PointCounterpoint

Meet your congressional candidates 9th district

Anthony Flaccavento (D)
Flaccavento is a family farmer, community leader and small business owner. He has worked on environmental and economic development in central Appalachia communities for the past 25 years. In 1995, Flaccavento founded Appalachian Sustainable Development, which has since become a national leader in sustainable economic development. He has a BS degree in agriculture and environmental science from the University of Kentucky and a masters degree in economic and social development from the University of Pittsburgh. He is married with three children.

Morgan Griffith (R)

Griffith was elected to Congress in 2010. A life-long resident of Southwest Virginia, Griffith is a graduate of Emory & Henry College and Washington and Lee School of Law. After law school, he opened a law practice on Main Street in Salem. In 1994, he was elected to serve in the Virginia House of Delegates. In 2001, he became the first Republican majority leader of the Virginia House of Delegates. He lives in Salem with his wife, Hilary, and their three children, Abby, Davis and Starke.

The candidates answer questions on Medicare, the national debt, party platform and federal funding of universities. Page 4.

Q&A
What changes do you favor to make Medicare sustainable, or what alternative program would you support instead of the entitlement program?

Anthony Flaccavento (D)

I fully support Medicare and will fight any effort to convert it to a voucher program or otherwise shift substantial costs to beneficiaries. I will support three changes in the health care industry, including Medicare, that will improve care and reduce costs: First, provide greater access, especially for preventative and primary care; second, work for greater transparency and prevention of waste, fraud and abuse; and third, reduce costs and improve patient care through expansion of coordinated care and outcome-based payment for services. There are several additional steps we can take to restore Medicare to sound financial footing and lower the overall cost of health care: n Negotiate prescription drug prices with the pharmaceutical companies, as the Veterans Administration does, saving an estimated $50 billion annu-

Congressional candidates from the 9th District

ally.
n Improve overall health to reduce health care

Morgan Griffith (R)

and save Medicare by giving them a range of guaranteed coverage options. We will lower costs and make sure this program is here for future generations. I was honored to recently receive the Guardian of Seniors Rights Award by the 60 Plus Organization. I have always, and will always, work to make our seniors years their golden years. We must take steps now to strengthen and protect Medicare for those who depend upon it. Its a program that my mom and the parents of many of my friends rely on. I am not going to stand by and see their benefits cut.

costs by increasing access to and payments for wellness, nutrition and preventative care; supporting primary health care clinics in underserved rural communities and urban neighborhoods; and encouraging effective home- and community-based alternatives to hospitalization and institutionalization, which can both save money and improve results for participants. Finally, Medicare currently incentivizes doctors to perform tests and procedures without regard for outcomes. An outcome-based approach, where overall patient health is rewarded, will be both less expensive and better for patients than the current approach, where mere activity is rewarded no matter what the outcome.
n Higher taxes on capital gains, dividends and other money made through financial activity, more so than economic activity. n Remove loopholes and better enforce existing tax law so that companies and wealthy individuals pay the rate theyre supposed to, not a much lower effective rate. n Close loopholes that allow individuals and companies to shield wealth overseas, and aggressively pursue tax cheats. n Increase the top marginal tax rate paid by the wealthy to 1990s levels, when America enjoyed robust economic growth. Spending cuts I will support include: n Smart, targeted cuts to reduce needless bureaucracy and to negotiate for the best prices for prescription drugs and other federally procured items. n Reduce waste, fraud and abuse through electronic record keeping, better tracking of program participation and aggressive prosecution of those who cheat the system. n Reduce redundant and unproductive federal spending from subsidies to oil companies and the ethanol industry to unnecessary weapons systems and instead focus federal dollars on investments that strengthen our economy and our local communities.

If we do nothing, the Medicare trust fund will be exhausted by 2024. Over a longer period of time, Medicare is unfunded by $36 trillion. Doing nothing is not an option. Without reform, the program that so many seniors rely on, and that the next generations seniors are hoping to rely on, will go bankrupt forcing drastic cuts or tax increases so high they damage the economy. I support a plan that has two key parts. For current seniors, those 55 and older, there will be no changes. For the next generation, we will strengthen

Should the national deficit be reduced through a mix of tax increases and spending cuts or solely through spending cuts? What specific taxes and cuts do you favor?

