The radio ads for the candidates were played today. I have to say that all of the radio ads were great. Leegun Kim's was by far the best. It sounded like it was from an action movie. The background music would rise and fall with Leegun's voice and the entire crowd loved it. Manisha Banga also had a great radio ad. She is discussed what she would do in this country but she said it in a brief way. The great thing about Manisha was that she was the only person that had two radio ads. This shows how prepared she was. Kyle Norton ,Andrew Bright, and Grant Hix also had great ads. They both discussed their policies on the economy and social issues. They were clear and concise. All the radio ads were great and I am impressed!
Let the race to raising the most money begin. The candidates have put up their websites and their fundraiser emails. All of them have created an email so that people could donate money to the campaign. The fundraising letters were also created by the candidates. Grant Hix had a great fundraising letter but his logo at the top was spelled wrong. It was unnoticed by anyone until a person in the crowd pointed it out. The logo was misspelled it said, " STRONGER TOGEHER". Surprisingly I also didn't notice until someone had pointed it out. The other candidates also had great campaign letters. Overall the candidates have been doing great and I hope they raise money for their campaigns!
This weeks Town Hall Meeting was a great chance for the public to finally know who their candidates are. The Republicans and Democrats were all in front of the crowd asking questions that mattered most to them. all the candidates were answering the questioned asked and at times, the debates got heated. The crowd went right in when the candidates arrived. The first questioned asked about the legalization of marijuana. Norton was the first to respond to the question stating that he supports legalization because it is not as harmful as other substances. The other candidates also agreed, Republican and Democrats, that marijuana should be legalized. Mr.Brunswick also asked questions to the candidates about taxes. Hix was the first to respond, stating that the US should not only increase some tax , but also cut spending. The candidates even began to ask each other. Bright asked Hix to back up his claims of cutting unneeded programs. As the discussion went on, Hix and Banga also were heated in the debate on whether we should have free trade. Banga advocated the idea of free trade stating that it allows Americans who can't afford high priced products to buy them at a cheaper price. On the other hand, Hix stated that we need to protect American businesses by imposing tariffs on foreign goods so that American goods can compete. There were also debates over whether schools in the US should teach creationism in schools. This was definitely the highlight of the night. All the candidates were actively involved in this discussion. Surprisingly all the candidates but Manisha Banga agreed that creationism should be taught in schools. While the other candidates stated that it is a scientific theory that has proof, Banga argued that there is no scientific proof to back the claim up. She stated that there is a separation of church and state which must be enforced.
This is an image of the candidates about to begin the meeting
Overall, the Town Hall meeting was excellent. The candidates did a great job answering the questions that the public wanted answered. The majority of the questions had to do with school : student debt, tuition, gifted programs. These are the issues that matter to the public most today, probably because the public are high school students. The candidates did good, some better than others. This town hall meeting will be one of the determining factors of who will go into the primaries. Next, the speeches.
This is the interview with the presidential candidate Kyle Norton who is running as a Democrat.
The recording of the interview is below.
Interviewer : How do you plan to fix the economy?
Kyle: Well, I plan to fix the economy with a combination of deregulation of business, which will free up more capital for them to invest in the business and make more goods and services and more jobs and as well less taxation and put more money in the pockets of normal everyday Americans who will then buy more goods and services and add more revenue to the business as well and it will be able to create more jobs and so on in a cycle for economic growth.
interviewer: How do you plan to fix the increasing student debt in the U.S?
Kyle: I believe that student loans should be capt at a certain amount . I don't believe that students should just be allowed to get themselves further and further into debt. I believe that the government should still be able to offer student loans for our less advantaged to go to college, but i still believed it should be capt at a certain amount.
Interviewer : How do you plan to fix the housing market?
Kyle: I believe less taxes on housing market as well as deregulation of the industry not to the point where they are repeating the practices they use pre-economic crash but I think that some deregulation is needed. I think a lot of punitive regulations were put on them, and I do believe that we need to remove the regulations that that were there to punish them, as well as increase taxes.
Interviewer: so what about the banks? Do you want to deregulate the banks?
