Focus 580; Talk To The Candidate With Gery Chico

In the first hour of the program today we will have another conversation with candidate one of those that will be involved in the March 16th primary here in Illinois Illinois one of Illinois senators Peter Fitzgerald announced last year that he would not run for re-election so we have an open seat in the U.S. Senate from Illinois and a crowded field of candidates that would like to secure their party's nomination to run there are eight Republicans and seven Democrats and we have called all of them and said if you're interested if we'd like to have you on this program and we'll try to get as many of them scheduled as we possibly can to give people who listen some access to the candidate and an opportunity to ask questions at something that we have tried to do now for over many years when there are elections give people some candidate access. This morning we'll be talking with one of the seven Democrats who would like to get their party's nod to run for the Senate. And his name is Gary Chico. Let me tell you. What about him. He has been involved in politics in Chicago for some time he served as the chief of staff to Chicago Mayor Richard Daley from September of 92 through May of 1905

and before that he was deputy chief of staff. He was also the general counsel to the Chicago Development Council in 1995. Mayor Daley appointed him president of the Chicago Board of Education and he was reappointed in 1999. He has an undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois with major in political science and a law degree from Loyola University. He graduated from law school there in nineteen eighty five and he's joining us this morning by telephone also I guess maybe one interesting feature I do I want to mention too if he was elected if he is elected he would be the first Hispanic U.S. senator in almost three decades. Questions are certainly welcome and you can give us a call and talk with our guest 3 3 3 9 4 5 5. We do also have a toll free line that's good anywhere that you can hear us. And that is 800 to 2 2 9 4 5 5 so if you're here in Champaign Urbana 3 3 3 9 4 5 5. Any place else in the state of

Illinois it would be a long distance call for you. Use the toll free line and we'll pay for the call that's 800 to 2 2 9 4 5. Father Mr. Chico Hello. Yes Hi David how are you. I'm fine thanks and yourself. Good good good to be with. We appreciate you giving us some of your time wondering what you want to run for Senate. I want to run for the United States Senate because I've been fortunate enough to experience what government that is producing can do for people as president the Chicago school what I took over a school system that was absolutely horrendous. And we made it work to serve children and their families again. Prior to that with Mayor Daley as his chief of staff we were able to make the city Chicago function a whole lot better by doing such things as revitalizing our neighborhoods through infrastructure investment and providing more police on the street and reducing business taxes to make for a more hospitable climate for businesses. So I have experience with government action servicing people can be. And I think we can get a lot better. Production out of the United

States Senate to help the people throughout Illinois that I've visited for the last year and a half I mean people are hurting and they need help. Well there are number basic issues that I'd like to raise and of course when when and if we have callers will just get those people right in and buy but whatever they want. But let me just raise one thing that you and the first thing that you touched on and it certainly connects with your experiences involved in the school board with education. I want to ask you what you think about the legislation that is called generally called No Child Left Behind. Yes. THE PRESIDENT That was one of the things when he was running. He said he was concerned about education. A lot of people nowadays use the word accountability all the time. And what this legislation does is it says to schools you need to set standards for your kids and then you need to test them to make certain that they're meeting those standards and then assistance to aid to the schools is tied on whether or not they meet their goals and I know that there are a lot of educators that have concerns about whether or not this is the right way to go. What do you think about No Child Left Behind. Well I have a lot of difficulty with it. A Child Left Behind because of because of

several flaws in the legislation. First of all President Bush calls this a single largest single greatest domestic achievement. But I can't figure out the life of me why you would call something that and then yourself in your own budget ask for nine and a half billion dollars less than Congress authorized to support the act. What that means is that for the mandates called for in the act the burden on local school systems has got to be paid for with strictly local money that comes with extra data gathering extra or extra reporting transportation to deal with schools that are viewed to be failing. And I think that that's a real flaw so what I've done is go around the state of Illinois talking to people superintendents principals teachers we've had round tables in Peoria Quincy the Quad Cities. And I put up a great deal of opinion about what changes ought to be made to the law and I've offered them up in the form of several amendments. One let's fully fund No Child Left Behind Let's get that nine and a half billion dollars today behind that law because

it helps school systems throughout the country. Three quarters of which in Illinois are underwater today I might add. True. The definition of a failing school is flawed. Here's what it says. If a subgroup of as little as 40 students does not meet state standards as outlined by our state statutes our star state rolls that as many as 1000 other students in that same school can be painted with the brush of failure even though the other nine hundred sixty students may have done just perfectly fine on their exams. Well that's wrong because it's it's unfairly a painting a picture of failure when it's in fact not the case. So I would say that that definition needs to be changed. There's a definition called adequate yearly progress in the federal law which says that every school child in this country ought to meet their state standards in reading and math by 2014. Now that's a mere 10 years away. There is no way in the world that this nation's student population as much as we would like it is going to be performing exactly at their state standard because it's impossible These are human

