Where the House candidates stand

Here's a look at how U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Pasco, and Democrat George Fearing of Yakima stand on some major issues:

Health care

Hastings and Fearing both say Americans should have greater access to affordable health care, but differ on how to accomplish that.

Fearing supports a universal, single-payer health care system that covers everyone and is administered by the government.

Universal health care would save everyone money by cutting out insurance companies and ensuring access to preventive care for people who otherwise would put off treatment, Fearing said.

"People like me who have private insurance, we're subsidizing those who don't," he said. "So we're better off with one system."

Hastings said universal, single-payer health coverage would limit people's choices on their own treatment and create bureaucracy.

"It ultimately always leads to rationing, because 'one size fits all' has winners and losers," he said.

He proposes making health costs tax deductible -- an idea being proposed by Republican presidential candidate John McCain -- limiting lawsuits against the health industry, and allowing small businesses to band together so they can purchase health insurance at lower bulk rates.

Immigration

Fearing and Hastings both take into account the labor needs of agricultural Central Washington and recognize a need to maintain the rule of law.

Hastings has stressed border security and the need for a better guest-worker program that would benefit farmers, but he also expressed support for the comprehensive immigration plan pushed last year by President Bush. That bill, which critics derided as an amnesty proposal because it offered a path to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants, died in the Senate before Hastings had to vote on it.

Hastings still wants to see comprehensive reform that could include a path to citizenship for undocumented workers already in the country. The idea is to push undocumented immigrants out of the shadows, Hastings said.

"That effort needs to continue," he said.

But he added that people who broke the law to enter the country should not be favored over those who have waited to move here legally.

Fearing, too, stresses the need for border security, but he opposes guest-worker programs. The U.S. should instead admit more immigrants legally, he said.

"These workers are critical for our economy here in Central Washington, particularly our agricultural economy," he said.

As for those here already, Fearing believes there should be a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, except for felons.

The economy

Hastings voted against the $700 billion bailout of the financial industry earlier this month, saying it presented too much taxpayer liability.

"On the question of increased government intervention in the marketplace, I am just plain opposed to such a massive intrusion into the economy and the marketplace," he said at the time.

Instead, he supported an alternative plan that would have provided government insurance for mortgage-backed securities.

Fearing said he, too, would have opposed the bailout. His opposition, though, comes from an opposite philosophy. Where Hastings saw the bailout as unwarranted government intervention, Fearing said he couldn't support such a bailout unless it included more regulation of Wall Street.

"Hastings' votes to deregulate the banking and financial industry have led to our current crisis," Fearing said.

— Pat Muir

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