League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
San Diego, Imperial County, CA June 5, 2012 Election
	Denise Moreno Ducheny Answers Questions Candidate for United States Representative; District 51

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?

Congress needs to take action and provide certainty to allow for investment. Examples include: Passage of a 5-year Transportation Authorization bill, which should include necessary funds to complete border crossing expansions at San Ysidro and Calexico and similarly previously authorized projects along other portions of the Border with approved designs. The Transportation Bill should include sufficient funds and discretion to allow agencies like Caltrans and SANDAG to improve traffic flow on roads like Hwy 94 from Tecate, and improve major arteries to move goods and passengers. It should also contain funding for improvements of our rail system to more efficiently move goods and passengers with less fossil fuel, and improve public transportation systems and options in urban and rural communities.

We need to develop policies that will encourage capital investment in small businesses and innovative technologies + especially technologies that will lead to more sustainable communities where precious resources like water and energy are more efficiently utilized, making communities less dependent on imported fossil fuels.

And, we will need to address tax reform to provide the nation greater certainty and uniformity in the tax code. This will include eliminating obsolete and unnecessary programs, passing a budget that constrains spending where possible, eliminating special tax breaks, and rolling back the Bush era tax reductions for individuals earning more than $250,000 per year. The goal of all of these reforms will be to insure states and communities can begin restoring cuts made to our educational system during the years since the beginning of the Great Recession.

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?

While we must maintain sufficient military forces and defensive weapons to respond to any emergency, we can start to reduce the military budget by ceasing combat operation in Afghanistan and Iraq and bringing our troops home. We should additionally reduce military spending, by using military personnel instead of contracting out work for military operations. Domestic priorities should include providing necessary services to allow returning veterans to re-enter civilian society with necessary health, educational, and career transition support.

And, we must find ways to invest in education and career training necessary to spur new innovation and new businesses, including protection of Pell Grant and Student loan programs. Additionally, we must prioritize the long-term financial stability of Medicare and Social Security.

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?

We should continue investing in technology to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, and to become more regionally self-sufficient by diversifying our energy resources with local sustainable resources. Our region including San Diego and Imperial Counties and Baja California needs a long-range energy plan utilizing geothermal resources, localized solar, distributive generation, and some wind, backed up with air-cooled natural gas plants for reliability to the grid. We should zone areas for wind and larger scale solar proposals carefully and be conscious that we not create new large-scale power plant level wind fields, which could adversely impact residents or the environment in inappropriate locations, or take productive agricultural land out of production.

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

As we move forward to implement the Affordable Care Act, we will need to consider expanding access with more public and non-profit options and leveraging purchasing power for pharmaceutical products in MediCare and Medicaid (as California has done for our Medi-Cal program and the federal government does for the VA) and lower costs by focusing on health outcomes rather than creating financial incentives for unnecessary testing. In Home Supportive Services and Adult Day Care should be an integral part of health care for seniors and disabled persons as these programs also assist in keeping overall healthcare costs down.

5. What, if any, changes should be made to federal rules on campaign financing?

We must fight to overturn the Citizens United decision and require full disclosure of contributions to independent groups not run by campaigns. Corporations that engage in campaign activities should be required to follow the same set of rules required of candidate campaign accounts. It is unjust to allow anonymous donations by corporations and super rich individuals alleging they are donating to "non-profit" entities, but in actuality are actively engaged in political speech.

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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).

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Created from information supplied by the candidate: May 15, 2012 18:27
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