As a member of Congress, how would you work to ensure that the necessary resources would get into the state?

We need trained professionals, not political appointees, to run these important disaster relief agencies. And we need Congress to properly fund FEMA and Homeland Security. Cut out the politics; people’s lives are at stake. Use experts to help set funding levels. As Congressman, I plan to ask the right questions quietly before the disaster, not in front of a television camera after the disaster.

Then, make local plans and coordinate within the local areas, but also set larger geographic plans. Local rescue services will not be fully functioning after a large disaster. We saw that clearly in New Orleans, where local services evaporated. I also saw that years before, during Hurricane Hugo in the Virgin Islands. Consequently, there have to be plans to bring in assistance immediately from outside predictable disaster areas. That is especially true for our island communities. Skilled responders, sufficient supplies, no delays and no excuses.

Please take five minutes to listen to me speak about the important issues my campaign is addressing. View my speech here or here.

The Peoples Advocacy for Trails Hawaii wanted to know my views on bike trails and paths:

I support expansion of bike paths throughout the United States. As Congressman I would support federal funding for these efforts and would encourage communities to come forward with creative ideas to maximize bikeways. Hawaii has really failed to understand the importance of moving forward on bike paths. Now we complain about the high cost of gasoline and the lack of alternate modes of transportation. Yet we have done little to take advantage of our great weather in Hawaii.

Kauai is to be congratulated for their new 17 mile bike path that is going along its most populated residential areas. It will give people safe passage to and from work and it will promote health and tourism. Eco-tourism is a real concept and that bike path will generate many jobs. Way to go Kauai!

Finally, please note that as a member of my local governmental board I argued forcefully for the expansion of bike paths in our community. However, the inertia of those who are stuck in autos is frequently the deciding factor in these decisions. For that reason you need people who really believe in alternative ways of doing things. Bike paths are one of those alternative ways.

Prepaid Health Care Act
I support this act and its purpose of providing health care for workers. It does result in health care for our workers. We (Hawaii) are the future not the past as regards coverage for workers and their families. Our degree of coverage is the ideal. We should not lessen coverage.

Anti-trust
I support the right of physicians, etc. to use their collective power to negotiate with insurance carriers regarding health plans. If it is shown that this collective power results in damage to the consumers and the health care beneficiaries then I would fight for repeal.

Medical providers should be fairly compensated for their valuable services. If this helps, then I support it. But those in need of medical services should always be kept in mind.

Scope of practice/prescriptive authority
I do not support the expansion of prescriptive authority unless supported by the leading medical and scientific communities in America.

However it is the science that counts and not the economic interests of any one group. So let’s be objective about the science. Times do change and science and standards advance. And positive changes occur.

Health Insurance
We should provide standards of review for the council. If there are standards that will allow additional providers then the council will have to allow for that expansion. I take no campaign money from any special interest group so I can be objective on this issue. I do not promote monopolies unless there is an absolute need for that restriction.

I support whatever steps we can take to increase medical coverage for our residents.

Health Savings Accounts
I support all forms of incentives to encourage Americans to save money for the future. This includes tax incentives, etc. However, if we continue to give the majority of the tax benefits to the rich we cannot expect the financially strapped middle and low income taxpayers to independently save for all future health needs.

Tort Reform
Tort Reform is a non-issue. Your insurance carriers are making great profits without reducing your premiums. There are few medical malpractice lawsuits filed in Hawaii and the number of lawsuits actually filed keeps dropping. Your premiums continue to go up in states that passed “tort reform” so lawsuits were not the cost-driver.

Finally there are few “frivolous” lawsuits due to the cost of initiating and pursuing a lawsuit.

Medical Necessity
I trust my doctors to make important decisions, not some accountant in a far off office. I would work to maintain the doctor-patient relationship as regards health maintenance organizations. Patients need prompt administrative appeal rights
at a minimum.

Right to Sue
See above regarding administrative appeal rights. Although a lawyer, I do not promote lawsuits unless necessary to correct injustice. In addition to administrative appeals I would support whatever mechanism is necessary to guarantee that the patient’s interests are primary and fully addressed.

Patient Assisted Suicide
I oppose physician assisted suicide.

Workers’ Compensation
I strongly support your right to receive fair compensation for your services. Under current medical fee schedules in Hawaii you are not paid a fair wage. I support immediately increasing the fee schedule.

I also support an expedited review of insurance carrier denials of your treatment plans. Those denials hurt your patients and my clients.

Regulation of Physicians’ Fees
I do not support control of your fees as long as you do not violate anti-trust laws or consumer protection rights. I also do not want large HMOs to determine the quality of service that your patients need to recover and to stay healthy.

Physician Campaign Involvement
There are physicians all over Hawaii who are familiar with my work as a progressive work-injury attorney. They know that I fight to get their treatment plans approved promptly. They know that I represent badly injured workers whose rights are being abused by governmental agencies, employers or insurance carriers. I anticipate that many of your members will appreciate my call for an immediate removal of our troops from Iraq, my call for a reduction in our national debt (”national credit card”) and my call to reduce wasteful pork barrel spending.

