2022 General Election Voter Guide

Candidate Q&A

Why are you running?

Under Illinois law, the Libertarian Party of Illinois had to gather at least 25,000 valid signatures of registered voters to place its full statewide candidate slate on the ballot.  If it had not done so, Illinois would have joined California and Kentucky as the only states with statewide elections this year with no independent or third party candidates on the ballot for a statewide office.  I gathered 7,181 of the 36,600 total signatures from mid-April through mid-July.  I wanted there to be Libertarian voices, in this election, for all statewide offices.  If our statewide candidates earn 5%+ of the vote for their respective office, it will be much easier for the Libertarian Party to get ballot access in Illinois in future elections.

What does this office do well, and what needs fixing?

History has shown that no matter whether the Democratic Party or Republican Party is in power (or there is divided government between the two older parties), the size of government relentlessly grows. 

If the federal debt continues to grow at a faster rate than Gross Domestic Product, I think it is inevitable that we will have a federal debt crisis that will seriously impact the US economy.  I support entitlement reform, which I address in Question 3. I also support reducing federal government spending by eliminating the Departments of Education and Housing & Urban Development, eliminating all corporate welfare and farm subsidies, and devolving as many as possible proper government programs to state and local governments.

What is the most pressing issue facing your constituents and how do you plan on addressing it?

Both Republican and Democratic politicians refuse to address the most important economic issue facing the US today: the impending Entitlement Crisis.  Many of them say the other side is going to cut Social Security and Medicare benefits, but the truth is that without changes to these programs, they are going to cut themselves.  The Social Security trust fund is projected to run out in 2034, with benefit cuts of over 20% at that time.  The Medicare trust fund will run dry in 2026, leading to 9% payment cuts to medical providers.

We need fresh ideas.  I support the Cato Institute’s “6.2% Solution” for Social Security that would allow people under 55 to opt out of the program, to receive a tradable bond for their past Social Security taxes and to be able to invest their future employee FICA taxes in private, inheritable investment accounts, in exchange for giving up their future Social Security benefits.  Employer Social Security taxes would continue to fund people who remain in the Social Security system.  Analysis has shown this plan would restore Social Security to long term fiscal solvency.

With Medicare, seniors should be allowed to opt out of Medicare without losing their Social Security benefits.  And, Medicare should be changed to an insurance premium supplement program, with cash being paid directly to enrollees instead of medical providers, which will incentivize seniors to be more selective purchasers of health care, with payments being adjusted for poorer and sicker enrollees.

Medicaid should be changed to a Federal block grant program to the states and phased out over ten years, allowing the states time to adjust to be fully responsible for this program.  Different policies can then be analyzed to see what works best.

What specific steps would you take to ensure your office is accessible and responsive to your constituents?

I agree with these suggestions from "The Future of Citizen Engagement: Rebuilding the Democratic Dialogue," published by the Congressional Management Foundation in 2021. 

First, there should be Deliberative Town Hall Meetings that include a representative group of constituents, a neutral moderator, focus on a single topic, with questions from constituents in the order they came, filtering only for profanity, redundancy and being off-topic.  These have been found to be much more valuable to the public than standard town hall meetings.
Some of these meetings should include members of Congress from more than one party.

Second, substantive public engagement in the legislative process should occur through crowdsourcing legislation, and I would actively work to open this avenue of participation.

Third, the public should be able to comment directly to legislatures and their respective committees, not just to their US House representatives or US Senate members.