Do you support bank bailouts?
I don’t know enough about it.
CH> That was the single most important issue of the past 4 years.
Do you think America’s infrastructure is not in need of substantial improvments?
It is. I think it should be state funded.
CH> States don’t have the ability to do pay for them. Do you therefore think that the bridges, roads, and railroads should be abandoned as they crumble?
Do you think that millions of Americans should be denied health insurance because of pre-existing conditions?
Yes.
CH> You realize that you are condemning people — including some Jews — to an early death?
Do you think that employees’ rights to form unions should be eliminated?
No. Neither should the secret ballot be eliminated through tricks like card check.
CH> I’m happy with the secret ballot, but I’m not happy with current labor law that allows employers to delay such a secret ballot while systematically purging their workforces of employees believed to be supporting a union.
Do you think that America’s educational system does not need improvement?
It does. It needs an overhaul. We need to fire every teacher and hire teachers who will be accountable and competent. I don’t care what it costs.
CH> How large a tax increase are you willing to pay for it? To fire every teacher and hire superbly qualified teachers in today’s labor market probably means that salaries for teachers need to be about doubled.
Do you think that Americans’ Social Security money should be invested in the casino known as Wall Street?
Better than the Black hole known as the Social Security Trust fund. I think we should eliminate the program and just make a need based senior welfare program.
CH> Great! Millionaires don’t need Social Security any more than they need more tax cuts.
Do you think that the US government should not enforce laws against racial and religious discrimination?
By public entities- Yes, but only real discrimination, not made up garbage.
By private entities- No.
CH> Don’t complain then when you are fired for refusing to work on Shabat or for wearing a yarmulke, or if you are refused an apartment or a house by a landlord or seller. Jews have benefitted enormously from anti-discrimination laws.
Do you think that the government should ban all abortions, including those that are halachically mandated?
Yes.
I don’t want them to, but I think they should.
CH> Are you really a Torah Jew?
Do you think that the government should sit by and let people be denied their right to vote, as is happening to Jews in some upstate communities?
No. Since when is this a partisan issue?
CH> It shouldn’t be, but it has been made one by the people who posted here. Republicans are actively trying to disenfranchise qualified voters. One of the most eggregious examples have been upstate communities with many temporary residents who are Jews from New York who don’t vote the way the permanent residents want even though they own their second homes and pay high taxes. The law says that you can use a summer home as your voting address as long as you don’t vote twice. (In some places, such as Connecticut, you actually CAN vote in both places in local elections under some circumstances.)
Do you think that the concentration of mass media ownership in a few hands is a good thing?
If there is an anti-trust violation, it should be prosecuted. Otherwise, no harm- no foul.
CH> I agree.
Do you think we should continue the war in Iraq indefinitely?
What kind of question is that? We should continue it as long as it serves our interests. Even if that is 100 years.
You think we should not continue if it serves our interests?
CH> An endless war is not in the interests of the US. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are preventing us from doing anything about the real enemy, Iran.
Do you really think climate change requires no action at all?
Yes. It is a scam. Historians will tell of past warming and cooling cycles that have been happening forever.
CH> The world has gotten warmer. That is a fact. It is no scam.
Do you disagree with Ronald Reagan regarding nuclear proliferation?
I never got this argument. We should prevent other countries from getting nuclear weapons, and we should continue to develop our own.
CH> I objected to the guilt-by-association here and pointed out that Reagan’s position at the end of his term was identical to the CPUSA.