Schneider vs. Ramirez Mukherjee: 10 questions for the candidates running for the 10th District of the U.S. House of Representatives
Congressional districts are determined by overall state population.
To learn more about the candidates running for
Why should voters elect you and not your opponent(s)? Please limit this to policy and approach, not a biography recitation.
Performance, not politics, has been the hallmark of my life and career.
Although I am a first-time candidate, I feel confident that I can and will do much better. In every facet of my life and career, I have adapted and achieved, regardless of circumstances or situations. Raised in a working-class neighborhood by a single mom who escaped violent domestic abuse, I transformed my life through education and self-financed my way through
If elected, I will bring the same vigor and ethos to the job. Given that my campaign is grassroots and self-funded, I am also unencumbered by party politics and free to focus on constructive, sustainable, and impactful legislation. My legislative priorities of jobs, education, taxes, and safety are precisely what I believe my hiring managers, the district’s voters, need - which I am committed to delivering.
What are your highest priorities for
Jobs, education, taxes, and safety (JETS). There are enormous opportunities to reimagine the power of the federal purse to impact these priorities positively.
Jobs: Incent new economy job creation in depressed parts of the country through tax breaks for local, national, and global companies. More urgently, create the conditions to convince the many F500 companies in the district to stay rather than leave.
Education: A good education for children is a core tenet that cuts across socioeconomic lines. Given my own journey and passion, there are genuine opportunities to repurpose existing federal funds to generate better outcomes for students and teachers across the district and country. Taxes: We need a philosophical mind shift - to create new tax payors rather than tax the existing payors more. This would almost instantly address the exodus from the state, and the compounding effects of property value declines and tax increases. Reinstating SALT deductions, punishing poorly run states on behalf of their citizens, and providing federal incentives to attract new, green economy jobs globally are a few examples.
Safety: Instead of impractical legislative band-aids, I would explore federal funding for public safety programs. Instead of police,
Assuming your victory, choose a single issue you would prioritize in the coming term – name it and describe what you want to accomplish.
Absent the pandemic, I would choose Education. This is a passion borne out of my own life experiences in its transformational power, regardless of one’s circumstances.
However, with the pandemic and the extreme political polarization in the country, efforts to help heal and rebuild the country take precedence. This includes continued, direct short-term financial help and retraining and retooling the workforce for an accelerating digital economy. I would name it the Pandemic Relief for Families and Businesses Act or PREFAB.
Specifically, this would include income support through the pandemic for those whose jobs were lost or furloughed, mortgage support for landlords to avoid evictions, funding to launch new businesses, and make capital investments to retool for or retrain employees to embrace the digital economy.
In 150 words or fewer, make a pitch for the presidential candidate you support.
I consider my vote to be sacred and secret, and I will make my decision on
Are you prepared to take up real reform to
Yes. My mother retired from the
The entire Medicare program needs to be revisited, tweaked, and fortified to ensure its solvency. In this case, the approach perhaps needs to be more market-driven and less regulatory. The size, complexity, fraud, and waste in Medicare appear to be natural areas to address, along with some programs and encouragement for personal responsibility. Lastly, perhaps merging
What do you view as the government’s obligation, if any, to help American workers secure health insurance? Do you support the creation or continuation of a program, such as Medicare for All or Obamacare? Do you have a different idea? If you support a government-related insurance plan, how would you pay for it?
For a country as wealthy as ours, healthcare should be a right, not a privilege. However, given the extreme (and arguably, unnecessary) complexity of the issue, we will have to take an incremental approach to a sustainable solution.
The guiding principles need to include personal choice, personal responsibility, risk sharing, cost transparency, comprehensive coverage, and universal access. The government would be a provider of last resort for catastrophic events. The best way to do so is to preserve the Affordable Care Act’s positives but continuously improve upon it and provide a free-market option to allow citizens to buy insurance they feel they need.
