League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
Los Angeles, Ventura County, CA November 2, 2004 Election
	Richard Koffler Answers Questions Candidate for Member of the State Assembly; District 41

Read the answers from all candidates.

Questions & Answers

1. What does California need to do to address the current budget crisis?

Deficits happen when government spends more than it takes in. Since raising taxes shouldn't be an option because they are already too high; the only option is to spend less. Easier said than done, but this will never change as long as we continue returning to power those with the ideology that it's acceptable to spend more than we take in.

2. What should the state's priorities be for K-12 education? For the Community College System?

If the public school system were a private company, its shareholders long ago would have sued every director and officer for reckless negligence. It's time to stop repeating the wrong solutions that created this criminal disaster in the first place, and start fostering market-driven competition and giving parents real choices on how their children are educated.

3. What measures would you support to address California's water needs?

Big-government enthusiasts postulate that individuals and private enterprise can't be trusted with our environment. Ergo, we need myriad government mandates and micromanagement to save the world from ourselves. My answer: "rubbish". The environment is just a nice excuse for big government's pork barrel to get bigger.

4. What should the Legislature be doing to address the needs of Californians without health insurance?

Our healthcare system is deficient because of the absurd distortions caused by tax-deductible employer-paid health insurance. But the problem is deeply worsened by government's mandates and micromanagement of the market for healthcare delivery and insurance. Under the guise of "consumer protection", each new measure is a bad band-aid for the very problems that previous measures created. The solution? Throw it all out the window and make individuals responsible for their own healthcare. And while we're at it, get the government out of the health insurance system: about 50% of the healthcare costs in the US are regulated and paid for by Medicare and Medicaid (MediCal in California).