The national debate on the size and responsibility of the federal government fled the Washington, D.C., talk circuit and alighted in Rye last week when the region”™s congressional delegation ”“ two Democrats and a Republican ”“ hewed to their parties”™ positions and slugged it out, if decorously, on issues that included the budget and health care.
Indian Point proved equally divisive for the representatives: Close it from the Democrats and don”™t close it from the Republican.
The Westchester County Association hosted the event for 190 members and guests at Westchester Country Club. U.S. Reps. Nan Hayworth, R-19th; Nita Lowey, D-18th; and Eliot Engel, D-17th, spoke and fielded questions at the WCA”™s Annual Report from Washington.
Hayworth was outgunned on issues of seniority ”“ both Lowey”™s and Engel”™s congressional tenures date to 1989 ”“ but the freshman representative ceded no ground on the issues of the day. She said of the federal trillion dollars of red ink, “We are committing an act of intergenerational debt. The federal government is not the best way to reach goals within our communities and within our lives.”
Engel said revenue enhancement ”“ taxes ”“ had to be on the table in budget negotiations: “I reject the only way to do this is through cuts.”
Hayworth turned the bottom-line issue to the business audience: “A show of hands,” she said to make her point. “How many here believe New York”™s tax structure helps promote business activity?”
Lowey said refusing to agree to a new debt ceiling “threatened the full faith and credit” of the U.S. and jeopardized soldiers, roads and national investments. Hayworth responded, “We can”™t afford to raise the debt ceiling without simultaneously engaging the mechanism to keep us from accumulating further debt.”
“I”™m glad to hear of this newfound Republican religion,” Engel said. “We had a surplus under Clinton; now we have debt as far as the eye can see.” He called the Rep. Paul Ryan/GOP spending proposal “an abomination” and said, “Everything should be on the table. You can”™t say, defense is off the table. What they (the GOP) propose will devastate health care for our people.”
The Ryan blueprint has been a rallying point for conservatives and anathema for liberals. One of its tenets is replacing federal medical programs with block grants to the states. Lowey identified Ryan as a personal friend, saying, “Paul, you”™re wonderful, but you”™re wrong.”
Said Hayworth: “The federal government has created a portfolio of tasks for itself. Our job is to bring that portfolio down to size.”
Lowey acknowledged, “We are over our heads in debt,” and said she had voted for some $70 billion in spending cuts in the current budget. “But we have our responsibilities to make sure every youngster gets an education.”
All three representatives have toured the Indian Point nuclear facility in recent weeks.
Both Lowey and Engel favored denying the Indian Point nuclear facility fresh licenses in 2013 and 2015. Said Engel: “I am not opposed to nuclear energy per se, but I agree with Nita: I am for closing Indian Point.” He said the relicensing process should be just as stringent as an original operating permit.
Lowey said the population had soared since the plant was built in the 1960s and 1970s, “And there is no way to move 20 million people within a 50-mile zone if something goes wrong.”
Hayworth disagreed, saying she had witnessed “redundancy upon redundancy” regarding safety. She was confident of Indian Point”™s “anticipatory and responsive” plans and noted 18 percent to 30 percent of regional power emanates from Indian Point”™s reactors. “There is a pall of smog over the Hudson Valley some mornings from coal-fired plants in the Midwest,” she said. “With a shutdown, you”™ll need to get more energy from coal.”
Summing, Hayworth said her goal was to relieve regulatory burdens on business, promising “the future holds better things. We”™ve had deficit spending for far too long. The federal government must maintain a light hand upon you and a light hand upon your state.”
Said Engel, “We need to share the pain. If people are doing well, you pay a little more. We need to balance the budget, but we need to be compassionate, as well.” He is proud, he said, that 30 million Americans have health coverage since President Obama”™s health overhaul won approval last year. And both he and Lowey decried what they see as conservative attacks on targeted social issues, notably “an assault on women”™s health care and the right to choose.” Lowey said GOP-targeted cuts to the National Institutes of Health would endanger grants to the medical community, $60 million of which have found local biopharmaceutical businesses.
The event also served as a launch pad for the WCA”™s Sept. 22 health care symposium in Tarrytown. That event will host experts, panels, keynote addresses and, in WCA President Bill Mooney”™s words, “all-star speakers” tackling “the real cost drivers of health care.” Other issues will include insurance of the future and controlling costs today. Reflecting on what the WCA has already accomplished in the arena of health care reform, Mooney said, “We”™ve made an awful situation bad.”
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