Here is the text of a statement I read for Wisconsin Public TV. It ended up, when I read it to be over 5 minutes (all the time I was given), so when you see it, it will be a little different.

Anyway, here's the gist:

Hello, my name is Jef Hall, I am a Candidate for the 6th Congressional District.
In 1944’s State of the Union, Franklin Roosevelt set forth what he called “a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all regardless of station, race, or creed.”
This was a statement of what Americans deserve from their government, and 60 years later, we still owe these basic rights to our people.
Franklin Roosevelt dreamed of an America that worked for a living, and received fair pay for that work. He wanted to build strong families by educating our children, and ensuring them food, clothing and shelter.
He demanded honesty of our corporations, and fair compensation for our farmers and small business owners.
He wanted to guarantee Social Security benefits at the end of your career, and demanded healthcare for all Americans 60 years ago.
And now, 60 years later, we are still fighting for these basic rights.
Growing up in the small town of Princeton, I learned many of these values of which Roosevelt spoke. I learned that people deserve fair pay for a hard days work, that you aren’t really getting ahead if you are doing it at someone else’s expense.
I learned passion for your beliefs and compassion for others. I learned that the most important question is how can I help others?
I am afraid that these are values that our government has since forgotten. If you look at the policies supported by the current administration and my district’s representation, they are values of property over people.
I want to change this. As a proud member of Middle America, I want to return government’s focus to people over property. I realize that without a vibrant, empowered middle class, we will not have the strong marketplace and tax base that America needs to grow. I propose to end the Bush/Petri tax cuts on the wealthy, shifting this relief to the middle and working class, as well as to reduce the deficit that is eating America’s potential.
If you look at our history, you will see that in every period of growth and prosperity, it was through the work and discipline of the middle class.
We have not seen the growth that we were promised from the current economic policy, and it is easy to see why. You cannot grow the economy and add jobs by giving tax breaks to the wealthy. It is said that if you give a business owner another $20,000 in tax cuts, they will hire someone. This does not stand up to reason. To stimulate hiring, you need to increase demand for that business owner’s product or service. You grow both economy and jobs by increasing the consumer base.
What we have seen as a result of the current policy is a slowly growing economy; however, this is accompanied by a dramatic increase in the number of people living in poverty, over 4 million in the last 4 years.
What does this mean; we have a small amount of people with a lot more money, and a large amount of people losing income. We are gutting the middle class – precisely the people that America was built on and we need to advance.
One of the first business stories we learn in school is that Henry Ford believed if we paid workers enough, they would all go out and buy cars. On this principle he built the largest corporation in the world at the time. Wal-Mart seems to believe the same thing, they pay their employees so little, they can’t afford to shop anywhere else.
Now, don’t think I am anti-business, just like Roosevelt, I believe that every business deserves to make a fair profit. It has been said that what is good for business is good for America, I disagree with this statement. I believe that what is good for Americans is good for business. You cannot send your customer’s jobs overseas and still expect them to buy your product or service.
Every day we hear about more jobs moving oversees. Wisconsin has lost 75,000 manufacturing jobs to foreign factories in the last 4 years alone. Just recently, 190 good people in Oshkosh lost their jobs. Their average age was 53 years old. Do you really believe that these skilled workers will find employment at a similar level? Where did these jobs move? Canada.
Why Canada? Because of what I feel is the most important issue in this election cycle, and the decade: healthcare.
We have all felt the blow of raising healthcare and insurance costs. However, the response we have seen from Washington has been either ineffective or actually helping the drug and insurance interests.
I want to propose a solution. I propose we allow Medicare to negotiate for all health services. We need to use the power of the marketplace to get better prices for all Americans.
The recent Medicare Drug law actually made it illegal for Medicare to negotiate better prices for our seniors. As a result, since this law was passed, the top 138 drugs used by seniors have risen over 8% in cost. In Walgreen’s 2003 corporate report, they estimated this law adding 75-100 million prescriptions added to their books in the next year.
A law sold to the people to cut prescription costs should not add costs into the system. My opponent said that this law was the quote “Without question the most significant domestic legislative accomplishment of 2003” unquote.
Why would he say that a bill that actually raises costs on our seniors was so important to pass? He personally owns up to $25 million dollars in Walgreen stock.
One thing I can guarantee as your representative is, if you’ve seen my stock portfolio, there is absolutely no conflict of interest. Just like most of you, I have only a small 401k in index and mutual funds. I will also, while I represent the people of Wisconsin, stick to investing in only index funds.
We need to separate the money from politics. And we need representatives for the people that are of the people. As a member of the middle class, I will bring the integrity that comes from knowing a hard days work to Washington. I will bring the understanding that healthcare is a right, not a privilege, and that you should never be denied lifesaving medications simply because of your station in life.
I thank you for taking the time to listen to me today. If you would like more information on me, you can look me up online at www.jefhall.com – now, I spell jef with one ‘f’ so it is j-e-f-h-a-l-l dot com. Feel free to contact me with any questions.
Thank you for your time, and please vote November 2nd.