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U.S. Senate Candidate Responses, General Election,
November 2000
Candidate’s Name: Ben Nelson
Office Sought: U.S. Senate - Democrat
Abortion
Amending the U.S. Constitution to protect the right to life of unborn children?
Support
I support the human life amendment. I am pro life. I am opposed to abortion except to prevent the death of the mother. I support amending the U.S. Constitution to protect unborn children.
Using taxpayer funds for abortion?
Oppose
I oppose the use of taxpayer funds for abortions.
Agriculture
Favoring programs that are more beneficial to small-to-moderate-sized, family-owned-and operated farms and ranches, including a "safety net"?
Support
I support a voluntary crop revenue coverage program that would give farmers the flexibility to set yield caps and buy coverage based on the Spring market prices. Farmers would then be paid either the spring market prices or the harvest market prices - whichever are higher - multiplied by their capped yields.
Capital Punishment
Extend use of the death penalty?
Support
I support the death penalty.
Economic Help for Families
Tax relief for low-income working families?
Support
I support efforts to provide tax relief to low income, working families to keep them above the poverty line through the earned income tax credit and refundable child tax credits.
Education
Federal financial support to enable parents to choose the elementary and/or secondary schools, including religiously-affiliated schools, they deem best-suited for their children?
 |
Tax Relief? Opposed |
|
Education Vouchers? Opposed |
Comments: Nebraska allows for public school choice; and I support that option for parents. While three of our four children attended private religiously affiliated schools, I do not support using public funds to pay for private schooling in the form of vouchers or tuition tax credits.
Environment
Legislation that would further regulate and reduce pollution?
Support
I support efforts to reduce pollution. Legislation to reduce pollution should be based on sound science and a cost-benefit analysis.
Euthanasia
Making it legal for physicians to administer or prescribe lethal injections or lethal dosages of drugs for terminally ill patients who request that their death be caused in this manner?
Oppose
I am pro life, and that position includes being opposed to euthanasia.
Foreign Policy
Funding debt reduction for heavily indebted poor countries that commit to using benefits of debt reduction to relieve poverty?
Support
I believe that we should provide debt relief, but it must be coupled with reforms by those countries in how the foreign assistance is used to ensure that they will institute sound economic policies. In addition, those countries must open their markets for free and fair trade.
Making defense of human rights a central concern by linking other policies to a nation's performance on human rights?
Oppose
Human rights should be a central concern of U.S. foreign policy; however, in most cases I oppose linking trade preferences to a nation's performance on human rights. I do not believe that embargoes have worked. More often, they have little effect on the targeted countries' leaders and harm only innocent people. In addition, they frequently hurt our farmers and ranchers by closing off markets for Nebraska agricultural products.
We must be vigilant and apply constant pressure to ensure that countries such as China are adhering to the rules of human rights and religious freedom.
Health Care
Federal government's role in seeing to it that all persons in the U.S. have genuine access to affordable, quality health care?
I believe the federal government should be committed to a goal of ensuring that all Americans have genuine access to high quality health care. I believe the Congress should approve legislation that provides consumer protection against HMO abuses.
I believe we should allow patients to have their choice of doctors. I also believe doctors and their patients, not insurance companies and their accountants, should make medical decisions. In addition, HMOs should be held accountable when their decisions harm a patient. We must make every effort to hold down costs when implementing these protections and expanding access; but they must be done.
Human Life
Using federal taxpayer dollars to support:
(a) biomedical research and experimentation that utilizes fetal tissue from induced abortions?
Oppose
(b) research that involves destroying live human embryos in order to obtain cells for experimentation?
Oppose
Comments: I support a ban on partial birth abortions and believe that fetal tissue obtained from induced abortions should not be used for biomedical research and experimentation. I believe that tissue from non-elective procedures should be the sole source of tissue used for research in fighting afflictions such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease.
Immigration/Refugee Policy
Ease restrictions that otherwise deny people the ability to seek political asylum in the U.S.?
Support
I believe that people who are suffering from human rights abuses, religious intolerance and political tyranny should continue to look to the United States as a haven of democracy where they can seek political asylum.
Violence in America
Policy changes and/or initiatives to curb the level of violence?
We should encourage the television, movie and entertainment industry to curb the amount of violence distributed through the media that affects everyone in our society; regardless of age.
I also believe that we all have an obligation to provide a positive example and to teach young people how to resolve disputes and handle anger without resorting to violence. I have actively participated in mentoring programs for young people and will continue to do so as a United States Senator.
