By ANDY GARDNER

POTSDAM -- Green Party candidate for the 21st Congressional District Matt Funiciello says if elected, he would push for changes he believes will support “the working class.”

He thinks the government should stop giving bailouts to banks and corporate giants like Alcoa and instead send that money to struggling, local operations like the St. Lawrence Brewing Company, which recently announced they are going out of business while still owing $350,000 to the St. Lawrence County Industrial Development Agency.

“They are going to pull out of St. Lawrence Brewing where five jobs have been created. We’re not pulling out of Alcoa with $5 billion in grants and subsidies and then given a $63 million check … with, what? 500 jobs and completely unsustainable,” he said during a Friday interview at his booth at the Potsdam Summer Festival. “Give the money to the workers and shut the factory down.”

He would like to see a law similar to Italy’s Marcora Law, which allows workers to use their unemployment benefits to purchase a business if they are losing their jobs due to it going under.

“There are just under 40 companies in Italy bought by their own workforces,” he said. “I have to say unemployment is a big deal because we’re subsidizing corporations and the military.”

He believes government business subsidies are okay when they focus on “sustainable enterprises, tourism, small sustainable factories.”

Funiciello believes bloated military spending, which accounts for more than 50 percent of federal discretionary appropriations, is to blame for many of America’s woes, including a lack of adequate healthcare.

He says military spending should be cut by 40 percent, which he believes could create millions of jobs with single-payer Medicaid benefits.

“According to the World Health Organization, every one of the 37 countries with better healthcare than us spends less than $4,500 per person,” he said. “We spend $6,000 per person.”

He says too much of that goes to “hospitals as economic development” and “subsidizing the healthcare industry.”

“Neither Democrats or Republicans want us to have Medicaid and Social Security … it’s a system to benefit the one percent,” according to Funiciello. “I believe if we keep electing Republicans and Democrats who won’t talk about single-payer, we won’t have it.”

He says he supports HR 676, which would expand Medicaid to all citizens in the United States at birth.

“I would refuse the congressional healthcare package until every human in the country is covered for free,” Funiciello said.

Touting a line that may please many gun-owning North Country residents, Funiciello says he respects Second Amendment rights and is not interested in taking away anyone’s firearms.

He believes a violent American culture and the War on Drugs are largely to blame for most gun deaths and that those who own them are more afraid of their government than terrorists.

“Most (gun fatalities) are from handguns and suicides. Where’s the hysterical legislation after young, African American, Hispanic, White and poor children kill each other with guns over drugs in inner cities?” he questioned.

“As long as we have a drug war that’s ratcheting up our violence, militarization of the domestic police force, I can’t defy our Constitution … and take guns away from my neighbors or brother,” he said. “They have a right to defend themselves. They’re not as worried about terrorists as they are having their doors kicked down in a no-knock raid.”