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| Serving Callaway County communities since 1875. | www.fultonsun.com | Saturday, July 04, 2009 |
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Republicans square off on issues in Ninth District race By ROGER MEISSEN The Fulton Sun
Economics seemed the headlining theme behind questions from potential supporters of the five Republican candidates running for the Ninth District congressional seat in the debate at Windsor Auditorium on the campus of Stephens College. Candidates uttered a plethora of political buzzwords focusing on leadership, will, church and continuing tax breaks in an effort to prove their mettle to a half-full auditorium. Three former state representatives, a former University of Missouri football player and a St. Louis resident rounded out the candidates. Dan Bishir of St. Peters, former state Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer of St. Elizabeth, state Rep. Danie Moore of Fulton, former MU player Brock Olivo and Rep. Bob Onder of Lake St. Louis all took the stage. Questions ranged from earmarks and the tax system, to what should be done about the sub-prime loan mess that's plagued the financial structure of the country. "In general I would say the market should correct itself,” Moore said. “I believe in competition and the market system, but I do also believe the public has been duped when offered a loan with 120-percent value. Olivo suggested that educating people in “financial literacy” should be the way to protect against further financial crises. “In the U.S. we tend to live beyond our means, on the credit card, in this era of the virtual dollar,” Olivo said. “We need to get back to teaching financial literacy, things as simple as how to balance a checkbook before people get out of high school. “I underscore I'm for the free market - financial markets correcting themselves - and let's make a shift toward more education.” Bishir took the stance that bailing out companies that offered risky loans was a bad precedent to set. “Only a certain percentage of your money can go to paying for a house, a car, and your food,” Bishir said. “Banks or mortgage companies that charged 150 percent - in my mind that's criminal. “Š We can't bail out companies every time they do something that gets them in trouble.” When it came to the national budget deficit, many of the candidates agreed that a balanced budget should be a primary concern. “If we're going to balance our budget, we're going to do it by encouraging policy restraint, encouraging economic growth, and then we can go about it if we have the will to retrain federal spending,” Onder said. “Almost never on the federal level is there a budget cut - mostly it's a slowing of the rate of increase that congressional liberals want to spend on those government programs.” On questions about the state of Social Security, some candidates recognized that the current system is broken. “I think that one way to solve the problem is to put Social Security back in the hands of the people who are putting their hard-earned money into the system with something like a health savings account,” Luetkemeyer said. “I think one solution is to grow ourselves out of this. If we allow ourselves to restructure our national incentive for companies to come here and restructure the resources, we have to take the burden off of it.” Many of the candidates repeated and reiterated the ideas of the other five as they rotated who went first in answering, As the regular question-and-answer session ended and a roundtable began, Olivo pointed out how a generational gap has caused a need for younger people to get involved in politics. “Washington has proved not to be the best steward of our tax dollars Š” he said. “I'm speaking to my generation, my generation right now. We need to get us involved in the political process to make change happen.” Editor's note: A story on Democrats involved in the debate event will be posted Wednesday. |
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