I do not accept any financial support from special interests, lobbying groups, etc. I do accept individual contributions of up to $200.

Is No Child Left Behind working? Evaluate it and its effect on Hawaii’s schools.
It helped by clarifying reading and math levels. Now we need creative funding. Money for mock hotel industry reservation centers in rural Hawaii communities for training and then job creation, money for at-risk students to learn construction trades by repairing state park bathrooms, fixing vacant public housing units, etc. These programs will teach them post-school trades for employment. And school-government cooperation saves taxpayer money.

We need money for computers and more teacher assistants in classrooms. We need creative and exciting programs for our youth. All of this is just a false promise if we do not get out of Iraq and reduce Congressional pork barrel “addiction”. We need to reduce the national debt (national “credit card”).

Finally, we need to stop complaining about our public school teachers. They have a heavy burden and work with many recent immigrant families and/or with families without a full appreciation of the need for education in this changing world. Let’s continue supporting these teachers and improve our public school system. It is OUR school system after all.

How concerned are you about the deficit and what measures do you believe must be taken to move us toward a balanced budget?

Saw two pregnant ladies recently, excitedly discussing their upcoming childbirths (about 3 months away). As I heard them talking about the new additions to their families and their hopes and dreams for their families, I realized that those two persons (yet to be) already owe thousands of dollars as their share of the national “credit card” debt. In fact their debt is now three trillion dollars larger than it was six years ago. Thanks to our “Family Values” Congress, those children have the burden of paying off this debt instead of using their earnings for their families.

Congress has turned America into a “debtor” Nation. Families in Hawaii have much more common sense that Congress when it comes to budgeting and financial matters. “Off the books” budget gimmicks, refusing to put the costs of the Iraq fiasco into the annual national budget, adding thousands of costly “pork barrel” gifts to Congressmen and women in unrelated appropriations bills represent the out of control spending damage that Congress continues to inflict on Hawaii’s residents and future generations.

We need common sense in Congress. Congress must change or be changed.

In balancing Americans’ right to privacy with the need for homeland security, how much personal information should the government be able to gather, what kind of information should it have access to and for what purpose?

We compromise our right to total privacy every day of our lives. These compromises are legitimate and necessary. State governments know when we were born, the names of our parents, etc. State governments know about our driving records and whether we need glasses to drive a vehicle. The federal government knows when and where we travel to foreign countries. The Social Security offices know the names of each employer where we have worked over our lifetimes and the amounts of money we made and the Internal Revenue Service knows how much we pay in taxes and what deductions we claim. And non-governmental groups know our credit records and sometimes our outstanding bills.

All of these compromises are necessary and cannot be avoided. Even more information may be needed in the future if the public insists on instantly knowing whether workers applying for jobs are “legal” or illegal” residents. Most likely a national identity card similar to a social security card would be necessary to show if any of us are legally allowed to work in America.

What we need in America is the following:

1. A healthy appreciation of the Constitutional rights that we possess. That document makes America special. Every Hawaii resident should read the Constitution and know your rights. Then demand that everybody, even powerful governmental officials live up to the promises of the Constitution.
2. A mature analysis of national problems and realistic steps to solve our security problems. Library cards don’t lead officials to terrorists. Mass round-ups of telephone records do not lead to terrorists. We need information gathering to be objective. Homeland security is vital but must be real and focused; not wildly scooping up millions of pieces of information that don’t lead to terror and that only remain unread in some office.
3. We need to demand that our President and our governmental officials follow the law, not break the law. There should be increased statutory penalties imposed upon government officials who inappropriately use any of our personal information for “political” purposes. Each time we sit quietly by and allow abuses to our rights we weaken and threaten our Constitution.
4. We need a Congress that loves the Constitution and is willing to restrain politicians who would weaken our Constitutional rights for purely political purposes during times of national homeland security crisis.

These are my answers to a questionnaire posted by the Advertiser:

What do you think is the most important issue facing the 2nd Congressional District?  Provide a detailed description of how a solution could be legislated or implemented.

Threats to our Nation, large and small, long term and short term abound.  Choices for action also abound but I note the “Fiasco” in Iraq as my choice for initial action.  Iraq is a true cancer on our Nation.  It kills our young people and makes new enemies for our children and grandchildren.   It bankrupts our national spirit and it bleeds our national resources.  It was ill advised.  I opposed it from the beginning and I am sad to say that I was right.  Congressmen who continue to try and cover up their errors in Iraq are hurting our country.  We have to leave now and then move forward to build up human cooperation and understanding.  It can be done.  We need real faith.

Do you support a rail or other mass transit system on Oahu and would you try to seek funding for it?

Yes to rail. Yes to federal funding. Yes to changing our transportation habits. No to double decked highways that blight our beautiful islands. Times change. So must we.

Do you think the No Child Left Behind Act is improving public education? Would you seek to leave it the same, repeal it, or amend it?   Please explain.

It helped by clarifying reading and math levels. Now we need creative funding. Money for mock hotel industry reservation centers, money for at risk students to learn construction trades by repairing state parks bathrooms, fixing vacant public housing units, etc.  School-government cooperation saves taxpayer money.

