Focus 580; Talk to the Candidate With Chirinjeev Kathuria

Once again this morning we'll be giving people who are listening the opportunity to talk with a candidate who is seeking his party's nomination to run for the U.S. Senate from Illinois. When our senators Republican Peter Fitzgerald is not running for re-election so we have an open seat and a crowded field of candidates on both sides both Republican and Democrat will be competing in the Illinois primary on March 16th and we issued invitations to all of the candidates said if you're interested we have a show you could be on the program and talk with people here downstate and a number of them sad to say not all but a number of them did take up the opportunity. And we'll be talking with another one of these candidates this morning his name is Gerren g of CA Turia. He is one of the Republicans and he is joining us by telephone and I'm sure would be happy to take whatever questions people might have. Just a little bit about him in terms of biography and then we can get some more he was born in India but. His growing up here in the United States and in fact up in Du Page County in the Chicago area went to Downers Grove North High School he earned undergraduate and medical degrees from Brown University also has an MBA from

Stanford. Questions are welcome 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 and any point here people who are listening can call with questions we just ask always to be brief. Just so we can keep the program moving. Get in as many people as possible but of course the questions are certainly welcome again 3 3 3 9 4 5 5. That's for here in Champaign Urbana but any place else in the state it would be a long distance call 800 to 2 2 9 4 5 5 Mr Kathuria Hello. Hi can you hear me. Yessir and you can hear us all right. Yeah absolutely. Great Well thanks very much for talking with us. We appreciate it. Telling me just to start out why do you want to run for Senate. You know I think my parents came to this country 40 years ago. Can you hear me. Yes. They came to this country 40 years ago with not that much money and you know I

was basically able to go to Donna's Grove North High School early you know as you said an undergraduate and medical degree from Brown an MBA from Stanford and made a fifty five thousand dollar investment in a company called the extreme network and it was sold for 75 million dollars. You know and when I kind of think about it it was really because of the opportunities and freedoms that America had given me and to my family it was really living the American dream. And this was you know my way of giving back to this great country what it gave to me and my family. And then using my experiences in building small businesses being the only physician in both parties trying to look at solving some of the problems with health care. And then little bit using my experience in space commercialization to fight the war on terror. I thought we could bring a lot to the U.S. Senate and to the United States. I just I'm curious because that you do have the medical degree from Brown but as far as I know you've never actually practiced medicine I wonder why it is that having gone through med school you then decided

you were going to be a doctor. You know that's a that's a you know a good question I think after for me I was always interested. And health care policy. I did an independent concentration at Brown and in health care policy where I live while I went to Stanford. I studied with Professor Allen and told then looking at the managed competition proposal and I guess the state had it. I met a friend of mine in business school who wanted to go to India and you know build a cell phone company when India was on the verge of bankruptcy. And as they went over to India I got involved in building companies and never really had the chance to come back and practice medicine is probably more just a twist of fate than anything else. But I love medicine. I would actually made it to medical school while I was in high school. I wrote a research paper back then. Well forgive me this is going to sound like a negative question really. Mint tended to be so negative but according to an article it was published in The Chicago Tribune last year at the time that you filed for

your candidacy. You weren't registered to vote and never had been would it be a mistake to think that that's an indication of lack of interest in politics on your part. I think there is you know a couple of things. You know I think 70 percent. Most people don't vote you know in a primary. And I think you know we wanted to get more involved in the political process than just in terms of voting is actually giving back to America what America gave to us in terms of putting my own money into the race. I put the third amount of my own money into that race you know after Blair. After Jack Ryan and more importantly if you know if you look at Senator Frist who is now the Senate majority leader who might run for president 2008 he didn't vote so he was you know 36 or 37 my age so and probably you know the same with some of the other leaders including Dick Cheney who's probably some of the greatest leaders of our time. You know it had you know the same thing. And you know absolutely I wish I had got involved earlier in the political process. But not only am I getting involved in the political process you know I'm getting a lot of people who have been you know normally taking part in the

political process and registering tens of thousands of other voters to take place and get involved. So you are British to go now. Oh yeah. OK so at least a county ought to be able to count on at least one vote and that's their own. Well hopefully a lot more we just got the independent voters Association which is the third largest voting bloc in Illinois that represents 900000 voters and they endorsed our candidacy. Also if you take a look at the Republican primary the last time a Republican won an open seat was in 1928. And if we just look at the statistics there are 700000 Republican primary voters. There are four. Hundred seventy nine thousand Asian Americans 900 50000 registered African-Americans and over 700000 Hispanic voters. And since we're the only minority running in the Republican Party and the only Asian-American. Ironically we probably have the best shot of holding the seat because we can get the independent voters which we got their

