Exclusive Interview With US Congressional Candidate Howard Kleinhendler

it's two weeks before the election how's it going uh so far it's going great um we're getting a lot of positive feedback from the advertising that we're doing uh we've done an internal poll which uh makes the the race Within Reach there's still a lot of undecided voters out there and I think the last two weeks will be a push towards getting those undecided over to me uh and I'm enthusiastic and optimistic about the race tell us why people should drop their support for Chris Smith and vote for you I think this election is unique in this District in that you have such a clear choice on so many issues let's first talk about the economy and getting people back to work Chris Smith's solution along with the Republican party is cut taxes and cut government spending cutting taxes means you're getting less Revenue into the government and cutting spending means even less revenue is going out you know New York uh New Jersey is uh an interesting State and that for every $1 it sends to Washington in tax it only gets back 59 cents that is the lowest lowest ratio in the country uh and it's time that that changed what's going to happen if Smith policies go into effect there's going to be less money coming to New Jersey what's going to happen to your property taxes they're going to continue to go up because the lack of money coming to New Jersey means that the state and the municipalities don't have money to pay for public schools to pay for other types of services and that goes to your property taxes I mean just a few months ago Governor Christie said oh we're going to cut back spending and we're going to um put a a limit on what municipalities can raise taxes for and then a couple weeks later we got an increase in our tax bill because it doesn't work if there's no money coming to the state it's going to come out of your pocket my plan is different my plan says the federal government has to lend money to small businesses either directly or by um guaranteeing loans when small businesses get money they then have money to hire and more people get to work second we need money on infrastructure projects we need a train to New York that will bring jobs that will increase property values and it'll also be able to bring Shoppers and tourists to our area to shop in our in our stores and in our restaurants and our hotels so on the E economy were very different his solution is a solution that we saw eight years in George Bush's Administration that failed and led to an economic catastrophe my solution is a solution that's slowly slowly working I mean Smith voted against tarp which was the bank bailout if it was a court if Smith had his way an elderly person who had a couple hundred th000 saved for their retirement would have gotten $100,000 FDIC check and the rest would have gone up and smoked they would have been out their savings the tarp proved to save our banking system and the government has recovered from the banks almost all the money they laid out so voting for Smith on the economy is voting back to a policy of failure with regard to property taxes and local issues it's clear Smith's plan will raise and raise and raise your property taxes because less money from the government means less money for the municipalities my plan is exactly the opposite we need education funding into this District because your highest line item on your tax bill is public schools go look at your tax bill it says public school we need monies into the public school that will directly lower the amount of property tax that we raising another very very um Stark difference between me and Smith is how do you deal with the environment I'm for renewable energy I'm for uh putting tax incentives and federal grants into wind power solar power but you can't force the manufacturers into cap and trade because then they won't be able to compete with with China and India and Russia and and the former Eastern Europe block that they don't play by the rules and they don't keep C and trade Smith voted for C and trade because he doesn't care about small business here he just doesn't care and finally on healthare um Smith wants to scrap all healthare and and stay with the present system which which shows us an increase in insurance premium every year year after year after year I also think Obama's plan is messed up and it has to be fixed but there are a couple of things that are good first of all keeping the kids on your insurance till 26 is a good thing funding Medicare is a good thing um making sure that insurance companies can't reject you if you have a pre uh condition that's a good thing what's bad about it is you can't force businesses to buy insurance that's unamerican therefore what I propose is we get a public option what that means is very simple you come in and whether you're employed or not employed you have a choice you could either buy a public plan that's cheap like Jersey care or something like that but with a with a premium or you can stay on your Oxford plan or your Blue Cross plan and pay the money but this way you have a choice and if you have a choice prices will come down I think the the Republican plan for Health Care is doomed to failure because it's it's a maintaining of the status quo and the status quo is showing us 10 to 15% increase in healthare year after year we count there so that's where today I I think when you get past the slogans look the Republicans have beautiful slogans let's take our country back uh no taxes you know it's like a color war game blue team red team but when you get past the slogans and you look at what the policies will lead to you will see that those policies are a return to failure that led us to economic collapse that we see today what specifically do you propose that would benefit the Lakewood Community well first of all the train to New York is going to be a home run to the Lakewood Community uh Smith says well you know I also like to train to New York but there were towns that that objected to it you know it's really easy to pass the B the fact is man's been in office for 30 years and for 30 years we don't have a train I know what it's like to commute to New York I commuted on a bus for 12 years for the last four years I've been driving I know what it's like to get stuck in traffic I know the all the all the cons about it Smith doesn't know what a New Jersey Transit bus looks like I don't think he sat on one for the last 30 years if we get a train through the mom line here's what it's going to do to the community as I said before one it's going to bring jobs two it's going to bring Commerce here businesses are going to go up along the train line people are going to be able to get here much more easily it's not just we're going to be to get to New York quicker which is going to bring our property values up because everybody knows once you have a train and it takes an hour to get to New York instead of an hour and a half on the bus automatically your prices are going to go up but people from New York who want to come here for the day and Shop without paying tax on their clothing which we have here in New Jersey or they want to come to the shore instead of going to The Hamptons it's going to be much more easily available and it's going to be a boon to our businesses and that's going to bring not just economic Prosperity but that's going to be tax revenue also in at the local level which will again enable municipalities to meet their budget without constantly raising taxes I'm also for school vouchers private vouchers um I think we need a federal help to help fund our private schools so people have a choice um Smith voted against funding for school vouchers don't don't be misled he voted against it um Smith is not a friend on this issue and I think someone who knows what it's like to pay Yesa bills to noce what it's like to pay tuitions is going to be motivated to try to push that agenda so certainly on those those two areas I think I'm going to be very helpful to the community here in Lakewood anything else you'd like to say to the Lakewood Scoop readers well I think in closing I know that Smith has been around for 30 years and and a lot of Lakewood voters are traditionally Republican supporters but at the end of the day all politics are local and the question is who can better serve our needs in Washington a 30-year incumbent who has no shot at ever obtaining a leadership position forget it he he's not in any seniority position on any important committees and when he once had a leadership position as Veteran Affairs committee chairman his own Republican colleagues threw him off the committee so it's not like if you get rid of him you're losing a potential leadership that's going to bring us benefits the answer is no he's on a crusade to save people in Africa you know he talks about how many bills he passed when you read the bills that he's proposed and passed there all these feel good bills about uh don't not trafficking women in Africa you know child abuse in third will countries yeah everybody feel you know sympathetic to that but the question today is how do I put food on my table how do I get a job how do I pay my mortgage how do I pay my property taxes and I think on those issues how do I afford my aiva tuition I think on those issues I'm the guy who knows what it's like to live here and has lived the life that you live and therefore is more attuned and is more motivated to get the results that are important to you than Chris Smith who's really out of tune with what we need