audit of the Federal Reserve and tightened control of its activities in matters of money supply and manipulation.

3. What are your priorities with respect to our nation’s energy policy? Should there be an emphasis on clean energy and reducing carbon emissions, and/or on reducing our dependence on foreign sources?

Our current energy policy makes it harder for us to get our economy growing again and transfers trillions of tax and private dollars into unproven technologies. Instead, we need a sensible energy policy designed to incentivize outcomes rather than one which picks winners and losers.

When bureaucrats in Washington, DC pick which technologies to invest our money in and which ones to force us to implement, a broken web of regulations, subsidies and mandates makes energy more expensive and less efficient.

A better policy would focus on long-term outcomes, establishing goals and incentives to develop cleaner energy that attract private investment, similar to the "X PRIZE," which sent a three man vehicle into space, a competition which motivated 26 teams from seven nations to invest more than $100 million in pursuit of a $10 million prize. A similar contest motivated Charles Lindbergh to fly from New York to Paris in 1927 for the first time in history, in a contest that saw nine teams invest $400,000 in pursuit of a $25,000 prize.

When we get out of the way of the free-market and stop believing that bureaucrats in Washington are smarter than America's best innovators, we achieve real solutions that grow our economy and improve the lot of mankind.

These are the types of solutions you can expect from me as your United States Senator, ones that leverage the creativity and spirit of the individual to do great things for society, not policies that limit our freedoms and create government managed "crony capitalism."

4. What, if any, changes should be made to federal health care policies or programs?

Already, the Obama healthcare law has increased healthcare and insurance costs, and most of the new law won't become effective until 2013 and 2014. In an already down economy, employers are scrambling to understand the new law and the dozens of increased costs and regulations they will be forced to comply with.

My plans to increase Access and make healthcare more Affordable include the following key elements:

Competition
-Restore free market competition over time + the `price fixing' reimbursement system ensures that the uninsured pay the most for services and that `gamesmanship' occurs at all levels of pricing. The reimbursement schedules stifle improvement of care and quality of care and stand in the way of innovation.

Allow competition across state lines

-Allow `pooling' of small businesses to achieve lower cost insurance

Reduce RegulationIntegration

-Elimination of duplication + One of the greatest drivers of cost in healthcare is the duplication government oversight to healthcare facilities and services.

Lead culture change and incentivize providers to focus on prevention + the current model rewards providers based on people being sick.

-Incentivize personal accountability by discouraging costly lifestyle choices (eg. Smoking) which lead to high health care costs

-Utilize innovative new technologies to increase early diagnoses of health issues and reduce costs

Personal Insurance

-Transition from employer provided insurance to individual purchased insurance like auto, life and homeowners

---

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.

Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

Candidate Page || Feedback to Candidate || This Contest
SmartVoter Home (Ballot Lookup) || About Smart Voter

---

Created from information supplied by the candidate: June 4, 2012 10:17
Smart Voter <http://www.smartvoter.org/>
Copyright © League of Women Voters of California Education Fund   http://www.lwvc.org
The League of Women Voters neither supports nor opposes candidates for public office or political parties.