endorsement. I'm one of the only Asian-American to me to those voting blocks alone is equivalent to a number of the Republican primary voters. So you know it's like that song from a beat I tell the Republican Party I kept my promise not don't keep your distance. Our guest this morning is part of focus on the baby is Changi Kotori. He is a Republican who will be among those running in the primary on March 16th and was one of them. Well go on to represent their party in the general election. And here as we've done now for many years on the program in the run up to both primaries and general elections we've had as many candidates on the show as as we're interested so he is here to answer questions I can ask questions but of course reporters get to talk with candidates all the time. The idea of this program is that if people who are listening have questions whatever issues most important to them they can call and have some direct contact with the candidate 3 3 3 9 4 5 5 toll free 800. 2 2 2 9 4 5 5. I have tried to ask some basic questions of all the candidates we have been talking with and maybe I'll

start out with health care since this is something that because you have that medical background I know that you're particularly interested in. We do have a serious issue in this country and that is it. It's estimated that there are more than 43 million Americans who don't have any health insurance. What do we do about that. I think Dave it's a good question. Since I'm the only physician in the race and I studied health care policy this is one of the major focuses of our campaign so let's look at what are the problems in health care. You know the kind of break it down and look at one of some possible solutions you know that we've thought about and that people have talked about. The first issue is if you own a small business you pay health insurance if extremely expensive. And how do you make it affordable for employers so they can compete globally. The second issue is if you work part time health insurance again becomes very expensive. The third issue is you know prescription drugs. The fourth issue is tort reform in the 50s you talked about you know the uninsured. So what the Small Business says

there's got to be either by groups or groups where they can buy health insurance at a much more affordable cost for the employees. If you work part time you should be able to buy health insurance deducted from your taxes as the same as if you had paid you know working for a Fortune 500 company. Scription drugs you know I think Bush's Medicare proposal is a step in the right direction but we would also allow the importation of drugs from Canada we were one of the first candidates to talk about that with malpractise and tort reform. You know we would put a cap of $250000 on pain and suffering and more importantly the uninsured which you know a lot of the Democratic candidates are talking about and to my knowledge none of the Republican candidates are talking about it except for us being a doctor if you get really sick you enter your emergency room. If you don't leave you have to your emergency room because no doctor will see you. So let's say Few doubt develop pneumonia. You go to the emergency room and you might stay in the hospital might cost you $2000 or $3000 I would give tax vouchers tax credits so

the uninsured could you know buy health insurance and let's say before they got sick they could go visit a physician get a mock Filner penicillin which might only cost 20 or 30 dollars. So then I think those are you know issues that we need to look at and starting to reform our health care system. You know I believe everyone has a right to affordable high quality health. Care I just think the combination of a government and private health care system is the best way to deliver it. One of the things that people are very concerned about now is the cost of prescription medications and you said that you would favor be able being able to get their medicines in Canada. Do you think that the federal government should be doing anything should put any sort of a pressure on the drug manufacturers to lower the cost of their products. You know I think you know in a competitive system I think you know if you bring in drugs from Canada automatically the competitive forces will result in prices being lower. I don't think you should I you know I don't believe in you know on price controls or anything

along those lines. I think the competitive you know nature of our landscape is probably the best way to bring the cost of prescription drugs into control. If you can bring drugs from Canada the same type of drug and sell it in the U.S. for 40 or 50 percent lower. You know pharmaceutical manufacturers will drop the price of drugs or with the Bush's proposed. All if they want to pop you know fine part of the cost for senior citizens I don't think that's a great idea. On the economy more generally. There is still a lot of concern about how things are going. The slowness of the recovery from the recession. The fact that as Democrats like to point out a couple of million jobs have been lost since the president took office. We are adding new jobs but at a very slow rate and at the rate we're going it take a long time just to get back to the point where we were. What do you think the government should be doing or can do to stimulate the economy. You know I think let's take a look I remember when I was the business school in Stanford my professor wrote a basic equation. Revenues minus cost equal profits. So here we've got

to figure out how do we increase revenues for the government. Small businesses that generally generate the majority of job growth in this country so what you need to do with small businesses you need to stimulate them and grow them because they're going to have the most number of jobs for Illinois and the rest of the United States. So first you've got to give them tax cuts and you've got to keep the Bush tax cuts permanent from example from capital gains. The you know the estate that tax you know and you know if we talk about making health insurance for their employees more affordable. Also what you need to do to help small businesses grow. You need to help them expand outside the US. For example if you're a small business owner and you have six or seven employees and you want to sell your goods to let's say India or Africa or the U.K. You just don't have a market department you don't know who to call. For example the Indian cellular industry is growing by 20 percent. Yet Cingular and AT&T are merging because of consolidation in the industry. This allows Motorola to you know build more radio stations sell more software to India and employ more people in Illinois.

