Foster, Oberweis engage in first debate
In their first debate before the March 8 special election, congressional hopefuls Bill Foster and Jim Oberweis sparred on immigration, the Iraq war and other hot-button issues.
Meeting Friday at WBBM-780 AM's Chicago studio for a taping of the "At Issue" weekly public affairs interview show, the candidates expressed opposition to amnesty for illegal immigrants. Foster, a Democrat, proposed taxing both employers who hire illegal immigrants and illegal immigrants themselves when they apply for citizenship.
"An important part of the solution here is when you establish a worker program for the people that are here outside the law, that there should be impact fees associated with this … that represent the true burden that these workers place on our schools, on our police, on our health care system," Foster said.
After the debate, Oberweis, a Republican, called Foster's plan an "amnesty tax" and said legalizing the hiring of illegal immigrants will only serve to encourage more immigrants to come here illegally.
"That's going to cause the problem to become even worse," he said.
On the issue of Iraq, Foster said Oberweis' attack ad calling his Iraq policy "extreme" was a misrepresentation of his position. Foster supports using the "congressional power of the purse" to attach deployment conditions to federal funding.
"There is ample precedent for Congress setting conditions to manage the war," Foster said, adding that "setting a descending series of troop caps" could be one of those conditions.
Oberweis said Foster's proposal to attach conditions to funding allotments was a way to "dodge the issue."
"What he's really talking about is how to take funding away to override the direction that the generals are giving us for how the war should be conducted," Oberweis said.
Both are vying to replace former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who retired in November with more than a year left in his term in the 14th Congressional District.
"At Issue," hosted by WBBM-780 political editor Craig Dellimore, will air at 9:30 a.m. and 9:30 p.m. Sunday. A podcast is available at www.wbbm780.com.