The Times Leader - Sestak Aims at Toomey's Fiscal Ideas

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By Matt Hughes

Joe Sestak says the handouts to big business and trickle-down economic policies his opponent, Pat Toomey, supports have "savaged" the U.S. economy. Giving more help to small businesses and families will bring it back.

"We have a different approach," Sestak told The Times Leader's endorsement board Tuesday. "He'll always side with the big interests: Medicare Advantage insurance coverage, large corporations, eliminate taxes for the very wealthy 1 percent. … It hasn't worked. Small businesses, and Pennsylvania's been the prime proving ground for the past 30 years, if you give them the tax credits, and pay for them, they will create the jobs. … So that's where I'll always side."

A commitment to offering real, sustainable tax breaks and incentives, like government-backed community bank loans to small businesses, underlies many of the policies backed by Sestak, the Democratic candidate to fill Arlen Specter's Senate seat said.

Sestak said the health care reform bills he helped pass as a U.S. representative help reduce the costs that small businesses pay to insure employees, which had been 18 percent higher than those paid by large corporations. To bring the economy out of recession and create jobs, Sestak wants to foster small business growth by offering tax relief and incentives.

Sestak said investing in small business creation is especially important in Pennsylvania, where job growth has progressed at half the national average over 30 years.

"We have had half the job creation, we've had half the small business creation and the youth are looking elsewhere for jobs," Sestak said.

Unlike his opponent, however, Sestak claimed, he is an advocate for "pay-as-you-go," making sure the government can pay for the legislation it proposes, including tax breaks for small businesses.

"(Toomey) says he'll cut taxes, well who doesn't want that? But how are you going to pay for it?" Sestak said.

Sestak said legislation Toomey voted for as a U.S. representative, including the Bush tax cuts and Medicare Part D, were passed without funding in place.

To fund small business incentives, Sestak said he favors legislation that would close loopholes exempting U.S. companies from paying taxes on overseas holdings and rolling back the Bush tax cuts for the richest 1 percent of Americans to Clinton-era levels.

He also said the health care reform legislation passed this year will reduce the national debt by $1.2 trillion, adding that further legislation to remove anti-trust exemptions for insurance companies and to reimburse health care providers based on quality rather than quantity of care will make health care even more efficient and save money in the long run.

Toomey has stated he would work to repeal health care reform if elected. Sestak said such action would create an "immediate catastrophe."

To create jobs, Sestak said the government needs to invest in training the state's work force for the high-tech manufacturing jobs of the future, like nanotechnology production and clean energy technology, sectors in which the nation is starting to lag behind China.

"Look at the Marcellus Shale. It takes 142 people to do one well. Eighty-two percent of those workers come from out of state," Sestak said. "Why are we not mandating that our youth learn these skills?"

Following the meeting, Sestak spoke at the Downtown Senior Center in Scranton on the subject of Social Security, where he continued his criticism of Toomey, saying he would become a "Wall Street senator" if elected.

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