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Stephen Laffey on Budget & Economy
Republican Senate Challenger
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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
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
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
Five Step Diet to Stop Wasting Our Tax Dollars
Five Step Diet to Stop Washington's Addiction to Wasting Our Tax Dollars- Eliminate outrageous pork barrel spending. (In one bill alone this year, there were over 6000 wasteful spending projects-this bill should have been called the "Leave No Pork
Behind Act").
- End Corporate Welfare and Close Special Interest Tax Loopholes. (In one bill, there was $10 billion for tobacco farmers-instead of being called a "jobs" bill this should have been called the "Leave No Lobbyist Behind Act").
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Stop Politicians from Raiding the Social Security Trust Fund. (For decades your pension fund has been used to plug holes in the federal budget-in the private sector this would be illegal, but in Washington it's business as usual).
- Reduce Prescription
Drug Prices. (Congress won't let Medicare negotiate for lower prices with the drug companies).
- Keep taxes down and simplify the tax code to generate economic growth.
Source: Press release, "Five Step Diet"
Sep 9, 2005