The second thing you know also if you take a and the second thing what I would do for companies bigger companies that are located overseas I would give them a one year tax forgiveness that they would be taxed at 5 percent instead of 35 percent if they located back to the U.S. that would bring in over 300 billion dollars into the economy. Next you've got to take a look at the cost side and what you should do. You know I think there's a couple of things that you should do. One is you've got to look at the big entitlement programs. I mean there are a lot of people who paid into Social Security and they deserve to get their money back and get a reasonable rate of return. But if you look at the facts of Social Security but 38 year old African-American gentleman will actually lose money in Social Security a normal person paying sales security will only get a one point three percent rate of return. It's already going to end up. The nine trillion dollar deficit what a lot of Americans don't appreciate is when you pay money into Social Security it's basically an IOU. They don't take that money and sit there and invest it in the bank. So basically you've got to create personal retirement accounts

where they get a 5 percent rate of return and create basically a nest egg that they can pass on to their kids through the entitlement programs are a big part of the budget we've got to talk about reforming Medicare. Only 12 percent of the people are in Medicare going to private health care system we need to move more of them into a private health care system. So those you know you got to look at the big entitlement programs. Then in terms of the smaller programs I would you know have a balanced budget amendment where he and four other you know you know special interest programs basically a vote or up or down and a proposal that I'm working on that you know a friend of mine gave a lot of money to CDC and he was able to deduct it off of taxes which you know kind of makes a lot of sense of some of these smaller programs like you know the Eisenhower math and science program that a lot of you know philanthropists might want to give to they can deduct it off their taxes. Those are things I would start to do. I would keep the tax cuts permanent I would decrease tax anymore I would work now on balancing the budget. There seems to be still a serious problem with spending government spending.

There's only so much Apparently we can increase revenue and it seems that the that. You know people go to Washington both Democrats and Republicans people talk. Everybody talks about controlling spending and controlling the size of government but at the same time it seems that everybody's got something that they want funded and often find ways to get it done. And some people would say well you know what we really have to do is we have to spend less. But then you get into it you get to the question well OK if you want to cut some of our spending now where do you do it I mean do you do you see places where you think government spending really should be cut. I mean there I mean there are there are certain areas where you know you could probably I think you know you got to look at where are you going to you know where you're going to cut I you know I think basically it's a big entitlement program. You can look at 10 million dollar stop 100 million dollar put you know different programs. But I really think you're looking at you know just you know in size proportions Social Security and Medicare are you

know are in our in the billions of dollars. So I think that's where the system needs reform. But I think in order to cut spending which you've got to do is have put a balanced budget amendment and have up or down votes I think that's what makes the most sense. Back to Social Security when President Bush was running for office he talked about taking younger people as they're coming into the system and giving them the opportunity to take some of that money that they pay into Social Security and to put that into a self-directed kind of retirement fund with some restrictions about what could. Happen to that and I know that you've touched on that another number of Republicans think that that would be a good idea. Other people I think are very concerned about the issue of whether that money would be secure and in fact they point to what's happened with the the boom and the bust in the stock market over the last decade or so and say something like you know well if that had been in effect the people who had put their money into mutual funds they would have lost a lot of money and they didn't they wouldn't be ahead they would be in trouble now.

You know I think it's a good question. I think we need to understand the proposal first. First of all let's look today at this senior citizen is averaging only a one point three percent rate of return on their contribution. As we mentioned an African American general. This 38 is going to lose money and sources on Social Security. So what we're saying is we create the social security Part B which is entirely voluntary so you know I think the claim that we're forcing young people into a risky investment that jeopardizes their benefits you know is you know the proposal that I'm looking at is just not true. If you just have a voluntary social security part B and what it does is basically allow you to put your investments in super safe treasuries or stock index funds. And historically those of always you know grown and you're least going to get you know a 5 percent rate of return. And more importantly you know if you put let's say that money into an account over

40 years that you know that the person works that would give me a much higher generous retirement benefit than what Social Security promises. If a younger person puts it into account let's say a super safe treasury or Treasury broad which is purely voluntary they are not being forced to do it. And over 40 years that account will grow significantly. We have a caller and I would certainly welcome other people who are listening into the program here if you'd like to talk with our guest. Sure and you've got your area. He is one of the Republicans that will be competing in the primary here in Illinois March 16th and one of them will go on to represent their party in the general election in the race for the United States Senate. One of our senators Republican Pete Fitzgerald is not running again so we have an open seat here and we have a very large field on both sides both Republicans and Democrats. And we've had a number of them on the program. Give you a chance to talk with them and you can do that here today. We do have a caller here ready to go in Urbana 1 1. Hello.

