Boccieri talks about final push in last days of campaign

CANTON -- State Sen. John Boccieri (D-Alliance) has crossed Ohio's 16th Congressional District again and again over the course of his campaign to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Ralph Regula (R-Navarre). Boccieri said that he's spent his time meeting average people who just want to see their family and their country succeed. Boccieri hopes to help.

Boccieri sat down with PolitickerOH.com to talk about the final push of the campaign, and said that as he hits the trail, the people he talks to are still very nervous about the economy and the current financial crisis.

"Two-thirds of our economy is driven by people believing that they're going to have a job from one day to the next, that they're going to be able to go out and purchase a vehicle, to buy a home, to send their kids to college, that they're going to be able to go see their doctor," Boccieri said. "And it's frightening a lot of them because they're losing their faith in the economy and losing their faith in the government to make the right decisions to right the course."

Boccieri said folks were also nervous about their pensions in relation to the financial crisis.

Boccieri said he had heard a number of personal tragedies during the campaign of families who have lost everything.

Boccieri said the biggest thing he could do to help community members and small businesses as a member of Congress is to empower them. Boccieri again pointed to the role of consumer confidence in a strong economy.

"Small businesses live or die by whether the middle class succeeds," Boccieri said. "From a business standpoint, the biggest issue they face is healthcare costs. We spend more than any nation in the world on healthcare, but we have a life expectancy that is on par with Cuba. The cost is just rising exponentially, so we've got to get our arms around this."

Boccieri said his opponent state Sen. Kirk Schuring (R-Jackson Twp.) wants to "fully privatize" healthcare and said the danger in this would be exposing healthcare accounts to the ups and downs of Wall St.

Boccieri said he supports a robust, employer-based system that would end discrimination, which he said would help drive down costs. He said it was important that healthcare be portable from job to job, as well as affordable.

Boccieri said that the U.S. would actually be saving money by having portability of healthcare between jobs.

Boccieri also talked about the recent fall in gas prices, which he attributed to the problems on Wall St. taking oil speculators out of the game, and thereby lowering prices at the pump.

"Allowing big oil companies to bet on the price of fuel going up, and then allowing them to take pension funds and dropping them into the market -- that sounds like insider trading to me" Boccieri said.

Boccieri said that with situations like this, more regulation is needed. He said Schuring wanted de-regulation, which he said he fundamentally rejects.

"If we want to end this financial crisis, then we've got to get our arms around the foreclosure problem, renegotiating loans, allowing people to stay in their homes," Boccieri said.

Boccieri said it was important to keep people in their homes, and to do so the loan industry needs to be brought back to the negotiating table, instead of packaging loans and selling them as investments.

Boccieri said he saw keeping people in their homes as the critical next step in helping to solve the current economic turmoil.

As far as constituent services go, Boccieri said it was important to him that he has a strong staff in place ready to help the constituents of Ohio's 16th Congressional District. He pointed to Regula's staff, and said he would have the same type of aids available to help constituents navigate the bureaucracy of government.

Boccieri also had no hesitation to say he would bring federal dollars back into the district with the use of earmarks. Boccieri noted that this is a point of difference between himself and opponent Schuring, who has criticized earmarks and said there were other ways to bring federal dollars into the district.

Boccieri said that earmarks make up only 2 percent of federal spending, and said he would work to bring back as much to the district as he can to help invest in the 16th.

In closing, Boccieri spoke about his desire to help the middle-class in Ohio's 16th Congressional District, and pointed to differences between himself and Schuring.

Boccieri said these differences include Social Security, healthcare, earmarks and Iraq, among others.

Boccieri said he's been focused on the voters of the 16th, while Schuring focused on him.

"At the end of the day, Sen. Schuring has spent a great deal of his campaign talking about me," Boccieri said. "And I've focused my energies on talking about them."