Visconti v. Larson or Name recognition vs Reason

The Reminder hit my driveway today. I noticed that despite the advertising for Political LTE submissions there were none in any of the recent issues, today’s being the last before the election, other than anonymous speak outs and mine. I also noticed that they have a nice write up from an interview of Larson and Visconti on  various issues. You can read it here, but some highlights are below.

In case you don’t know. Larson  is seeking his 6th term, which means 10 years in office with more desired. Keep that in mind when reading his answers. He appears to believe that congress doesn’t control spending or any of the other problem areas of federal government.

Larson on taxes and spending:

The House has adopted “pay-go” standards, but the Senate has failed to do so. You have to live within your means, and you have to pay for those items that you decide are essential for the health and well being of the country. No family can do what the federal government does, and that is put off the budget, run up the costs and at the same decide you are going to tax and spend.

Visconti on taxes and spending:

You can’t fix a house with a broken hammer. Congress is broken and there needs to be term limits – that doesn’t mean one term, maybe three or four – but some kind of timetable so you know when you are going to enter the government and when you are going to leave it. You need to control congress before you can control spending . Eliminate special interest PAC money.

Larson on economic stimulus:

What we had was not a question of facing real estate sub prime issues, even though that is how it all began , and it became an investor crisis in terms of 401Ks and pension issues, but what it really was is a credit crisis. Sec. Paulson dropped a $700 billion problem at the doorstep of Congress with no paper and no plan and then walked away. What we argued for was no golden parachutes , tough compensation with respect to businesses that actually participate in the program, strict accountability and an oversight board that’s transparent, that the board is appointed by members of the House and Senate to provide necessary oversight, and that there is a claw back provision, because Paulson’s proposal is to buy back troubled assets.

Visconti on economic stimulus:

The answer is in the constitution , which they forgot about when they nationalized the banks. It has been forgotten, and that’s why the people have been forgotten. I don’t think we should send the FBI into institutions like we’ve done and then send billions of dollars at the same time. It’s like bank robbers going in, and you send the police in, and you let them come out with the money. Now the public owns parts of the banks it may not be able to get loans from. The whole regulatory process has to be overhauled. They took the firewalls down between banking and investment insurance, and then when it didn’t change the regulation, they ripped out the sprinkler system, so like a condo complex, the fire just spreads.

Actually… I just realized there is much more content in the print edition. Read that for the rest if you want the full story.

[polldaddy poll=1059999][polldaddy poll=1060005]