Kyle: Definitely Deregulate a lot of the banks I feel like they can be trusted I feel like they learned their lesson because last time they did this it was bad for everybody so I feel like they are getting more responsible this time. Not completely deregulate but defiantly takeaway some regulations. As well as just less taxation.
Interviewer: what’s your view on Immigration?
Kyle : I do believe we are too hard on immigration in this country I believe strict immigration laws have created illegal immigrant problems and I believe that looser immigration laws and make coming into this country easier is really what this country is about at its core and that anyone can come in and make a life of themselves here and we should be more all-encompassing than “we only want Americans to stay in” because anyone who comes to America can be an American so I think that more legal immigration is good for this country and allow the immigration problem to really be fixed.
Interviewer: What about the children who were raised in America who were children of the illegal immigrants?
Kyle: If they were born in America they are an American and they should stay and collect benefits. As well as pay taxes however if they weren’t born here and are not citizens they should be deported along with the rest of their parents. I know that sound like I don’t have a heart but I think ultimately it will be good once we get the illegal immigrants back to where they came from. And we loosen immigration laws it will be much easier for them to come back because I think the reason they are here is that they don’t have the money for all the visas we require and it’s almost a ten year process to get here so once we loosen that it will be much easier to come back here.
Interviewer: What about the dream act?
Kyle: I don’t support the dream act because I feel granting amnesty is not the best option. Granting amnesty to illegal immigrants to immigrants that have been here for over 10 years. But I believe most illegal immigrants don’t belong here if they don’t pay taxes. I do believe that making a clear path for illegal immigrants living here to become citizens. However I think they should follow the same immigration laws as the person staying in Mexico. I feel like if we offer amnesty to just absolutely everyone and make it easier for illegal immigrants to stay in the country than normal immigrants we increase the number of illegal immigration will increase rather than decrease.
Interviewer: Where should the US role be in the world?
Kyle: I think that the Us has too big of a role right now I don’t think we should be the world police force. I do believe we’re the strongest country and we should be protective and devoted to our allies but I don’t think we need to be this global police for democracy I believe America’s role is mainly in America right now. I don’t believe we need to bully other countries for not sharing our values. I feel like that creates problems and creates bad situations
Interviewer: What should we do about the countries affected by the Arab springs?
Kyle: I think its great that other countries are making a move towards democracy obviously the best form of government but I don’t think that we should contribute military forces. I don’t think we should contribute a lot of that, I think financial aid if anything we have to judge if we want to give that government money or not. And eventually establish normal diplomatic relationships with them but I don’t think we should directly help countries establish a revolution.
Interviewer: So you believe in the heart of America is at home?
Kyle: I think where we need to be right now is that America needs to be focused on themselves and not being the world’s police force. I think we have a lot of problems here that we need to solve now and we cannot worry about those problems there I do believe we have issues overseas but we need to be focused on America.
Interviewer: What about Iran?
Kyle: I think Iran is directly threatening to our ally Israel but I don’t believe we should intervene military and I think trade sanctions are the way to go because Ahmadinejad has been anti Us so he is an enemy of the united states but I don’t think we should go to war I believe sanctions are the way to go and a peaceful negotiation will occur from this. I am really hopeful about the situation.
Interviewer: What should the US role be in Israel?
Kyle: I think Israel has been a faithful and loyal ally to us and I think that needs to be rewarded I think I wouldn’t be as in favor in how much military aid we are giving them right now but financial aid to support their programs. I feel like they are a good Ally to the US and its something that really needs to be invested in.
Interviewer: What should the US do about Medicare and medicaid?
Kyle: Medicare and Medicate are vital programs they don’t need to be scrapped but they need to be reformed, cut back, and made so that we don’t spend as much money on it I believe we need to incentivize health care providers with tax breaks to get their cost lowered so that it is easy for the average American to afford health care and I believe medicade needs to be around because no one is gonna watch out for the very poor people in the US but I think it should be around and need to cut down n because there is a lot of abuse in the medicate system and a lot of people who receive care needs a lot of benefits that really don’t need that much and I think we can make cuts their without scrapping the whole system.
Interviewer: What about universal health care?
