When Congress passed the economic bailout bill, it did so with its priorities in the wrong place, according to Jeanne Shaheen.

“This was an approach that got us into the situation that we’re in right now,” Shaheen said Tuesday afternoon in a meeting with Sentinel editors.

“It’s an approach that has favored Wall Street, that has favored the top and not recognized that we need to provide assistance to people who are not part of the top echelon in the corporate power structure.

“There’s not support for small businesses, for the average commerce that I think would’ve been more reassuring to people,” she added. “It’s hard to reassure the public that this is something that’s going to be very good for them when they don’t see in the bill a direct relationship to what’s going on in their lives.”

Shaheen, a Democrat from Madbury, was New Hampshire’s governor from 1997 to 2003. She is now in a hotly contested rematch for a seat in the U.S. Senate against incumbent John E. Sununu, a Republican from Waterville Valley.

Sununu, who had previously served six years in the U.S. House of Representatives, defeated Shaheen for the Senate seat in 2002, 51 percent to 46 percent.

On Tuesday, Shaheen described what she would work toward if she wins in November, from lowering health care costs to making sure the American economy continues to improve.

“What we’ve seen in this bailout package is an attempt to address the credit crisis that we’re in, and so hopefully we’ll see some progress on that,” Shaheen said. “But I think we’ve got to look at how do we start creating jobs again, and how do we provide some help for small businesses.

“I think we need to look at an investment in infrastructure,” she said. “After (the attacks of) Sept. 11, when we were dealing with economic recession here, one of the first things I did as governor was to expedite capital projects in the state to try and get money moving into the economy.

“That’s not only an important issue in terms of commerce, but a job creator, too.”

And part of the bailout bill might not have gone far enough, Shaheen said.

“I am still concerned about what kind of oversight is being provided to the Treasury secretary. I still think there’s not enough oversight,” she said. “I’m still concerned about how much protection there is for taxpayers … I support free markets, but I think there has to be some regulation to address excesses.”

The federal government must take better care of its own finances, too, Shaheen said.

“I think there are some places where we’ve seen excesses during the Bush administration that need to end,” she said. “We’ve got any number of examples of where they have misspent public dollars.”

Citing money for projects in Iraq that were never completed and misspent funds following Hurricane Katrina, Shaheen said federal agencies have to be audited.

“I think we’ve got to look at making sure the taxpayer gets the best return on the dollar spent,” Shaheen said. “We need to close tax loopholes, we need to end the tax breaks for the oil companies and companies that are shipping jobs overseas.

“We need to address the money we’re spending for prescription drugs for Medicare, for example,” she said. “The best estimates are $30 billion a year that we’re spending too much because we’ve prohibited Congress from negotiating for the lowest prices.”

Health care reform shouldn’t stop there, Shaheen said.

“We’ve got to both provide access for those people who don’t have health care, and we’ve got to begin to address costs,” Shaheen said. “I think we’ve got to do two things at the same time, neither of which are easy.”

“I would expand children’s health insurance,” she said. “We need to look at prescription drug costs. I support the re-importation of safe drugs from Canada. I support change in the patent laws to get generic drugs on the market faster. Those seem to me to be two actions that could be taken relatively quickly to address health care costs.”

Shaheen said she also would like to see a 50 percent tax credit for small businesses that cover their employees’ health care, and for insurance coverage to move toward providing incentives for preventive care.

At a glance

Name: Jeanne Shaheen

Political affiliation: Democrat.

Age: 61.

Born in: St. Charles, Mo.

Current residence: Madbury.

Education: bachelor’s degree, Shippensburg University, 1969; master’s degree, University of Mississippi, 1973.

Family: Husband of 39 years, Bill Shaheen. They have three daughters and six grandchildren.

Occupation: Director of Harvard University’s Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School of Government, 2005-07.

Offices held: Governor of New Hampshire, 1997-2003; N.H. state senator, 1991-97.

On the issues:

Economy: Create more jobs by investing in infrastructure and encouraging research; auditing federal agencies to ensure proper spending.

Energy: Supports tapping into America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve and the Northeast Heating Oil Reserve, investing in new energy technologies, expanding funding for federal weatherization assistance and combating any price speculation or market manipulation.

Health care: Make health care affordable and accessible, allow importation of prescription drugs from Canada, get generic drugs on the market faster, provide incentives for preventive care.