Shaheen Would Look to Tighten Spending
Wednesday October 08, 2008
By: Kevin Landrigan
From: Nashua Telegraph
Wednesday October 08, 2008
By: Kevin Landrigan
From: Nashua Telegraph
(Hudson) – Democratic Senate hopeful Jeanne Shaheen said the slumping economy and record bailout of Wall Street's troubled assets requires the next Congress to change its free-spending ways.
"I do think we aren't going to be able to do everything we'd like to do," Shaheen, 61, said during an interview with The Telegraph editorial board Tuesday.If elected, Shaheen said she would pursue a return to pay-as-you-go federal budgeting – paying for any new spending but cutting elsewhere or finding a source to pay for it – that had the federal government on the path of a balanced budget in the late 1990s.
"I really think there has to be a different approach to spending in the future," Shaheen said.
To reduce federal spending, Shaheen would repeal tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas and would require drug companies to negotiate with the federal government to reduce costs charged to Medicare.
"There are a number of places I would look for spending cuts," Shaheen said.
A former three-term governor, Shaheen favors an audit of all federal agencies and believes it will show a large number of no-bid contracts and other spending that lacks any rational justification.
"I think this has been the most incompetent administration in our lifetime," Shaheen said.
Shaheen does not support a ban on congressional earmarks and cites her Statehouse experience as knowing some worthwhile spending doesn't make it into the traditional budget-making process. A good example of that is the $20 million contract to build a new dry dock for the makeover of a new class of nuclear submarines at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.
"That's a good earmark. I think there are differences," Shaheen said.
She would press for reform to require that every earmark identify the federal lawmaker who asked for it and any special interest that lobbied for it.
"I think we have to look at earmarks and set up a system that is transparent,'' Shaheen said.
Shaheen is locked in a tough, bruising rematch with one-term Republican Sen. John E. Sununu, who beat her by 20,000 votes, or less than 5 percent, in 2002.
She said on the critical issues of the day, voters on Nov. 4 would conclude Sununu failed by supporting Bush policies on the economy, the war in Iraq, reducing dependence on foreign oil and on helping the 47 million without health insurance coverage to get it.
"I think the bottom line in this election is that if you are happy with the way things are today, if you like the status quo, by all means you should vote for John Sununu," Shaheen said. "If on the economy and the loss of jobs, on the war, on health care, on energy, you feel there is a crying need out there for new direction, then I hope you'll consider me."
Shaheen estimated that at least a record $30 million, and possibly as much as $40 million, would be spent on this race, much of it from third-party groups launching multimillion attack ad wars against both candidates.
"I believe we need public funding of federal elections," Shaheen said. "Until we have done that, unfortunately, we are going to continue to look at campaign spending going through the roof."
Her two top priorities would be to have the government create even broader tax credits for investment in alternative energies and expand access to health-care coverage while reducing taxpayer costs.
Sununu has tried to frame the energy issue by Shaheen's failure to support the lifting of a ban on new offshore oil drilling and her qualms about the safety of storing waste before expanding nuclear power. This debate misses the major competitive challenge and new jobs opportunity the country faces, she said.
"Beyond that, I think this issue of offshore drilling and this issue of nuclear power is really the wrong debate," Shaheen said. "We are going to use oil for the foreseeable future, but we are going to run out at some point.
"We have to diversify," she said.
She recalled more generous federal tax credits during the oil crisis of the late 1970s that prompted her and her husband, Bill, to install solar collectors on the roof and a multiple-energy-source burning boiler in their home in Madbury.
"Without those tax credits, we would not have been able to do it," Shaheen said. "The smartest investment we can make is to help people find ways to create their own energy efficiency."
Shaheen said Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee ads are false that as governor in 2002 she signed a state law to weaken credit card protections for consumers at the behest of the former Providian Financial Corp.
The law changes did let credit card issuers change the amount or number of required payments unilaterally, provided they sent written notice to customers at least 15 days in advance and to switch customers from a fixed to a variable rate.
But Shaheen said the new law gave the banking commissioner the power to investigate consumer complaints.
"There probably could have been a lot of iterations later to make it stricter, but it was at least a good first step," Shaheen said.
The GOP charged Shaheen acted due to receiving $33,000 from Providian executives and political action committees from 1996-2001. During the same period, the bank gave $11,000 in checks to the state's all-Republican congressional delegation that included Sununu.
Providian also was the major donor to a Shaheen public-private initiative on early learning and hired Shaheen's eldest daughter, Stefany, a magna cum laude, Phi Betta Kappa graduate from Fairfield University, to run it.