beings. Now is that a great aspiration to have. Of course it is. The problem with this law is it imposes strict and current real cuts. The question is for not meeting that kind of approach toward everybody complying with State's standard 10 years and then finally if a school is truly failing there are schools that got only knows I have experience from Chicago seen in prior schools that need to improve. The remedy isn't to offer a transportation voucher and get out of there. The remedy is to roll up your sleeves and get in there and try to fix the broken school. Sometimes it's leadership the principal sometimes it's its curriculum or sometimes it's resource related. But that's the way you get in there and that's the way you make changes to better children's lives I will add one more thing. As I put together these amendments I contacted the former secretary of education U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley. I contacted the all of my principal sociate. The only association of school boards and the Illinois school administrator's Association and they all support these amendments that I've proposed to make No Child Left Behind work to service

children not just simply penalize them and act like it and make it seem as though we're doing something federally to assist education. We have a caller ready to go to talk with our guest in oh I should introduce Again our guest We're talking with Gary Chico. He is one of seven Democrats that will compete in the March primary on March 16th here in Illinois. One of them then will go on to represent their party in the general election for the United States Senate. This is the seat that's now held by Peter Fitzgerald he's not running again and there are a lot of candidates or seven as I said seven Democrats and eight Republican. Who will be involved in the primary. Well have as many of them on this show as we can so you can talk with them. We do have one caller here ready to go in Urbana and we'll do that one number one. Hello good morning. Yeah my question is on jobs. You know I keep reading in the paper about the sweatshops over in China over Asia and where they are. So forcing people to work you know under really intolerable conditions you know

to produce articles that show up in malls all over the country you know. Now of course. The U.S. Labor really can't compete with that I'm just wondering you know did you have any specific ideas as to how you might redress that one if you got to the U.S. Senate. I do I think your question is an excellent one because I think that's the burning issue of the day right there with health care. But the issue is that the United States of America and this is this is an impulse. Gut reaction that we'd like to have as Americans appreciate free trade. I mean that that's been a long part of our history in this nation. The problem is this over the course of our 200 year history our economy and its workers have evolved to a certain standard of living that is quite high when measured across the world. And when you take the maturity that we've been able to see in our wages our environmental regulation our worker safety regulations and you compare that with the situation in developing nations like China like India like Mexico

there is a a vast disadvantage that the American worker faces in trying to compete with those other locales. So what do we do about it. I've offered up a followin approach to how we should look at free trade going forward. We should not enter into any kind of trade. An agreement with a nation that doesn't observe a certain set of standards or for a few Well in a minimum wage. A set of environmental regulations and a set of worker safety regulations. For example the Chinese I was just out at a plant the other day western suburbs that makes appliances and that plant is showing me photos of a Chinese factory which has their very appliance being deconstructed. To be reengineered for a lower cost. But here's the kicker. The Chinese worker is probably making 30 to 35 times less than the American counterpart. Now unless the United States wants to continue to just allow this action to take place on an unfettered basis we are going to continue to see an absolute hemorrhaging of jobs. The US ought

to say to anybody let me be clear about this. The U.S. ought to say to any country that wants to trade with us that unless you observe a certain set of standards which more or less tries to level the playing field we have no interest in trading with you because it's real nice to say developing nation and put that label on a country. But basically all it means to the American corporation that's looking for the absolute least. The alternative. Go there. Make your money there and forget about the American worker. We can use and I my view is very simple Where is American corporate patriotism. I don't hear about it. I don't see it. It seems like we just basically close our eyes to concepts of offshoring. Well you know now IBM just talks about this with impunity. Now we're going to put 5000 jobs over in India we're going to put 5000 jobs in China without it without without and without a flinch. I think that's wrong and I frankly I think where the debate has to start on this and where the correction needs to start on this is in the White House. I would hope that President Bush and this administration I'd be more rhetorical here than I am

sincere because I don't see it hey I don't see it coming. It would be nice if the president of the United States began this dialogue with American corporations to say. Look what are we going to do here. We cannot continue to go down the path of just shifting our jobs to all developing nations and forget about the American worker. The dislocation and the transitional impact in the US of people going from one industry to be possibly retrained and relocate in another industry is a cataclysm and we cannot tolerate it any longer. So what actions are you going to take a corporate executive to try to make things a little bit better here in America. And there are several things that we can do. We just talk for a minute about trade policy but there's things you can do with the United States tax code to make it more attractive for American corporations to locate their next plant here domestically. I mean for example in my own website w w w dot Gery Chico for Senate dot com I offer up some very specific worker tax credit. The ideas they had which is a tax credit offered to a corporation based on the number of workers they hire. I mean

