Jeff Merkley: Interview on the issues

Oregon State Representative Jeff Merkley

On April 7, 2008, the Ashland Daily Tidings interviewed Oregon State Representative Jeff Merkley (Portland-D) after his address to the student body of Southern Oregon University. Merkley is currently a candidate for the U.S. Senate, running against incumbent Senator Gordon Smith.

Below are questions asked during the one-on-one interview with Merkley. Click twice on the video to play Merkley's response. Additional issues are addressed in the last video.

Q: Sens. Gordon Smith and John Kerry have proposed what they call a Mortgage Revenue Bond that would provide an additional $10 billion of tax exempt private equity bond authority to refinance subprime loans. Smith claims this proposal will provide thousands of mortgages for first-time homebuyers.

What specific plans do you have to address the housing crisis that will help residents of Southern Oregon?

Q: President Bush has introduced a proposal to give the Federal Reserve greater power over the nation's financial industries.

What is the Federal Reserve, where does it get its authority and what can one Senator do that has not been done already?

Q: The rising cost of health care is a major concern for millions of Americans. Seniors on fixed incomes are having trouble, but so are young couples dealing with medical crises, such as Alicia and Brian O’Quinn of the Rogue Valley.  Brian is a 26-year-old building contracter currently undergoing treatment for Crohn’s Disease after two bouts with cancer. He is the breadwinner for his family but cannot work due to his disease. His medications cost nearly $3,000 / month, of which his insurance pays only half.

What would you say to a family like the O’ Quinns?

 Q: Oregonians are concerned about the environment. Sustainability ranks high among issues of importance in Ashland. A number of leaders propose to combat global warming by investing in renewable energy and rolling back giveaways to oil companies. But no leader has yet to address the massive consumption of oil and enormous contributions to greenhouse gases by both the military and air transportation industries. Between deployments of our military, the munitions used in war that contaminate land, air and water and impact millions of people, and the tremendous amount of fuels expended in air transportation, asking people to switch to renewable energy seems a bit paltry.

If the biggest contributors to global warming are industries under control of the U.S. government, what will you do as a Senator to address the problems created by those industries?

Oregon State Representative Jeff Merkley converses with a member of the audience after his speech on the campus of Southern Oregon University on April 7, 2008. Merkley is a candidate for the U.S. Senate, running against incumbent Senator Gordon Smith. Photo by Thom Larkin | Daily Tidings

Q: The American people have clearly indicated their disapproval of the ongoing war in Iraq. You have indicated that you were against it from the outset. But this war in Iraq didn’t begin in 2003 when the ground invasion attracted the media cameras. The U.S. military has controlled 2/3 of Iraqi skies since the original invasion in 1991 ordered by George Herbert Walker Bush.

The U.S. military has built permanent installations in nearby countries and is now building permanent military bases in Iraq itself.

President Bush has ignored the cries of the American people to leave Iraq. He has confronted Congress and beat them in every battle concerning Iraq. No Senator or Congressman with a national voice will acknowledge or support the current bills being squashed in the House Judiciary Committee calling for impeachment of this administration for numerous violations of law.

How will you, as a U.S. Senator, overcome the massive amount of opposition weighing against any efforts to remove U.S. troops from Iraq?

 
Merkley addresses more of his campaign issues in this video after the questions regarding the war in Iraq.