Good morning. I had a question on workers compensation insurance. That's usually expensive for a small business owner. Do you see any and any possibility of making some adjustments there in any kind of health care reform. Yeah I mean you know absolutely I think you know it's a really good point because you know I can give you a very practical example. I went to help set up Morgan Stanley's investment banking office in India in 1993 when India was on the verge of bankruptcy. Today I have 80 billion dollars in foreign reserves. And this concern of our jobs going overseas to India. So we need to get the same advantages that India gave its small businesses things like workers compensation all these other insurances. We need to make it affordable for small businesses. I know I build my companies you know from scratch in the paper and through them. If you got to pay workers compensation you've got to pay health insurance. It just becomes very hard to compete in the global market. So whether you know the government kicks in some of the costs or

there's just you make it more affordable to you know you know you know by worker's compensation. If you're a large Fortune 500 company the rates are probably a lot. You know you know it's you know it's cheaper because you know we did it because of the large scales. I think we need to figure out a way to bring it you know down to that rate or have the government help out. Well I would agree with that because I mean it's not a cost that a small business can ignore. And if you're saying that most small businesses are small you know maybe less than 10 employees. That's not that's a big number and it would seem that that should be something that's in the mix of health care reform I mean if you're planning on having small businesses create new jobs you know this tax cut of the president. Seems to have helped you know the bigger companies. But for a smaller company it just hasn't really trickled down. Can you address any anything there. Yeah no I mean I think you know absolutely I think that you know what makes sense I mean what we need to do is you know make sure the capital gains the

state that tax but more importantly you know technology investment if you make even make an investment in technology should be able to deduct it off your taxes. No I mean absolutely. I mean I did that because small businesses are going to generate the majority of job growth in this country. Maybe you have a small business owner. Yes I no longer have an employee but when I did it was again it was quite a surprise to find how much it would cost to to maintain an employee you know in terms of the quarterly taxes and the health insurance and the workers comp and it's a wonderful learning experience but again it's expensive and I say it's you know it's kind of an obstacle for a small business person to were you know really get involved. You know in the process when. He had to immediately upfront with a lot of these costs so I'm just thinking that it might benefit startups you know. Yes and there was a way to kind

of ease the staff entrance in some fashion but but more importantly I think it should be part of the of the debate in the reform of the health care system and that is you know if there eventually might be some universal coverage. I mean I'm not sure that there should really be a distinction between you know what happens at work or what happens. You know when you're shopping which I mean I mean I'm not saying the bigger companies shouldn't put some money in but I think it should be part of the debate. I mean I couldn't agree with you more I think small businesses are going to generate the majority of job growth. You know we've got to give every advantage we can to a small business owner to grow not to be burdened with you know talk you know tax is overhead and you know just like incorporating a small business that takes a lot of time and cost. We just need to streamline a lot of that. And then we've got to you know basically help small businesses sell

their products or whatever they may be even small farm owners to let's say outside of Illinois to the. Most of the states into other countries and help them grow because people like you are going to generate the majority of jobs in our country. OK thank you very much. Thanks very much for the call we'll go on here we have somebody next in calling on cell phone so we'll get right to them line number two. Hello hello. I'm a small business owner and I'm really excited to hear what you're saying about you know what that small business growth. Or are you reaching federal revenues. One of the things you just said about the problem with the Social Security system was because all the Federal Reserve chairman just yesterday suggested that his solution might need to start reducing benefits for the group which I have for you would be the tax cut that we should act. It's about two thirds of it absolutely no stick movie. Thanks all up on the economy

economists with about 40 percent of it was up against and most of my other two thirds was simply a direct wealth transfer from the nation's treasury to a very few wealthy individuals and when they were in the security system four years ago all was relatively intact. You know the phrase was put the money in a lockbox. You've been there a lot since the lockbox and not on the great reason yet you like to go up there willing to campaign on the slogan of the money that Mr. Bush had locked the box up again. Yeah no I think you know absolutely So let's you know you know let's take a look at some of the facts with Social Security. You know it was basically based on life expectancy in 1940 the life expectancy was 63 years you know and now you know in 1998 the figure has gone up to 76 years and people predicted you know by 2030 life expectancy will be just under 80. So you know the problem is that the average right you know retire read that receive Social Security benefits

for a greater number of years. Well I think you agree that the economic basis for some of the problem. How do we deal with the fact that we have the opposite problem with nearly the parity that it is now four years ago. Oh I don't think CHAN Yeah absolutely no. We were secure for our life. 2040 based on the demographics you just cited. Oh now it's changed. Absolutely so what we need to look at is exactly by creating personal attack I can see right now as you know because you understand the system perfectly is when you pay into Social Security that you know the government can invest the money wherever they want it. There is no lockbox It's basically an IOU. So if you create personal retirement accounts or the money that you put into Social Security and you put it into a lockbox It's just like if you get a loan from up you know from you know from a bank. They basically quit a lot back to they can can they can control your spending I think that makes perfect sense.

