Ed Case in Hawaii 2006 Senate Debate


On Civil Rights: Supported Patriot Act to provide law enforcement tools

PATRIOT Act II was a reauthorization of the PATRIOT Act. And it was passed after a very long and very vigorous debate. It was passed with my vote. We want our law enforcement community to have the tools it needs to protect us, investigating, surveying, wiretapping, but we want our law enforcement community to have those powers only if there's a check and balance placed on that law enforcement community against abuse, i.e. a search warrant and court supervision.
Source: 2006 HI Senate Debate on PBS Hawaii Aug 31, 2006

On Energy & Oil: Investigate the oil companies & reinstate the CAF standards

Q: What can the government do to help with the energy costs?

A: We can and should investigate the large oil companies for price fixing, price gouging. Those investigations haven't even gone forward because the Bush administration won't let them go forward. The second thing of course is to provide for far more efficient automobiles. The Bush administration and the majority in congress let go the Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards to require higher efficiency in our cars.

Source: 2006 HI Senate Debate on PBS Hawaii Aug 31, 2006

On Health Care: Let small businesses pull together resources in health plans

I have support a bill to provide small businesses with the opportunities to pool their resources in association health plans so that they can create the same kind of critical mass that large businesses can create to be able to manage their health care costs. If small businesses can pull together in association health plans they can in fact manage those health care costs a little bit more and spread the risks more.
Source: 2006 HI Senate Debate on PBS Hawaii Aug 31, 2006

On Health Care: Support drugs re-importation and bulk purchases of drugs

We can't talk about health care without talking about the prescription drug costs, specifically. Two major initiatives that I believe we need to put forward and accomplish right away, in which I have opposed the Bush administration's position, are first of all to allow re-importation of safe drugs from overseas that are FDA approved, and second to allow bulk purchasing of those drugs for Medicare for the 40 million plus Americans that do get Medicare. That can help.
Source: 2006 HI Senate Debate on PBS Hawaii Aug 31, 2006

On Social Security: Oppose Social Security privatization, lockbox the trust fund

Social Security will become insolvent inside of 10 years, meaning the revenues coming in from Social Security taxes will not be sufficient to cover the expenses going out. We'd be in pretty good shape if we'd only lockboxed the Social Security trust fund and not diverted all of those moneys into our general fund and spent it as part of that budget decline that I referenced earlier in my remarks. I have opposed his specific privatization proposal as I understand it.
Source: 2006 HI Senate Debate on PBS Hawaii Aug 31, 2006

On Tax Reform: Bush tax cuts unaffordable; targeted middle-class cuts ok

Q: Do you favor making the tax cuts permanent?

A: I voted against that initiative. It was unaffordable, especially as we had already intervened in Iraq, and one could see that was going to be far more expensive than anybody projected. I had voted against some tax cut extensions, especially those for the very upper income families, because I don't think it's fair, or necessary. But I have voted for some extensions that I think have very targeted purposes and are targeted for the middle class.

Source: 2006 HI Senate Debate on PBS Hawaii Aug 31, 2006

On War & Peace: Oppose a timetable of troops withdrawal from Iraq

Q: What strategy do you have for America in Iraq?

CASE: First, a government in Iraq that can govern, and a police & a military that can provide security. The government is in place. The police and military, according to the leaders of Iraq, are within 6 to 9 months of being in place. At that point, it would seem to me that our way forward to disengage was there. But we cannot withdraw unilaterally, unconditionally, & on a firm timetable, and expect that there are not going to be negative consequences.

AKAKA: In Oct. 2002, I was one of 23 Senators who opposed the authorization of force in Iraq. Because I felt that Bush's proposal did not have correct information. I was on a committee that was studying it for two years, and we did not find any Weapons of Mass Destruction there. I was looking for a post-war strategy. It wasn't there. Now I'm calling for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq by July 2007. We must put pressure on the Iraqi government to take responsibility for its own security.

Source: 2006 HI Senate Debate on PBS Hawaii Aug 31, 2006

On War & Peace: Do not need a draft but the military has been stretched

Q: Do we need a draft?

AKAKA: [We need] a recruitment program that would interest our young people. We do have a recruitment program that has been able to meet the needs of our troops. We also need to have a program to attract these young people to the military and to retain them. I've been working on a program to recruit, retain, and also to have a retirement program for the military that might interest young people in looking at their lives and the lives of their family. So with all of this, I feel that we'll be able to attract the young people we need without resorting to a draft.

CASE: In some of the Armed Services the recruiting is okay, in some it is more of a problem, and that is the reality of what we face. Let me be real clear, we don't need a draft today. I don't support a draft today. We don't have to enter into a discussion of the draft. But we do have to confront the reality of an all-volunteer military, which has been incredibly stretched by our engagements oversees.

Source: 2006 HI Senate Debate on PBS Hawaii Aug 31, 2006

The above quotations are from 2006 Hawaii Democratic Primary Senate Debate: Sen. Daniel Akaka vs. Rep. Ed Case, at the University of Hawaii, Honolulu, on PBS Hawaii, Aug. 31, 2006.
Click here for a profile of Ed Case.
Ed Case on other issues:
Abortion
Budget/Economy
Civil Rights
Corporations
Crime
Drugs
Education
Energy/Oil
Environment
Families
Foreign Policy
Free Trade 		Govt. Reform
Gun Control
Health Care
Homeland Security
Immigration
Jobs
Principles
Social Security
Tax Reform
Technology
War/Peace
Welfare
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