Now, let the interrogations begin! :)

Seriously, though, I commend your decision to get involved in politics and step up to the plate against Virgil "So Bad He's" Goode.  I've talked to numerous people about the 5th district, however, and there's a general feeling -- a strong one -- that Virgil is close to unbeatable, barring a "live boy/dead girl" type of thing.  You must feel differently if you want to take him on.  So...what are your reasons why you think Virgil Goode is vulnerable this time around, when he won easily the last two times against a serious Democratic opponent?  Thanks.

"the resurgence of the Democratic Party in Virginia."  The question is, how "resurgent" IS the Democratic Party in the 5th district?

Lowell -- there are some counties where the party apparatus is in fact "resurgent."  But there are other counties -- more numerous -- where the Democratic Party is moribund.

I hope that Mark Warner's candidacy can help regenerate things.

Al Weed was not a serious opponent.

"substantive" and well qualified, that's all.

How on earth could you say Al Weed was not a "serious opponent" by any definition? 

You present a very intriguing resume in which you mentioned health care. What is your position on health care in the United States, what do you propose as a matter of "reform," and of what do you approve or disapprove in the various health care programs tossed out by the various presidential candidates? How about single-payer universal national health care? Do you honestly believe we can get anything worthwhile at a federal level, given the power of Big Pharma?

On the environment, give us your approach, especially in view of recent frightening reports which warn us the globe is at a tipping point for climate change? What should Congress do, what can they do, if anything?

While we're at it, any thoughts on the clear anti-science attitude of the Republican Party?

There seems to be a growing gap between the progressive grassroots of the Democratic Party and the Establishment (i.e.,national or Congressional Democrats). Care to comment? Where do you fall in this dichotomy, especially in view of the District which you seek to represent in Congress?

Why do you think you can defeat Mr. Goode, anyway? How? 

In short, I support the move to a single-payer universal health care system. I also recognize, however, that, as was the hope with the advent of Medicare and Medicaid in the 1960s, that we might have to do some "salami slicing" to get there, instead of taking one great leap forward. Toward that end, I support changes and reforms such as the beefing up of the SCHIP program and the granting of pharmaceutical price negotiation rights to all government entities involved in the prescription drug market. I've also devised a way in which we can pay for the John Conyers Medicare for All proposal (HR 676) without raising payroll taxes. The unfortunate tendency with reforms like this, is that we too readily give way to regressive Republican financing schemes (payroll taxes, tobacco excise taxes for SCHIP) in order to get a foothold on the policy side. We shouldn't have to do this, and if we can indeed avoid this, we'll pick up more support from that natural constituency I mentioned in my earlier post: the working families of Virginia.
On the environment, I am an enthusiastic supporter of subsidizing green technology (especially solar), transportation alternatives, and in beefing up our rather moribund environmental regulations. But we must also attend to a few larger issues that, overlooked, will wash out any gains we could possibly make by lessening our footprint with technology: population growth and inequality. Getting rid of Bush will help a great deal with the former, since he and his cronmies have intentionally defunded any international programs that could make a difference here. Inequality, sadly, has been encouraged by many leaders in both parties, though the GOP usually takes the lead here. What Naomi Klein calls our "shock doctrine" introduced in the name of "free market reform" has dampened the kind of even-handed prosperity that always leads to improved education, greater womens rights, and reduced population growth.

Dave S again...
I neglected to address your question about Big Pharma. In short, this is a big problem as is the influence of several other major players in the health care marketplace. I do think, however, that, other business interests of equal or even greater influence can be recruited to a common sense, universal health care reform that decreases their direct costs.
Partly because I recognize this as a potential foothold, and because I also recognize the dire straits caused by health care costs for many American businesses, I'm not happy with the variants of "pay-or play" being tossed around by some prominent national candidates. Where this has appeared to help a little has been in fairly wealthy states with low numbers of uninsured...

Mr. Shreve-
Thanks for stopping by and reaching out. As a lifelong resident of the 5th district, I'm very pleased to see that we have several well-qualified candidates stepping up to take on Virgil.