I think that's a good way to a good way to compete and compete with people right now that have a gross advantage over our present state of affairs because of the much cheaper labor and other lesser environments for environmental regulation and worker safety. Yeah you know a potential president Kerry has said that he's going to hold these Benedict Arnold Arnold accountable and he ought to. And because it seems it seems that you know I may be wrong but it seems Wall Street is the one that's making the money. Oh there's no doubt about I mean here here's here's here's your raise another excellent point. The fact that the United States stock market goes over under 10000 points you know. What relevance is that to the average American worker. I mean how much it's affecting their 401k to some extent. But as far as wages go security in their job if anything there's probably a negative correlation and I think that John Kerry but I also think it's the responsibility of the U.S. Congress has got to start to step up and talk about U.S. corporate patriotism and

frankly we don't even hear the SSC we don't even hear the subject discussed today. But I'll tell you one thing this administration is very aggressive about telling you and me to wear our American flag go to war where they tell us to go to war and basically pay the taxes we're told to pay. Well thank you very much. When you say we're going to grow it just to take this we're just one step further you know just recently we had marked the 10 year anniversary of the North American Free Trade Agreement at the time thereafter was passed people raised this the same issues issues about what were what kind of working conditions were there for workers particularly in Mexico and their wages and also addressed the issue of things like their ability to organize and then the environmental issues and at the time people were advocating naphtha said we're going to negotiate these agreements these side agreements and we're going to address those things and it seems that that hasn't really happened. Some people would ask. You know if we can't make that happen with this country with which we've entered into this trade agreement how are we going to make it happen with another country like China.

Well I have a unique theory on this you change the players look Napco was brought to us by the Democrats and I want to tell you something I have been one of the first in line to say I've been to more forums involving Democrats than I can shake a stick at where people just say all we need to do is get a Democrat in that seat. Wrong. This is not about just electing a Democrat it's about electing somebody who happens to be a Democrat who's going to have the courage to do the right thing. And that means on occasion even opposing their own party if it meant if it means benefiting the American worker. Naphtol was wrong. We should have seen this coming. Who in the world could not have figured out that a wage differential between the Mexican worker and the American worker which is 15 to 25 times apart would not lead to a gross advantage for the Mexican worker Mexican worker in terms of American corporations locating their operations in that country just like we saw Maytag do recently by pulling up stakes in Galesburg and taking their operation to Renault So now you know I say to you that those side

letters and many of the weak provisions in naphtha have proven that we cannot conduct our trade negotiations along those lines we need. Trade agreed to trade agreements with teeth and that's the way they have to be handled and we but we have to be careful because it was President Clinton and his administration and people appointed by him that led the way to naphtha. Now I'm not going to say that you know Bill Clinton was you know it was it was poorly motivated. I just think that experience has shown us now that that cannot be the template for further for further trade agreements. Something has to be done radically different and I think that I've offered up some ideas today about how I would conduct trade negotiations and some of the principles that I would lay on the table at the very outset before country even comes to us to want to trade with us. All right let's talk with someone else the next caller is in Champagne line number two. Hello. Good morning. Morning. You are waving the corporate patriotism flag I'd like you to do something for me. I'd like you to reach around and look at the label on your undershirt

and the label on your sure and the label on your pants and tell us all where the stuff was made to go. You raise an excellent point that used to be a face that used to be a period of time in America where we were very proud to quote buy American American made we used to have those labels we used to have those signs put on goods that we would buy. I mean I try I try to do my part as much as I can with automobiles and with other goods I try to see where they are where they're made where they're coming from. I'm not enamored with the mall Wal-Marts of the world you know who are you know what I'd want to be. If some person show up on a television commercial where in that blue vest and that everything purchased from the stores around the world at the cheapest price possible. You know I think you raise an excellent point we can use another dose of Buy American. I think that's part of it but I don't think that's the exclusive strategy we should adopt I think it's part of an overall strategy to try to get our footing back here as we compete on the world stage and you know boy you couldn't be more right about that. But I think it's going to it's a part of a

larger strategy to make America more competitive again. May I suggest that some of the some of the candidates adopt the position that maybe we ought to be exporting unionism and raising the rates of the people we're competing against so that we in fact we are on a level field. Well I see that your point is this is where I come out here. Here's what I fear is what I feel about this. Whether it's unionism or it or not the American worker because of our evolution our economy is far more mature. These would be the world counterparts in most places of the world which means that what we the answer to that lies not in going backwards and taking a person who is making 65000 down the forty two thousand the actualized and bringing up the standard of living of other parts of the world wy ever every time I look at somebody who picks up stakes and goes to another country where workers are making 30 times less I never see it come back to the consumer in the form of a lower price do you.

