New Hampshire: The Real Facts

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Congressional candidates visit Keene
Republicans agree on many issues, including dumping the incumbent

David P. Greisman
Sentinel Staff

The Republican candidates for New Hampshire’s 2nd District seat of the U.S. House of Representatives agree on numerous topics, including that one term is enough for the incumbent, Democrat Paul W. Hodes.

The race will pit Hodes, of Concord, against either Grant Bosse of Hillsboro, Bob Clegg of Hudson, Jennifer Horn of Nashua, Alfred L’Eplattenier of Rindge or Jim Steiner of Concord.

Bosse, Clegg, Horn and Steiner appeared at a forum Wednesday evening at the Keene Public Library, where they discussed energy plans, opined on the war in Iraq, and answered questions on topics including the economy and immigration.

They also made sure to contrast themselves with Hodes, and to assail what they perceive as a House in need of new faces.

“Congress is broken,” said Horn, a former newspaper columnist and radio talk-show host. “The system has failed the people. It’s time for us to return government to the hands of the people, where it belongs. The only way you change government is by changing it at its core, which means changing the kind of people that we send to represent us in Washington, D.C., to begin with.”

Change means an energy policy that includes an increase in domestic sources, be it through alternative sources of power or by giving refineries the ability to raise their productivity, said Bosse, a former radio reporter and political staffer who has worked for U.S. Sen. John E. Sununu.

“Refineries are the choke point in our gas supply,” Bosse said. “That’s why gas prices are so volatile. A small change in supply can have a huge effect on price.

“I’d bring nuclear power plants online. It’s a mature, clean and safe technology,” he said. “Ethanol has been a disaster, driving up food and fuel prices and hurting the environment. We’ll let solar, wind and New Hampshire’s renewable resource, biomass, compete on the open market.”

Steiner’s proposal include short- and long-term fixes for lowering gas prices.

“Suspend the federal tax for the summer at the time we’re all taking vacations; you should see an 18 cents a gallon reduction in the price you’re paying for gasoline right now,” said Steiner, a lawyer and military veteran.

Eliminating a tariff on imported ethanol would also have an immediate effect, and releasing one-fourth to one-third of America’s strategic oil reserve this summer would bring a “huge drop” in prices, he said.

For the future, Steiner advocates reaching energy independence in five to 10 years through alternative and nuclear energy, and by drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other domestic sources.

Concerning the war in Iraq, all four candidates agree that a timetable for withdrawal should not be set, that troops should stay in the country to continue their mission.

A timetable “does nothing more than say to the enemies, ‘Hang out just for a little while. You’ll know when we’re going to leave, and then you can take over.’ ” said Clegg, a state senator and former state representative.

“It doesn’t matter how we got there,” he said. “The fact is, we’re in Iraq. We’re in Afghanistan. We have to finish what we started. We have to do it as quickly as possible and bring the troops home.”

On the economy, Clegg said he supports a “fair tax,” which, for example, would tax purchases, but not income.

“I’m a firm believer that we should stop taxing productivity,” Clegg said. “The more money you get to keep in your pocket, the better off we are.”

Cutting taxes cannot come without cutting spending, too, Horn said.

“The government spends too much of our money,” Horn said. “They spend as if there is an unlimited supply of revenue, but the only source of revenue is you. We’ve got to cut government spending. We’ve got to eliminate earmarks and get rid of wasteful pork-barrel spending. We’ve got to prioritize our spending.

“When my husband and I sit down to balance our checkbook, we don’t get to call the bank and say, ‘I know we’re in the red, but we’ve got a 10-year plan to balance it out,” she said. “It doesn’t work that way. The government should be required to balance its budget.”

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