Identify 3 national security threats to
I firmly believe that countries and governments across the world have realized that economic opportunities for its citizens are the only sustainable path to survival, regardless of the form of government. In this light, other than posturing for political advantage, there is little to gain from destructive wars. With these assumptions in mind, I feel the three principal national security threats we face are
Biological – whether naturally occurring or an accident of experimentation. The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the devastation caused by a biological agent, which was further exacerbated by an inconsistent national and international response. We need to learn from this event, cooperate with other countries, and build up our defenses to better address such events in the future.
Cyber Security – this is manifested in many ways, including election interference, commercial espionage, and infrastructure sabotage. We need to invest heavily to build up our defensive and offensive cyber capabilities to ensure that a suitable, proportionate, and effective response if and when attacked.
Climate Change – is human-made, urgent, and an existential threat to the planet. The devastation this can cause globally to our way of life, if left unaddressed while imperceptible in the short term, will be deadly and irreversible, leading to physical, food, and economic insecurity. We need a commercial, not a regulatory fix to fix this threat sustainably.
COVID-19 has destroyed jobs. The economy needs to be rebuilt. What policy steps should
These are unprecedented times that require unprecedented actions. The government’s legislative and executive branches have stepped up and need to continue to do more to get the country through these times. However, to accelerate the recovery, we have to figure out a way to grow our way out of this problem. Examples include:
Leverage the crisis to eliminate unnecessary regulations and red tape, speed up the approvals process, further reduce or eliminate taxes, and expand loans and funding programs to start new businesses.
Provide one-time tax relief to corporations to repatriate foreign profits back to the US if they re-invest 50% of these funds in creating new economy US jobs.
Leverage technology to eliminate the colossal waste in government spending and entitlement programs, reduce and simplify tax rates, reinstate state and local tax exemptions, provide forgivable loans to start new businesses.
Encourage global companies to relocate jobs to the district and country through tax breaks and tariff relief.
These are just ideas. I realize it takes a lot to get these through the legislative process – but we need to continuously and proactively generate more such ideas and ultimately execute on the ideas.
When have you shown independence from your party on an issue of major import?
I identify as an authentic “purple” Republican - socially moderate and fiscally responsible. My principles are rooted in my core beliefs, which were honed when I was a young political staffer in the early 1990s:
Personal responsibility
Freedom of choice
Free enterprise
Smaller government
The rule of law
Opportunity for all
Performance, transparency, and accountability
My views on climate change, LGBTQ rights, choice (pro-choice till 20 weeks, pro-life thereafter, with exceptions for life-threatening conditions) are examples where my positions differ from that of the party platform. However, these views are consistent with our district and the Republican representation in
If you are an incumbent, tell us the most significant accomplishment of your current term. If you are a newcomer, tell us how you as a rookie would keep from being a backbencher.
The ability to adapt and achieve regardless of circumstances has been the hallmark of my personal and professional life. You can see this in my public resume on Linkedin.com. My whole life I have been the underdog, chartering waters that no one before me in my family has ever done. I figured out how to get to the top across education, work, nonprofit, and sports – from 1st generation college and grad student with 2
Why should voters elect you and not your opponent(s)? Please limit this to policy and approach, not a biography recitation.
We are dealing with concurrent unprecedented crises and need serious leadership that can steadfastly navigate challenges.
I have focused on the needs of
I helped pass the CARES Act and, with my team, did all we could to help our small businesses get the forgivable PPP loans to get through this crisis. I was pleased that we were able to protect 92,000 jobs in my district.
More than just PPP, I have helped provide assistance for health care workers and hospitals, nursing homes, teachers, firefighters, and other frontline heroes. And I continue to fight to restore the SALT deduction in full something that will save families in this district thousands of dollars in taxes.
I know the values, priorities and interests of our district. I’ve proven willing to stand up to the
What are your highest priorities for
Before we can do anything else, we must beat back the virus to restore our nation to health and renew our economy to get people back to work.
