Elizabeth "Liz" Berney, an attorney by profession, is the Republican candidate for the 5th District Congressional race. A longtime Great Neck resident, Ms. Berney has worked in a variety of legal areas, including consumer safety, securities fraud, international litigation, education, and entertainment law.

Discussing major national and international issues with the Great Neck Record recently, Ms. Berney first responded to questions regarding the "Bush doctrine" and the war in Iraq. She firmly believes that, "We should not fund the Palestinian Authority with our tax dollars as long as they continue promoting violence and terrorism, which is now ongoing." Ms. Berney continued on the topic, stating that funding the Palestinians is "a misguided policy and leads to more deaths ..."

Along the same lines, Ms. Berney also said that "Iran is a major threat" and she said that she is against "sending arms and funds to Hezbollah and Hamas." Continuing, she stated that "A nuclear threat from Iran is six months to two years away ... all possible remedies to that should be on the table."

Ms. Berney then also stated that "The United States needs to reverse its decision not to sell refueling for jets in Israel ... it would be very important to enable Israel to strike at Iran, if needed."

Ms. Berney emphasized that she "strongly supports the war on terror," and she believes that "we must listen carefully to what the best military experts tell us." She added that, "It is a bit of a moving target ... and we must be aware of what's going on, on the ground, to see how we are to proceed."

Moving on to the current financial crisis, at home and around the world, Ms. Berney said that "we must investigate improper lending processes," and she also noted that "as a lawyer, I would know what areas need to be regulated and I would be sure those problems do not happen in the future."

Ms. Berney went on to explain that "We need greater oversight of lending standards and appraisal practices ... a lot of companies were bringing in phony appraisals or did not appraise properly ... we assumed they appraised properly, we assumed values would go up."

She also said that "we need much greater disclosure of what risks are involved in securitization instruments ... so that both the companies and the public are aware of what they are buying when buying mortgage-backed securities." And much of the blame, she said, goes to the Democrats: "The Democrats played a large role in encouraging bad loans and that led to this problem."

Going further into financial concerns, Ms. Berney addressed CEO compensation, stating that "shareholders should have a greater say over this."

She also stressed that the United States needs to "encourage manufacturing" at home, for "safer products and better costs," as well as "helping to improve the economy." This, she said, would go a long way to helping people afford mortgages and "improving the business climate." And she added that "we need a lot more consumer education ... so that we learn how to deal with the economy."

Turning to health care and medical legislation, Ms. Berney first stated: "One thing we can do with a stroke of the pen is to make health care more affordable." She would like to see a medical deduction or "credit that starts at dollar one." She emphasized that "people need help, especially if they have no insurance through an employer."

As for universal health care, Ms. Berney said that "first I would like to experiment with different types of systems, before I think of universal health care and the problems of a socialized system." She does not support a revamping of the entire system, but would like to see quicker fixes such as health insurance cards and the proper use of funds slated for health care.

Election day is Tuesday, Nov. 4.