My question has to deal with the rural parts of the district;  the ones that make way for Virgil to slam home his opponents. In 2006, the rural counties of Henry, Franklin, Pittsylvania, Halifax, and Campbell all turned out between 10-20K voters who overwhelmingly went for Goode. It was obvious from the start that Al Weed would have trouble getting through to this voting bloc, and the results speak for themselves. While Albermarle and Charlottesville are the Democratic base of the 5th district, its clear that you cannot win this race unless you break big in the rural portions of the district.

With that in mind, how do you plan to get your message to these parts of the district?

Additionally, these localities are some of the most economically depressed areas in Virginia. Through the past several years, Henry and Pittsylvania Counties have battled for the top spot on overall unemployment in the Commonwealth. What ideas do you have to provide economic resurgence for the southern portion of the 5th district?

Thanks for taking time out of your schedule to answer this, and thanks for running!

Dave Shreve here...
To get the message out there is no alternative: spend lots of time visiting the area and speaking to citizens.

For economic development, we must do two large things: attract direct investment in the area; and reverse course on basic fiscal policies so that working people everywhere have greater opportunity and a little more discretionary income. The problem is, that with respect to the first thing, we tend to limit ourselves to corporate tax breaks or development subsidies, when we ought to also consider (perhaps even first of all) beefing up public investment in these areas. The federal government can do this much the way we tried to do so in the 1960s in Appalachia and in the 1930s and 1940s in the South, but the Congress can also make it easier for states to act in this regard also by addressing the growing unfunded mandates problem and by offering incentives for states to introduce progressive measures here (for schooling, local law enforcement, local health care clinics or public health facilties, for example).
And the second thing here always pays great dividends in high employment areas, for it translates into local economic development directed not by some lobbyist friend of Virgil Goode's but by local consumers where they choose to spend their increased incomes. It requires much greater federal-state-local government cooperation than we currently have but it can also be led (as it was in the 1960s and mid-1990s) by significant federal changes. For about a decade now, we been heading in the wrong direction on this front...

We live in a time when, strangely enough, we are at  war but one party opposes measures designed to help veterans as "government entitlements." 

Please explain your position vis-a-vis our nation's veterans.

Dave Shreve here...The Republican opposition on this is nothing short of shameful. Paying for full veteran's benefits (retirement, health care, and more) is the least we can do. All in all, it is a small sum to pay for those who have sacrificed much, and since this will keep many of our nation's veterans from abject poverty or general economic insecurity, it will come back to the nation in the form of the jobs and revenues that their spending creates. Such spending is an unquestionable plus for the nation...

How do you plan to talk to voters about Goode's ties to the MZM/Duke Cunningham scandal?

Goode's MZM fiasco is an example not so much of his corruption but his laziness and lack of leadership. This all happened because, as a member of the Appropriations Committee when his party was in the majority, the leadership threw him this rather nasty bone. I'm all for recruiting good-paying jobs to the district, but the companies recruited ought to offer something that the people are really willing to pay for. Because this group was more a sham than anything else and because goode is too lazy to work hard for the real interests of working people (fair taxes, affordable health care, educational opportunity), his "efforts" like this always end in great disappointment and a lot of wasted money and time.

What can be done on a federal level to help Virginia's coal workers make the transition as America shifts to a renewable energy economy?

Dave Shreve here again...Though this is a much bigger question for folks in the "Fightin' 9th" than here in the 5th district, it is an important issue. As it would be when any industry goes into decline, we need two big things: subsidies and directed public investment targeting the areas in whihc that industry was dominant (and not necessarily limited to commercial subsidies and investment but also directed at public entities like schools and first responders and public health initiatives); and progressive fiscal policies that make full employment possible (so that for every job lost, one or more is created to take its place, as we saw in the 1960s). Obviously, specific subsidies for green technology and mixed-mode transportation, can also play a huge role here, and they should.

How do you compare/contrast with your Democratic opponent, Tom Perriello?  Would you say there are significant differences on issues, experience, or any other area?  Also, I see that Tom raised an impressive amount of money in the third quarter; how is your fundraising going for the fourth quarter?  Thanks.