Well one can one can make the case that prices would be higher if they stayed. However the underlying point I wanted to make was really we need to talk about bringin up the rest of the world it's not forcing us to pay higher prices. I'm with you. I think that's an excellent point. Thank you for the call President. Has proposed a program that would give illegal immigrants here in the United States temporary worker status. If if they were sponsored by their employers they could stay for three years. Yeah people who live outside the country could apply for that status but there are some some limitations that can't bring their families and there's no provision for those folks eventually to become citizens. Right. Essentially what he's talking about is creating a guest worker program for the United States. What do you think about that. I do not endorse that concept. For for the following reasons. If you take the estimate that there are between 8 to 12 million undocumented workers in the United States today and that and that there is about average a hundred forty three thousand green cards issued you can see that what happens to the worker after three years and one day

many people who will identify themselves their address and their employer are going to go completely at risk and be expert be subject to deportation. Now all like. Say he is this people come to the United States. Remember about 50 percent of that number is from Mexico and countries to the south and others are from all around the world. So we're not talking about an exclusively Latin phenomenon just so we know that. So we're talking about people from Poland Asia other countries as well. Are we going to be just deporting people in the most massive number we've ever seen in humankind. I hope not because of two things people have come to this country because of the basic human impulse to want to do better for themselves and do better for their families. That impulse is not going away after three years. Also we have to keep in mind the employer side of this equation. You know employers are just as much of a part of this issue as the employee. People are hiring people who they think are good workers at whatever price is they they are negotiating or are willing to pay them. But these workers serve as the underpinning for

entire industries whether it be construction whether it be housekeeping whether it be you know agriculture whether it be you know landscape maintenance things of this nature what is going to the restaurant industry what's going to happen to these industries if in three years and one one day the deportations start to set in I think they get the person oddly enough for me who offers guidance on this issue is President Ronald Reagan President Ronald Reagan and I. 1886 offered what was called it that amnesty program and what I think ought to happen is we ought to use a path toward legalization Pappa toward legalization which allows people to apply for some kind of permanent residency or citizenship over the long term. That's what Ronald Reagan saw in his in his heart and had compassion to do in 1986. And I think we ought to do that again it would be the better course of action so that we don't have tremendous employee and employer dislocation.

One of the things people have asked me about this issue before and people have said why don't you think this is rewarding law breakers. And I said look if Probably if if if Ronald Reagan could come to terms with this and see it as the right human thing to do that I think I certainly can and I think others should too. But also let's remember this. I don't believe that we ought to go through whether it's amnesty or legalization once every generation has that kind of makes a mockery out of the situation. What we ought to do at the same time that we're offering some kind of permanence here legalization is work a little bit harder to make the economic conditions in the countries from which those workers are coming better and not true naphtha. I'm talking about Cashion negotiating with countries like. Mexico to do a better job of offering up perhaps for their own workers from from school into entry level positions where the country shows more of its own gross domestic product going into worker training and things of that nature so that people have a little bit more incentive to stay in their own country.

We are at our midpoint here and we have some other callers will get right to them I do just very quickly want to reintroduce our guests we're talking with Gary Chico. He's a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate from Illinois one of seven Democrats that will compete in the primary here on March 16th and one of them will go on to represent their party in the general election. We're here on the program having as many candidates both Democrats and Republicans as many as we can. So you'll have the opportunity to actually talk with them. He is a former president of the. Congo board of education before that served as chief of staff to Chicago Mayor Richard Daley. Questions are welcome and we have no lines full so we'll get right on to it and go next to Belgium Illinois which is over near Danville on our toll free line line for Hello. Good morning. What I'd like to bring up the topic of the day the primary system as it is particularly the Democratic primary that's going on right now. It seems to me that the Democratic primary position is very very flawed in that we have a group of candidates to choose from. But now

