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| Intro Charlie Bass |
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key: state politics / government |
| John Stephen |
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Tease Interview |
| Intro Charlie Bass |
Goodnight |
| Charlie Bass |
Founders |
| Tag Charlie Bass |
key: state politics / government |
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| Hello Return to index of stories... |
Hello. I'm Richard Ager sitting in for Allison McNair. Welcome to NH Outlook. |
| Intro Charlie Bass Return to index of stories... |
Both seats of Congress are open this year and there is a wide field of candidates in the upcoming primary. We've invited the candidates to sit down for interviews. We begin this program with the Republican incumbent for Congressional District 2, Charles Bass. |
| Charlie Bass Return to index of stories... |
Richard: How would you describe yourself, politically? Bass: I live in Peterborough, run a small business, 2 young children in school. I care about veterans, I care about a clean environment, I care about fiscal responsibility, I care about education, especially special education. I care about good constituant service, I care about the future of this country. Richard: Overall would you say moderate, conservative? Bass: I don't think it's fair to pigeonhole people for anybody. If being in favor of a citizen's right to bare arms makes me conservative, I'm a consevative. If being in favor of the IP purchase in the North Country makes me an environmentalist, I'm an environmentalist. If being in favor of full-funding special education makes me pro-education, then that's great. For me, I think I represent NH people. Not everyone agrees with everything I've ever done, but on the whole I think NH values a representative in Washington, and I look forward, God willing, to be able to do so for another 2 years. Edith: I think people in Coos County and the 2nd Congressional district are very interested in the Presiden's proposals for homeland security. The Canadian border, up in Pittsburg, Murphy Dam are all things people care about. Bass: First of all, I think it's important to have that station manned 24 hours a day, which it is. And to continue that way, that's been a battle for a long time. The whole issue of homeland security is important for Coos county, but also every county in NH, particularly Coos county-being able to get back and forth from Canada "conveinently, but safely is important for the economy, both in terms of fiber movement and also tourism. So, we just need to keep track of the operation up there and make sure that it isn't shut down to the point where it hurts the economy, while at the same time we don't end up having the Pittsburg station be part of a problem for this country. Edith: So how do you see it working out to have customs, border patrol, all of those divisions under one umbrella? Bass: Well, I think it helps because INS people can't check trunks for example of cars. And customs people, I'm not sure of this, but they probably can't get into immigration issues so much. The purpose of combining these agencies, while protecting union rights, is to try and create some flexibility so that an individual has some more leeway than exists today. I think the homeland security agency is going to work very well, and I think we are going to be happy with it. Richard: Now you have voted for a prescription drug benefit bill that would cover medicare recipients, but it would be through private insurance. What makes you think that private insurance companies would be motovated to participate in such a plan? Bass: Well, first of all it's a huge new market, and anytime you open a new market there will be more utilization, obviously, because insurance will be available. Our actuaries in the Congessional budget office and so forth believe that the program will work as its works in other areas, healthcare for example. What's important about this bill, is that it provides a cap for every senior of 3700 dollars, over which no cost will be borne, so every senior will know that prescriptions can't exceed that amount, every senior will be entitled to participate in the program. And it will cut the cost of drugs. This is according to the Congrssional budget office, overall by 44 percent, because of competition that will be created. Pharmacy benefit managers will have the drug companies competing for the first time, to sell drugs to provide services for seniors. Now the federally run system that has been proposed by the Democrats is only estimated to save about 14% in the cost of drugs. And lastly, and most importantly with the prescription plan, is we passed a plan that goes into effect immediately, results in immediate savings for seniors, and provides the benefit that they need, that's overdue. And the longer that the Senate, and those that oppose our bill complain, every day that goes by seniors get nothing. I'm frustrated that, the Senate should be able to pass a bill, maybe they don't like every aspect of it, pass it, get the President to sign it, get the plan in place. If you don't like it, fix it next year, but give it a chance. Richard: But do you get the sense that the pharmasudical companies have been profiting too greatly, I mean clearly the structure of modern medicine has changed, drugs are much more important then they were when Medicaid started. Bass: Well said. I think that there needs to be more competition. I think there needs to be re-importation, which is a border issue with Canada, it ought to be allowed, I'm on the committee of jurisdiction, we're hoping to bring a bill out in September. I think that there ought to be fewer exceptions for going from brand name to generic, and that we ought to look carefully at the issue of over-the-counter to prescription. All of those steps, result in lower drug prices, underlying that as you said in the beginning, is that prescriptions are a far bigger part of health care than they used to be. 30 years ago, the only remedy for heart attack was bed rest and nitro-glycerin pills, that's it. Obviously we have a lot more now, its a lot more expensive and a lot more complicated. Edith: Where do you stand on the idea of having indivduals having the ability to take at least part of the money from social security and invest it in the stock market? Bass: Since 1984, every federal employee has participated in a retirement plan that consists of a defined benefit portion, which is like Social Security, and a defined contribution portion, which is like an IRA. They've had choices, which has not involved buying ABC stock, or anything like, but buying treasury bills or bonds or a stock index fund. Even with the trouble that the stock market has had recently, these federal employees are far better off than their counterparts, who are depending solely on Soial Security, because the average growth in Federal security bills is 5% per year interest, that's less than half a percent, which is the average rate of return