Well I think I'm still I would still say that the court is measuring the fact that the radical right wants to eliminate most of the government social service programs. That's what the radical right wants to do. So what's up all of our doorpost are I want to get the government to the size where I can drown it in the past. When we talk about reducing Social Security imports by thinking for central whatever it's a good first savings account that goes. Right at the root of the whole security system we're picking our acts to us that's the wrong way to go. What we need to do is look at the demographics in the jocularly what we have to do to fund what we have promised to the folks who like my age are two years away from retire. Yeah I mean absolutely and I think it's for people like yourselves who are paid into Social Security. And you've been putting money in all your life you absolutely deserve you know the benefits that that you were promised that came along with this. So I think you know one of my foremost interests if I get elected to the U.S. Senate is to make sure people who paid into

Social Security get the benefits that they were promised. Now we need to figure out a way to reform the Social Security system before it goes bankrupt. So those benefits are there when you retire because every day we wait you know like you said you know you look on the front page today you know of the Chicago Tribune you know Greenspan issues warning deficits all for Social Security you know cuts Fed chief said. So I completely understand what you're saying because you ever watch the fault the government is doing is taking the money out of the lockbox trust them is not in trouble. But that's what is causing the government to attack the surplus is us. Security system develops that's the reason the system's a problem because the deficit spending which Greenspan warned against yesterday and said will cause us to get rid of Social Security so it can pay off what it promised. What I'm saying is the tax cut was a mess that is the problem. Not how much we're paying into Social Security.

I mean I think there is you know a couple I mean a couple of issues I think you know you bring up a very good point. I think there's you know what what's happening is if you look at some of the statistics the people who are paying into Social Security as opposed to many years ago there are less people paying into Social Security as the people that they are retiring. So how do you fix you know Social Security if you're thinking so what are your solutions I'm I'm interested here what are your thoughts on the solution. Good My thought is if a government should keep or cut command out of the Social Security and make sure that the system is safe until 2030 based on the inputs under current taxation system that was perfectly valid and perfectly correct. What has changed is the government isn't keeping the spam out of the source. And so now all of you Greenspan's are saying the government's created such an awful just cool box that it has to go in the Social Security to decrypt so solid or at least closer to some of what I would like to

hear you say oh yes the government needs to go back to leaving their hands out of the cells surety money so that it will be solvent through 2013 the way upwards of four years ago. Exactly. DeSoto you know you know least you know my understanding of the Social Security system is let's say when you pay money into the Social Security the government is free to invest that as as you please it doesn't go into a lockbox. So if you were to create let's say Social Security part B so you would have some more control on your money that you could put it are invested in give it to your kids that me you know might make sense. And let's go to the radical rights agenda to ensure security fight by putting it up attempts. I think I've repeated myself a cure after all just are not going to listen. Well we do have another call. Over here that we can go on to I don't know any less. You know I don't want to die you know. Yeah I think you know you know the person has the caller has some very good points you know my belief if anyone who paid into Social Security

definitely deserves the benefits what you need to do is you need to reform Social Security very quickly so the system doesn't go bankrupt so the people who are paying into it and there are a couple of ideas what you know as the gentleman correctly pointed out is only pay into Social Security. The government is free to invest it. So by creating certain things you know personal retirement accounts that you can take control of your money and invest in a super super safe treasuries. I think that makes sense. Having the money that that you that that the government that the you invest into. But because you paid into Social Security and the government puts it away so they don't spend it so they can grow it I think that makes a lot of sense. But the key thing is we need to understand that life expectancy has increased. There are less people paying into Social Security today the Social Security deficit is twice our national deficit and it will go to 9 trillion dollars. So what we need to do is we need to start

reforming it right now so all the people who paid into Social Security are promised their benefits back and we can keep it solvent. Let's go on we have some other callers here next. Urbana there both are bad I will take them in the order they came in starting first with 1 1 0 0 0 0. Yes can you hear me. Yes OK. I mean first of all the author mentioned about budget cuts in our national budget. I was wondering why an inferno failed to mention the huge defense budget that could be trimmed. But that's not my quarrel My quarrel is with I mean union and I was born in Bangalore and he mentioned about the Indian model and I was wondering pretty much the regular Indian worker would make anywhere from 2000 to 3000 and rich Indians like the speaker himself would make about 40000 or 50000 rupees or even 60000. So I was wondering is he trying to imply that that's that's a that's a good way to go at it. Or you know I'm just I'm just failing to

