Matt Funiciello: Somebody has got to do this
"I am not going to live in that kind of world. I am going to, instead, be an optimistic person who has faith in humanity that we are going to collectively recognize, very soon if not today, that it is time to stop doing this," Funiciello told the Press-Republican Editorial Board, "that there are other ways, and it is not just these two answers (parties) that work.
"In fact, they don't work at all, and they are not intelligent answers."
Funiciello, 48, is running for the
He is trying to unseat incumbent Republican
DIFFERENT APPROACH
Funiciello believes in single-payer health care in the form of
He supports drastically reducing the military presence of
Funiciello thinks large-scale agribusiness is harming the environment and that more effort needs to be made immediately to reverse climate change or, he told the P-R at the recent session, we are all doomed.
WHY HE'S RUNNING
He ran for the
This time around he is hoping to do better.
"I would be happiest if I actually get elected to
"And I don't want it because I want a career as a congressman. I'd rather ride my bike, paint with my girlfriend, play guitar and farm.
"But somebody has got to do this, and I really believe that. If I can finish above a major party candidate, then that's majorly historical."
MILITARY SPENDING
Funiciello is passionate about reducing spending on the military and scaling back the
"Our military should be for defense, not for globalization," he said. "We are the modern-day Roman Empire, and we are failing."
For every dollar the government spends, about
IMPACT ON SOLDIERS
Preventing the suicides of about 6,000 soldiers a year is at the top of his priority list.
The killing of so many innocent civilians in
"Let's take great care of the soldiers we sent to war illegally and immorally," he said.
"The huge percentage of people that we have killed are civilians, and that is not OK. That is immoral, and the collective cost to our soul and our psyche is incalculable.
"And soldiers are not immune to that just because they've strapped on a flag and uniform and carry a gun."
Funiciello said terrorism against
"I'm not as scared of anti-terrorism or terrorism as I am of the 6,000 vets killing themselves," he said.
War, famine and inequality are main causes of terrorism, and
"It would be much cheaper and more humanitarian, but we don't take seriously answers like that that don't make money for the war profiteers that run our government," he said.
REPURPOSE
Funiciello said
PAFB closed in 1995, forcing the community to restructure its economy.
That can't happen unless the government is changed, he said.
"We need to inspire other human beings to understand that it is time to do this.
"The grownups, the serious people who are all meeting in
FARMING EFFECTS
Climate change is very real, Funiciello said, and we may be past the tipping point.
Meat and dairy farming is a major contributor to climate change, he said, contributing 51 percent of the methane in the atmosphere.
And Funiciello, who has become a vegan in recent years, says a major shift is needed to save the planet.
"If we're not going to give up and throw in the towel and we actually do want to live and thrive in the future, this is one of the answers that we are not even discussing," he said.
'NEED A MOVEMENT'
If elected, Funiciello said, he would work to change the political landscape, even though he would be pretty much on his own as a
During his presidential bid,
"We need a movement of human beings who would like there to be peace and economic prosperity for everybody, not just in
Americans need to recognize Middle Easterners as human beings, just like us, Funiciello said.
"They are working-class brown Muslim human beings overseas, and it's not OK kill them and to pretend that they are not human beings," he said.
"We can all believe that. We all do believe that when we go to church on Sunday, when we bring our kids to school.
"We are not hateful violent human beings in our everyday lives, so why do we allow our government to represent us in our everyday lives as if we are?"
TRADE
On trade, Funiciello said trade deals in the past two decades have cost Americans about 9 million jobs, and by 2040, about half of all jobs in
"There is a big difference between free trade and fair trade," he said.
"We no longer have the highest standard of living in the world. Trade benefits corporations, not the middle class."
IMMIGRATION
The nation should also look to create a path to citizenship for the 13 million illegal immigrants here, Funiciello said.
"Not all Mexicans are rapists and drug dealers, as
"Many of them work and pay taxes on services they will never receive."
To replace an outdated and complex tax structure, Funiciello supports a flat tax of 10 percent on all goods and services sold in
No other taxes, including property or income taxes, would be necessary, he asserted.
"That gives us the same amount of tax income we currently have," he said.
SINGLE-PAYER HEALTH
Single-payer health care, or "
"If you did it (
DRUGS
Funiciello said the war on drugs is not working.
Heroin and other addictions need to be treated as medical conditions, not criminal, he said.
"People who are addicted go to jail; we don't put cancer patients in jail."
He noted that
"The drug war is not about justice. We need to treat addiction as a disease."
Email
Twitter: @jlotemplio
CONGRESS RACE
The Press-Republican Editorial Board sat down individually for hour-long interviews with each of the three candidates for
This is Part 2 of our look at their take on the issues in this race.
Tomorrow:
___
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