My primary goal as a Member of
Second, we must deal with the existential threat of climate change. I helped introduce legislation that will get the
On a personal level, gun violence is an extremely important topic to me. I was named after a great uncle who was killed by a gunman. When first taking office in 2013, I met some of the parents of children murdered in Newtown. In 2018, I’ve met student survivors of Parkland. I have personally taken on the NRA in
Assuming your victory, choose a single issue you would prioritize in the coming term – name it and describe what you want to accomplish.
We can’t move our nation forward until we effectively beat back the virus. In the meantime, we need to put the economy in the best position to fully recover and once again grow. We need to help our nation-- American working families, small businesses, health care providers, state and local governments--navigate this period until we get either therapeutics or a cure. The HEROES Act the House passed in May had the solution to defeating the virus and safely reopening our economy. In a new pandemic relief bill, I am fighting for a second round of
That said, the single issue we must address now and for the foreseeable future is dealing with climate change. In the coming term, we must return
In 150 words or fewer, make a pitch for the presidential candidate you support.
Our nation is at a crossroads and needs an experienced leader who will immediately restore America’s standing in the world, fight for working families, and bring our country together. That leader is
Are you prepared to take up real reform to
Both Medicare and
The first thing we must do to protect these programs is to stop undermining our nation’s fiscal position. Unfortunately, the Republican tax bill passed does just that by adding an additional
Comprehensive immigration reform is also a way to improve the health of these programs. The CBO estimated the 2013
I do believe we can create incentives for Americans who want to work longer to choose to do so and adjust their benefits accordingly. Such approaches can create the “win-win” scenarios that benefit everyone without raising the retirement age.
What do you view as the government’s obligation, if any, to help American workers secure health insurance? Do you support the creation or continuation of a program, such as Medicare for All or Obamacare? Do you have a different idea? If you support a government-related insurance plan, how would you pay for it?
A decade after passing the Affordable Care Act (ACA), so many of the problems that the law was designed to address stubbornly persist. We must recognize that rising premiums, higher deductibles, unpredictable bills, narrow networks, and lack of affordable options are all problems people still face every day. All these issues have been exacerbated by the chaos and uncertainty created by Republican attempts to dismantle, defund and defeat the ACA -- in
Health care is, and must be treated as, a right for all, not a privilege for the fortunate few. Simply tinkering around the edges of the ACA is not sufficient to achieve this goal.
One important step would be creating a “public option” -- a government-sponsored health insurance plan that competes in the marketplace with private insurance. A new public plan would promote competition to drive down overall costs and return the focus more appropriately on patients and their needs. It would offer an essential alternative for the nearly 1 in 5 Americans, including my constituents living in
Identify 3 national security threats to
I believe
With respect to
COVID-19 has destroyed jobs. The economy needs to be rebuilt. What policy steps should
Whether you consider it stimulus or not, one of the best ways to create jobs and prosperity, immediately and sustainably, is to invest in infrastructure. Even before the pandemic,
Second, we need to invest in our children’s education, developing new and creative ways to, as quickly as possible, make up the lost time students have suffered during the pandemic. From pre-K to graduate education, America’s young risk falling behind in their ability to compete in a global economy. But, like the “Greatest Generation” that rose up from the Great Depression to literally save the world, then returned home from war to launch what became the “American Century,” I believe today’s youth, with wise educational investment, can launch a new, post-Covid renaissance.
Finally, beyond stimulus and bailouts, one of the best ways to create jobs and bring prosperity to
When have you shown independence from your party on an issue of major import?
I stood up to the
More broadly, little can get done if we don’t address the hyperpartisanship in our governing and find ways to bridge the gap to find common ground and sustainable solutions to our challenges. I have made fostering bipartisanship a top priority because I believe the challenges our country faces require solutions independent of party fealty. As the recent disastrous tax reform effort demonstrates, legislation crafted in a partisan vacuum is not crafted to last or to benefit all Americans.
Promoting bipartisanship and tackling problems together is why I helped create the
In fighting the Coronavirus, the
If you are an incumbent, tell us the most significant accomplishment of your current term. If you are a newcomer, tell us how you as a rookie would keep from being a backbencher.
This term, I am proud that I and my team have helped recover
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