PointCounterpoint

Meet your congressional candidates U.S. Senate

Tim Kaine (D)
Kaine served as the 70th governor of Virginia, lieutenant governor and Richmond mayor and councilman. As governor, Kaine worked to develop the Virginia Tech Carilion Institute. He continues to visit family and friends in Southwest Virginia, and occasionally shows off his harmonica skills at musical events. Before entering public life, Kaine married Roanoke native Anne Holton, daughter of former Gov. Linwood Holton, and worked as a civil rights attorney. They have three kids, Annella, Nat and Woody, and spend their free time camping, biking and hiking in the outdoors.

George Allen (R)

Allen served as the 67th governor of Virginia and also represented the commonwealth in the U.S. House and Senate and the Virginia House of Delegates. He is an attorney who started his professional career as a law clerk in Southwest Virginia for Judge Glen M. Williams. Allen and his wife, Susan, have been married for 25 years. Together, they have raised their three children Tyler, Forrest and Brooke and sent them to public schools while living all over Virginia, in the Charlottesville area, Richmond, Chesterfield and currently in Mount Vernon.

The candidates answer questions on Medicare, the national debt, party platform and Senate filibuster rules. 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?

Tim Kaine (D)

Programs like Medicare and Social Security have given millions of seniors a secure and dignified retirement after a lifetime of contributing to our communities. I want to protect these programs for current seniors and future generations. We can reduce the growth of Medicare costs by simple reforms. Allow the federal government to negotiate with drug companies over prescription drug pricing, and well save $24 billion per year. Fight off efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and the

Congressional candidates for U.S. Senate

free preventive care provided to seniors will help hold costs down. Finally, work to reform the payment system so that we pay for health and outcomes rather than procedures, and well reduce waste in the current health care system. I reject the Paul Ryan plan for Medicare that would shift costs onto the shoulders of our seniors. We should reduce costs as described above rather than pushing them onto vulnerable Virginians. I also reject related schemes to privatize Social Security. So many seniors across Virginia have told me theyre worried about their Medicare benefits, losing access to their doctors and Washington taking control of their health care decisions. The Medicare trustees are warning that the Hospital Insurance Trust Fund will be depleted in just a dozen years. It doesnt help that $700 billion is being taken from [future growth in] Medicare to pay for the Obamacare health care tax law one of the many reasons I want to repeal and replace this harmful law. Medicare helps more than 1.1 million Virginia seniors who have worked hard, paid their taxes and deserve the peace of mind of knowing their health care is secure. As governor, I worked across party lines to cut taxes by $600 million, including eliminating the unfair tax on our seniors Social Security benefits and on military and federal retirees. Thats the leadership people deserve and want in Washington leaders to address problems and

George Allen (R)

challenges, not use them for political fodder. I look forward to working with responsible Democrats and Republicans to preserve Medicare for current and future seniors. A first step is rooting out the $50 billion or more that Medicare wastes every year through improper and fraudulent payments. Thats half a trillion dollars over a decade that can help build a stronger program provided Medicare savings are used to preserve Medicare. A second principle is that there should be no disruption in benefits for those at or near retirement age. I would look at gradually raising the eligibility age for those currently under 50 as well as income adjustments. I favor ideas that promote personal responsibility, take advantage of technology and apply the proven principles of competition and choice to improve quality with patients and doctors making health care decisions rather than remote bureaucracy.

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?

To reduce the deficit, we need to elect people who have a track record of making tough fiscal decisions. And we need a mixture of spending cuts and revenue increases. I favor making $2 or $3 of cuts for every dollar of new revenue. I made more than $5 billion in cuts as governor, including cutting my own pay, and left office with a smaller general fund budget than when I started. Most senators have no experience reducing spending. I will work with both parties to undertake a searching review of the federal budget to find targeted savings across all areas. You cant cut everything equally because all priorities are not equal. But, with rigorous analysis, you can find savings everywhere.

Thats how my team found the savings required to balance Virginias budget in the midst of the worst national recession since the Great Depression. On the tax side, I would let the Bush tax cuts expire for those making more than $500,000 per year and end taxpayer subsidies to the large oil companies. Then, I would support a comprehensive reform of the tax code that would broaden the base of taxpayers, lower rates and simplify the system through a reduction of loopholes. I believe an all cuts approach to deficit reduction would harm our economy and jeopardize key priorities like defense, Medicare, infrastructure and educational investments.

