Bill Foster: Candidate profile
Bio: Bill Foster
City: Naperville, IL
Website: www.billfoster.com
Twitter: @foster4congress
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RepBillFoster/
Party: Democrat
Office sought: U.S. Congress - IL-11
Age: 62
Family: Wife - Aesook, Son - Billy, Daughter - Christine
Occupation: Particle Physicist and Businessman
Education: BA - University of Wisconsin-Madison; PhD - Harvard University
Civic involvement: Served on Board of the Batavia Foundation for Educational Excellence, approx. 1996-2001; Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 2011-2012.
Elected offices held: U.S. Congress - IL-14 - 2008-2011; U.S. Congress - IL-11 - 2013 - Present
Questions & Answers
Did you support or oppose the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017? Why or why not? Please outline your basic view of what the national economic policy should be?
Our economy continues to strengthen because of the successful emergency response to the Great Recession and the improvements to our financial system's stability thanks to the Dodd-Frank Act. But we still need to do more to grow our economy and make sure hardworking Americans have good paying jobs. As a businessman, I understand that we must have a strong middle class if we want a strong economy. Too many individuals struggle with record credit card debt and student loans that leave little room to save for the future.
The Republican Tax Plan has only exacerbated these problems. I opposed it because it massively increases the deficit and debt by giving unnecessary tax breaks to billionaires and corporations, creating over two trillion dollars in new debt future taxpayers will have to repay. The tax plan has done little to help hardworking Americans. Real wages remain stagnant as CEOs benefit from record compensation.
This plan also specifically hurt Illinois by capping the state and local tax deduction used by nearly a third of Illinoisans. Illinois already loses tens of billions of dollars every year because we pay far more in federal taxes than we receive in federal spending.
How strong is the threat of so-called cyberwarfare? What should the U.S. be doing in response to that threat in addition to what is now being done?
Cybersecurity is one of the greatest threats to businesses, governments, and our democracy in the United States today. We need technical expertise to assess these threats and come up with comprehensive solutions. For years, I have advocated for funding the Office of Technology Assessment again. The lack of technical understanding in the Congress was on full display during the Facebook hearings. As a scientist, I know the importance of relying on experts to answer highly technical questions. The OTA used to advise Congress on technical questions before it and make recommendations on how to adopt technology to save money in the future. OTA recommendations are estimated to have saved the government millions of dollars.
I am also introducing legislation to create a Select Committee on Cybersecurity in the House of Representatives. Approximately eight of the standing committees in the U.S. House have some part of assessing threats and coming up with solutions to cybersecurity risks. I am proposing a select committee to bring the jurisdictions of all of those committees to one place to look into risks ranging from social media influencing our elections to the Equifax hack.
Please outline your position on immigration. What should the nation's philosophy be on the issue? Should there be a wall along most of the country's southern border? What should the nation's philosophy be on how the government treats and responds to undocumented immigrants?
I strongly support comprehensive immigration reform that secures our borders, improves our legal immigration system, unites families, and provides an earned path to citizenship for the 11 million immigrants who currently live in fear of deportation. Instead, Republican leadership put forward mean-spirited legislation that is harmful to our economy and antithetical to our values while bipartisan legislation that would have easily passed the House was introduced. We must end the cruel and racist policies the Trump Administration champions.
I have also called on the Trump Administration to reunite families who lawfully seek asylum. The separation of families at the border only inflicts long-term psychological trauma on young people and has not stopped other families from entering the country.
A wall on our southern border with Mexico is a colossal waste of resources. According to reports, such a wall would cost anywhere between 15 and 25 billion dollars. The money for the wall could be far better spent to grow our economy and invest in education, infrastructure, and job growth. President Trump's wall proposal is antithetical to our values as a country and betrays our history as a nation of immigrants and anyone who seeks safety from war and hardship.
What is your evaluation of President Trump's job performance? Please specify what you view as its highs and lows.
I believe President Trump has performed poorly and is an embarrassment to our country's reputation. I strongly disagree with his attacks on health care, his racist and harmful immigration policies, and his poorly planned and incompetently executed trade wars.
Led by President Trump, the Republicans have tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act. When they failed, they began to sabotage health care for millions of Americans, taking away protections for preexisting conditions and driving up premium costs for middle class Americans.
President Trump's views on immigration are cruel and racist. He has put in place policies designed to block Muslim migration and separated families at the border. These are moral failures that violate our principles.
Lastly, his trade wars with our allies, including Canada, have been motivated by xenophobia and will likely only hurt American consumers. These thoughtless provocations have been executed in violation of international agreements.
I agree with some of his policy goals, including bringing the supply chain for electronics back to reliable allies that respect democracy, intellectual property, and individual freedom. We, however, have not seen the Administration deliver on this issue.
How important is Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation? What's your assessment of its fairness and professionalism?
We are a nation that respects the rule of law. I strongly support the Mueller investigation and believe it is critical to uncovering the facts. It has already resulted in dozens of indictments and several plea bargains and convictions, including the President's campaign manager, former national security adviser, and personal attorney. Special Counsel Mueller is a man of the utmost integrity who has been trusted to run the FBI by Presidents of both parties. I support his investigation to get the facts. The American people deserve to know no less than the complete set of facts surrounding the President's election and relationship with Russia, and we also owe it to the future of our democracy to uncover the truth.
