1. How would you improve the economy and jobs outlook?
Uncertainty about higher taxes and new government regulations is a major impediment to job creation and economic recovery. Congress needs to reverse the hostile climate for job creation, starting with greater certainty. The leadership has failed to prevent one of the biggest tax increases in history that will occur in January without a vote of Congress, when the tax relief enacted in 2001 and 2003 expires. As a result, every Iowa taxpayer faces the real possibility of higher taxes. On average, taxes for a family of four with $50,000 in income would go up $2,300. Taxes will go up for small businesses, where 70 percent of new jobs are created. Cap-and-trade legislation would drastically increase energy costs and put U.S. agriculture, business and industry at a disadvantage without similar action by other countries. The new $2.5 trillion health care law increases the cost of labor with new mandates and higher taxes. These are job killers, not hiring incentives. In addition, employers need more market opportunities to create jobs. Pending international trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea are the best place for the President to start reaching his goal of doubling exports. Both South Korea and Colombia have engaged with the European Union without us, so by standing still, America has put itself at a competitive disadvantage. Exports create jobs in Iowa that pay more on average than other jobs. Iowa agriculture depends on world markets.
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2. What, if any, changes to the new health-care law need to be made?
The health care law enacted this year jeopardizes access to health care for seniors by cutting $529 billion from Medicare. It raised taxes by half a trillion dollars, set up two new unsustainable entitlement programs, will result in higher insurance premiums for Americans, threatens health coverage for retirees, and didn’t do nearly enough to contain health care inflation. To better contain health care costs, Congress should act to curb the runaway litigation that drives up costs and leads to defensive medicine, and repeal the new taxes and hidden fees that drive up costs. Instead of new federal mandates that impose higher premiums, there should be reforms that force insurance companies to compete to deliver better quality at a lower cost. The health care system needs to be transformed to reward providers for quality rather than volume of care. Consumers should have access to information about the quality and cost of care.
3. How long do you believe U.S. troops should continue to stay in Afghanistan and Iraq?
I support the objectives of denying safe haven to al-Qaeda, reversing the Taliban’s momentum, and strengthening the Afghan government and security forces to prevent a 9-11 type attack from being carried out from Afghanistan. I hope the President’s decision to send another 30,000 combat troops to Afghanistan provides our military commanders the resources needed for success. In Iraq, the counterinsurgency strategy implemented in 2007 made possible the recent withdrawal of troops. U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq need to come home as quickly as possible but in a responsible way that gives American troops every opportunity to succeed.
4. Do you think global climate change is a threat, and how would you deal with it?
If the United States acts alone to cap carbon dioxide, Americans would pay more for energy and goods, without any measurable impact on the climate. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson testified that unilateral action by the U.S. would provide no real environmental gain. A carbon cap without including the largest emitter, China, and other developing nations, would mean lost jobs for Americans. Any effort to reduce greenhouse gases should be made through an international agreement. The cap-and-trade legislation passed last year by the House of Representatives would increase the cost of energy for homes and businesses, especially in the Midwest.
5. How would you lower or eliminate the federal budget deficit?
According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, a discretionary spending freeze would save $1.7 trillion over the next 10 years. This freeze can be accomplished by reducing wasteful spending while protecting vital programs. Congress should begin with a moratorium on congressional earmarks and continue with a ban on non-essential government travel. Congress should consolidate duplicate programs and terminate programs that fail to achieve intended results as determined by the administration’s Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART). Enactment of legislation such as this year’s health care law works against deficit reduction by spending Medicare dollars on new subsidies and exacerbating Medicare’s fiscal challenges.
6. What changes do you believe need to be made in Social Security to ensure its long-term solvency?
According to the Social Security trustees, Social Security will start paying out more in benefits than it collects in taxes by 2016, and the Social Security trust fund will be completely exhausted by 2037. The sooner Congress acts to address this financing shortfall, the better, because less drastic measures will be needed to maintain solvency. Even so, Congress failed in recent years to respond to calls to strengthen Social Security. I believe any plan to reform Social Security should not only protect current beneficiaries, it must also protect future beneficiaries by guaranteeing a level of benefits.
7. What, if any, changes would you make to Medicare and Medicaid to slow their rate of growth?
Millions of seniors and the disabled rely on Medicare for health care coverage today. Millions more are counting on it for the future. Steps are needed to preserve and strengthen the program, which is currently running a deficit on shaky footing because of health reform. Medicare’s chief actuary warns that current projections of the program’s health are not reasonable for either the short or long term. Health reform cut $529 billion from Medicare, which the chief actuary says is not viable. It will require congressional intervention to prevent the withdrawal of providers from Medicare and severe problems with beneficiary access. More must be done to move the Medicare program to one that rewards the kind of high quality care we have in Iowa, rather than volume of services alone. As far as Medicaid, the partisan health care overhaul enacted this year dramatically expanded eligibility for Medicaid (to 16 million more people) despite the fact that the program already was stretched thin and despite the fact that many doctors don’t take Medicaid patients because program payments are so low. It doesn’t serve those in need of health care services to make them eligible for a program that can’t help them as intended.
8. Do you support continued subsidies for ethanol? If so, how, if at all, would you change them?
In April, I introduced legislation to extend through 2015 the ethanol blender’s credit, the small ethanol producer tax credit, the cellulosic producer tax credit and the ethanol import tariff. Extension of these policies is the right thing to do because bio-fuels offer an alternative to foreign oil and generate economic activity in the United States. Today, ethanol comprises nearly 10 percent of the U.S. fuel supply. Ethanol produced in the Midwest replaces oil from Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Nigeria. Ethanol is good for rural economies, and a recent study found that the failure to extend the blender’s credit and the secondary tariff would result in the loss of 112,000 jobs nationwide and reduce ethanol production by nearly 40 percent. Iowa would lose the most jobs at nearly 30,000. The lapse of the separate tax credit for biodiesel, which expired at the end of 2009, also has cost jobs. Last year, 29,000 clean-energy jobs were lost nationwide and many of the remaining 23,000 jobs have disappeared with the lapse in the credit. We can’t risk a repeat performance with ethanol, where 112,000 jobs are at stake.
9. Do you support changes in the federal law dealing with abortion?
I support policies that protect unborn life at all stages. My voting record is 100 percent pro-life. I believe health care professionals should not be forced to provide a service they object to on moral or religious grounds. I support the right of parents to be active participants in decisions affecting the medical care of their children and, for that reason, support legislation making it illegal to transport a minor across state lines for an abortion to circumvent state requirements to have parents involved in such decisions. I’ve always supported the Hyde amendment to prohibit taxpayer dollars from being used for abortions.
10. Do you support the right of gay and lesbian couples to marry?
I support traditional marriage. I voted for the Defense of Marriage Act, which was signed into law by President Clinton. It defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman and prevents states from being forced to honor the decisions of other state courts. I also voted twice in 2006, in the Judiciary Committee and in the Senate, for a joint resolution that would have amended the U.S. Constitution to define marriage as between one man and one woman. The definition of marriage should be determined by elected legislators, not judges.
