8TH DISTRICT CANDIDATE PROFILE: EMERSON PROMOTES COMMON-SENSE APPROACH, PROBLEM-SOLVING

Five candidates are seeking to represent the 8th District in Congress. The Southeast Missourian asked all five candidates the same 14 questions, which we feel are major issues in this campaign. Their answers appear in a weeklong candidates profile that ends today. Ballot order was used to determine publication date.

1. What should we do to lower the national deficit? Should we cut taxes or cut spending, or both?

Emerson: We have to control runaway spending by restraining the rate of growth of some programs. We probably need to consolidate some agencies, departments, because there's so much overlap. I think that can cut taxes in a targeted approach. I think we can have a $500 per child tax credit. I think we can cut capital gains taxes. I think we can cut state taxes.

2. Would you support a balanced budget amendment?

Emerson: We need to have a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution to get the government's fiscal house in order, number one. I think, obviously, we need to have a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution because a balanced budget amendment will force interest rates down and if we have lower interest rates, that not only helps put money in our pockets, but it also reduces the payment on the debt.

3. What is your stand on the abortion issue? Do you favor a constitutional amendment banning abortion? Do you support a ban on partial birth abortions?

Emerson: I support a ban on partial birth abortions. I'm pro-life and I would support a constitutional amendment to protect the sanctity of life. And I'm adamantly opposed to federal funding for abortion as well.

4. Under the Medicare plan the Republican Congress passed but Clinton vetoed, did Medicare spending increase? What action or actions should be taken to keep Medicare form going bankrupt?

Emerson: Yes, the $158,000 restraint of growth, Medicare increases under the congressional plan, the final plan that was passed by Congress, Medicare increases per beneficiary about $2,100-$2,300 over the next seven years. That was the final planned that was passed by Congress. It also offers choice to seniors, more choice than they would have now as far as allowing seniors the option of keeping their own doctors, keeping their own hospital, keeping their own Medicare program that they've got now or they would have the option of going to an HMO managed care. The spending would increase, actually the final spending that was passed by the Congress increases spending on Medicare between now and 2002 by $302 billion. It is not a cut and that's restraining the growth of Medicare to two times the rate of inflation rather than the current three times the rate of inflation. The growth of Medicare is at about a little bit more than 7 percent a year. It would still increase benefits between now and 2002, somewhere in the neighborhood of $2,100-$2,300 per beneficiary. You know, Medicare Part B, which is a co-pay anyway, Medicare Part B, in the last seven years up to today, monthly payments have doubled in that seven-year period. So I think the average co-pay now is $46.10 or something like that. Under the Republican plan to save Medicare, the payments would go to $87 per month. Under the Democratic plan, or the Clinton plan, the payments would be at $83 per month in 2002, a $4 difference.

The difference between the Republican plan and Democratic plan is that all of the savings that are generated by the Republican plan go back into the Medicare trust fund, while in the Democrat plan, the savings do not go back into the trust fund. I don't know where it goes. They don't say where it goes, but it does not go back into the trust fund. Back in 1993 when Clinton was trying to get his universal health care plan through, they were going to do a plan very similar, quite frankly, to the one which Republicans passed in Congress that would restrain the rate of growth of Medicare to two times inflation. Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton were very adamant in saying this is not a cut. Medicare is growing too fast. This is not a cut, but yet they turn around and use it as cut now. What I really think needs to happen to Medicare is that we need to have a bipartisan commission with politicians taken out of the process altogether. I think that commission needs to convene as soon as the new Congress gets sworn in and report back to Congress by July 1, 1997 with a plan to make Medicare actuarially sound for generations to come, very similar to that which happened in 1983 with Social Security; the Social Security commission, the Pepper Commission, set up the Social Security system to be solvent for the foreseeable future. I just think politics needs to get out of it because it's a serious problem and we don't need to be demagoguing it. I think it can be saved with increasing taxes. I mean, there's so much waste, fraud and abuse of the system that we ought to give seniors a bonus for trying to root out some of that waste, fraud and abuse.

