"I don't really think there's a 'The Tea Party,'" he said. "The Tea Party to me is an idea, and it's people who are not happy with the Republicans because they lost their trust back a few years ago, and they are not happy with the DemocratsThey just want to take the government back, and they don't want politics as usual, so I have a good relationship with them."

He said he expects tea-party activists to vote "overwhelmingly" for him, and said he's kept an "open door" to them.

Health-Care Reform

"The reason we played defense on health care is because Republicans put our head in the sand like an ostrich and pretended that there was no problem," Kinzinger said.

Kinzinger said from the day after it passed, he has supported a full repeal of the 2010 health-care law. But he also thinks it's important to replace the legislation with different reforms that will lower health-care costs.

Kinzger supports tort reform, allowing small groups to band together to purchase health care, an expansion of health- savings accounts, allowing individuals to purchase insurance across state lines and efforts to increase portability.

Social Security and Medicare

The first step to addressing problems with the stability of Social Security is to increase employment, Kinzinger said, which would boost payroll tax revenues.

Longer term, Kinzinger said he believes that the system must be remain the same for those at or near retirement age, but changes must be tackled to make the program solvent for younger workers. However, Kinzinger said he opposes allowing younger workers to invest in personal accounts and is against raising the retirement age.Yet Kinzger declined to offer specific remedies for what to do about younger workers, citing the political environment.

"We've got to depoliticize this," he said. "They call it third-rail politics for a reason. I've experienced this in my own campaign here. Whenever one side mentions this, the other side twists Social Security as an attack ad."

On Medicare, he said that the nation has to first control health-care costs. But beyond that, he said there was $60 billion a year in Medicare fraud that could be eliminated.

One idea he supports is establishing a system to track irregular Medicare payments just as credit-card companies monitor irregular charges.

Taxes and Cap-and-Trade

"When you have a bipartisan coalition of people saying you can't raise taxes in a bad economy, then you can't raise taxes in a good economy either," Kinzinger said.

As such, he supports making all of the Bush tax cuts permanent for all income levels. While he believes the tax code should be simplified, he opposes a "drastic reworking of the tax code," such as passing a flat tax or a consumption tax.

He is against cap-and-trade legislation.

No Child Left Behind

Kinzinger thinks that "No Child Left Behind" needs to be reformed, but he opposes "throwing the baby out with the bathwater" and completely scrapping the standards-based education law.

"I like the overall goal, which is to add accountability," he said. "What I don't like, which I've heard from my mom, who is a school teacher, and her friends and other teachers in general, is that the way it is implemented basically requires teachers to teach to the test."

Immigration

"We have to quit demonizing immigrants as, because I could tell you if I were in Mexico, I'd be trying to get in here too," Kinzinger said.

He said that he supports securing the border through a physical and virtual fence, but declined to offer details on what to do with the immigrants who are already here illegally.

"When you talk about what to do with those who are already here, if you do that before you secure the border, you create a bigger problem," he said. "So I'm never willing to discuss what to do after the border is secure until you secure it first."

Abortion and Gay Rights

Kinzinger believes that abortion should be illegal except in cases of rape, incest or when the mother's life is in danger.

He said he opposes gay marriage, though has a mixed opinion when it comes to a federal marriage amendment. While currently opposed to the idea because he is reticent to amend the Constitution, "If I continue to see courts rule against the people, then I will become supportive of a federal marriage amendment."

He also supports continuing the military's "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy, though he would be open to changing his mind if military leaders said it needed to be changed.

Afghanistan

"I think to win in Afghanistan we need to hear fully the recommendations of the generals on the ground.," he said. "They seem to be happy with the president's addition of 30,000 troops, and I'm happy with it as well."

While generally supportive of President Obama's policy, Kinzinger said he opposes setting a deadline for withdrawal (Obama has said he wants troops to start coming home in July 2011), which he argued would send a bad signal to America's enemies.

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