to what 12 or 15 of these primaries were already when wrote it down to one maybe two would it be better if it was a national primary and we could select all the possible candidates. Are you talking about the presidential president presidential right now you know. Well I don't know Mr. G. You can that's a little off of what you are doing here but if you want talk about that. Certainly can. Well you know I have an opinion about it I frankly think that L.A. is too late in the cycle to have any real meaning in participating in the selection of the price either party by the way because it will hold Republican in a Democratic Party on the same day. I would like to see it just I guess the caller's suggestion that we might want to look at a national schedule which puts us all on the same footing. That's kind of an idea one would. I mean you'd certainly have to figure out some logistical challenges like how did the candidates campaign among 50 states all for the purpose of you know getting themselves known to voters although I guess we do

that in the general election on the same day in November. I'm not I'm not sure that it's a bad idea. I know one thing for sure. Well I have to move up its position and the schedule of selecting a nominee or it's going to basically find itself irrelevant. Erick seems to right now after the first one. The news media has decided who we're going to have for president. Well you hit on a question that I want to talk about that I think is absolutely powerful and here's here's the point. You recall that Howard Dean we were told by the media that Howard Dean was the person he was ahead in Iowa about three and a half to four weeks before the Iowa caucus over John Kerry by twenty six to seven. And people were basically from the hanging at the Dean camp telling John Kerry you've got to get out of the race you're going to hurt this gentleman he is obviously the nominee. A mere three and a half to four weeks later the results of the Iowa caucus show us that John Kerry beat Howard Dean two to one. Now what that

tells me is this. Nobody should be telling anybody anything until the first voter has cast an actual vote. That's my problem with polls in PA. It's I have enormous faith in the people and if and by the way that's up or down if the people decide that I'm not their candidate. That's fine we live with it that's the system we have. We get life goes on. But it is an absolute outrage and absolute outrage to have media pundits pollsters telling us who our waiters are going to be. I'll live by your word and your judgment but not by some paid pundit. Thank you very much sir. Let's go back here to her ban of color. Next line one. Hello. Hello. Yes yes I'm interested in knowing your guest position on making Spanish an official language of the United States. That means we would have two official languages Spanish and English. I do not want to see what I have to see happen in this country what we see happening in France in Canada when they have English and France right the

English and French as a spatial visual language and how that has split that country of I'm most definitely in favor of the Spanish parents teaching their children their language their history their culture and pride in their ethnicity. But if they live in this country I think they should learn English. It is to their advantage. English is the most widely spoken language in the world. And they would be better prepared as they go around the world if they know English. Also they would have a better job better chance of getting a good job in this country. So what is your position on making Spanish an official language. Mr Chico I think we lost a guest. Well hang on here and we'll get back to the guest in just a moment I'm sure. And we'll take other callers as well. This is part of a series of programs that we have decided we wanted to do in the lead up to the primary and we've done this now for many years before primaries and general elections because we think it's a good idea for voters to be able to have some personal contact with the with the candidates and be able to ask

whatever questions they want so a couple weeks ago we started making calls to the candidates and there are a lot of them as we've said there are seven Democrats eight Republicans and said we have the show would you like to be a guest. And some of them have already took us up on the offer and others have said they would think about it so now between now and March 16th we're going to do everything we can to have as many. Candidates on the show was possible all these people who are running for the Senate. Well so do have a primary in one of the congressional districts here in our area so we've invited the candidates there and we want to try to give you some personal access. Well that's the idea. People in the media get to talk with the candidates all the time and ask them questions but voters don't often get that kind of access so that's what we have tried to do here on the program now for many many years. So we hope that people will take advantage of that not only listen will call in if they have questions. And again here our guest this morning is Gary Chico he is one of the seven Democrats that will be competing with one another in the

primary in March this is March 16th and then one of them will go on to represent the party of the Democratic Party in the race for the United States Senate from Illinois this is the seat that's now held by Peter Fitzgerald he's a Republican and he announced last year that he was not going to run for re-election. I've touched on a number of issues here but we have about probably a good 25 minutes left in the program. And this is the opportunity for people who are listening to call in and ask about whatever issue they consider to be most important. The number here if you'd like to call in 3 3 3 9 4 5 5. We do also have a toll free line. That's good. Anywhere that you can hear us. And that is 800 to 2 2 9 4 5 5 just bear with us here we've had a little interruption we're really not quite sure what happened. We lost the guest but we're getting him back lined up again and as soon as we do that we'll get right back to the program. Let me just real quickly I can tell you about what's coming up today on the afternoon magazine.