The single most important way to reduce our deficit is by creating millions of good jobs, which will increase tax revenues while reducing the number of people needing unemployment compensation, food stamps, Medicaid and other federally funded programs. To do this, we should: n Maintain low taxes for the middle-class and working-class families who are responsible for the vast majority of consumer spending. n Strengthen small businesses that drive most of the job creation, through investment, infrastructure development and scale-appropriate regulations. n Unleash Americas entrepreneurs and allow them to create new businesses and jobs by expanding research and development and focusing investment in new and green technologies. n Reduce regulatory burden on the small and independent community banks and credit unions that provide financing for small businesses and entrepreneurs. n Revitalize traditional manufacturing and spur new manufacturing jobs by penalizing companies that send jobs overseas, and rewarding and investing those that create jobs at home. Beyond growth, both revenue increases and spending cuts are necessary. Steps we can take to increase revenues include:

The fiscal crisis facing our country cannot be avoided. After years of running trillion-dollar deficits, our nations public debt is $16 trillion and getting higher. Our government spends $4 billion per day more than it takes in, which is just not healthy. We must cut the deficit, get our government on the path to a balanced budget and start to pay down our debt. The best way to do this is to grow the economy. We need to roll back the unreasonable regulations that are hurting job creators. We need to make sure our taxes are reasonable. Combine reasonable taxes with smarter and less burdensome federal regulations and our economy will boom. This will mean more people working and paying taxes. We also need to stop spending money we dont have. Over the next decade, interest payments on our national debt will exceed $5 trillion and a lot of that is owed to foreign investors like China. I supported two plans in Washington that would

balance the budget. These plans represent the tough choices that elected official have to be willing to make. One specific cut we can make immediately is to repeal Obamacare. This program costs more than a trillion dollars and will strangle our economy for years to come with higher taxes and more government involvement. Our nations deficit and debt crisis is about our children. The more we borrow and spend, the less bright their future is. I want to leave my children, Abby, Davis and Starke, with the same opportunities that I had. That wont happen if we dont start making responsible fiscal decisions in Washington. A booming economy under President Clinton, combined with spending restraints imposed by the Republican Congress, resulted in the only balanced budgets weve had in the last 30 years. We can do it again.

What, if anything, in your partys national platform do you disagree with? Why?

I support the party platforms emphasis on building a strong economy from the bottom up, by investing in education, entrepreneurship and infrastructure. What is most important to me is less about what is in the platform than what actions we take as a group of representatives. To that end, I will focus my efforts on: n Developing and implementing regulations that truly protect workers, public health and safety, and the environment, without unduly restricting small-

to mid-size farms, critical industry, businesses and banks. The one-size-fits-all approach to regulation often puts undue burden on these highly productive firms while giving Wall Street banks, agribusiness giants and transnational corporations a largely free ride. n Ensuring that the Democratic Party makes working people and those struggling to get by its No. 1 priority. n Getting big money out of the political process.

When I was first elected to Congress, I was part of a tsunami of leaders elected by a grassroots movement that is bigger than any one political party. I am a Republican. My philosophy and worldview is consistent in a lot of ways with the Republican Party. I believe in free enterprise, limited government, the Constitution and family values. But I dont always walk in lockstep with my partys ideas or its leaders. I am proud to say that I read every bill I vote for. Thats important; I dont believe we should have to

pass legislation to find whats in it. I sit through my committee hearings. I have voted across party lines on legislation. I have, on occasion, been the lone dissenting vote in the House. I have not yet had a chance to review our partys platform document, which was adopted just a few weeks ago at the Republican National Convention. I am sure there are issues on which I agree and which I disagree. While sharing core principles, the Republican Party is a diverse party with diverse ideas.

Would you support cuts to federal funding for university research initiatives?

No. America must continue to invest in research and development for three reasons. First, we must continue to encourage students and recent college graduates to pursue careers in math, science, engineering and technology. Second, investments in potential technological and medical breakthroughs produce a tremendous return. An excellent example is the federal governments contribution to the creation of the Internet, which led to American dominance in

the field and millions of jobs created. Finally, when the government reduces its spending on research and higher education, the focus and priorities of research inevitably shift to the interests of a small group of large corporations who have the funds to invest. While I welcome joint investment from private and public sources, we must maintain strong public leadership in this area in order to ensure that public rather than private interests prevail.

We are fortunate to live in a region with one of the nations premier research universities. We are also fortunate to live in the United States, which has many of the worlds top research universities and institutions. Virginian Thomas Jefferson said, knowledge is the common property of mankind. The research and study being done at places like Virginia Tech is critical to the development of new technology, innovation in our economy and the betterment of our country. I have a plan for energy development I call the four Ds. Drill, dig, discover and deregulate. The third D, discover, is the idea that we need to use our knowledge bases and universities to continue to explore new ways to use our old energy resources

and to find new, renewable energy sources. To the question of cuts to federal funding for research initiatives, the answer is that some specific programs are not worth borrowing money from China to pay for them. Should we spend hundreds of thousands of dollars studying and identifying new species of ants? Maybe, but not when we are asking taxpayers to foot the bill. And that is especially not a good way to spend money when we are running a trillion-dollar deficit. I support our nations universities and the research they do. I have toured many facilities and programs at Virginia Tech and appreciate all of their hard work. I believe research programs should be evaluated on their merits.