Kyle: I don’t think the government should provide healthcare to everyone. I believe health care should be provided to people who absolutely need healthcare like the poorest of the poor defiantly medicate is a good program but Medicare is a little bloated and we need to cut back but universal health care should not exist. I feel like the market will drive the price of Medicare down if we stop regulating it so much. And taxing it.
You believe in more of reform rather than wiping out a program. No No, I am not for scrapping Medicare or medicaid I am just about spending less money on them.
Interviewer: So you want to privatize?
Kyle: Definitely privatize I would like to repeal Obama care as its commonly call because when the government enters health care it could obviously cut costs lower than all the other health care providers because it doesn’t need to make money off that industry it needs to make a profit off taxes. When it cuts all the prices off of healthcare all the other providers go out of business and free market health care providers suddenly lose all their sources of revenue and that’s less jobs for the American economy and we will only have one government health care provider which isn’t good because competition naturally drives down costs and if the government controls health care its not going to lower the cost, it is going to set it. I believe the fluidity of the free market healthcare system is much better for the American people than the government run health care system
Interviewer: What’s your view on same sex marriage?
Kyle: Homosexual people are citizens of this country and deserve to be treated as such and there is some major injustice going on and they are not treated as equals and not just marriage but other rights are being stripped away and I don’t believe that’s fair And I believe that every citizen has the exact same rights whether its sexual orientation race gender anything. I believe that homosexual marriage should be recognized by the states and I think it looks bad on America that we don’t embrace progress, not progress necessarily but we don’t change our views according to what society changes as I think that we need to acknowledge gay marriage as well as also giving gay people the same rights as straight people. Its just top priority for me right now.
This is an interview with presidential candidate Manisha Banga who is running as a Democrat.
Interviewer : How do you plan to fix the economy?
Manisha: I believe that first we need to balance the budget.and part of that will be cutting military spending and reforming Medicare, as well as increase taxes on the rich. Additionally we need to remove the exclusivity period on drugs.
Interviewer : How do you plan to fix the housing market?
Manisha: Something around the same lines. i think that we need to reform our government spending in that area. Because Medicare and Medicaid is geared towards those benefits we to improve their ability to survive in the housing market. We need to find a place for them to live, but I do believe that their medical health is important.
Interviewer: so what about the banks? Do you want to deregulate the banks?
Manisha: I don't believe in government bailouts for companies. I think that we need to focus on the private sector.
Interviewer: what’s your view on Immigration?
Manisha: I am advocate of the Dream Act and I believe we are a country that was built from immigration. I believe that immigrants should be able to to escape their country and come to America.
Interviewer: Where should the US role be in the world?
Manisha: I think that we should, if we are going to a country we should not be bringing guns. We should be bringing aid, we should be bringing food, clothing, medicine. We should be pulling outside of Afghanistan and Iraq, and we should not be imposing our government system on them, but if America wants to help other countries then they should be. The aid crisis in Africa, relief to Haiti, but controlling other countries with the use of guns isn't okay. Interviewer: What should we do about the countries affected by the Arab springs? Manisha: I think that we don't have the right to fix, those countries are looking for democracy and they will find it in their own time, but we need to follow our own country. We should not force democracy on other countries. And for those countries who ask for aid, we can aid them within our limits. Interviewer: Do you want more focus them on the US and its economy then? Manisha: I don't believe in just that, but I want a proper balance. I don't think that political borders should effect our loyalty. However we need a balance, and part of the balance is not controlling other nations but aiding them. Interviewer: What should the US do about medicare and medicaid? Manisha: As I mentioned earlier, I believe that we should stop the exclusivity on drugs, which stop generic drugs from coming out on the market. We need to help those that are in need. Its just like the welfare crisis, and we need to make sure these people are going out and trying to find jobs.
Interviewer: What about universal health care?
Manisha: I believe in healthcare that everyone should have access to healthcare. I don't believe it should be conformed to one. Interviewer: So do you want to privatize it? Manisha: I don't believe that the government should control it they should offer it. It should go by income level. Every American should have health care. Interviewer: Do you believe in same-sex marriage? Manisha: Yes, I don't believe that the government should tell us we can't love. Marriage should not be up to the government. Some states do have great laws to offer marriage, but this shouldn't be the government's job. This argument is based on religious beliefs and we are a secular country so it should be based on this.