understand what he means by Indian example. Sure fair I think if you take a look at it. But Ledley no less. You know because I think one of the key issues everyone talks about is outsourcing I am the only I'm the first Indian-American to run for the U.S. Senate and I'm the only immigrant running and both races. So you know so you know to you know to give everyone who's listing some facts of him you know I think this is a very good issue to debate and talk about is in it when I went to India in 1993 to help set up Morgan Stanley investment banking office. India was on the verge of bankruptcy and wasn't I don't believe I was on the bank of bank verge of bankruptcy but my my question is. Is that are you trying to or are you willing to bring the American worker to the level of how the Indians treat their own workers. That's what I'm trying to say to you in terms of benefit. You mentioned benefits there is no such thing as benefits to an Indian worker. I understand your Morgan

Stanley from probably paid in what were to be in on up but the limits. So let's take a look at what happened with the Indian economy because in 1993 India had about 10 million dollars in foreign reserves. Today it has 80 billion dollars so the country what Mona Singh and you know put some economic stimulus is what the issues are we need to figure out is that a lot of jobs are being outsourced to India. How do we protect Illinois businesses and grow. Illinois businesses and gave them some of the same advantages for in Bangalore for example the government created the vast technology parks. If you if you exported software outside of India to the US you were given. You were able you you weren't taxed on it. So we need to figure out how do we you know because it is a global playing field how do we help you know small business. Let's say you know in the U.S. expanding grow markets which will also help you know Indian consumers. And at the same time figure out

how do we deal with this issue of outsourcing with what what people need to understand first of all it's only 2 percent of the jobs are actually being sent to India. What we need to do is. Make businesses more competitive and give them some of the same advantages and take a look at what India did to grow its small businesses. So we weren't talking I wasn't talking about you know the benefits or the salaries or anything along those lines. Right but another question for me about national defense circles in the current spending of the national defense the way it is going so you just broke up a little bit. But the current spending of the National Defense go ahead for it correct. Do you do you do you believe in the president's spending that much money on national defense and giving tax relief at such a time in our budget deficit. Do you believe in. Yeah I mean I think there is you know a couple issues. So first of all let's take a look at you know the war on terror and defense spending and then that take a look you know tax cuts and kind of break this you know two issues separately and let's you know and let's look at a

specific example. You know the war on Iraq. I think you know two of the things that you know that a nation's responsibility is to provide security for all their citizens. Now if you look at what happened you know during 9/11 it was a very sad day in U.S. history. But since 9/11 America has been very fortunate not to have another attack on U.S. soil. And it's you know it's very sad what's happening with Israel even though they have smaller borders and they have. In 2004 since his unfortunate suicide bombers keep happening so we need to look at how do you fight the war on terror. I mean things are changing the days of the Cold War are gone. So the for stuff for example you know I was involved in helping send the first privately funded manned mission to space. We've got to use space and satellite for reconnaissance technology like that. You know it's very expensive. Now the war on Iraq I mean you know hindsight's always 20 20 out

of the 87 billion the way I would have financed it I would have the 22 billion which was you know for reconstruction financed as a long term loan. The other part I would had some more of the other countries in terms of the military share it. You know my proposal now is going forward is for the next six months have the US there so we have a local Iraqi government then followed by a US U.N. coalition then followed by the U.N. but we also got to keep in mind what have been some of the positive effects in Libya with Moammar Gadhafi he's opened up his borders so we can look at that. Does he have weapons of mass destruction. Is he developing a nuclear program. Me about Libya I think. I think what everyone is willing to take claim is that because of the administration's policy Libya did that many should live in another light maybe Moammar Gadhafi did it for his own favor. He was he was wanting to end the isolation themselves. It's deuced profit maybe we should look at that instead of taking credit for something we have no control over.

I mean I think it's probably both I think is definitely ending economic isolation and also afraid of what happened in Iraq so now if we look at you know the you know the defense budget and tax cuts I think historically if you look at you know how much we're paying for the deficit. Interest rates are very low. So we're actually paying a much lower amount you know for our budget deficit than we were before I think that's something we need to keep in mind. I think historically the economy grew at 7.2 percent which is. One of the strongest growth rates in 20 years I think. Tax cuts historically have had a stimulus on the economy. I think you know you know my proposal is I wouldn't you know reduce the taxes any more but I definitely would not increase taxes I signed the pledge that I want increased taxes I think reducing the capital gains tax that that estate taxes certain things stimulate small business which generates a lot of revenue to the economy. So I think you know that you know look you know we're I think that's where you see a lot of

growth rate is you know in terms of you know tax cuts or at least keeping them permanent now going forward. And you got to remember dividends that that gives a lot of income to senior citizens. But you know go ahead sir. But yes you know they're not I mean I actually my my I am pretty sure you know a lot about economy in economic theory is this and that but my my fundamental problem with you is that you your obviously your view on this whole war on terror. The defense budget does not continually go to these innovative technologies. It also goes to the military industrial complex. I'm sure you're aware of the many companies are benefiting from this but also you mention Israel. Israel has. One of the most sophisticated armies in the whole area and I'm just curious since like the Palestinians throw stones at them and they bring in the Apache helicopters. I'm just wondering how you would treat them as victims in this search.