It's not that long until the tax filing deadline April 15th now is just a couple of months away. And on the afternoon magazine now for a number of years they have had accountants CPS on the program so that people could ask questions and they'll be doing one of those kinds of shows today. They'll have to tax experts to answer questions about filing federal income taxes. The guest will be Marty verdict and Steve Winter strain of the tax department of r s m glad RI incorporated they will be joining Celeste Quinn that's in the 1:00 o'clock hour of the afternoon magazine today so get out your for if you've got questions get your forms take a look at them. And I know the two guests will do their best to give you an answer that will be in the 1:00 o'clock hour. The afternoon magazine today a little bit later she'll be talking with the author of a book that looks at the history of the Apollo Theater in Harlem a place that has been always been a very popular venue for a lot of different kinds of musicians going back a long time so that's the afternoon magazine that's

at noon here on AM 580 Celeste Quinn is the host. Well I think we have once again established our connection here with our guests. Chico you are mistaken there. Sorry for that technical problem. Sure. Well I did you did you hear the question of the caller. No can you repeat ask. Yes the caller was very concerned about any move that might make Spanish one of the official languages of the country with English e.g. makes the argument that it's very important for everyone to learn English. It's widely spoken around the world. It's important not only for people who are here going to live in this country but perhaps going to be traveling overseas and so she wants to know what you think. Would you for example support a move to make Spanish and English both official languages would you support one of those efforts that some people have advocated that says English should be the language of the United States and that's that. What do you think about the language issue. Well I have no intention to change anything about the English predominance

of the United States I mean our our business our television our schooling it's all done in English language and I have no intent to change that. I think it would be. It is not realistic however to understand that people from around the world come here with their own language and I'm not going to do anything that seeks to rule that out either. I'm not going to make any I mean I have no move afoot to make any other language the official language of the United States but I think we all also have to recognize that this country is made up of people from around the world I mean as president of the Chicago public school system I think we had 56 languages spoken by our students. And therefore while we gave all examinations and instruction primarily I mean even the bilingual education program the objective was to have a competency in English. I mean that's where my head's at. But I also don't want to I don't want to establish any ironclad rule that nobody can speak anything but English I mean I think that's that's wrong. And that that really is you know not very respectful of the history of our country.

All right well let's get some other callers think the last one and let's go to someone else in Urbana. This is line number two. Hello. Good morning. Well two questions I had. One is that you had mentioned in your earlier remarks and you may have actually mentioned this and I'm sorry if if if you did and I just was unable to catch a couple minutes of your of your our discussions is do you believe that health care is a right and not a privilege. And this in this country and what would you. Do About It. And the second question is there's at the state level right now there's a piece of legislation called the health care Justice Act which is a state and federal partnership to begin moving Illinois towards affordable accessible health care for everyone in the in the state. And do you support that. I am not familiar with all the terms of the state act that you cite but in concept I do. I do believe that health care is a fundamental human right. And this country ought to observe that. But the question is how do you get there. I proposed that the United States

Congress because this is such an important issue. And I think we're in crisis in health care in America today because it's such an important issue we ought to devote a special session of the United States Congress or create a standing separate committee to fashion suggestions about how to provide every American with health care. And secondly And here's here's just this an important issue. Affordable Health Care. Single greatest threat in my view to what you and I probably have coverage I hope you do I know I do but it's the cost. I mean every year I have to shutter at the thought of how much more I'm going to pay how much more of my coverage is going to be taken away. How much more the universe of providers is going to shrink. And I don't think that's right. I mean we have got to confront this issue head on because we do not presently have the mindset with 44 million Americans uncovered that health care is a fundamental right. I believe it is such. My hope would be that through such a special session of Congress we could get to the point where we say one give greater incentives to American

employers who are presently providing the health benefit to do so too to the extent we don't get employers to provide the benefit. We'd look at other measures like allowing Americans to buy into Medicare even if they're under 65 if they have any means whatsoever to purchase insurance. And three to the extent that we don't cover the entire uninsured population that way we offer. A government sponsored program which is if need be free to anybody who is not within the Medicaid population but still on coverage. So I view it as something that has to be taken on with a sense of urgency. But I want to tell you this too. I've been on the trail the campaign trail now for year and a half and many people pull out a flagship plan from their pocket and call it w w w health U.S.A. whatever it is. The country is not of a mind right now to simply pass a plan. The environment in the stage needs to be set in Washington to appreciate the urgency and the condition that most people are suffering from. And once we do that you're going to see

