LPIA > Elections > 2002 Candidates List

Candidate for United States Representative District 4 - Terry Wilson

General Candidate Information

Occupational Background: Reference and Special Collections Assistant, Henry L. Seymour Library, Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois; Researcher, Correspondence Selection and Transcription Project of the National Digital Library Program of the Library of Congress, Lincoln Studies Center, Knox College;Author and editor in the field of American political, military, and legal history.

Educational Background: B.A. in History, Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois (1988)

Prior Governmental Experience: City Clerk, Knoxville, Illinois (1985-1989)

Spouse: Diane

Children: Charity, Abraham, Peter

Grandchildren: Caleb, Ethan

Volunteer Community Service: Board of Directors, Knox County [Illinois] Historic Sites, Inc. (1992-1993); Treasurer and Board Member, Knox County [Illinois] Historical Society (2000-2001)

Date of Birth: June 3, 1956

Place of Birth: Springfield, Sangamon County, Illinois

Phone: 515-226-3260

Mailing address: P. O. Box 23222, Des Moines, IA 50325

E-mail: wilsonforcongress@msn.com

My positions on some of the important issues facing us this election year are summarized below:

Health Care

• Replace the FDA. The average cost of getting a new drug approved costs the pharmaceutical companies about $300 million, and can take up to ten years. Private certification associations could perform the same functions as the FDA more quickly and more economically, greatly reducing the costs to consumers.
  
  
• End Medicare and Medicaid. Payroll taxes that fund these programs are now at 2.9%, costing the average worker about $1,200. These compulsory medical welfare programs saddle the health care system of the United States with huge administrative bureaucracies that drive up the cost of medical care. The elimination of these administrative costs would dramatically lower the price of medical care.
  
  
• Enact a universal medical tax credit. Such a credit would allow taxpayers to deduct health insurance and medical costs from their taxes dollar for dollar. According to the Council for Affordable Health Insurance, and $800 per person tax credit would cover 90% of typical health insurance premiums, and is "the most efficient way to assist uninsured Americans who do not get health insurance through an employer."
  
  
• Deregulate insurance companies. The government now requires insurance companies and HMOs to cover treatments and services even if the insured does not need those services. According to the American Society of Actuaries, claim costs rise by an average of 38% whenever a guaranteed-issue rule is mandated. Deregulation of health care insurers would allow consumers to choose less inclusive plans that more perfectly fit their particular circumstances.

Social Security

• Every year the Federal government takes 12.4% of the income of American taxpayers to fund Social Security, and the system is still headed for bankruptcy. If the same taxpayer, earning the median income of about $32,000 a year were allowed to invest the same 12.4% of his or her income in a stock mutual fund, he would be able to retire with an annual income of more than $100,000 - more than five times what could be expected from Social Security.
  
  
• American taxpayers should be allowed to opt out of the Social Security system and invest their money in their own personal retirement accounts, completely free from government regulation
  
  
• The promises that have been made to today's retirees, and those nearing retirement, can be kept by selling off assets currently used by the Federal government to perform functions that are beyond its Constitutional prerogatives.

Taxes

• The individual and corporate income taxes, and estate and gift taxes should be gradually phased out and the IRS should be abolished. A national sales tax of 15% should be imposed on all final-use goods and services. A universal rebate for every household exempting all consumption up to the poverty level would protect low-income taxpayers.
  
  
• The Federal government should concentrate on protecting the Constitutional rights of American citizens and defending the nation from foreign aggression. If these limited functions were attended to the Federal government could do them at a small fraction of the cost currently incurred to perform the unnecessary functions undertaken today.
  
  
• Today the government is involved in thousands of activities that could better be performed by private citizens. It runs railroads, bails out businesses and financial institutions, builds houses, sells insurance, prints books and does countless other things that it ought not to do. Everything government does costs the American taxpayer much of his or her hard-earned income.
  
  
• Military expenses currently exceed $250 billion a year. Much of it is spent defending wealthy nations overseas such as Germany and Japan. We should stop this wasteful practice and save more than $100 billion a year. We can do this and still maintain the most powerful military establishment in the world.
  
  
• The government must stop the wasteful practice of bailing out wealthy corporations by covering their losses at the expense of the American taxpayer.
  
  
• The Federal government must get out of the welfare business. A significant portion of every welfare dollar goes to pay bureaucrats and cover overhead expenses. A comparatively small amount gets into the hands of the poor and needy. Private charities and religious organizations are far more efficient in the help they offer to the truly needy. If the tax dollars now taken from American taxpayers were left in the wallets of those who earn them, more money would be available to these private charities and religious groups to perform their useful services.
  

Agriculture

• Congress should re-authorize the Federal Agricultural Improvement and Reform (FAIR) Act of 1996 (known as the "Freedom to Farm Act"), and should replace deficiency payments with a fixed schedule of decreasing payments that reaches zero within ten years.
  
  
• Congress should eliminate government crop insurance programs.
  
  
• Congress should eliminate government support of producer cartels in the milk, tobacco, peanut, and sugar markets.

Foreign Policy
The United States must maintain its sovereignty unimpaired, consequently it must:

• Withdraw from NATO, which no longer serves the purpose for which it was created;
  
  
• Withdraw from the United Nations, and;
  
  
• Withdraw from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), WTO, NAFTA, GATT, and the World Bank.
  
  
• The United States will be able to remain diplomatically engaged with the rest of the world without entangling itself in the affairs of international organizations such as those mentioned above.
  

Homeland Security

The defense of the country requires that we have adequate intelligence to detect and to counter threats to domestic security. Because oversight becomes more difficult with the proliferation and growth of bureaucracies, I oppose the establishment of a new cabinet level Department of Homeland Security.

The Patriot Act of 2001, the Counter-terrorism Act of 1996, and all other legislation authorizing secret evidence, holding people without charge, treating material witnesses like convicted criminals, engaging in search and seizure without Constitutionally issued and executed warrants, and other violations of individual rights under the color of national security must be repealed.

Education and Child Care

• Authority and responsibility for the education of the nation's children lies first and foremost with parents.
  
  
• The Department of Education spends millions of dollars every year, yet it does not educate a single child. It must be abolished and the money sent every year to Washington should remain in the States with the people who earn it.
  
  
• The growth of private schools, including home schools, should be encouraged by means of tax credits for tuition.
  
  
• Tax credits for childcare should be passed without delay.