League of Women Voters of Ohio Education Fund
Highland, Clinton, Warren, Montgomery Counties, OH November 2, 2004 Election
	Jane Mitakides Answers Questions Candidate for United States Representative; District 3

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 are your qualifications for office?

Jane is a successful businesswoman, with more than two decades of service to our area, including the development board of St. Elizabeth Hospital, Women in Leadership and the AIDS Foundation. Her work with Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, Rep. Ted Strickland, Rep. Charlie Gonzales has prepared Jane to be effective from the first day. A founder of the Women's Council of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Jane has also worked for Ann Richards for Governor (Texas), and the grassroots organization 21st Century Democrats.

3. What do you see as the two most pressing issues you would address if elected? What plans do you have relative to those issues?

My top priority will be jobs creation in Dayton and southwest Ohio, so we can return our community to broad-based prosperity. It is wrong to collect tax dollars from the people of Ohio's 3rd Congressional District, and then ship the work paid for by those tax dollars overseas. We should not use our tax dollars for technology research and development overseas when we need those opportunities here. I will develop tax incentives for keeping jobs in America, and eliminate tax breaks for taking jobs overseas. I will also work to put an immediate stop to off-shoring of vital and sensitive government data processing.

4. How would you address the federal deficit?

We must never forget what our priorities are. The last federal budget passed for FY 2005 has been described as the "porkiest" ever with $50 million allotted for an indoor rain forest in Iowa and millions more for golf videos in Ireland. I am absolutely against raising taxes, which means we must find sensible, long-term solutions that combine targeted tax cuts with fiscal responsibility, focusing the budget on our country and our area.

5. What should be the federal government's role with respect to health care?

Access to high quality, affordable health care should be a right, not a privilege. I know we can find ways to work with state governments and businesses to provide health insurance without overburdening employers or leaving millions of Americans uninsured. We should begin by covering children and restoring funding for CHIP, the children's plan. We must also streamline and strengthen Medicaid and Medicare for seniors and provide a real prescription drug benefit, one that focuses on helping seniors, not pharmaceutical companies.

6. What plans do you have to promote a more balanced transportation system?

I believe modernizing our transportation system is an integral part of real energy independence, as well as ensuring the mobility of an aging population. We should invest in making our current highway and surface-street transportation system more efficient, cut waste in our current public transportation system, and begin to look ahead to light rail and other means of efficiently moving people from point to point. In this central hub area, I will make it a priority that our projects--like the suggested US-35 improvements through eastern Montgomery County--see fruition. Business relies on good transportation options, so a strong transportation system isn't just good policy--it's smart business, too.

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