Do you think the United States should withdraw troops from Iraq quickly or wait until a stable government is in place?  Why?

The Iraq “Fiasco” is wrong and it hurts America every day.   It also makes us less safe every day.  If we love our Nation, we leave within six months.

Do you think the federal government needs to do more to help Native Hawaiians and, if so, in what way?

All Hawaiians should register to vote in this election and gain real sovereignty by having a representative government that meets all of our needs.

This is my answer to a question posed by the Star-Bulletin:

Do you believe that the NSA’s domestic spying program is an
effective deterrent to terrorism and what changes (if any) would you seek if
elected to Congress?

I do not support domestic spying on my friends and neighbors.  I doubt that the efforts to review library cards is effective in promoting a world in which people cooperate together rather than plan to blow each other up.  Giving up our right to privacy and handing over our Constitutional rights will not make us safer.  It only makes us more fearful and less free.

As a law student in Chicago many years ago I was highly offended to see policemen taking pictures of persons picketing a Federal Courthouse.  Those photos did nothing to promote peace in our communities and world.  Sneak photos of citizens protesting is not the image of America that I seek to promote and protect as a Congressman.

We need to stop allowing politicians to turn us into fearful beings too afraid to promote world peace and international understanding.   My proposals for a Second Front on the War on Terror will do a lot more to increase our safety than any fear promoting domestic spying program.

I strongly believe in the time-honored proverb, “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” That is in my personal mind, in my national mind, and in my legislative and political mind. I am proud to say it was also in the mind of the majority of the speakers who attended a recent Hawaii Restaurant Association issues forum Thursday in Honolulu.

I was the first speaker and noted my belief that every issue we discuss in the campaign has to be with a backdrop of the fact that the Iraq War is a national and international disaster and that it is bleeding our national spirit, damaging our international and historical reputation and bankrupting our children and grandchildren. The politicians who continue to hide behind their huge errors in judgment in sending our troops to the wrong country and keeping them in the wrong country to protect those same mistaken politicians need to be replaced.

I then spoke in favor of an increase in the minimum wage because:

1. Our “Family Values” Congress gave itself nine raises over almost 10 years but gave no raises over those same years to mothers and fathers supporting families on minimum wages.
2. If it is a choice between giving tax breaks for the richest Americans or minimum wage increases to the minimum wage earners, I choose to provide relief to the families on minimum wages.
3. Our present federal minimum wage does not come close to allowing a person to live above our national poverty-line wage. How can we rejoice in our abundance while knowing that so many of our fellow (national family) members are struggling to support their families?

So for me it is an easy decision. The federal minimum wage needs to be increased immediately without that legislation being tied to any further “tax give aways” to the richest Americans.

I believe in balanced burdens and benefits. That means the poor get a minimum wage increase now.

Postscript:

• Congratulations to my fellow campaign opponents on the Democratic side who spoke up eloquently and passionately for a minimum wage increase.
• To the two Republican candidates who could not bring themselves to the point of supporting any minimum wage increase for minimum wage earners even though Congressmen got 9 raises — what the heck are you thinking about and who is important to you?

Submitted to the Sierra Club

If interest groups ask each candidate to be an expert in every problem area that our Nation faces, the public will be disappointed and the expertise verbalized by any Congressional candidate will be vague and politically timid rather than heartfelt and useful. In my case I believe it is best for the public to evaluate me by studying my life experiences, life priorities and daily approach to problem solving. An understanding of the process that a candidate uses to solve problems should provide insight into matters of fairness, lack of bias, philosophy, etc. Those insights are more valuable than false expertise, twisted and bent to make each interest group momentarily pleased.

I believe that we must work toward unity and understanding of the ways in which national problems affect each of our communities. We are interconnected. In addition I believe we need to balance the burdens and the benefits in our society. This means sharing burdens and benefits. I also believe that our goal must be to create a society that is renown, in centuries to come, for its progress, its civility, its charity and its humility. I care about our future reputation as a nation and I am committed to helping build a spirit of cooperation throughout our body politic and our international community to achieve a destiny that is admirable rather than despised. To fail in this goal is to invite the eventual, and not so distant, end to our Republic.

Finally I believe that the goal of Congress is to reduce the size of problems not debate forever in pursuit of the “perfect” solution that one’s campaign contributors desire. For this reason I am committed to resolving problems and reminding all interest groups that compromise is not always a show of weakness but oftentimes an example of wisdom.
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Four days ago I did a press release on the pervasive effect of pork barrel spending upon our country. Yesterday a national press report detailed how Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, made a neat $2 million dollars profit after he appropriated $270 million of taxpayer money to build a freeway near his property. He appropriated the money and the land went up in value. He pocketed the $2 million after only a couple years of investing in the land.

Then yesterday while on the road with my signs a friend gave me a large tin of government “pork” in a tin can. I have now decided to run the can around the Hawaiian Islands as a reminder of the damage that pork barrel spending is doing to our country and our children and grandchildren.