on a complete defined benefit plan like Social Security. All I say is give people under the age of 50 an opportunity to participate if they choose to do so in an investment instrument that would be carefully controlled, that would reduce their payroll tax by a percent or two. Edith: So would they still have the opportunity to have the same disability coverage and the same death benefits cause that's the aspect of social security that , people keep talking about retirement, but there's this other aspect. Bass: And what it gets down to, the only reason you can cut the payroll tax a percent or two, you know the payroll tax is 13 and a half percent, is because a large portion of the socail security benefit structure, goes to people who are not paying into the system, and so you can't cut it by 8 or 10 %, one and a half percent. So it's a very very small part of the total pie, but remember this, people who make 60-70 thousand dollars a year generally have IRA's and Keoughs, seperate benefit plans and so forth. The people who earn 20-40 thousand dollars, they usually only have social security. I think its appropriate for those people, low to middle income working Americans to have a little chance to participate in the econmic engine thats been driving this country my whole lifetime. Edith: So you see it not as a benefit for the wealthy, which many people see it as. Bass: Not at all. Social security benefit is more important for lower income retirees than it is for upper income retirees. Richard: But, of course that carries with it the danger of exposing that portion of social security benefits to market forces which. Bass: Let me ask you this, what's the likelyhood of a treasury bond defaulting? What percent? Richard: There have been proposals to open it up to stock market accounts. Bass: But the federal government retirement plan gives you 3 choices, treasury bills, bonds, or a stock index fund or any combination. You can go in and out once a year. The average rate of growth of the stock market is at least.probably higher than the rate of return on a treasury bill. Richard: There have been 20 year periods where it's actually less. Bass: There's never been in my lifetime a treasury bill thats been worth less tomorrow than it is today. Let's say that you limit it to just treasury bills, nothing else. Would you consider that a risky investment? If treasury bills can't be counted on tham social security. Richard: That depends on how deeply the government gets in debt, and that's kind of my next point. You voted in favor of the Bush tax cuts, of course there are a couple of different phases to them, given that we're now heading into a defecit period which we had not forseen a year ago, are you still fully in favor of those? Bass: First of all, if the economy doesn't recover, the defecits are going to get a lot worse than they already are. We've passed 2 tax relief packages. The first, which was based upon significant surplusses, involved returning a little bit of money to middle class working Americans. The bulkof the tax relief package goes to people earning less than 75,000 dollars a year. The 2nd leg, involved an economic stimulus package, and that is important because if the economy continues to founder, then we don't get the revenues we need to get back into surplus. I think both tax relief packages are good and important, and they represent a proactive effort on the part of the Congress to insure that the economy remains strong. And I've heard a lot of criticims of the tax relief package, but not one person. Richard: At the beginning when President Bush was running on it, it was give the money back, then as we started getting into a recessionary era, Bass: It was both, but the people who cricized the tax relief package, not one of them has a single suggestion for a repeal, so they say its bad, but they don't suggest a repeal. Edith: Tell me about your view on the death, or state inheiritance tax. Do you think that we shouldn't have them? Bass: Real quick.eliminating the Death tax isn't eliminating it all together. What you do is you change the 55% Death tax, to the Capital gains tax. You still get the revenue, but you still have to pay the tax, but the tax is recognized once the profit occurs, which is when you liquidate the asset. I support that. We're not eliminating the revenue source, we're just changing it from inheiritence tax to Capital Gains tax. Edith: So if I pass on a hundred shares of Exxon to my heirs and they don't sell. Bass: They don't pay any tax until they sell, but when they sell, they pay. Richard: Thanks. |
| Tag Charlie Bass Return to index of stories... |
For more information on the Bass campaign for Congress, you can visit house dot gov forward slash bass. |
| John Stephen Return to index of stories... |
Next we meet John Stephen - a republican candidate running for the first congressional district. Joining me again Edith Tucker from the Coos County Democrat. |
| Tag John Stephen Return to index of stories... |
For more information on the John Stephen campaign for Congress you can visit stephen for congress dot com. |
| Tease Interview Return to index of stories... |
There are more interviews coming up. The Outlook crew will be on special assignment during NHPTV's summer membership drive. We'll return with our next candidate interviews on Friday, August 30th. We'll interview Gary Hoffman and Fran Wendelboe two republican candidates in the first Congressional district. |
| Goodnight Return to index of stories... |
That's all for this edition of Outlook. Thanks for joining us. For all of us here at New Hampshire Public Television, I'm Richard Ager. Allison McNair returns in two weeks. |
| Founders Return to index of stories... |
Thanks to our founding sponsors who have provided major funding for the production of New Hampshire Outlook: New Hampshire Charitable Foundation Public Service of New Hampshire Alice J. Reen Charitable Trust Putnam Foundation Stratford Foundation |
| key: state politics / government Return to index of stories... |
NEW HAMPSHIRE OUTLOOK Air Date/Time:8/09/02 / 2200 HOST: Allison McNair Length: 10:00 In addition to a summary of the day's top New Hampshire stories, this edition of New Hampshire Outlook, NHPTV's nightly news magazine, included an interview with Republican incumbent for Congressional District 2, Charles Bass. PRODUCER/REPORTER: Allison McNair NAME OF PARTICIPANTS: Charles Bass \Congressional Candidate/District 2 Edith Tucker\Coos County Democrat |
| key: state politics / government Return to index of stories... |
NEW HAMPSHIRE OUTLOOK Air Date/Time:8/08/02 / 2200 HOST: Allison McNair Length: 10:00 In addition to a summary of the day's top New Hampshire stories, this edition of New Hampshire Outlook, NHPTV's nightly news magazine, included an interview with John Stephen - a republican candidate running for the first congressional district. PRODUCER/REPORTER:Allison McNair NAME OF PARTICIPANTS: John Stephen - a republican candidate running for the first congressional district. |