Voters will have a chance to choose between three very different candidates for the Second District Representative in Congress on Nov. 4, as Democrat Victoria Wulsin and Independent David Krikorian are challenging Republican incumbent Jean Schmidt. Schmidt vying for her third term.
The three candidates have very different views on key issues in the country. During Schmidt's time in congress she has seen many changes in the state and national economies. Schmidt feels that the recent $700 billion bailout plan was necessary to get the country back on its feet.
"I really wish you'd call it the rescue plan instead of the bailout because it didn't really focus on Wall Street and their greed; this really focused on Main Street, Main Street here in Georgetown...Main Street USA," Schmidt said.
According to Schmidt, the economy began to decline due to the policies of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which forced banks to provide home loans to people who could not otherwise afford them, artificially inflated the housing market and subsequently slowed down the credit market.
"What was happening over the summer was we saw ourselves in a economic decline, some would call it a recession," Schmidt said. "We knew from a year ago that the housing market slumped down...so 12 months of an economic slow down in the housing market. Fannie and Freddie were predicated upon a heated housing market so when it slowed down it came to an impasse; credit markets bottomed out first."
Schmidt said as a result of the failing credit market, smaller businesses that use short term loans to purchase raw materials and cover payroll expenses could not get loans and therefore they had difficulties making their goods to sell to larger manufacturers to pay for those costs.
"Businesses operate on credit," Schmidt said. "When you've got a little tool and die company and you've got to get steel in to make your stuff, that's expensive. Generally you don't always have the cash to go out and buy. So what do you do? You go out and borrow it...What's happening was, credit wasn't there for them to do that. When we realized the magnitude of the problem, that's when we had to step in."
According to Schmidt, Congress was aware that the economy was on a downturn, but she said they did not know the extent of the problem. Schmidt said that Congress was trying to adapt to several other crises in the economy and did not see the credit market problem until it was almost too late.
"Let me tell you, no one saw the abyss as it was in the middle of September, until Paulson and Bernanke at first told the Speaker of the House and then very quickly told the rest of us," Schmidt said. "Yes, we knew we had a housing crunch, yes we knew we had an economic downturn in the economy, yes we knew we had an energy crisis with four dollars a gallon for gasoline. We were trying to react to those environments but the credit markets becoming frozen was something that we didn't see the magnitude of. We saw them slowing down but we didn't see them freezing."
Schmidt felt that the rescue plan was needed, since America could have slipped into a depression if the credit markets had failed completely. Additionally, Schmidt said that the plan also helped prevent the global economy from feeling a blow.
"We are a global society as far as our economy is concerned," Schmidt said. "When you look at our major corporations here in the second district, they're not just anchored in Ohio or have tentacles into the United States, the tentacles reach into the rest of the world. What you saw was this credit freeze affecting not just the United States but affecting the world."
Schmidt has also worked with other issues in the government, and has her own opinions on how health care should be handled in the country. Schmidt said there are approximately 40 million people in the United States without health care insurance, and that the government should be focusing on the people who would like health insurance but cannot afford it. Schmidt said she sees the fundamental difference between Senator Barrack Obama's health care proposal and Senator John McCain's as a right versus a responsibility.
"I think (health care) is more of a responsibility," Schmidt said. "It's a shared responsibility between citizens and the government than a right. Education is a right."
Additionally, Schmidt feels that Congress needs to look at the businesses that provide health insurance to make sure they do not drive up the cost of insurance, create reforms to deal with medical malpractice issues, and to allow associated health plans to allow people to shop around for the cheapest health insurance plan.
"When you go get car insurance you shop around to get the cheapest car insurance. Your car insurance might be out of Connecticut, but you can't do that with health care unless you are in a company that has a U.S. presence," Schmidt said. "But if you're an Ohio company, and you own this company, you can only get the health care insurance from three Ohio-based companies that offer health insurance."
Schmidt said that she remembers seeing a lot of large spending prior to her term in Congress, and said that in order to restore voter confidence in the government, Congress needs to work toward fiscal responsibility and away from having Congress earmark a lot of money for special interest projects.
"We've sunk to a new low in many ways in the United States with cynicism. You see it in the campaigns and in some of the things that go on in the campaigns here in Ohio and nationally," Schmidt said. "But I also think there is a distrust in government because I used to sit in your seat, and I saw Congress spending a lot of money. And these were Republicans; Republicans are supposed to be fiscally conservative and they weren't."
Schmidt said she has several concerns about "not the most stable" leaders in Iran and North Korea who are trying to obtain nuclear weapons as well as the continuing fight with Al-Qadea in Afghanistan. Schmidt expressed her confidence in General David Petraeus's decisions regarding the Middle East and that she is also in favor of bringing more troops to Afghanistan, since Afghanistan is a trouble area in the Middle East at the moment.
"The problem with Afghanistan is two-fold. Unlike Iraq that has the opportunity to actually have an income with oil, Afghanistan is an agricultural desert," Schmidt said. "There's not a whole lot of opportunities to create wealth and their problem is they're growing poppies: Dope...What we have to do is to help that nation find other ways to have an economy that is not so horribly dependant on poppy production. I think General Petraeus has some strategies that will help work toward that end."
Schmidt was to participate in a debate Wednesday Oct. 22 on WCET-channel 48 (PBS) at 8 p.m. with the two other candidates.
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