She wants to let the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy expire. He doesn’t. She’d like to see the minimum wage raised. He doesn’t.
Next Tuesday, you get to cast your vote for one of them.
Who more closely matches you on economic policy? If you’ve got two minutes, come along on a voter speed-date to find out.
She’s Rosa DeLauro, a Democrat who has represented this area in Congress for 22 years.
He’s Wayne Winsley, a motivational speaker and former radio talk-show host who’s running as a Republican to seek to unseat her in the Nov. 6 general election.
And the two do offer a clear contrast when it comes to taxes and financial regulation.
As part of a series of stories offering voters speed-dates on issues in the Third U.S. Congressional District race, the Independent asked DeLauro and Winsley about the subjects recently — she in her Elm Street office, he a half-block away at the offices the Independent shares with the Spanish-language newspaper La Voz Hispana.
Check out their answers below to see who stands where you stand.
Paul Bass Photos
1. Should the Bush tax cuts be repealed?
DeLauro: Partly. “I think we should let them expire for those who are making over $250,000, maintain them for those under $250,000. Also, everyone, even those who are making more than $250,000, will get that tax break up to $250. Those are the richest 1 or 2 percent in the country.
Winsley: No. “I think in general taxes are too high on all American citizens. … The biggest question on the minds of people in the Third District and across America is: Where are the jobs? Right now America has the highest corporate tax in the world. When we lower that, you are going to see some of our jobs come back.”
Winsley was asked whether he believes that tax cuts for the wealthy get reinvested in job-creation, as opposed to merely increasing personal wealth? “Some will. Some won’t,” he responded. “That’s called free will.”
2. Should corporate tax rates go up, stay the same or be lowered?
DeLauro: Keep them the same.
Winsley: Lower them from 35 percent to 15 percent.
3. Candidates from both parties talk about wanting to cut tax loopholes. Which specific ones would you cut?
Winsley: How about this? All of them. He called for a flat tax system with no loopholes.
Would that include eliminating deductions for home mortgage payments? “I would look at that,” he said.
DeLauro:
• $8 billion in corporate deductions that support the moving of jobs overseas.
• Agricultural subsides — not those to small dairy or specialty farmers, but to agribusiness, such as for producing ethanol.
• $4 billion received by oil companies. “They don’t need subsidies.”
• Deductions for horse breeding. “I don’t know if you can buy or sell horses. I certainly can’t. Probably it’s a very select group who can do that. I read the story [about the subsidies] in a racing sheet; I won’t tell you who provided me with the racing sheet. There was a sale of a horse in Kentucky. The sale was $8.5 million. The person who sold it [received] an $8.5 million write off.”
4. Should we raise the minimum wage?
Winsley: No. “I don’t believe that raising the minimum wage creates jobs in the first place. Actually it costs jobs,” especially at “mom-and-pop” businesses.
DeLauro: Yes, with inflation.
5. Do you support the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau?
DeLauro: Yes. “I think it’s very important, what happens to consumers. Elizabeth Warren [who designed the bureau] spoke in my living room in Washington, D.C. a few years before the [financial] bubble exploding. She said it’s going to happen … The same way the consumer product safety commission is put together, we ought to have a consumer financial protection agency … so we can provide the best information to people about what they may be purchasing in terms of financial services.”
Winsley: Eliminate it, or at least restructure it. “I would have to say it would fall under [the category of] a barrier to business in my opinion.”
Just getting started? In the box below you can go on a longer issues speed-date with DeLauro & Winsley — as well as with the candidates for president and U.S. president. The quiz was prepared by an organization called ElectNext.
Previous installments of this series:
• Who’s Your Civil Rights Match?
• Who’s Your Foreign Policy Match?
• Who’s Your Enviro Match?
• Who’s Your Health Care Match?