Senator Sununu meets with military families early last year. (GG file photo)
Senator John E. Sununu was kind enough to participate in GraniteGok’s Congressional Candidate Q & A Series. We thank him for taking time from his busy schedule to do so, and further appreciate his acknowledgement of us and our readers here in the Blogosphere…
As promised, here are his answers as provided to us. Feel free to leave your thoughts in the "comments" section…
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QUESTIONS
1. If you could ask General Petraeus any question, but only one question, what would it be?
Sen Sununu response: Has Congress provided you with the necessary resources to support your troops, enable them to complete their work, and bring them home safely as soon as possible?
2. Do you favor Oil recovery in the newly found fields in Montana & the Dakotas?
• Drilling in ANWR?
• Drilling in the deep waters off Florida and in the Gulf of Mexico?
• Creating a fast track process to license and build new nuclear plants?Sen Sununu response: Conservation and support for renewable energy is very important, but reducing our dependence on foreign energy requires allowing domestic production of oil and gas and minimizing unnecessary delays in building nuclear power plants.
3. In the area of healthcare, are you in favor of:
• Giving tax credits for policies to individuals / families as well as businesses?
• Allow policies to be purchased across state lines?
• Allow individuals to buy lower cost policies by "unhooking" legal mandatesSen. Sununu response: I have voted for legislation allowing small businesses to join forces to negotiate better rates and strongly support legislation to give individuals a full tax deduction for all health care costs, and allow insurance policies to be purchased across state lines.
4. British Prime Minister Brown said that the US must give up the idea of absolute sovereignty in order to better cooperate in the global community. Agree or disagree, and why?
Sen. Sununu response: No. United States sovereignty is not something to be conceded to any other government or international organization.
5. Guantanomo military prison:
• Keep it open or close it?
• If closed – where would you send those enemy combatants?
• Would you be willing to try those enemy combatants in our civilian courts (with its accompanying mandatory rights as due to citizens)?Sen. Sununu response: I agree with Defense Secretary Robert Gates that Guantanamo should be closed and prisoners transferred to other secure military facilities.
6. Should President Bush attend the Summer Olympics’ opening ceremonies in communist China?
Sen. Sununu response: No.
7. Are you in favor of using eminent domain in taking private property from one owner to another in order to expand taxable property values?
Sen. Sununu response: No.
8. Are you willing to sign an earmark moratorium?
Sen. Sununu response: I voted in favor of a one-year moratorium on earmarks and have co-sponsored and voted for legislation to reform the earmark process. These bills include the Pork-Barrel Reduction Act” of 2006 and the “Honest Leadership and Government Act of 2007.” I was also one of 15 Senators to vote against Alaska’s “Bridge to Nowhere” in October of 2005.
9. You have a choice: raise corporate taxes or eliminate five Federal programs. Which is your choice? If it is “eliminate five programs”, please list them. (Feel free to list more than five if you think more could go)
Sen Sununu response:
Eliminate the following programs:
1. Amtrak Long-Distance Routes: This program subsidizes empty seats and ticket prices on long-distance train routes across the country by as much as $300 in subsidies for every passenger.
2. New Farm Disaster Aid Program: Farmers already receive approximately $20 billion in annual subsidies, and billions from crop insurance subsidies and emergency spending.
3. Federal Crop Insurance Corporation: Insurers are making billions of dollars in profits – more than double the industry average – while farm incomes are at record levels.
4. Fossil Energy Research and Development: This program provides hundreds of millions of dollars to private industry for research on oil and gas technology.
5. Department of Energy Loan Guarantee Program: This program provides billions of loan guarantees each year for mature energy businesses, including nuclear and coal, leaving taxpayers on the hook if the project fails.
6. United States Department of Agriculture Sugar Program: The Farm Bill mandates sugar prices, restricts imports, and controls market share. The Farm Bill creates a sugar-to-ethanol program, requiring the government to purchase surplus sugar and resell that same sugar to ethanol plants at a lower cost. Sugar policy costs consumers billions of dollars at the checkout counter.
10. Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security are “demographic time bombs” in waiting. What steps should be taken to avoid future failures of these entitlements?
Sen Sununu response: I have authored legislation to modernize and strengthen Social Security and co-sponsored legislation to establish an entitlement commission with the power to submit legislation that Congress would have to act on.
11. How would you propose Congress and the president balance the federal budget?
Sen Sununu responds: Control spending and keep the economy growing by maintaining low tax rates.
12. Would you vote for the “Fair Tax”? The “Flat Tax”?
Sen. Sununu responds: I have always been an advocate of fundamental tax reform, and endorsed a flat tax during my first campaign for Congress in 1996.
~~~~~~ Visit Senator Sununu’s website here.