7. Do you favor or oppose the United States remaining a member of the United Nations?

I favor the United States remaining a member of the United Nations. The U.N. can be very frustrating and at times impotent, but it can also be a valuable forum for discussion and resolution of world problems. We should not walk away from it just because it's failed to live up to its promise.

8. With higher-than-usual gasoline prices in the United States, do you favor or oppose releasing some of the federal government's huge oil reserves in an attempt to drive down gas prices? What are other options of helping to lower fuel costs at the pump?

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve exists for national security reasons but is not large enough that release of some of it on the open market would affect gasoline prices for more than a very short period of time. Accordingly, I am not in favor of its release purely for political reasons.

The better choice is to continue to work with other governments, such as Saudi Arabia, to try to increase world production. Also, whatever we can do to bring stability to Iraq will have a calming effect on the world markets. As long as people fear an insurgency might prevail in Iraq, energy prices will remain high regardless of what we do. An increase in domestic production is also a very important goal and would have even a more significant impact on stabilizing prices as it comes from the more secure, U.S. market.

9. The United States is now running huge budget deficits. How would you deal with this problem? Do you favor or oppose making the Bush tax cuts permanent? If so, how do you reconcile giving more tax cuts as the deficit just grows larger? Do you think tax cuts only benefit the "rich" or do they help citizens across the economic board?

The size of the deficit should concern us all. But it's important to address it in context of the myriad of challenges faced by the U.S. economy in recent years. We had an attack on our country, we faced corporate scandals, we are recovering from a recession that began in 2000, and we are at war.

Nonetheless, the economy is in the midst of a strong expansion, and as the economy improves, the deficit is already starting to come down. The actual figures for next year will be $100 billion less than projected at the beginning of the year. In historic terms, when measured against the size of economy, the deficit is now smaller than those deficits that came as a result of the recessions in the early '80s and early '90s. This reminds us that the most important way to deal with the deficit is to keep the economy as strong as possible.