You know I think there's you know a couple of things if we look you know these are all very good questions. I think your point exactly is I think we need to spend money on homeland security in defense I think it needs to be allocated correctly because of that. And I would definitely agree with you if I was elected to the U.S. Senate. You know as a business when we deploy our capital we look at what you know when we deploy our capital in different industries what are the returns that we're going to get and what is our cost benefit analysis. And I think that makes a lot of sense we need to decide if we're going to increase our defense budget. Where does it go. I mean as a physician I could tell you biological and chemical warfare is going to be something that we really. Need to pay attention to your right. If we want to develop space and satellite based reconnaissance you know because our borders are so vast we need to make sure the money gets spent there. If we need to use the National Guard to help patrol our borders we need to make sure the money goes there. So absolutely if we need to increase our you know our our you know our defense budget. I absolutely agree. We got to make

sure it goes exactly where it is because there's a lot of incentive to increase the budget but if you're not deploying it right it doesn't make any sense. So I think that you know you know makes a lot of sense from what you were saying in terms of your second thing with the Middle East conflict. I think we need to find a way you know to solve the Middle East conflict. You know from you know just from you know a selfish point of view of America shocks in the economy or when the oppression gets exaggerated or recession is due the change in foreign oil prices and stability in the Middle East. So what we need to do and what Bush is trying to do or what America should do is educate that this is a war on terror not a war on Islam. And one of the things I've always. Been preaching you know education. You know it is extremely important and also improving the economy. If we improve the economies of Palestine and other countries will probably also reduce and help solve the Middle East conflict. I mean you know you're

from India it's what Gandhi said an eye for an eye is going to make the whole world blind. So you know I think you know education helping you know grow those economies and the US trying to stimulate you know Middle East peace I think that makes a lot of sense. We have less than 10 minutes left in this part of focus 580 I have several callers here we're trying to get everybody in. I should also probably introduce Again our guest for anybody who might have tuned in. We're speaking with Shirin Jeev Kotori. He is one of eight Republicans that will. Be competing in the March 16th primary to represent their party in the general election for an open seat that we have here in Illinois for the United States Senate. That seat that's currently occupied by Peter Fitzgerald. We do have several people here lined up and ready to go so let's go to the next in line and that's Urbana line number two. Hello. And I was sitting here listening I was getting distracted in counting the number of you knows percent. I think I got five and a couple of them. That's a good point I think you should read my speech. But that's a very good point I

appreciate that. But something that you should know is that the Social Security system is supposed to be a safety net. It is not supposed to be for passing money on down to children is to keep people from starving and which is a real problem when it was first introduced. And it's a pay as you go system. Those of us who are working now are paying for the seniors who are retired now and we're also paying for the war in Iraq et cetera et cetera it's not being put aside the excess money that we're put that we're putting into the Social Security system. And if we have lower paying jobs because jobs are from factory workers in call centers and so forth are going overseas and people here have to find lower paying jobs that means less money into the Social Security system on top of the fact that we have will have fewer of the next cohort coming along the next age group is a smaller number than the than the baby boom and then a few. Add into that if you so-called privatized people's contributions into Social Security that means that you know Wall Street isn't going to do this for

free. That means on top of the money that could be going to fund the Social Security are going to have money going to pay huge salaries on Wall Street and simply the stock market companies a million in mutual funds and the companies themselves haven't exactly been shown to be terribly honest. There are people that have people been asleep and with all the news that's been going on I just can't believe it. I also haven't heard you say anything about the needs that this country has. Are we taking care of the children that we have in this country. I don't think so. There was an article in the paper last night about the consequences the outcomes for children in the foster care system and how poor they tend to be. Why aren't we making sure for instance that we're taxing ourselves if we care so much about right to life and human beings. Why aren't we taxing ourselves to make sure that the children who are our great responsibility are being cared for adequately so they have housing.

