Ken Salazar

10/19/04: I sent the following email to Ken Salazar (U.S. senate candidate from Colorado) and a similar one to Pete Coors. I will post any replies when and if received. Visit Ken Salazar's web site http://www.salazarforcolorado.com/

I am an independent Colorado voter who voted for Al Gore in the last presidential election and Bill Owens in the last Colorado gubernatorial election. I would vote for Ben Nighthorse Campbell regardless of his party he was affiliation. I would consider voting for Ken Salazar because he is a business man and has served Colorado well. I would like to know more about his positions on a few issues that are important to me. 1) I'd like to know Mr. Salazar's position on the national debt (not deficit). It is my understanding that a large part of the national debt is owed to Social Security, and one major reason that Social Security is underfunded is because of this uncollected debt. Clearly if you ran your household (or corporate) budget like Congress runs the national budget, most people would be forced to declare bankruptcy, or at least be subject to your creditors whims as an alternative. I saw this happen when I worked at Control Data Corp and the banks required that they close their super computer company (ETA Systems) just as it was starting to show a small profit. Salesman had orders in hand that they had to toss in the trash. They took all the ETA employees to a movie theater and informed them they were to be laid off and the company closed. I would encourage tax increases as required to pay down the debt. 2) I'd also like to know Mr. Salazar's position on health care for the uninsured. Health care costs have risen far faster than most other services. When I call a doctor now I often can't even get a price quote for an office visit. It depends on the health insurance I have. If I don't have health insurance (and I don't), the price can be extremely high. I have to receive the services and find out what the cost is when I receive the bill. My self employed brother tells me that his medical insurance premiums for himself, his wife and 2 children costs $26,000 per year (in Connecticut). The idea that corporations and businesses should pay their employees health insurance is clearly just congress passing this problem to private industry. As a business owner I'm sure Mr. Salazar would consider it inappropriate to provide auto or home owners insurance to his employees as a benefit, why should health insurance be different? I think if everyone had to provide their own health insurance, the insurance companies would have to work in a more competitive market and provide competitive rates, even more so than auto insurance which is required by law (if you drive a car). I would encourage doctors to be immunized from mal-practice lawsuits. Like all humans, doctors are fallible. If a doctor is wrongfully negligent, he should be prosecuted criminally, which would put an end to "profitable" lawsuits. Patients should be able to purchase their own medical procedure insurance at their discretion if they wish to be additionally protected. There are many more questions I'd like to ask, but these are 2 of the most difficult. If Mr. Salazar plans on contributing in the running of the government he should have some plan to address just these 2 issues. This email will be posted on my web site http://news.mouseranch.com. I will be glad to accurately post any replies. A similar email has been sent to Pete Coors and may be viewed on my site. Thanks, paul goodman