Krishna K. Bansal, 11th Congressional District Republican candidate profile

Candidate profile

Krishna K. Bansal

Running for: Unites States Congress IL 11th District

Political/civic background: Naperville Planning and Zoning Commission, Republican nominee for Illinois House 84th District, former Republican Committeeman, Chair Indian community Outreach, Naperville Mayor’s Office, Advisory Board Member Kids Matter, Board Member Illinois Chamber of Commerce, and multiple others as enclosed or at www.krishnaforcongress.com

Occupation: Business Owner

Education: BS, MBA

Campaign website:krishnaforcongress.com

Facebook: @KrishnaforCongress

Twitter: @Krishnabansalus

Instagram: @KrishnaforCongress

The Chicago Sun-Times Editorial Board sent candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives a list of questions to find out their views on a range of important issues facing their districts, the state of Illinois and the country. Krishna K. Bansal submitted the following responses:

Please tell us about your civic work in the last two years, whether it’s legislation you have sponsored or other paid or volunteer work to improve your community.

As a Member of the Naperville Planning and Zoning Commission I review and vote on dozens of issues that affect citizens and businesses in my community. On December 19, for example, I casted the lone “no” vote to acknowledge neighbor concerns about density and local elected officials concerns about safety and traffic. My initiative “Indian Community Outreach” has built awareness in the recent immigrant community to volunteer for civic and community causes. Under this organization, amongst many other programs, I have been instrumental organizing the ‘India Day Parade & Celebration’ since 2015, which brought out over 30,000 people each year providing valuable cultural exchanges and great economic impacts to Naperville and the region. As a Board member of Illinois Chamber and President of US Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce for Midwest, I have been instrumental on working for advocacy for small businesses. My volunteer work with the School District 204 Foundation Board and Kids Matter Advisory Board has been targeted towards working for children and education.

What are your views on the decision by the U.S. House to impeach President Donald Trump? Has the impeachment process been fair or not? How so? If, in your view, the president should not have been impeached, would you have supported censure? Please explain.

It was a one-sided and partisan effort by the Democrats that did not come closer to meeting the constitutional threshold for high crimes and misdemeanors. There was no quid pro quo proven and no military aid withheld. In fact more was given than by the Obama Administration. The process was not fair because Republicans did not get to call the witnesses they wanted to and Rep. Schiff held many interviews in secret session to test what witneses would say before bringinmg them to open session. I would have been a no on censure as well. What the President did was not illegal and not deserving of punishment or interference from Congress, which has wasted a tremendous amount of time and money on this.

How would you reduce the federal budget deficit, which now stands at about $1 trillion for 2020? What changes, if any, to the U.S. tax code do you support and why?

Reducing the deficit by across the board spending cuts of 5 percent would be a start. Eliminating units of government and consolidating their functions into other departments and to the states would save huge amounts of dollars. Other avenues to explore will be forensic audit of Medicare spending, re-evaluation of foreign aid, demanding fair share from countries we protect, negotiating favorable trade deals and enacting legislations to build a favorable climate to manufacturing, trade and commerce in the country. I do believe in further tax cuts to both business and personal rates to generate more investment in growing businesses and more income for families to spend, resulting in overall more revenue.

What changes would you like to see made to our nation’s healthcare system? Would you shore up the Affordable Care Act or work to repeal it in full? What’s your view on Medicare for All? And what should be done, if anything, to bring down the cost of prescription drugs?

We need to repeal and replace ObamaCare. A system that allows people to buy insurance across state lines and create a more competitive marketplace is better. Furthermore, people should be able to create tax free Medical Savings Accounts to save for unforseen expenses. The high costs of line items in hospital and doctors bills must be looked at to weed out waste, fraud and abuse that drives up costs. Too often bills paid by insurance are not properly scrutinzed. Prescription drugs should be allowed to be imported and a more competitive world marketplace would cause savings. Pressure on the manufacturers to curb excessive profits has worked as implemented by President Trump. The timeframe of exclusive patents should be shortened as well. Medicare for All is completely impossible to implement due to the cost.

The Trump administration is awaiting a ruling from the Supreme Court as to whether it can end the DACA program — Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals — which shields young undocumented immigrants from deportation. Do you support or oppose DACA and why? Should a path to citizenship be created for the so-called DREAMers? Please explain.