I am committed to balancing the federal budget with spending restraint and additional revenues without higher taxes on Virginia families and small businesses, which would result in more job losses. Unaccountable, irresponsible Washington spending has made trillion-dollar annual deficits the norm. The current path is dangerous and unsustainable; it is endangering our childrens future and their opportunities to pursue their dream. My Blueprint for Americas Comeback presents specific strategies that I will pursue to rein in federal spending, including repeal of Obamacare and starting to implement some of the Government Accountability Offices recommendations for eliminating the redundancy and costly waste that exists in federal government

bureaucracies. At the same time, we need to reinvigorate our economy for creating jobs again that will increase revenues. Additionally, unleashing our plentiful American energy resources has the potential to raise more than $1 trillion in revenues from lease sales and royalties without raising taxes. Long-term, we need real reforms that force Washington to operate like our families and businesses do within its means. I have long advocated for a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, with taxpayer protections and line-item veto authority to provide the president the same tool I used as governor to cut wasteful spending that drives up our annual deficits.

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

I am a Democrat because I appreciate my partys diversity, ideological breadth and commitment to equal opportunity. But I am in public service to get results, and I dont follow any party line. During the course of the campaign, I have disagreed with my party and president on a number of issues. I did not believe that President Obama should have committed American military support in Libya without a vote of Congress. When the president announced that employer insurance coverage must

include contraception, I applauded the mandate but criticized the administration for not sufficiently protecting religious employers. (The administration then changed its policy to accommodate the concern to my satisfaction.) I also take a different position than my party on the expiration of the Bush tax cuts. I will work with any Senate colleague, regardless of party, for the good of the nation. And I will partner with whoever is president of the United States for the good of the commonwealth and country.

I am seeking to bring Virginias voices to Washington, not serve as an advocate for one partys platform or the other. My focus as Virginias senator will be the positive solutions in my Blueprint for Americas Comeback, a pro-growth plan of action that will get our economy healthy, creating jobs again and improving our quality of life. We can send a message to the world that America is open for business again with productive energy, competitive taxes, reasonable regulations and empowering education policies. Thats the proven approach we took when I was governor that helped the private sector create more than 310,000 net new jobs in Virginia during those four years alone. I will work with senators on both sides of the aisle for comprehensive tax reform that closes loopholes and lowers rates to make America more competitive. Second, I will work to unleash our American For 214 years, the tradition and practice in the Senate was that, when a president nominated a particular person for a judicial vacancy, the Judiciary Committee would examine that individual very closely as to his or her scholarship, temperament and judicial philosophy. Ultimately if nominees passed muster, the full Senate would consider the nomination. That changed during my time in the Senate, when those on the other side decided that a minority of only 41 senators should be able to deny a well-qualified nominee the fairness and the due process of an up-or-down vote on the Senate floor. I believe senators should vote on nominations

energy resources for jobs, national security and more affordable and reliable energy. Virginians from our coalfields to our coast are ready, willing and able to produce the energy to power Americas economy. We must stop the Environmental Protection Agencys regulatory assault on coal, which is hurting our mining communities, our railroads and our ports and making electricity more expensive for all of us. And the first bill I will introduce will allow Virginia to safely produce oil and natural gas off our coast and use the royalties for roads and transportation. Third, to begin reining in the overreaching, unaccountable federal government, I would require an economic- and family-impact analysis on all proposed new regulations. Regulations costing more than $100 million need to be voted on by elected representatives in Congress. Thats the kind of accountability Americans deserve in a representative democracy. and not hide behind partisan political processes like the filibuster. The Senate needs to get back to the basics of good governance passing a budget (which it hasnt done in 3 years) and having an open process that allows senators the opportunity to offer amendments and have them debated. One reform I have long advocated is what I call the Paycheck Penalty Act to withhold the pay of members of Congress if they fail to complete annual budget appropriations on time. Virginia business owners know that if they dont get their job done, they dont get paid. Congress ought to abide by the same basic rules.

Do the Senate filibuster rules need to be changed? If so, how?

The filibuster rules need to be changed. Citizens expect the Senate to do the peoples business and not bog down into gridlock and partisan division. I would make two changes to the filibuster. Any senator who wants to filibuster should have to stand on the floor to do it. This is the only way that colleagues and the public can assess the effort and determine whether it is a legitimate effort to raise important questions about legislation or merely an effort to obstruct the peoples business. The current practice of paper filibusters without any public

accountability must be abandoned. Second, a filibuster should only be used on a final passage vote and I would prohibit any filibuster on a procedural vote. Finally, I would reform the rules that allow a senator to hold action on appointments. The body is required to advise and consent on presidential nominees, and the breakdown of the confirmation process hurts the American public. Nominees should receive committee and floor votes within prompt deadlines.