5. What is the most important issue facing 8th District residents?

Emerson: Jobs and having more money in the people's pockets. I think that we need to bring more and better jobs to our district and to put more money in people's pockets because one comes from the other. As I said earlier, we need to have the $500 per child tax credit and we need the other capital gains and a state tax relief. I think we also need to have that balanced budget amendment. But secondly, and I think very interconnected, is that we need to improve our infrastructure in the district. We need to finish four-laning Highway 67. We need to finish four-laning Highway 60. We need to improve (highways) 8, 32, 72, 63, 63's over Rolla way. That needs to finish being four-lane too. We need to improve that infrastructure. We need to improve our bridges. We need to keep our rail system in good order. We need to help our airports, etc., etc. Because the more we do that, the more willing industry is to come into the district. We've got a skilled work force. I think we need to be able to put them to work. But they need to find this an attractive place so they can get their goods out to market. We need to continually keep our ports in good working order as well, and upgrade them as we can because the more we can do that, then the easier it is for the barges to travel up and down the river with our goods. The highway trust fund is there and I want very much to be on the transportation and infrastructure committee because the new highway bill's going to be written next spring. The more that we can help our infrastructure, particularly in the internal part of our district which is Fredericktown, some of St. Francois County areas, that just helps bring industry to our district.

6. Do you support the nation's open trade policy?

Emerson: Yes, I do support NAFTA. It's helping our grain farmers considerably. I will tell you interestingly enough and I am not an expert on that but I have to tell you honestly, a lot of the cattle ranchers over in the western part of the district has said that NAFTA's really hurt them because of grade B beef in Mexico. But there are cattle ranchers who say that's not true at all, that in fact they're doing very well and they're exporting a lot of beef. So I think it depends on who you speak to. NAFTA certainly has helped. We're selling more grain than ever to Mexico and overall exports to Mexico through NAFTA have increased 22 percent across the board. And to Canada, it's upwards a little over 13 percent.

Yes, we have lost some jobs. What I think is problematic is that you start ending up pitting different people in the district together. But I think one of the ways we attack the problem of some of the industry jobs going to Mexico is to improve our infrastructure and to be able to attract more industry to Southeast and southern Missouri. Yeah, I think that it's very important that we also provide some protections for those industries, well, cotton and rice, in particular because we're not the largest producers of those two commodities in the world so we need to make sure that they are on a level playing field through the farm bill specifically, so that they're on a level playing field with our competitors overseas.

7. Do you support the current farm bill?

Emerson: Yes. I think that because cotton and rice, we're in the minority as far as the world goes, we need to be able to make sure that they're going to be on a level playing field. You know, the European countries so heavily subsidize agriculture and those commodities that we can't stay on a level playing field with them if we don't give cotton and rice certain protections within the farm bill, which are there.

8. Do you favor term limits for federal lawmakers?

Emerson: Sure. I think that members of Congress should serve no more than 12 years. I also favor term limits on committee staff, but that's just my own pet peeve. Senate should have two terms and the House should have six terms.

9. Do you support making English the official language of the federal government?

Emerson: Of course, I do. Absolutely. First of all, when people come to the United States, I am not opposed to native Spanish speaking people or native Japanese, they need to be able to speak their own language. Making English an official language bill doesn't preclude or does not want to interfere with folks speaking their native language. But it costs a whole lot of money to conduct this government in 10 languages. To be very serious with you, it costs a lot of money to produce any kind of brochures, tax returns, any kind of paper work in more than one language. Fact of the matter is, in every other country in the world, their native language is the official language of that country. English happens to be the international language of business and I think that, fact of the matter is, folks learning English will do better in the job market. No one's saying they need to be 100 percent assimilated because I think it's important to be able to protect your own native language. But in order to get ahead in America and get good jobs, they should learn English. Just like if we lived in another foreign country, we would not expect that country to make English an official language.

10. Do you support managed health care? Should the federal government have a role in it? If so, what?

Emerson: I think that people should be given as many choices as possible with regard to health care options. I think that we should have traditional fee for service. I think you should be able to absolutely, 100 percent choose your own doctor. I think you should choose your own hospital. I think you should have the option of using managed care if you wish. I think you should be able to use HMOs. The more options that we have and the more competition there is, the lower the prices will be, the cost of health care will be if you have more options. Because everyone is forced to compete against each other and so that will keep the prices lowered. I also think that it's real important for small businesses and self-employed to be able to deduct 100 percent of their health care costs. Large corporations get to do that and small businesses and self-employed folks ought to be able to do the same thing. I also think that small businesses should be able to get together with other small businesses to form health care pools. I think the federal law should preempt the state law in this particular instance so that you can do it across state lines because insurance is state regulated. So I think that the NFIB, for example, ought to be able to have its own health insurance plan, that its members can buy into and then in turn insure their employees. Often time, those are minimum-wage employees who don't have the option of being able to afford health insurance. I think that we need to expand the opportunities rather than contract them. I absolutely am dead set against a government-run health care system, a Canadian style system because not only will it totally limit choices but it will drive up taxes to pay for it. It will also cause us to have to wait in line for different services. My mom actually had to have emergency bypass surgery, quite by accident, having just had another surgery and she wasn't recovering properly. They found that she had four blockages so they put her in. While in Canada, that doesn't happen. You have to wait three weeks before you can even see a specialist to tell you, and then you've got to wait even further. So I think that we need to have more options rather than less options. And something I would like to explore and I really don't know the cost of it, I would like to explore the option of people being able to deduct from their taxes the cost of health insurance. I also believe that people who have IRAs should be able to tap into those IRAs without penalty to pay for medical expenses.