this go very very quickly and we will get coverage for every American. Let me ask you about prescription medication cost because I think now that's one of the the leading concerns that people have. Is there something or is that the federal government can do or should the federal government do something about the cost of prescription medicine medicines. I think the app's the answer is absolutely yes. There are several problems that can be addressed immediately with also an approach toward the longer term. First immediately. Lobbyists of the pharmaceutical industry are outrageous and they are basically in my view a cancer on the scene that need to be dealt with. For them to have the kind of power that they wield to cause a language to be included in the recent senior citizen Medicare drug prescription measure that says the United States government is not able to negotiate prices with the company's downward is an absolute crime that needs to be addressed and addressed quickly. That's how powerful that lobby

is. Secondly looking at the longer term horizon through such a special session of Congress I would force the pharmaceutical companies to open their books and explain their practices about how they're handling medications and the marketing of medications to Americans in this nation. If you look at it this way the Gobi. Back to the previous caller's question I do view health care as a fundamental right and therefore I view medications to support my health care my health and make me make me better. As part of that fundamental right if that's the case then we have to give this area special scrutiny and special treatment because buying your medication to control a hard problem or to treat HIV or cancer is not the same thing as taking a vacation buying a car buying a pair of jeans or even going to the restaurant because those things are almost purely discretionary and people have the ability to decide whether to do them or not. Your health is not of that category. Therefore we ought to a My thought would be that you know I'd like to know why the

pharmaceutical companies enjoy a net profit margin on the average of about 25 26 percent and for want to American corporations like Coca-Cola which have been around for years enjoy a 4 percent profit margin. Now why do they have six and seven times greater profit margin in the pharmaceutical industry than in other industries in the Fortune 500. I want to force them to. When their books explain themselves justify their actions and I believe what you're going to see through that exercise is that there are certain measures we need to take to give you one example. Watch the Super Bowl recently right. You see major advertising by pharmaceutical companies on all kinds of medications and you and I can't even go to the store and buy those. We at best can go to our physician and they all say ask your doctor when you by the time you've gone to ask your doctor. The pharmaceutical rep industry has gotten your doctor put the coupon in their pocket and said if you write the 100 prescription for this brand name drug you and your spouse are going to Mexico on us. This says this system is wired and it needs to be D wired

and I think that's what the special session will help us get at. While it's also giving us the environment to anger enough Americans to cause some changes to be made by offering coverage every American will go on next caller is in Urbana line 3. Hello. Yeah. Bung with him this the when you when you were talking and found Trig and you're talking about the things you would do in the house and then the area. Sounded to me as if you'd be quite willing to. To take away the About the only incentive that our very ever riches and greedy financial markets or even even consider in trying to put investments into the developing world and I think it's kind of unfair to let you go without.

You're being asked to at least drop the other shoe here. I mean I think you look at all. I don't think your question's a bad one at all I mean the question is should we allow pure capitalism and market driven impulse to control the way we invest dollars around the world. That's the question. I mean should we allow Wall Street just to put its money wherever it wants. For me the answer is No. I'll tell you. Why Kathie Lee Gifford just a short time ago was exposed for pain sweatshop wages. The people in developing nations to sell her product that every day American prices here in the United States. You know there comes a point at which you look I'm a capitalist and I appreciate the market I live by it most of the most of my life. But I'm also telling you this. Markets don't have compassion markets do not respect what happens to American workers when they go through retraining and transition to find another job in an industry that may not exist.

That's where government comes in sometimes. Government is supposed to have a heart. Even George Bush talks about compassionate conservatism. And I really believe that you know I'm not here to tell Wall Street what to do. But I would hope that in there is a movement that's growing. Sir do you know what people like Nell Minow who want what they call corporate responsibility. I mean I'm not saying that people shouldn't invest wisely and make money as a fiduciary for the people that give them entrust money to them to invest. I mean that's something that has to be done but can't we strike somewhat of a balance so that we're not simply funding a race to the bottom around the world. I mean we are going to hurt Americans by doing this. And I think that I think that investors can still make a very reasonable return on their money at the same time. We're also trying to invest in bettering the rest of the world. Oh my God. Think that's hard to believe. I thinking I would just go on just the way it is but actually I really want to know about something else you said. You mentioned the your reservations about the No Child Left Behind law.

