By Jim Troyer
news@postbulletin.com
Stephen Williams is not afraid to speak out on real issues and tell voters what he will do if elected to the U.S. Senate.
The corn grower from Brownsdale proved that Saturday in a speech at the Austin Public Library before delegates of the Independence Party’s 1st District convention as he sought their support to run as the party’s choice for U.S. Senate against Sen. Norm Coleman, a Republican.
Like many Americans today, Williams is alarmed by spending and debt. "We need to live within our means as a nation," he told the delegates. "We are a nation of debtors: We have national debt, we have business debt, we have mortgage debt, we have corporate debt, and we have credit card debt."
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Williams suggested the real motto of the country has become "buy now, pay later."
Describing himself as a fiscal conservative, he said: "The bottom line is I would be willing to both raise taxes and cut spending to reduce our deficit. This is something we have to do, and not to do this amounts to child abuse. We cannot continue to put the weight of this debt on top of our children and our grandchildren."
Williams advocates a consumption tax to finance universal health care and the Social Security system. That tax would fall hardest on the wealthier class because it would exempt food, clothing and shelter costs, he explained.
He puts affordable health care high on his list of priorities because the current system saps the nation’s economy from the poorest resident to the corporate boardroom.
"We have the world’s most expensive health care system," he said. "The fact that the health care lobby has spent $2.8 billion over the last 10 years lobbying Congress might explain this fact. Obviously, they weren’t lobbying for affordable health care."
Americans spend twice as much for health care as the other five leading nations, and all these nations have universal health care, Williams said. "If we study the health care systems in these nations, it’s obvious that cost control and universal coverage are the keys to health care reform."
"A national consumption tax would pay for health care," he said. Every citizen would be covered, companies could better compete in the global market because they would be relieved of health insurance burdens and state and local governments would save billions.
• Nomination to come May 3 — page A6
