Cong. Dold's answers for helping small businesses is to cut their taxes and remove any responsibility of health care coverage for employees. If you look at it more closely, it's very deceptive. He's from the Ryan/Koch side of the aisle that says we should be handed some nearly worthless healthcare vouchers that would do nothing to cover major medical problems. Of course, if we let the tax breaks for the rich expire, we would be able to pay our bills, have healthcare for all, and employees could work at a job they care about and not worry about health cost for their families. Dold knows that most employees could not afford to buy their own healthcare with salaries as low as they are, even if there were any jobs in the first place. As a free-trader and privatizer, he does not object to our jobs being shipped overseas or people let go even as corporate executives continue to take millions upon millions in salaries and perks. And legislators in Springfield are refusing to allow pooling by small business for reduced health care. Banks, many of them bailed out with taxpayer dollars, are also refusing to give small businesses or start-ups a loan. So let's look more closely at what his messaging really means. To hell with all of us, except the elite at the top.

Social Security/Medicare is paid into a head of time. The left over money that is not used for those currently on those programs, goes to the Federal Fund, and is supposed to be paid back with some interest to that fund.

You can't do that if you don't have enough revenue coming in. So, the answer is to make up vouchers? Vouchers do not solve the problem, it makes it worse and allows for people to be left without adequate care in a timely fashion. Walgreens, CVS were caught within the last two years of corruption of double billing the gov for medications. Insurance companies have double billed, or have hung on to monies that were given to pay for those who participated in medicare/medicaid so the doctors were not paid in a timely fashion. Vouchers will not stop that corruption.

Why take foreign money, and so much corporate money to campaign. Outdoing the other candidate with hyped up twisted information. I say, spend less money on those types of campaigning and keep it even. We don't need unfair influences of our political candidates. We don't need these LLC's that claim to be something else, when clearly it is only for money funneling into campaigns. If one candidate does it, then the rest have to do it too. It really creates more deceit and more corruption. We, as a nation, can't afford that anymore.

Of course vouchers aren't the answer, and they're not the answers for our school children as well as our health care, which is loaded with excessive testing, billing, and administrative costs, but the right-wing wants to kill the middle class. We need to raise revenue with taxes, cut military spending, build a strong public school system, and bring most of our troops home--in other words a return to a democracy rather than an oligarchy, which we're now heading towards. We need children from every socio-economic background who learn, history, science, the arts, technology, civics--in other words, how to think. We need job opportunities and training. We need a strong public education from birth through college at reasonable costs--not right-wing theology and indoctrination and rewritten history. If we're going to fight wars, most of which I'm opposed to, we need a draft, not just enlistment of poor children who have no other choice, not just other people's children. So all of us need to closely assess what the real goals of the tea partiers and right-wingers are in today's society.

When Republicans took controll of every branch of government in 2001, they looked at the $140 billion per year surpluses and said we gotta fix this. They turned those surpluses into $1 trillion deficits. Now they are looking at Social Security and its $3 trillion surplus and saying we gotta fix thus. The young man is smarter than any of them. It takes more than 14 years to dumb down someone to the level of Ryan and Dold. Get the insurance companies out of healthcare and the program will generate even greater surpluses.

I disagree with the characterization of Dold's answer as not taking a position on the issue posed by Citizens United. He did when he said it was a1st Amendment issue. I don't think the founders had corporations in mind when they crafted the 1st Amendment. If you look at Madison's notes on the topic, it's clear that they did not. I cannot wait to hear all those people who said that residence in the district was their most important issue (2006-2010) now find the issue not so important. Love to see Sente in the race.

I personally know the 'kid' in question. I know Matt to be an extremely bright young man that has a passion for the political landscape. He is knowledgeable of both issues and candidates. I also know that Matt and I do not agree on all the issues, but am impressed with his knowledge on the subject matter. It is unfortunate that can not be said for the voting masses. Keep up the good work Matt.

Why does your headline mention Koch? Matt Rice isn't quoted as saying anything about Koch Industries or the Koch brothers. It certainly sounds like you are exploiting a 14-year-old just to score a political point.

More importantly, why speculate about what someone or some group may or may not do when Priorities USA, which was formed last month to support the Obama Administration, was created in direct response to Citizens United?

Koch's fund Americans For Prosperity, the Orwellianly named group that sponsored the event. Hence, the reference was appropriate.

We are very close friends with Matt & his family. I can tell you for a fact, that Matt is an extremely bright (if not gifted academically) 14 yr old who has a passion for politics. Instead of mocking him, we would all do well to support him. I say, Go Matt! You have met a future leader of this country!

How pathetic and desperate is Dold that he send his attack puppies out to slam a high school kid who's trying to learn about civics and government.

Like it or not conservatives we have this thing called the BILL OF RIGHTS in these here United States!

I find it incredibly hard to believe that Dold has no clue who the Koch brothers are since this is at least his SECOND TOWN HALL sponsored by their right-wing front group.

AND Dold paid the Koch brothers back big-time for their $5000 "donation" (wink wink) by voting to keep the tax-funded subsidies going straight from our middle class pockets and into Big Oil's high-profit cash cow.

Apparently as long as the wealth redistribution is going from the have-nots to the have-mores Dold and the GOP are a-ok with it!

The kid is smart.

Smart Kid indeedy. Love it.