Wednesday October 08, 2008
By: Beth LaMontagne Hall
From: Associated Press
(New Castle, N.H.) - New Hampshire Sen. John Sununu defended the economic bailout law on Wednesday against charges from challenger Jeanne Shaheen that Congress didn't work hard enough to find a better solution.
Shaheen said the bill passed by Congress last week didn't do enough to ensure that taxpayers' money would be used wisely. She called for more oversight of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's distribution of the billions of dollars in the bill and of the operations of the banks that will receive the money.
"We were presented with a false choice between a bad bailout bill and no bill at all," said Shaheen, a former Democratic governor. "There was a third choice. Work to get it right. That's what Congress should have done."
Sununu, a first-term Republican, countered that the law provides oversight and said that while it wasn't perfect, something needed to be done to fix the financial crisis.
"A suggestion was made that it was a false choice between supporting the package that was put together and doing nothing," he said. "Frankly, that isn't a false choice. That's exactly the tough choice that members of the United States Senate have to make."
Each candidate got 20 minutes to speak before fielding questions at the Chamber of Commerce forum. Shaheen focused on the economy, energy and health care. Besides criticizing the bailout, she said balancing the federal budget is imperative.
"I believe this reckless spending is hurting us today and will affect the lives of our children and our children's children," she said. She pledged to end no-bid contracts for government contractors and to support a pay-as-you-go spending policy.
Options for improving New Hampshire's economy should include investing in alternative energy projects such as wood-burning power plants and wind farms, she said.
"Drilling alone is not going to solve our problem," said Shaheen. "The real answer is to end the subsidies to the oil companies. They don't need it."
Instead, she said, the money should be used for energy research and development.
In his address, Sununu concentrated on his experience. He repeatedly emphasized that he is not a traditional Republican and is not afraid to cross party lines to get things done.
For example, he said he opposed the renewal of the Patriot Act, going against his party to force changes to protect privacy rights.
"(It was) not a very popular decision with my party," said Sununu. "Frankly, it was not a very popular decision with anyone except for a few people that really understood how important it is to protect personal freedoms, privacy and civil liberties."
He touted his efforts to keep the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard open and to ban federal taxes on Internet usage.
Sununu and Shaheen both held back on the political jabs after sharply criticizing each other in recent debates.
The harshest criticism came from Sununu when he was asked if he would condemn third-party attack ads if Shaheen agreed to do the same.
"I'm not happy about it. I'm sure you're not happy about it," Sununu said. "There's much more money being spent against me than's being spent against my opponent."
He called a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee ad criticizing his position on Social Security a scare tactic.
"Anyone, left, right or center that would suggest that any politician left, right or center would revert the retirement benefits or Social Security of any retiree today is outrageous," Sununu said. "That alone is probably an indication that someone really isn't of the temperament to hold office."
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