Dale Cardwell on the Issues

Issue # 1: Health Care

Do you support Barack Obama’s health care proposal?

I was first drawn to Barack Obama’s candidacy because like me, he is not taking money from “PAC’s” and Washington lobbyists. As I studied his positions, I determined very early that he represents the change we must have in a President and as a nation. I support Senator Obama’s health care proposal, and I’m especially excited by his determination to insure children first.

What is the main problem with our health care system today?

We focus on chronic treatment, not preventative care. We have to encourage a public private partnership between citizens and providers aimed encouraging early spending on screenings and health maintenance. It’s simply smarter and less expensive to keep people healthy than to pay for emergency room care, which is very expensive and often too late.

Do you support scaling down Medicaid, and if not, how do we pay for it in the future?

Yes. To be specific, a public private partnership between citizens (another word for government) and insurers can save Medicaid, shift our focus from chronic care, create a baseline of healthcare for every man woman and child, and preserve the incentive for our health care professionals to deliver an excellent product. I’m exploring a health care model that provides a $10,000 dollar annual spending account for every American. This account, financed by the government, would cover check ups, screenings, drugs and health maintenance. It would eliminate the need for employer funded workers compensation coverage and streamline billing to one simple electronic form, sent to the universal health care provider. (Most of us would never come close to drawing the full amount per year.) For those who do, the first dollar over $10,000 would trigger their privately funded or employer funded insurance policy that would cover expenses above the government’s universal care limit. This system would drastically reduce the price of private pay insurance, because their will be an automatic $10,000 deductible. The system’s costs would be paid for by the drastic savings realized from shifting our health care system from a ridiculously expensive taxpayer funded chronic care delivery system to an efficient, less expensive system based on preventative care.










Issue # 2: Environment

Do you support drilling for oil and natural gas off of Georgia’s coast?



No. In addition to “owning” most politicians through “PAC” contributions, oil companies currently own the leases to 68 million acres in and off the U.S, but are not drilling on them. At this point, I see no advantage in giving oil companies more access to more places they have no economic incentive to drill.


Do you believe human generated Global Warming is real, and if so, what is one policy you would implement tomorrow to help curb rising temperatures?


Yes. Remove the 18 billion dollars in annual subsidies given to giant oil companies, and transfer that money to companies that invest in and deliver clean energy alternatives such as wind and solar power.



Has the US EPA done a good job protecting the environment, and if so, please explain how. If the answer is no, please cite specific examples.


The Environmental Protection Agency has been muzzled and largely dismantled by George W. Bush and the corporate controlled GOP. Few Americans know one in four U.S. residents live within four miles of a Superfund site, including 10 million Children. (Source: Center for Public Integrity) Yet clean up efforts have slowed to a virtual crawl. According to C.P.I., the number of sites declared “cleaned” during the Clinton administration averaged 79 per year, while that average dropped to 42 a year under the Bush administration. As an investigative journalist, I’ve uncovered and reported the Government’s lack of progress in cleaning up our nation’s “super fund” sites. One particular travesty involved DeKalb County’s Wade Walker Park, the County’s second most visited recreational park. Our investigation discovered the presence of lead contamination on children’s soccer fields! The contamination, left from an abandoned furniture factory, was supposed to have been cleaned and made safe in the late 1980’s. The E.P.A. could produce no evidence the site had ever been completed, and my WSB investigation revealed the contamination was still present. As a result, the County fenced off the affected areas and completed the clean upp task the E.P.A. had apparently abandoned. The E.P.A. under President Bush, refused comment




Issue # 3: Economy
What is the biggest challenge facing our economy?

Multi-national corporations and moneyed interests control Washington by financing the campaigns of almost all politicians. John Miller, a former aide to Senator Tom Daschle and now a political scientist at the University of Michigan wrote last summer in U.S. News and World Report that “PAC” contributions do not necessarily corrupt members of Congress, but they absolutely do change and drive Washington’s priorities. Our biggest challenge is breaking the stranglehold special interests have on Washington politicians and our tax code. I'll Work to Heal Our Economy. Seven years of Bush economics proves that using tax policy to concentrate wealth among the ultra rich does not result in broad-based prosperity. It has succeeded in creating one of the most unbalanced economies in our nation's history. Today, the average American family is earning one-thousand dollars per year less than seven years ago, while CEO's earn four-hundred times the average worker and corporate profits have set all-time records. Bush's corporate-controlled presidency has created a crisis that today is threatening the very bedrock of the American dream; a broad and dynamic middle class. As your Senator, I will work to restore overtime compensation for every worker who labors beyond forty hours per week. I'll work to keep American jobs in the US, by insisting that free trade be accompanied by fair trade. I'll work for tax reform that strengthens small businesses, and restores the natural equilibrium that should exist between those who own the means of production and Americans who work for those companies. And while we heal our economy, I will work to extend unemployment benefits and other safety net provisions to families and individuals caught in the transition.


If elected, could you do anything to help curb fuel prices?

Unlike Saxby Chambliss and most Washington politicians, I will not take big oil’s special interest PAC money that prevents Washington from creating a real energy policy, and I will encourage my colleagues to do the same. Additionally, we have to quickly implement the recent repeal of the “Enron loophole,” and return Federal regulation to electronic oil futures trading. This, coupled with a highly promoted national conservation effort, will burst the oil price “bubble,” and reduce prices by 30% within months.


