Statesman

Issue date: 10/15/08 Section: News

DFL Senatorial candidate Al Franken

As Senator, is there anything you will do to stop the rising costs of education?

"I've proposed a $5,000 tax credit for middle class families for each student for up to four years … Another thing we could do to alleviate the cost is to have loan forgiveness for students who go into certain kinds of careers that we need such as teachers, nurses and social workers, the kind of careers that don't necessarily pay a lot."
Other ways Franken said he could alleviate the cost of higher education would be by lowering health care and properly funding schools.

Where do you stand on the economic bailout?

"I would have voted against it. One of the reasons I would have voted against it is that I don't think it set up a regulatory framework to prevent it from happening again."

Where do you stand on the war in Iraq?

"I think it is time that we let the Iraqis and the other countries in the region know that this is not an open-ended commitment. I believe that we should set a timeline … I believe 16 months is a reasonable time to get out responsibly."

What's your stance on energy independence?

"I've been calling for an Apollo program for renewable energy and energy efficiency."

"We should have been investing in renewable energy in a big way. We should have been investing in energy efficiency in a big way in terms of cars, rail and green buildings and energy in terms of wind, solar, biomass, the next generation of bio fuels, tidal energy, geothermal, all the different kinds of renewable energy."


Source: Phone interview Al Franken

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