It could come down to dollars and cents in 14th District

U.S. Rep. Bill Foster took Geneva Chamber of Commerce members through a primer on the state of the economy seven months ago and, in doing so, explained why he cast some of the votes he knows some of the people in the 14th District have concerns about.

And that's what his opponents Republican State Sen. Randy Hultgren, Green Party candidate Dan Kairis and Libertarian write-in Doug Marks are counting on to help them win a seat in Congress.

Foster spent much of that 90-minute session in April explaining what led him to support the banks bailouts, the federal stimulus and health care reform, all votes that could cost him support from the more fiscally conservative members of the district.

Foster said he supported all of the measures after becoming convinced the system behind them was broken.

Foster said he supported the Troubled Asset Relief Program to address the subprime mortgage crisis because all of President Obama's advisers believed there was at least a 50 percent chance of the country slipping into another Great Depression without it.

“It was essential,” Foster said. “I believe it was an emergency. And I believe that where we would've been had we not passed the stimulus, passed the TARP, and allowed the Fed this massive intervention in our economy, we would've been in a lot worse shape.”

Unemployment in Kane County is still slightly ahead of the national average of nearly 10 percent, something not lost on the challengers for much of the year.

Hultgren, Kairis and Marks view the stimulus and bailouts as mostly failures, costing taxpayers billions today and tomorrow.

Foster also stands alone in support of health care reform. Hultgren and Marks said they would fight for a repeal of the new reform laws. Hultgren has cited the reform as one reason businesses aren't creating new jobs. Kairis says a national health tax and government takeover are better than anything insurance companies are now providing.

Hultgren is the only candidate who supports the military's “Don't Ask, Don't Tell.” All candidates believe in streamlining the citizenship process, plus the need for immigrants to attain a level of English proficiency, and a process for businesses and law enforcement to quickly determine a person's immigration status.