Dave Shreve here. I very much like Tom and have great respect for his recent work and his fundraising potential. That said, the big differnce between us is our level of experience and knowledge of significant domestic policy issues. and since I believe that it is in this area particularly that Goode can be unmasked and made to look like the trickle-down, friend of crony capitalism that he is, this is a crucial difference. Goode gives us high taxes, expanding deficits, increased educational, gasoline, health care, and housing costs, just to mention a few. I can pin him on these things like no other candidate and see it also as an important way to get the Democratic party out of the trap in which it always plays defense on taxing and spending.

I liked Al Weed and I am sure Mr. Shreve is great but the ONLY way to beat Goode is to run a moderate Dem from the Danville/Martinsville area who knows as many people as Virgil does.Goode is a lock in this area and it will be nearly impossible to beat him.

From many people.

If you have heard that over and over with all your contacts and knowledge it is a certainty.....SOMEONE from the DEM party in VA needs to do a little candidate development and outreach in that sorely neglected area.
Weed had a lot going for him...farmer, big on swicthgrass power, smart as Hell. BUT he didn't live in the correct zip code!

Good luck Mr. Shreve...please visit Lynchburg!

I have visited your town often and will continue to do so...See you at the Bull Branch...

Please come make an appearance at an LDC meeting ( 3rd Wednesdays each month). We may not be in the 5th CD but we may be able to support you w/ $$$ and volunteers as we did Al Weed. We have a permanent office on Main St. in the Galleria which I am sure would come in handy for you.
Contact the office at 434-845-1400 between 10 am and 2 pm any week day for info!
Good Luck!

Thanks much. I'll follow-up on this for sure...

It says you served as a budget analyst for the Louisiana State Legislature.  Did you ever make recommendation to cut funding for programs in Louisiana?  What were they, and why?

What would you do to counteract the huge federal budget deficits that have been rung up in recent years?

In your opinion, is there anything the US can do to improve its trade position worldwide?

This is Dave Shreve again. Indeed, making budget cut recommendations was for me a regular exercise. I consider myself a "frugal progressive" so that while I do not support budget cutting for its own sake and do believe that we could use even greater public investment in many areas, I oppose waste with an unmatched vehemence. Every dollar we waste on ineffective programs, we take from more legitimate pursuits. If one wants to be very general here, I've found that two rules generally apply: 1) defense contracting, despite very real spin-off potential in some areas, is always the most wasteful and leats wise investment option. We should spend here for national security reasons alone and never because we think its a good way to spur business or employment 2) most of the abuse and waste comes not in pure governmental programs or agencies (though Republican leaders tend to figure out ways to do this in exceptional ways) but in contracting-out expenditures.
On budget deficits, without getting into too much detail, the answer always lies in progressive economic policy. When we invest in the potential of our people (education, health care, first responders, transportation) and pay for it all with a moderately progressive tax system based on ability-to-pay, deficits always shrink. (See 1969 and 1997 for example) When we do the opposite, they blow up.

I'll answer the trade question in the next post...

Dave Shreve here again...
Our trade deficit is a sign of some trouble. It's important to remember, however, how much of this stems from domestic policy priorities and changes related to the reactionary regime currently residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Oil imports make up about a third of this number, and since high oil prices are tied directly to (at least) three critical factors influenced greatly by Republican policy/ideology, we can fix this a bit. The factors: the disaster in Iraq and the saber-rattling directed at Iran; the endorsement of recent oil company mergers and collusion; and the blossoming of an oil futures market in which an increasing number of players are not hedging real investments in the commodity but playing a casino game to make a pile of money.
Our encouragement of "shock treatment" in the developing world has also had some bearing on this by cultivating poverty and low-wage/no regulation regimes to which our capitalists take an increasing share of their production.

...I don't know of ANY evidence that "mergers and collusion" are behind $98 per barrel oil.  Also, I'd point out that most oil analysts don't believe Iraq has much, if anything, to do with high oil prices either (Iraq's producing about the same amount of oil now as it did in 2002).  Concerns over Iran are almost certainly contributing to the general "uncertainty premium," but how much -- $5 per barrel, $10 per barrel, more? -- is a big question.  Finally, the oil futures market in and of itself doesn't cause oil prices to increase; having said that. While speculators certainly may be playing a role in the current price spike, this can work the other way around as well. 