11. Do you support collective bargaining for public employees?

Emerson: No, I do not support collective bargaining for public employees because I don't think public employees should be unionized. I think essential services break down if they go on strike. I don't know what happens with the police force, but I suppose the police force could go on strike and we'd be in real trouble. I think it would totally disrupt services so I'm not in support of either unionization of state employees or collective bargaining. Well, one sort of is interrelated to the other.

12. Do you support school choice and a voucher system for public schools?

Emerson: I want to confess to you that I don't know an awful lot about school choice and a voucher system. I think the kids ought to have the option of going to private schools, public schools, home-based schools. I support philosophically, there's a distinction here, the idea of being able to do one for the other, but what I think worries me is one of these Washington-strings-attached kind of deals as far as vouchers go. I don't know, I think probably we should explore the idea, some sort of a tax benefit, a tax credit or deduction for sending your child to an alternative school other than a public school. I mean, we do pay taxes to our public schools and I think it's important to concentrate on upgrading them as well. But, you know, on a strings-attached-approach, it makes me always a little bit nervous.

13. Would you vote to extend the Brady Bill's five-day waiting period for purchasing guns?

Emerson: I'm opposed to the Brady Bill. I think we should have instantaneous checks when you go to purchase a firearm. It certainly makes sense to me. You know, if you can do it instantaneously, why should you wait for five days? I mean, I just simply believe that folks should have the right to bear arms. I'm opposed to gun control. You know, criminals will get guns no matter what. The black market's there and the criminals are going to get guns. If there's a 25-day waiting period, they're still going to get guns. I know that Virginia has instantaneous checks and they've had a very high success rate in being able to catch people who have committed crimes.

14. Why should someone vote for you for Congress?

Emerson: Well, first of all, I'm a common-sense conservative. I believe that of all the candidates, I know this district best, after spending 16 years up and down the highways and meeting with thousands of people and really being very much involved with the work that Bill did. I think I also have the added advantage of a knowledge of Congress and relationships of members of both parties. I have a professional background in grassroots organization and communications although some have called me a lobbyist. What I have done in my previous jobs is to help empower small business people so they can in fact tell their elected representatives, be it on the state level or the federal level, exactly what laws and over regulation has done to their bottom line. And most people don't understand, most legislators don't understand how laws and regulations do impact small business people. And I think I have a very good sense of that. You know, I do have a real good working knowledge of the legislative process and of Congress, but a real passion for serving people, a good listener. One of my real assets has been as a problem solver and really knowing how to get things done. Because I think that being in Congress isn't just about voting and making speeches, it's really about knowing how to solve problems and be able to cut red tape and to make government work. You know, yesterday I was over in Ellington and I just had a wonderful time. Reynolds County is one of our more poorer counties and the loggers over there, sawmill operators, just have so much of a headache with the Environmental Protection Agency, and over regulation and over zealous regulators who have these sort of pie-in-the-sky ideas who really don't know what it's like working the land and particularly don't know those folks and how well they protect the land while they're still working it. So, you know, I have a lot of ideas about getting the grassroots organized in the district and really helping empower all of our folks here, whether it's the loggers or it's the small business people. I mean, those are my skills. And the knowledge of the district, combined with the Washington experience, combined with what I'm good at, I think that qualifies me pretty darn well.

TODAY'S PROFILE: JO ANN EMERSON

Age: 46

Residence: Cape Girardeau

Party: Republican. Running as independent in special election due to filing deadline.

Education: Ohio Wesleyan University graduate with a major in political science.

Occupation: Former association executive.

Personal: Widow of Congressman Bill Emerson, mother of four daughters.

Political: First run for office.