"The suggestion that I supported that so that I could get a contribution from Providian was just ridiculous," Shaheen added.
Shaheen noted that, since 2003, the insurance, financial securities and investment industries have given $1.1 million to Sununu.
"I do think we aren't going to be able to do everything we'd like to do," Shaheen, 61, said during an interview with The Telegraph editorial board Tuesday.If elected, Shaheen said she would pursue a return to pay-as-you-go federal budgeting – paying for any new spending but cutting elsewhere or finding a source to pay for it – that had the federal government on the path of a balanced budget in the late 1990s.
"I really think there has to be a different approach to spending in the future," Shaheen said.
To reduce federal spending, Shaheen would repeal tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas and would require drug companies to negotiate with the federal government to reduce costs charged to Medicare.
"There are a number of places I would look for spending cuts," Shaheen said.
A former three-term governor, Shaheen favors an audit of all federal agencies and believes it will show a large number of no-bid contracts and other spending that lacks any rational justification.
"I think this has been the most incompetent administration in our lifetime," Shaheen said.
Shaheen does not support a ban on congressional earmarks and cites her Statehouse experience as knowing some worthwhile spending doesn't make it into the traditional budget-making process. A good example of that is the $20 million contract to build a new dry dock for the makeover of a new class of nuclear submarines at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.
"That's a good earmark. I think there are differences," Shaheen said.
She would press for reform to require that every earmark identify the federal lawmaker who asked for it and any special interest that lobbied for it.
"I think we have to look at earmarks and set up a system that is transparent,'' Shaheen said.
Shaheen is locked in a tough, bruising rematch with one-term Republican Sen. John E. Sununu, who beat her by 20,000 votes, or less than 5 percent, in 2002.
She said on the critical issues of the day, voters on Nov. 4 would conclude Sununu failed by supporting Bush policies on the economy, the war in Iraq, reducing dependence on foreign oil and on helping the 47 million without health insurance coverage to get it.
"I think the bottom line in this election is that if you are happy with the way things are today, if you like the status quo, by all means you should vote for John Sununu," Shaheen said. "If on the economy and the loss of jobs, on the war, on health care, on energy, you feel there is a crying need out there for new direction, then I hope you'll consider me."
Shaheen estimated that at least a record $30 million, and possibly as much as $40 million, would be spent on this race, much of it from third-party groups launching multimillion attack ad wars against both candidates.
"I believe we need public funding of federal elections," Shaheen said. "Until we have done that, unfortunately, we are going to continue to look at campaign spending going through the roof."
Her two top priorities would be to have the government create even broader tax credits for investment in alternative energies and expand access to health-care coverage while reducing taxpayer costs.
Sununu has tried to frame the energy issue by Shaheen's failure to support the lifting of a ban on new offshore oil drilling and her qualms about the safety of storing waste before expanding nuclear power. This debate misses the major competitive challenge and new jobs opportunity the country faces, she said.
"Beyond that, I think this issue of offshore drilling and this issue of nuclear power is really the wrong debate," Shaheen said. "We are going to use oil for the foreseeable future, but we are going to run out at some point.
"We have to diversify," she said.
She recalled more generous federal tax credits during the oil crisis of the late 1970s that prompted her and her husband, Bill, to install solar collectors on the roof and a multiple-energy-source burning boiler in their home in Madbury.
"Without those tax credits, we would not have been able to do it," Shaheen said. "The smartest investment we can make is to help people find ways to create their own energy efficiency."
Shaheen said Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee ads are false that as governor in 2002 she signed a state law to weaken credit card protections for consumers at the behest of the former Providian Financial Corp.
The law changes did let credit card issuers change the amount or number of required payments unilaterally, provided they sent written notice to customers at least 15 days in advance and to switch customers from a fixed to a variable rate.
But Shaheen said the new law gave the banking commissioner the power to investigate consumer complaints.
"There probably could have been a lot of iterations later to make it stricter, but it was at least a good first step," Shaheen said.
The GOP charged Shaheen acted due to receiving $33,000 from Providian executives and political action committees from 1996-2001. During the same period, the bank gave $11,000 in checks to the state's all-Republican congressional delegation that included Sununu.
Providian also was the major donor to a Shaheen public-private initiative on early learning and hired Shaheen's eldest daughter, Stefany, a magna cum laude, Phi Betta Kappa graduate from Fairfield University, to run it.
"The suggestion that I supported that so that I could get a contribution from Providian was just ridiculous," Shaheen added.
Shaheen noted that, since 2003, the insurance, financial securities and investment industries have given $1.1 million to Sununu.
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