In addition, our schools must be a safe haven for students, teachers and school employees. Like many Nebraskans who grew up in a rural setting, I am an avid hunter who owns several guns. I have always acted responsibly by keeping my guns safely locked in a gun case to ensure that my children did not have access to them. Because I understand that not everyone acts responsibly, I support trigger locks at the point of sale.
Personal Priorities
Public-policy issues you would most like to address?
1. Get agriculture back on track.
2. Access to quality healthcare for all Americans.
3. Prudent management of the economy.
Comments: (1) Freedom to Farm must be overhauled to provide farmers the freedom and flexibility they need to get the best prices for their products while still maintaining a safety net when times are bad. We must also work to maintain and expand markets for our producers.
(2) It is critical that we enact a Patients' Bill of Rights which guarantees that people can choose their own doctors, that doctors and patients make medical decision, not accountants and bureaucrats; and that HMOs be held accountable when they make decisions which harm patients.
(3) We are fortunate to now have surpluses rather than deficits in the federal budget, but we must be vigilant to keep spending under control.
Part of the budget surplus should be used to provide broad-based tax relief for working families. In Nebraska, I believe it is especially important to eliminate the marriage penalty and to provide estate tax relief for our farmers.
We also must dedicate part of the surplus to strengthen and improve the Medicare program, including helping seniors with the spiraling cost of prescription drugs. Another portion of the surplus should be used to pay down the debt to ease pressure on the Social Security trust fund.
Finally, I believe quality education is the key to success of individuals and to our democracy. We must be willing to invest in our schools.
Candidate’s Name: Don Stenberg
Office Sought: U.S. Senate - Republican
Abortion
Amending the U.S. Constitution to protect the right to life of unborn children?
Support
Using taxpayer funds for abortion?
Oppose
Agriculture
Favoring programs that are more beneficial to small-to-moderate-sized, family-owned-and operated farms and ranches, including a "safety net"?
Support
The best approach here may be a crop revenue insurance program subsidized by the federal government.
Capital Punishment
Extend use of the death penalty?
Support
Economic Help for Families
Tax relief for low-income working families?
I favor tax relief for families who are paying taxes.
Education
Federal financial support to enable parents to choose the elementary and/or secondary schools, including religiously-affiliated schools, they deem best-suited for their children?
|
Tax Relief? Support |
|
Education Vouchers? Support |
Environment
Legislation that would further regulate and reduce pollution?
I support reasonable environmental regulation based upon sound science and reasonable cost/benefit analysis.
Euthanasia
Making it legal for physicians to administer or prescribe lethal injections or lethal dosages of drugs for terminally ill patients who request that their death be caused in this manner?
Oppose
Foreign Policy
Funding debt reduction for heavily indebted poor countries that commit to using benefits of debt reduction to relieve poverty?
Oppose
Using American taxpayers' dollars to pay the debts of foreign countries does not benefit the impoverished, but rather benefits the wealthy ruling class.
Making defense of human rights a central concern by linking other policies to a nation's performance on human rights?
Support
I am very concerned about human rights and believe human rights policies should be taken into account regarding foreign aid. I do not support trade embargoes because they are ineffective and penalize our agricultural producers. Military aid must be based on U.S. security interests.
Health Care
Federal government's role in seeing to it that all persons in the U.S. have genuine access to affordable, quality health care?
We should not nationalize the healthcare industry or the health insurance industry. National policy should encourage giving Americans more choices between health insurance companies and health insurance plans, similar to the choices currently available to federal government employees. Medicare must be preserved with more choices for recipients and should include a prescription drug benefit.
Human Life
Using federal taxpayer dollars to support:
(a) biomedical research and experimentation that utilizes fetal tissue from induced abortions?
Oppose
(b) research that involves destroying live human embryos in order to obtain cells for experimentation?
Oppose
Immigration/Refugee Policy
Ease restrictions that otherwise deny people the ability to seek political asylum in the U.S.?
Support
Violence in America
Policy changes and/or initiatives to curb the level of violence?
Part of the answer is to take violent criminals off the street for substantial periods of time. Another part of the answer is to build strong morals and ethics through strong families and religious institutions. Federal policies should support the family unit. This includes eliminating the marriage tax penalty and cutting taxes for American families so that they have the option to spend more time with their children instead of working to pay Uncle Sam.
Personal Priorities
Public-policy issues you would most like to address?
1. Rebuild our agricultural economy.
2. Rebuild our national defense.
3. Cut taxes.
