INTRODUCTION: Barkley

Minnesota E-Democracy Project (edemo@info1.mr.net)
Mon, 21 Oct 1996 14:37:50 -0500 (CDT)

Question:

Why do you wish to represent the citizens of the State of Minnesota in
the U.S. Senate?

Response:

I believe the current two-party system has placed our nation on a path of
economic chaos and cynicism towards politics and our government. Polls
show that only 17% of all Americans have a positive feeling towards their
government today.

I would like to turn that cynicism into hope. To do so, I am dealing
with two vital public issues that have been orphaned by the Democrats and
Republicans...the two issues they are incapable of dealing with without
saying goodbye to the corrupting influences that now control them.

The first issue is campaign finance reform. We have to stop the outright
bribery that is polluting politics. Bribery is illegal everywhere in
this country except in Congress. A bribe is defined as "the giving of
money or something of value to a person in power with the expectation of
influencing their decision making." This sounds an awful lot like a PAC
contribution. Both my major party opponents take as much PAC money as
they can raise. One likes it while the other complains about it but
takes it just the same. Presidential candidate Bob Dole acknowledged on
his first debate that, in his opinion, the Democrats and Republicans are
not capable of solving this problem.

If they can't, who will?

The second issue is the budget deficit and the $5.2 trillion debt. Each
U.S. taxpayer now owes $47,000 in taxes to cover the debt. Because of
the way the Democrats and Republicans have run our nation's finances, YOU
owe $47,000 to the federal government as your share of the national debt!

The real national debt is closer to $20 trillion if you count the federal
and military pension liabilities. Compound this with the impending
explosion of debt resulting from the eventual retirement of the baby boom
generation, and you can see we have tough times ahead if we don't pull
our heads out of the sand.

We must begin now to fix these problems and stop the immorality of
heaping endless debt upon our children for them to pay when they become
taxpayers.

Bob Dole made his second great admission in the same debate when he said
that, in his opinion, entitlement reform cannot be solved by the
Democrats and Republicans.

If they can't, who will?

This is why I want to be your next U.S. Senator. I want to be a problem
solver in Washington, not a voice in the wilderness. I want to be your
honest voice who is willing to take on the two problems the two-party
system has caused. I want to be a U.S. Senator, sent by you, to exercise
the political courage it will take to solve the problems that seriously
threaten our children's and nation's future.