A path to citizenship for DREAMers who have committed no crimes and are performing well in school should be developed. I, too, would wait for guidance from the Supreme Court on DACA. I would also look at and prioritize the legal DREAMers – children who arrived here legally and have aged out while their tax paying/law abiding parents are waiting in line for being permanent residents. I do oppose chain migration but support a merit based system when the rules are followed.

What are the three most important issues in your district on which the federal government can and should act?

a) District has lost magnitude of Jobs in last few years, both manufacturing and service, to foreign countries due to policies that favored special interests

b) Rampant spread of drugs, opioid crisis, and the mental health crisis.

c) Reducing federal regulations and taxes that stifle small businesses

What is the biggest difference between you and your opponent(s)?

Congressman Foster is a career politician who has been there since 2008 and opposes term limits and has little record of community service. I have never held elected office, have a long record of community service and I also support term limits of no more than 8 years for Congressmen. Unlike Foster, I have been connected to grass roots and understand the common person and business issues. While my opponent is a scientist, I am an entrepreneur/technologist with hands on experience building businesses ground up and have provided employment to hundreds of people.

What action should Congress take, if any, to reduce gun violence?

Enforce the laws on the books. There are plenty. Deny gun ownership to individuals with proven mental health issues. Stricter penalties for use of a gun in a crime including longer/life sentences.

Is climate change real? Is it significantly man-made? Is it a threat to humankind? What if anything should Congress and the federal government do about it?

Climate change is an issue that should be handled by enforcing environmental laws on the books and pressuring China and other known polluters to have more and better regulations enforced there. This is an issue for our diplomats to monitor on a global basis but should not be an area where we spend too much money or resources that affect other priorites. Much of climate change is cyclical and natural earth changes, but bad actors on the world stage, and some US companies that break the law, should be punished.

What should Congress do to ensure the solvency of Social Security and Medicare?

There is a great deal of waste, fraud, and abuse in these programs and forensic auditing is needed to clean it up and make sure only qualified and eligible persons receive benefits. The billing processes for Medicare must be looked at to ensure there is no overbilling and billing errors.

What should Congress do to address the student loan crisis? Would you use the word “crisis”? ”?

It is a serious issue and needs addressing. The debts accumulated by students is overwhelming. College costs are too high due to bureaucracies, teacher unions, high tuition, and pension costs. Students should look at specialty programs that lead to careers that sustain paying back loans. Some forgiveness programs should be looked at for students who work in fields that provide public service, like police officers, medical professionals that serve veterans, inner city school teachers, etc.

What should our nation’s relationship be with Russia?

Russia is an important trade partner and a military force in the world. We need to oppose Russian military aggression against neighbor countries. We also need to make sure there is no interference in our elections from Russian intelligence. When they behave well we work well with them. When they do not we sanction and oppose them.

What’s your view on the use of tariffs in international commerce? Has President Trump imposed tariffs properly and effectively? Please explain.

Tariffs are imposed usually to safeguard local industries however when Tariffs are one sided or unfairly used by one country can result in incurring long term losses to other. Over the years certain countries took advantage of this and resulting in many industries/jobs leaving United States. We need to address the trade imbalance and President Trump has done this well by backing China and other countries down. We need to continue to monitor and counter any nation that may use Tariffs as a weapon to destabilize our industries and economy.

Does the United States have a responsibility to promote democracy in other countries? Please explain.

Yes, but in a limited way. With diplomats, logistics, even weaponry in certain key strategic situations. We should not put American troops on the ground in foreign countries except in the most critical and urgent national interests.

What should Congress do to limit the proliferation of nuclear arms?

We should continue and have more intelligence assets monitoring the potential development of nuclear arms. Congress should use Diplomatic sanctions and even surgical strikes, if necessary, to eliminate nuclear arms developed in violation of international treaties.

Please list all relatives on public or campaign payrolls and their jobs on those payrolls.

None

What historical figure from Illinois, other than Abraham Lincoln (because everybody’s big on Abe), do you most admire or draw inspiration from? Please explain.

Ronald Reagan. He practiced a strong foreign policy, he passed tax cuts, made America proud and patriotic, and was all about economic growth and prosperity.

What’s your favorite TV, streaming or web-based show of all time. Why?

In my spare time, I like watching Law Enforcement fictional shows such as NCIS and Shows on History Channel.