An ailing economy likely to worsen, a costly war and energy dependence were dominant concerns last week when Westchester County”™s congressional representatives met with members of the Westchester County Association.
Speaking at the business group”™s Annual Report from Washington luncheon, the congressional trio ”“ Nita M. Lowey, D-18th District, Eliot Engel, D-17th and John Hall, D-19th ”“ offered no cures for the economy. But they agreed the 5-year-old war in Iraq is diverting financial resources from needed domestic projects. And they called for a dedicated national program to develop renewable energy resources and break the country”™s perilous dependence on foreign oil.
Regarding the federal bailout of Bear Stearns, “We didn”™t have a choice,” Lowey said. The Federal Reserve must take greater oversight responsibility on Wall Street, she said.
Regarding the home mortgage crisis and foreclosures, Lowey said legislation pending in the House and Senate would expand Federal Housing Administration loan guarantees. “We have to help people out of this mess now,” she said.
Engel called for an economic summit, including the presidential candidates, to come up with solutions. He said the federal government must stop operating with budget deficits. The government”™s “orgy of spending” is “not fiscal conservatism, it”™s craziness,” he said.
Citing the war”™s toll in both lives and money, “We”™ve got to get out,” Engel said. “The goal posts keep changing.” Looking ahead to a withdrawal under the next presidential administration, “I think certainly within a year we could have two-thirds of our troops home.” But some U.S. troops will be stationed in Iraq “for the foreseeable future,” he said.
Engel called it “ludicrous” that the United States is paying to rebuild Iraq”™s infrastructure. “They can afford it,” he said of oil-rich Iraq. “Let them pay for reconstruction of their own country.”
Lowey put the war”™s actual cost at $3 trillion. She said the Bush administration should be pressuring Middle Eastern allies to do more and spend more to stabilize the region.
Hall, who compared his first year as a lawmaker on Capitol Hill to “drinking from a fire hose,” hammered at the costliness of the war at the expense of domestic infrastructure and security needs. Noting that $60 billion would fix all bridges in New York state in need of repair, “That”™s five months in Iraq,” he said. A $500 million annual investment would make the nation”™s borders more secure, he said. “That”™s less than two weeks in Iraq,” he noted.
Regarding the nation”™s troubled health care system, Hall said baseline national health care coverage is needed, though he opposes requiring citizens to purchase health care, especially in a time of economic hardship.
Hall said 40 percent of health care services now are delivered through the Medicare program and 10 percent through the Department of Veterans Affairs system. “So we”™re halfway through a national health care system,” he said.
With the prospect a new Democratic administration in the White House, “I think we should be bold as far as health care goes and see how far we can push it,” Hall said, first extending coverage to the most at-risk populations and then expanding the national program.
Engel said nearly 50 million Americans have no health coverage and 80 percent of those uninsured are from working families. That is “a national scandal,” he said. Engel said he supports a single-payer plan for universal health coverage, though he thought that unlikely to be passed by Congress.
Hall and Engel called for a national undertaking similar to the Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb or the Apollo space program to develop national energy sources and wean the country from its “petrodollars” spending. “We need to change our mindset in this country,” Engel said. “We need to do what Brazil has done and become energy independent.”
All three representatives have opposed relicensing the Indian Point nuclear power plant. Lowey told the WCA audience she is notopposed to nuclear power plants but opposed the Indian Point plant because of its location in a densely populated area. The WCA board of directors has supported Entergy Nuclear”™s relicensing application at Indian Point.
“We will close it,” Lowey said. “It”™s going to continue to take a great effort on all our parts.”
All three lawmakers agreed the nation should boycott opening ceremonies of the summer Olympic Games to protest host nation China”™s human rights record and its support of the Sudanese government, which the United States has accused of waging genocide in Darfur.