Bush is cutting the funding for subsidized housing. People need a place to live. I don't hear anything anybody talking about taking care of people and sharing that burden around for people who are born into a system into a world where they have no control over who their parents are. Thanks a bunch. Well. Mr. Speaker you want to respond to any and all that. Sure sure I mean you know for me you know running for the U.S. Senate I wanted to figure you know America was very kind on me you know my parents came here with really little money my dad sold life insurance for 35 years my mom worked at the Veterans Administration you know and I was able to live the American dream so for me is I want to listen to what people have to say I think too often our politicians give their ideas on issues I know as a doctor. You look at different tasks you do you know physical exams and you kind of figure out what the diagnosis is when you invest in a company. You look at also for it factor from your due diligence. So for

me it's you know you know I that's what I've been doing traveling around the state of Illinois trying to understand what are people's concerns are. And if you actually go to our website for all of these issues we've actually tried to take a stab at it what are a possible solution. We just don't have 30 second answers we develop whole papers on Social Security and education and then you know before I answer you just so you know all the scholars know how to get a hold of us and look at what we think and some of those issues our website is W W W at the reactor A C H U R R I A powerful r Senate dot com and I tell people you know Governor Blagojevich won his race by teaching people how to pronounce his name so. I'm trying to teach people how to pronounce our name. But with Social Security I think you know the caller you know is right. We need to figure out you know how do we deal with Social Security there are less people paying into Social Security as we talked about earlier. The average life expectancy has gone up and people and what

people need to remember is I think that we're getting away from the fact that Social Security is only giving a 1.3 percent rate of return and it's 38 year old African-American will lose money into Social Security. So how do we solve all those issues. It's a complicated process. I think you know there are many ways but we need to start this discussion immediately. There are I mean. I have my fundamental belief and unless you reform Social Security all the benefits that were promised to seniors will no longer be there. You know some of the possible solutions are by creating you know some type of accounts where you can create a voluntary social security part B and if you think about it from an economic point of view you put it in that money grows. And that's that's there for you to take care of you doing your golden years. And you know you can also pass it on. But you know we're open to looking at many other ideas of the money you pay into Social Security the government invested so it's not you know free to invest it like the one caller talked about as a lockbox. I

think we need to really sit down and look at all the issues and have maybe you know a bipartisan commission so we can come up with a solution because as we go forward you know there are the Democrats the Republicans and the independent voters and you've got to come up with the best possible solution. You know on education I can tell you that's been very important I think education is one of. Our greatest equalizers I wouldn't have been able to run for the U.S. Senate unless I was able to get a good education going through the you know you know going through a public school system and reading scores you know have you know have you know gone down in Illinois and I think what we need to do is we each take that the money that the Department of Education and maybe take 25 percent of that and bring it back to you know Illinois and to you know local states so they can invest as they see fit but I think education is absolutely important it's one of the greatest equalizers in our country.

We have one more call I want to try to get in here. Our line number four down in southern Illinois hello. Yes I'm an immigrant too. Question from a friend. I congratulate you for two different grades. I know that I wouldn't when I did cry when I didn't when it was exciting to see how many people liked me I thought me but I didn't went ok and I congratulate you. But you're not tracking well Mike. The being married to a Kennedy would help a lot. How you could say that that you know their American dream very American dream very well I think you're giving India a phony sample and you're talking about the American dream. And India is a poor country and would very exploit the poor people. You get where you are for trying to bring back what we do no want to appoint our poor we want to bring your poor our poor people up we just have about a minute to you no matter how we go yeah.

Well thank you for the call it whatever you want to say. Just to wrap us up here. No I think it's you know a very good question. I think you know what's great about America and what's made America great is that we're all immigrants. And if you come and you work hard in this country you can achieve the American dream. It's not like in some countries you have to be born in a while to be born in politics my father tells me is that you know it's amazing that a son can run for the highest elected office it just shows the greatness of our country and I think America helps improve. Our economy and you know Americans have come here. They've contributed a lot to American 15 years are the richest I think minority provided a lot of jobs. I think you know America's help grown global economies across the globe. But I think you know one of the major reading reasons I'm running is this what this what makes America great in the callers. You know the thing I hope you know the students of Illinois can celebrate their diversity and elect me to the U.S. Senate is I think you know we need to diversify the Senate

and bring the views of all of Illinois you know to summon up I'm the only physician running for the U.S. Senate. You know I joke around about a candidacy it's a little bit like the war in Iraq. The first phase when people saw me with the beard and turban you know they were a little bit shocked when they found out about our background they were in on I've been working on the third face trying to win people's hearts and minds but you know I definitely appreciate you guys taking the call and for me these are very informative because my idea is to meet as many people and to look at solutions how we make America a better place and the main reason for me running. Well we'll have to leave it at that again for people who want to find out more about our guest and if you have internet access. His Web site is at 3 A for Senate dot com. And sure and you could say thanks very much for talking with us we appreciate you having me.