So what's causing oil prices to be so high?  Here's an analysis by the apolitical US Energy Information Administration, where I worked for 17+ years:

1. Strong world economic growth driving growth in oil use,
  2. Moderate non-Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) supply growth,
  3. OPEC members' production decisions,
  4. Low OPEC spare production capacity,
  5. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) inventory tightness,
  6. Worldwide refining bottlenecks, and
  7. Ongoing geopolitical risks and concerns about supply availability.

I'd also add the depreciating dollar to that list.

Dave Shreve here again...I don't disagree with this analysis. Numbers 1-4 (and to some extent #5) are related mostly to burgeoning world demand, which is a significant and very real factor. Numbers 6 and 7 (and to some extent #5) relate pretty much to the factors I cited earlier. Speaking only to the factors over which I believe we have decent control and where we can effect changes in the short term, I ignored the big demand factor. What China does here, of course, matters quite a bit. And, yes, of course, the depreciating dollar--tied as much to Bush's disastrous fiscal policy decisions as anything else-- is making a bad situation worse, particularly when it comes to OPEC supply decisions...

The issue of immigration is very popular in the 5th district, and it is an issue to which Virgil has a lot of credibility with his constituents when he speaks. What are your positions on immigration, and what do you plan to tell the folks of the 5th district about the issue as you campaign?

Thanks again!

Mike,
Much as I disagree with most of his conclusions here, Virgil has worked this issue to his benefit.
We should, of course, move to enforce the existing law. This cannot be questioned. We must also recognize that we're likely to need a larger, more worker-friendly guest-worker program.
What we don't need, however, are rants from Virgil, big expensive (and useless) walls on the border, or the scapegoating of immigrants. While there are clearly areas in which immigrant workers (documented and undocumented) are used to undercut the wages of American workers, and some areas where the demands of English as a Second Language instruction require a lot of educational funding that is already too scarce, immigrant workers in general do not take out more than they pay in (in public services), their crime rates are often lower that that of native populations, and most serve as complements to the citizen workforce.

Also, to what do you attribute Goode's continued popularity in the 5th district?

Should the United States allow Iran to get nuclear weapons, should it pursue intensive diplomacy and economic sanctions to prevent that, should it use military force, or what?

I favor very intensive diplomacy here. It can work.

reduction in greenhouse gas emissions that the world scientific community says is necessary to avert temperature increases of up to 14 degrees, melting polar ice caps, and climatic mayhem?

What is your position on trade issues?  Specifically, do you support agreements like NAFTA and CAFTA?  Thanks.

in 2008?  Do you think we'll all be saying "It's the economy, stupid?" or will it be something else, like Iraq?

The economy will be a major issue if not the major issue. And, along with discrete economic policy questions, it has great bearing on other areas of concern: health care reform, educational opportunity, immigration, etc. Having said that, however, Iraq remains a huge issue on two levels: the gross immorality and stupidity of the whole conflict; and the way in which it represents a waste of precious economic resources and greater investment potential.

Hey folks, this is Dave Shreve. Thanks for your participation in this forum and for all the thoughtful questions already posted. Let me begin by tackling a few of the general questions, and then I'll circle around and respond to some of the questions directed at specific policy areas (health care, environment, trade, etc.)
First of all, on the matter of Goode's invincibility, the status of the Democratic party in the 5th, and the alleged problems associated with a candidate (like me) who lives in the Charlottesville area, there are a few decent openings here for any good Democratic opponent of Virgil's, regardless of their home address. While the 5th may well be one the state's weakest areas in terms of Democratic identification or party strength, it is in my opinion also home to numerous folks who ought to be our natural constituency. Virgil's hold on the electorate here, in fact, stems as much if not more from his personality and his personal relationships as it does from his party affiliation or ideology. Recognizing that,any opponent of his must really attack him on his votes and in particular on the way in which he perpetually sides with corporate interests over working people. This is true on almost every issue of significance from health care, to educational opportunity, to taxes. Given that these are all areas in which I've developed a great deal of policy expertise, I know exactly how he can be undressed and attacked. 

I must sign off now. Thanks again for the thoughtful questions and comments.
Dave Shreve

That was very helpful and informative!