Do you support Brett Kavanaugh for the U.S. Supreme Court? Please explain.
I oppose Brett Kavanaugh for Justice of the Supreme Court. Any nomination to the Supreme Court must be held to the absolute highest moral and ethical standards. It's not clear whether Judge Kavanaugh adequately represents those standards. Judge Kavanaugh's ideological judicial record threatens Roe v. Wade and suggests someone who cares more about big corporations than consumers. The recent allegations make his nomination even more disturbing. Multiple women have made credible allegations of sexual assault. Senate Republicans have abdicated their responsibility to provide a full investigation and hearing into this alleged criminal conduct. They claim that this confirmation process has already been longer than average, but they held Chief Judge Merrick Garland's nomination open for nearly 300 days last Congress without a hearing. This hypocrisy is rank partisanship, and their haste denies women the opportunity to be heard.
The allegations against Brett Kavanaugh are incredibly serious and need to be fully investigated by the FBI. This investigation is important because all Supreme Court Justices should be held to the highest standards. In addition, his temperament in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee was inconsistent with fitness to serve impartially on the bench.
Would you vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act? Should there be a penalty for those who do not comply with the individual mandate?
No, I voted against the repeal of the Affordable Care Act. I believe that access to health care is a fundamental right and that we should make health care affordable and accessible for everyone. The Affordable Care Act has helped some of our most vulnerable neighbors get the health care coverage they need and has ensured access to health insurance for millions of people living with pre-existing conditions.
More than 20 million Americans who were previously uninsured are now insured because of the Affordable Care Act, and the rate of uninsured Illinoisans has dropped from 15.5 percent to 8.7 percent since the Illinois marketplace has been up and running. Never in our nation's history has a greater percentage of our population had access to health care, and these insurance policies are now required to cover preventative care.
The repeal of the individual mandate could result in rising premiums if healthy people abandon their coverage because they can re-enroll when they get sick. The Republican leadership in Washington has done everything in their power to sabotage the ACA. Unfortunately, we are already seeing the impact of those efforts as premiums rise in response to the sabotage.
What other issues are important to you as a candidate for this office?
As a Member of the U.S. House, I will continue to fight for affordable and accessible health care for all Americans and growing our economy.
The Affordable Care Act has given millions of Americans access to health insurance and ensured that insurance companies cannot deny coverage to individuals with pre-existing conditions. Despite Republican efforts to sabotage it, I continue to hear from my constituents about how important the ACA has been for them and their families. That's why I have fought and will continue to fight against the Republican-led Congress's attempt to repeal and sabotage the ACA. We need to improve and strengthen the Affordable Care Act rather than take away access to life-saving care.
I also believe we need to do more to make the economy work for everyone. Our economy continues to build on the gains we made during President Obama's time in office, but too many Americans are still struggling. Wages are not rising with inflation, and too many Americans hold crushing levels of student debt. I am committed to a fair tax code, in which millionaires, billionaires, and corporations pay their fair share.
In addition, here a few questions meant to provide more personal insight into you as a person:
What's the hardest decision you ever had to make?
My decision to abandon a successful and enjoyable career in science to begin anew in a challenging and uncertain career in politics.
Who is your hero?
My father, who left a career in science to become a civil rights lawyer and wrote much of the enforcement language behind the Civil Rights Act of 1964. As I read his papers after he passed away, I faced the fundamental question about how much of a person's life he or she devotes to others. As I had already a successful career in business and in science, and I decided it was time to enter public service.
Each amendment in the Bill of Rights is important, but which one of those 10 is most precious to you?
Right now, I would say the First Amendment. It enshrines the protection of a free press, which has never been more important than it is with a President whose truthfulness is in doubt almost every time he speaks. It also protects the right to free assembly, because protest has been critical to holding this administration accountable. Lastly, its protection of the free exercise of religion and the prohibition of the establishment of a national religion are affirmation that the Muslim ban is anti-American.
What lesson of youth has been most important to you as an adult?
As a youth, my brother and I were avid sailboat racers - a sport that requires a mixture of skill, technical equipment, and luck. After each race, whether we won or lost, on the way back home we would review the race - the clever moves and the mistakes we made, the times we got lucky and either succeeded or failed to take advantage of it, and the times we were unlucky and either succeeded or failed to defend ourselves from that bad luck. As an adult, I find that the habit of conducting an honest and thorough "after-action review" is of lasting value for continuous improvement of both myself and any organization with which I am engaged.
Think back to a time you failed at something? What did you learn from it?
When I lost the election during the "Tea-Party Wave" in 2010, I realized that in politics, you can do almost everything right and still lose an election. After taking tough votes to rescue the economy, put in place key Wall Street reforms, and provide health care and protections for pre-existing conditions for millions of Americans, we were still sent packing by a disappointed and economically hurting voting public who had not yet felt the benefits of those reforms. While in the fullness of time we see that the Affordable Care Act is now viewed positively by most Americans, and our economic policies and Wall Street reforms have triggered the longest economic recovery in history, those came too late to save us in the 2010 election. The lesson that I learned - not unlike losing a sailboat race after doing everything right, due to the vagaries of the wind - is that an honest and thoughtful confidence in your decisions can give you strength to recover and persevere. In this case, that meant returning to the political fray and winning back a seat in Congress in 2012.