Kent McMillen: Candidate Profile

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Note: Answers provided have not been edited for grammar, misspellings or typos. In some instances, candidate claims that could not be immediately verified have been omitted. Jump to:BioQA Bio City: Melrose ParkWebsite: www.kent4senate.comTwitter: Candidate did not respond.Facebook: Candidate did not respond.Office sought: U.S. Senate Age: 55Family: Four brothers, three sisters, one son, one daughterOccupation: ParalegalEducation: B.A. Journalism, Northern Illinois UniversityGraduate, Lawyers Assistant Program, Roosevelt UniversityCivic involvement: Candidate did not respond.Elected offices held: Candidate did not respond.Questions Answers How will you work to make Congress more productive and effective? What actions are needed to produce a healthy federal budget? Specifically, what changes do you advocate regarding how revenue is produced or what our spending priorities are? In particular, what effect does current policy have on your district and what changes, if any, are needed?A comprehensive audit of the federal government is needed to trim waste and fraud. Cuts to departments and agencies are needed to produce a healthy budget. I would endorse eliminating the Department of Education, Department of Commerce and Department of Transportation as a start. This would allow us to lower taxes and implement a simple flat tax. Illinois citizens, like citizens in every other state, are taxed too high as a result of the size of the federal government and need for large amount of revenue. A common sense approach to governing is needed to make the government smaller and more efficient.What immigration policies do you support? Where, if at all, do you see room for compromise to produce an effective policy on immigration? How will these policies affect your district?There should be a reasonable path to citizenship for those living here without proper documentation which would include a fine and guidelines to ensure their citizenship and enable them to be productive members of society. There needs to be a consensus that deporting 11,000,000 or so undocumented people is not feasible and the sooner we act on making those people productive citizens, the better. Undocumented individuals in Illinois can then come out of the shadows and become productive members of society, which will add to our economy and community.What should be the top priorities in Congress related to the Affordable Care Act? If you want changes, what specifically do you recommend? If you want the act entirely eliminated, please address these questions: Is that politically feasible? If it proves infeasible, where do you see the potential for compromise? If it is eliminated, what would you replace it with, if anything?Obamacare should be repealed and replaced with a consumer driven, open market system for healthcare in which the individual decides what type of care he wants to pay for and should have the option of going anywhere in the country for health insurance. I believe it is politically feasible as we are seeing the disaster that the Affordable Care Act has become with rising premiums and insurance companies exiting, which has limited competition.What military or diplomatic roles should the United States play to promote peace and stability in the Mideast? Under what circumstances should we have military forces actively operating?We should support our allies and offer diplomacy to support peace. We should have military forces actively operating if our allies or our national interest is threatened.Will you uphold the international climate change treaty? If not, what alternative steps would you advocate? If so, what steps will you take to meet U.S. obligations under the accord?I will uphold the International Climate Change Treaty as passed in Paris. Reasonable standards as mentioned in the treaty should be monitored. This is a long term process and is a good start. I agree with it in concept.What other issues, if any, are important to you as a candidate for this office?I believe we should start bringing our troops home from overseas and allow them to serve and protect us in this country. The War on Drugs should be declared over with efforts being shifted from jail to treatment. Finally, we need to phase out social security over the long term and allow workers freedom to choose their own investments for retirement, away from government control.Please name one current leader who most inspires you.Gary JohnsonWhat is the biggest lesson you learned at home growing up?Be kind to others.If life gave you one do-over, what would you spend it on?More traveling and spending more time with my family.What was your favorite subject in school and how did it help you in later life?My favorite subject in history and it helped me get prospective about the way things were and what they have become.If you could give your children only one piece of advice, what would it be?Don't take life too seriously, have fun.