Yes and you mention the number 40 I was wondering if that's before I get on my questions that are sort of all morning long. They have to reach inside the 40 before it. That's the smallest That is the number that meets the threshold of a subgroup which is called up by the federal law for which an entire school's performance can be judged. If you have and what happens is the federal law calls out the performance of subgroups as something to be looked at to determine the entire performance of a school. For example a 40 person subgroup of limited English speakers a 40 person subgroup of special education students can be enough to trigger your performance of the entire school under the federal law that's where that comes from. Yeah I didn't know there wasn't such a number is 40 involved but I'm Latina. It's self and in our local high school there are less than 40 Latinos there and yet they're like say their drop their dropout

rate is quite high and I would like the school to put some attention to that and I look I think it's a good thing that the NCLB would do that and that's. Let me ask this more specifically though I agree with you by the way on that. You know what what are your what's your thinking about the dropout rate in general that's a big problem with Latinos all over the country and in particular in Chicago and even are a problem in Mexico itself. Yes no doubt about it. Let me let me just make one point one brief comment about which said prior. I don't I don't for a minute and you know if anybody looks at my history on the website looks at my resume they'll say I'm not I'm not short on accountability. I've taken some measures while President the Chicago school board that are very that are very much a VERY make us very accountable for what we're doing. To your question about the dropout problem of course that's an issue that is it that is a very very serious issue. Some populations suffer a higher dropout rate than others. African-Americans have the highest dropout rate according to the State Board of Education Statistics. And Latinos are in the second category. What do

we do to address these problems I think each group requires different treatment. My own experience as a Mexican-American has been from Chicago to to see that many times it is a language issue. I mean people come to this country has as a new immigrant. They get discouraged by not being able to understand the language and progress quickly enough in school and they get turned off and they drop out. You couple that many times with family cultural pressures where there's a there's a desire to gain income from kids who are 15 16 17 who are able to work and bring money into the family. You also many times unfortunately in cities like Chicago you can have a gang a gang issue that gets in the way of somebody you know very willingly going the school. So I think that you have to you have to dissect the promise to diagnose the problem and then try to put in place as much as you can to make it better or give an example. In Chicago we created what was called an alternative network of schools for dropouts. I'll tell you one thing a lot of people that do drop out pay the piper and realize the error of their ways down the road

and we offer them a chance to get back into school and get their diploma. And you know I think you have to look at this problem in a very flexible way and try to treat it with everything you could possibly muster. But one thing we can't do is this and this is the some I feel very strongly about the dropout problem is a real one. It's large but we should never take all of our full time and attention and just look at the problem and the collect all of the people the 80 percent of the people that do come to school every day looking for a good education. That's also our responsibility too. We have one more call here and I want to I get a million Urbana going one a little closer. My question is to do with the quality. Yes. And the Massachusetts court has stated that anything less than marriage of same sex couples would not be equal. However our governor even though he voices support for same gender loving couples to have. Equal rights. He said he personally does not support gay marriage and there's affection in both legislative bodies

the state and the federal to amend the Constitution as wondered where do you stand on this issue of equality. Chicago Tribune recently issued questionnaires to all the Democrats in the race and asked what your position is on same sex marriage. And as I gave my stock answer that I've been giving for a year and a half I thought the other candidates would be right there with me. But it turned out not to be the case the Tribune said the headline read Chico set apart issue of gay marriage. I support gay marriage and up tell you why I'm a lawyer and I understand the role of the Constitution. The Constitution says that people should be given equal protection of the law. My view is this marriage which comes to us from state statute in Illinois that's what makes it official and legal in Illinois is something that in my view in my reading in my understanding of the Constitution we should not make a determination or discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. That's that's my legal view of the matter and therefore I don't see a reason or a justification to deny same sex couples the benefits of marriage like inheritance like tax treatment things of that nature you know of

rearing of children. And one more thing I have. This is something that's more personal. As president of the Chicago public schools when I used to walk the neighborhoods of the city I saw way too many children that were the product of a perfectly perfect heterosexual relationship that had no love no care and no guidance and therefore if I saw a same sex couple that wanted to rear a child you know what I say Alleluia. We need more love and we need more care and guidance for our kids because that is a huge problem that a lot of our cities are facing with their child with children not being cared for well enough in their upbringing. Thank you. Thank you well I think that we're just about the point that we're going to have to finish the thing real quick you'd like to add to folks before we go there but I just want to say that I'm sorry I'm not there with you in person I am a U of I grad my daughter is a freshman at the University of Illinois Sarah champaign and I have a very very fond memories of going to school there I'm a member of the U of our Alumni Board. And you know I hope that your listeners will give us a real good look and look at our website. W w

w Gary Chico percent of dot com and give us their support on March 16th. It's a vote for substance. All right well Mr. Siegel thank you very much we appreciate it. Thank you David thanks for the time. Our guest this morning in this hour Gary Chico he is one of seven Democrats that will be competing in the March 16 primary. And then one of them will go on to represent their party in the general election for U.S. senator here from the state of Illinois and as I said we will continue to have as many candidates as we possibly can on between now and the primary to give you the chance to talk with them.