McClintock And Derlet Differ On Many Issues In 4th Congressional District Race

The race for California's 4th Congressional District features one of the state's most conservative politicians running against a first-time candidate. Healthcare, water and immigration are part of their platforms.

Tom McClintock is a four-term Republican in Congress. He says the Affordable Care Act is "collapsing under its own weight."

"We give these enormous benefits to corporations to choose and impose a plan on their employees. Why don't we give that same choice to the employees themselves so they can afford to go out and pick a plan that best meets their own needs that they can take from job to job. They don't have to worry about losing their healthcare when they lose their job."

Dr. Bob Derlet is a Democrat and was Chief of Emergency Medicine for UC Davis Medical Center.

He says participation in the Affordable Care Act should be optional.

"The Obamacare has been a giveaway to many of the insurance plans and has tried to micromanage the practice of medicine too much. Those things need to be changed."

He also says hospitals and clinics should post their prices.

To solve the state's water woes, Derlet favors reductions in water consumption.

"Fish need very little water downstream to keep the habitat fresh. It's like the canary in the coal mine. We need fish. Regarding our water use in California, we potentially face more droughts and need to conserve both in the residential area and to assist agriculture in using water more efficiently."

McClintock says federal environmental policies must be changed to encourage more water storage.

"Droughts are nature's fault. They happen. Water shortages are our fault. That's a decision -a choice- that we made years ago when we stopped building new reservoirs. The last major reservoir of a million-acre feet that we constructed was the New Melones in 1979. Meanwhile, the state's population has nearly doubled."

McClintock says the population has increased in some part due to legal immigration. He favors stronger border security as part of a plan to combat terrorism.

"Maybe we ought to secure our borders and stop admitting poorly-vetted immigrants and refugees and visitors from hotbeds of Islamic extremism. Maybe we ought to stop paying cash ransoms on cargo pallets to Iran, you know, stop sending them billions of dollars that they're using to fund international terrorism."

Derlet says at much of the immigration problem -at least half is  related to people flying into our airports and overstaying their visas." He says his security plan mirrors one already published in Congress.

"That was well-outlined by the House Committee on Homeland Security. They issued a 35-page document in September outlining steps to combat terrorism both in the United States and globally."

McClintock is against mandatory federal funding formulas and federal funding for Planned Parenthood. He is for lower taxes, fracking, and the Keystone Pipeline.

Derlet is against fracking, the pipeline and the Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal. He supports Planned Parenthood and higher corporate taxes.

Both men say they are for proper thinning of the nation's forests.

Derlet wants more federal funding to help people remove trees that have died from drought or bark beetle infestation.

McClintock wants more opportunities for logging companies to do the job.

The 4th District covers the foothills between Placer and Fresno Counties.