Nebraska’s U.S. Senate Candidates Discuss Federal Budget Issues

Oct. 29, 2014, 6:30 a.m. ·

CC2014SenateRace_1280x720_4.jpg

Taxes, spending and the federal budget deficit are key topics for a majority of voters nationally, according to a recent Gallup poll. Mike Tobias of NET News talks with Nebraska’s U.S. Senate candidates about these subjects and their proposals, as part of our Campaign Connection 2014 coverage.


If there’s one thing a Republican, a Democrat and two independents can agree on, it’s that the federal government needs to change the way it collects taxes and spends money. Nebraska’s four U.S. Senate candidates have slightly different variations on how to make this happen, if elected.

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ben Sasse (Photo courtesy Sasse campaign)


Republican Ben Sasse, a college president from Fremont, said it starts with entitlement reform, saying these, in particular health entitlements, are “crowding out every other aspect of federal spending.”

“We need to be talking about honestly recalibrating these programs,” Sasse said. “We need to protect seniors who are currently retired and near the retirement age. But for people middle-age and younger, we need to recalibrate these programs so they can be solvent and actually continue to exist. We had 16 workers per retiree when we set the retirement age. Today, there are 2.8 workers per retiree. When we set the national retirement age, at age 65, life expectancy was only 62. Today, our shared life expectancy is north of 80 years.”

Sasse said defense spending should be a high priority, but that other priorities need to be addressed.

“We also need to recognize that we should be prioritizing national issues around primarily federal responsibilities, and leave to the states and localities whatever issues you conceivably can,” Sasse said. “And then within the social safety net programs, because we need a strong social safety net, we should be prioritizing spending toward the sickest and weakest and poorest among us, and so we should be means testing a lot of our programs as well.”

Independent U.S. Senate candidate Todd Watson (Photo courtesy Watson campaign)


Independent, nonpartisan candidate Todd Watson, a Lincoln businessman, said his spending priorities would be defense, Social Security and Medicare, investing in the country’s “dilapidated infrastructure” and border security, but he’s not against putting everything on the table.

“Across the board everything,” Watson said. “No one wins. Everybody loses just a little bit, but if you make that at the end of the year, you give yourself 12 months, it puts the pressure on the representatives to say, ‘okay, maybe we can find savings here and here, so we don’t cut these programs. We need these programs more importantly.’”

Watson said we also need to change the way we tax, and close tax loopholes.

“Our code is bigger than the Bible and it’s littered with all the multi-national corporation loopholes and it lets these guys off ‘scot-free,’” Watson said. “It lets off the rich people ‘scot-free,’ and again, I’m not against rich people, I’m not against poor people. We’ve got to get back to equality under the law where every citizen feels everyone’s pulling their fair share of the wagon.”

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Dave Domina (Photo courtesy Domina campaign)


Democrat Dave Domina, an Omaha attorney, also talked about the need to examine tax loopholes.

“We can’t have thousands of exemptions, and exceptions and credits in the tax code that allow income producers of substantial numbers and amounts to escape contribution,” Domina said. “They’re really stupid spending decisions. They get etched into law, they favor little interest groups that then are encouraged to save them by spending millions of dollars on elections to elect their friends, and democracy gets polluted by the process.”

Domina said he would support a previously-introduced bill that will close the “lowest hanging fruit loopholes,” and that spending priorities would be defense, health care and what he calls “the basics” for citizens.

“So you have to have a water system, a sewer system, a transportation system,” Domina said. “The transportation system has to allow goods to move back and forth, and the people who move those goods have to be educated, so the priorities are very much commanded by what life requires.”

Independent U.S. Senate candidate Jim Jenkins (Photo courtesy Jenkins campaign)


Independent, nonpartisan candidate Jim Jenkins, a businessman and rancher from Callaway, said defense is a top spending priority, along with the nation’s infrastructure.

“I’m very concerned that we have somewhere between a two and three trillion dollar infrastructure deficit,” Jenkins said. “I’m talking about roads, bridges, technology infrastructure, health care infrastructure.”

Jenkins also talked about closing tax loopholes and simplifying the tax code, and said the “inability to rein in entitlement spending” is a big problem that could be addressed without “doing something radical.”

“Certainly when you have the average length of life now increased by 15, 16 years or whatever, it doesn’t make sense that we have the same retirement age,” Jenkins said, “and so I’m proposing doing some sort of a staging where bit by bit we tie the retirement age and your eligibility for Medicare and Social Security to the actuarial tables that show, just as an insurance company would do, that would show when you become eligible.”

It’s clear this is a high priority for all four Senate candidates; when asked about a signature piece of legislation they’d like to see passed during their potential first term in office, each mentioned something related to taxes and spending.


ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Watch the NET News U.S. Senate Debate, held Sept. 14 in North Platte. This debate included an extensive foreign affairs discussion.

NET News story: "Nebraska's U.S. Senate candidates discuss foreign policy and use of the military"

Hear Nebraska's U.S. Senate candidates talk about more issues in videos on the Mike Tobias, NET Journalist Facebook page.

Federal Election Commission (campaign finance information)

CC%20small_6.png

Visit the NET News Campaign Connection 2014 web page for more election coverage.