State of Rhode Island Archives: on Budget & Economy


Barry Hinckley: Our children have to pay back the debt; it's a train wreck

Whitehouse slammed the debt reduction plan proposed in the House by Vice Presidential candidate, Rep. Paul Ryan. "The Ryan budget is disastrous," said Whitehouse, who maintained it balanced the budget on the backs of middle-class Americans, while shielding the rich. When asked what measures he would support, Whitehouse said eliminating $4 trillion over the next 10 years; with $2 trillion in cuts and $2 trillion in revenues, or tax increases. "Republicans have not identified one single loophole in the tax code they would get rid of," Whitehouse said.

Hinckley criticized Whitehouse, "If you don't like it, mark it up and send it back. This is an all-hands-on-deck situation." Hinckley then criticized the Bush and Obama administrations, calling them both "train wrecks." "My children are going to have to pay this back," he said.

Source: WPRI Eyewitness News on 2012 R.I. Senate debate Oct 23, 2012

Sheldon Whitehouse: Grow the economy from the middle class out

Whitehouse said it was vital to grow the economy from the middle class out. He said he'd continue to focus on innovation, manufacturing and infrastructure to help revive the economy; pointing to federal funding for construction projects and a new crane and pier at Quonset. "[The recovery's] been painfully slow," Whitehouse said. "That's why we need to do something that will create jobs. The easy thing is infrastructure. Rhode Island is one of the worst states in infrastructure."
Source: WPRI Eyewitness News on 2012 R.I. Senate debate Oct 23, 2012

Mark Zaccaria: Do the right thing and cut pork, then cut all expenditures

The fastest acting and best long term policy action the federal government could take would be to lower its expenditures. This would lower the amount of money diverted from the productive economy to less efficient uses. Doing that, however, is a lot more difficult than it sounds. Since government is a political institution there's always the temptation to cut spending right after the pork is brought home this time. It's a problem that has plagued legislators of all parties.

It's time to start some buzz around the idea of 'Doing the Right Thing' for the economy. We fought a 50 Year Cold War to determine what the dominant political philosophy would be here on Earth, and Capitalism won. So it is incumbent on the world's largest economy to apply that political philosophy effectively.

Source: 2008 R.I. House campaign website, markz4ri.org, "Q&A" Nov 6, 2008

Lincoln Chafee: Pork barrel accounts for 1% of the budget, and is requested

LAFFEY: I think of the $27 billion of pork barrel spending that goes on in this country every year and I think of how we could buy textbooks with it, how we could use the money for other more important purposes. Rhode Island does not benefit it because while $150 million of pork barrel projects coming back to Rhode Island in the next four for five years, we had to spend $223 million to get the bridge to nowhere up in Alaska for 50 people. It’s a wrong policy.

CHAFEE: $27 billion in a $2.5 trillion budget, that’s 1% of the budget. If you’re saying I’m going down to reform all our financial problems, it’s in 1% of the budget. Every year I send a letter to every city and town, the town manager, the mayor, the president of the city council and ask how can I help you in your neighborhoods? They write back, I then submit those requests to the subcommittee. That goes to the Senate full committee, then to the House. It gets signed by the President. Then it becomes law. So it’s a long process.

Source: 2006 R.I. Republican Senate Primary debate (x-ref Laffey) Aug 24, 2006

Stephen Laffey: Pork barrel spending does not benefit Rhode Island

LAFFEY: I think of the $27 billion of pork barrel spending that goes on in this country every year and I think of how we could buy textbooks with it, how we could use the money for other more important purposes. Rhode Island does not benefit it because while $150 million of pork barrel projects coming back to Rhode Island in the next four for five years, we had to spend $223 million to get the bridge to nowhere up in Alaska for 50 people. It’s a wrong policy.

CHAFEE: $27 billion in a $2.5 trillion budget, that’s 1% of the budget. If you’re saying I’m going down to reform all our financial problems, it’s in 1% of the budget. Every year I send a letter to every city and town, the town manager, the mayor, the president of the city council and ask how can I help you in your neighborhoods? They write back, I then submit those requests to the subcommittee. That goes to the Senate full committee, then to the House. It gets signed by the President. Then it becomes law. So it’s a long process.

Source: 2006 R.I. Republican Senate Primary debate on WPRI Aug 24, 2006

Stephen Laffey: Pay for entitlement programs by keeping taxes low

Wouldn’t it be better 30 years from now to have $100 trillion in national assets in a $29 trillion economy by keeping the taxes low and allowing capitol to flow freely? That’s how we’ll pay ultimately for any of these entitlement programs.
Source: 2006 R.I. Republican Senate Primary debate on WPRI Aug 24, 2006

Stephen Laffey: Cut corporate welfare and sink the 600 page tax code

We need to cut the $27 billion of pork barrel projects that’s wasteful to our country, and cut the 125 to $150 billion of corporate welfare. Sink the large sugar producers in our country getting $2.5 billion of corporate welfare every year. Sink the 60,000 page tax code. We need to eliminate & cut the nonmilitary discretionary spending by not increasing it. That is about $63 billion so there’s $250 billion of cuts that can happen that don’t touch our military that we can use to help our economy grow
Source: 2006 R.I. Republican Senate Primary debate on WPRI Aug 24, 2006

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2020 Presidential contenders on Budget & Economy:
  Democrats running for President:
Sen.Michael Bennet (D-CO)
V.P.Joe Biden (D-DE)
Mayor Mike Bloomberg (I-NYC)
Gov.Steve Bullock (D-MT)
Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D-IN)
Sen.Cory Booker (D-NJ)
Secy.Julian Castro (D-TX)
Gov.Lincoln Chafee (L-RI)
Rep.John Delaney (D-MD)
Rep.Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI)
Sen.Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
Gov.Deval Patrick (D-MA)
Sen.Bernie Sanders (I-VT)
CEO Tom Steyer (D-CA)
Sen.Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)
Marianne Williamson (D-CA)
CEO Andrew Yang (D-NY)

2020 Third Party Candidates:
Rep.Justin Amash (L-MI)
CEO Don Blankenship (C-WV)
Gov.Lincoln Chafee (L-RI)
Howie Hawkins (G-NY)
Gov.Gary Johnson(L-NM)
Howard Schultz(I-WA)
Gov.Jesse Ventura (I-MN) 		Republicans running for President:
Sen.Ted Cruz(R-TX)
Gov.Larry Hogan (R-MD)
Gov.John Kasich(R-OH)
V.P.Mike Pence(R-IN)
Gov.Mark Sanford (R-SC)
Pres.Donald Trump(R-NY)
Rep.Joe Walsh (R-IL)
Gov.Bill Weld(R-MA & L-NY)

2020 Withdrawn Democratic Candidates:
Sen.Stacey Abrams (D-GA)
Mayor Bill de Blasio (D-NYC)
Sen.Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
Sen.Mike Gravel (D-AK)
Sen.Kamala Harris (D-CA)
Gov.John Hickenlooper (D-CO)
Gov.Jay Inslee (D-WA)
Mayor Wayne Messam (D-FL)
Rep.Seth Moulton (D-MA)
Rep.Beto O`Rourke (D-TX)
Rep.Tim Ryan (D-CA)
Adm.Joe Sestak (D-PA)
Rep.Eric Swalwell (D-CA)
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