What is one policy that could be implemented to help lower Georgia’s unemployment rate?


I support and will aggressively work for subsidies to be taken away from dirty energy suppliers and instead, am awarded to clean energy entrepreneurs who are working to build cellulosic ethanol plants here in Georgia. My friend and supporter, Georgia Tech’s Dr. Sam Shelton, has demonstrated that we can lessen our dependence on oil by 20% by crushing Georgia pine and agricultural waste. This conversion not only protects our environment, but would bring thousands of jobs to some of our state’s most rural communities.
When done right, trade can help everyone, when done wrong trade hurts our American workers. I am committed to significantly reforming NAFTA. As your Senator, I will make sure that free trade only happens under the larger umbrella of fair trade. Our world trading partners must have environmental standards in place that mirror our own. They must also have reasonable wage and safety standards that will not allow multi-national owners to undercut and destroy the jobs of American workers.



Issue # 4: The Iraq-Afghanistan Wars
Did you support the initial invasion of Iraq?

I did not support the initial invasion of Iraq. I believe now and believed then President Bush should have allowed the U.N. to set the deadline for action if Saddam Hussein refused to cooperate with international weapons inspectors. It’s become painfully clear, after repeated disclosures from Bush White House insiders, that Bush and the Neo-cons entered office with intentions of invading Iraq.


Without the discovery of WMD’s, is the Iraq war a justified war?

The invasion of Iraq was not justified, and therefore, Iraq is George Bush’s unjustified war of choice.

Do you support the Reid/Pelosi plan for troop with drawl?


Georgians don’t like to be told we’ve lost a war. The truth is George Bush and the Government of Iraq failed to secure the peace. Our soldiers performed admirably in their sworn duty and accomplished the original mission, to remove Saddam Hussein and confirm the presence or absence of Wad’s. We should honor their service with a new and improved G.I. bill. I support Barack Obama’s plan to end the Iraq war. With the guidance of generals on the ground, we should begin to remove one to two brigades per month and begin now. It will be up to the government and people of Iraq to decide if they want a safe, democratic future or if they want to revert to a decades’ old civil war.









Would you support sending more troops to Afghanistan to help stabilize the situation there?


Most Americans have no idea close to 90% of our troops are in Iraq, preventing a civil war, while only 10% of our forces are fighting the real enemy in Afghanistan. I strongly support the transfer of forces to Afghanistan, where we can strengthen the international effort to defeat the Taliban.


Issue # 5: Miscellaneous

If elected, you will be the junior Senator from a conservative leaning state. What experience do you have to usher legislation through a Congressional body that highly values seniority?


Our beloved nation is at a crossroads. The overbearing influence brought by moneyed special interests on Washington politicians is strangling our representative democracy. I spent 23 years going behind the lines of power and government to bring you the truth. Now more than ever, we must have independent truth tellers representing us in Washington. Barack Obama recognized the need for financial independence from the start of his campaign for President. I recognized the need years ago, and have forgone special interest PAC money from the start. Democrats are also at a crossroads. 71% of all money that funds candidate for Federal offices comes from corporate funded sources. Two-thirds of that money goes to Republicans. Democrats can continue to play a game they will perpetually lose, and hope for minor victories and incremental change, or we can send a Senator to Washington who will have the courage and independence to support Barack Obama’s agenda for change. We can play to win or play to lose. I’m playing to win.

Do you support the FISA compromise bill recently endorsed by Senate Dems as well as Barack Obama?


I support the compromise as a means of closing the book on the mistakes of the past and ensuring the protections of Americans going forward. I strongly believe American citizens here in the U.S., should not be spied on without probable cause and the permission of an impartial judge.

Would you make a water sharing agreement between Florida, Georgia and Alabama a priority of your office?

The Senate has oversight and the responsibility to ensure that the Army Corps of Engineers oversees and controls federally controlled waterways in a fair and equitable manner. Here in Georgia, the Corps has failed miserably. Lake Lanier and other federally controlled reservoirs should release water downstream in amounts equal to what nature provides as a natural flow into the reservoir. Mussels are not on par with people.

Will you refuse lobbyist and PAC campaign contributions, as the DNC and Obama have?


Financial independence is the foundation of my campaign. As an investigative reporter, I met thousands of people all over Georgia. Democrats, Republicans and Independents who almost always told me the same thing: They said “Dale, just once, I’d like to have the chance to vote for an honest person, a truth teller, who won’t be controlled by special interests. Someone who’ll work for real people, like me.” I say, “Georgia here’s our chance.” And to prove my fidelity, I will not take a dime of PAC money that pays for commercials and then controls the votes of “bought” politicians. I believe Georgia wants a real change, and I have the courage, track record and integrity to make it happen.”

Can you promise that absolutely no campaign commercials will be produced showing you with a golden retriever, or on the beach, or a combination of both?

I can do even better. You won’t see me shaking hands with actors hired to play Georgians, you won’t see me walking through a field of daisies, and you won’t see me using our great flag as a campaign prop. You’ll only see me, simply telling the truth, and giving Georgians their best chance at honest, independent government.