April 5, 2008
Morning Times: Hackett looking for success
By Matt Hicks
Morning Times
Thu Apr 03, 2008, 11:38 PM EDT
Sayre, Pa. - As the April 22 Republican primary election draws closer, candidate Chris Hackett, R-Shavertown, maintains that he would be the best candidate to defeat Chris Carney in the November general election.
Hackett, a CPA and entrepreneur who has established four Pennsylvania businesses, is running against Dan Meuser, president of Pride Mobility, for a chance to compete against incumbent Chris Carney for the Pennsylvania 10th U.S. Congressional District Seat.
Hackett feels he will bring a good dose of common sense and practical view to the 10th district if elected in November, would work to uphold lessened government intervention and individual rights and responsibilities, and lower taxes and spending.
"I believe the first question we should ask before we legislate is: Does the constitution give us the authority to engage in this type of legislation?" added Hackett.
From his extensive tours around the district, Hackett noted that it's interesting that citizens seem to want less from the federal government, not more.
"They're asking for less taxes, less regulation and less government involvement in their lives," said Hackett. "I believe for us to compete worldwide going forward we need to shrink the size of our federal government's percentage of gross domestic product and we need to privatize parts of the federal government that aren't efficient, if you will. Things like NASA; I believe NASA should be privatized, or Amtrak should be privatized . . . it's just not the core responsibility for our federal government to be engaged in these responsibilities."
Speaking about more local issues, Hackett said regulations should be passed with regular renewal periods and should be allowed to "sunset" in order to provide flexibility in accordance to business needs regarding their effectiveness.
Hackett is also for the Iraq war and feels it represents the core responsibilities of the federal government to protect the citizens of the United States.
"National defense is one of the responsibilities of our federal government and quite certainly should be funded appropriately so that our troops have the materials, supplies and tools they need to be effective in winning the wars we may engage in, but also we should let the military actually run the wars," said Hackett. "Certainly we need to make sure we just don't write blank checks to the military because, like any group, they might not spend it as wisely as if they were limited resources, but I believe we need to support the war effort as holistically as we can."
Hackett noted that he feels funds spent on the war don't constitute wasteful government spending and that the privatization and outsourcing of inefficient government programs would help fund the war.
Focusing on illegal immigration, Hackett believes in the "high fences, wide gates" method of reform.
"We do need to secure our borders, we need to deal people that are here illegally effectively, but we also need to have an immigration policy that supports the growing needs of our country, whether it's knowledge workers, whether it's immigrant workers to work in the field collecting our produce. The problem we run into is because our federal government hasn't enforced the laws on the books currently, and because they've abdicated responsibility for that, the system has kind of run wild. My sense on it is the sooner we start enforcing laws the better off we'll be," said Hackett.
Hackett also called for addressing rising costs within health care which have created higher insurance costs for taxpayers. He said there are two parts to addressing this issue.
"We need to move away from the fee for service model and towards a model that causes health delivery systems . . . to have an outcome based measurement based measurement instead of a process based," said Hackett, who dually noted that he isn't implying that local doctors are treating people in a manner to keep patients coming back to make money.
Hackett referenced Geisinger's fixed price for heat surgery, which includes pre-operative examination, the surgery and any needed follow-up procedures.
"The better they do a job and the sooner they're able to get you back on your own feet . . . the less costs they incur; and the less costs they incur, the less costs on the health delivery system," said Hackett."
Hackett also stressed the need to move away from the current tax system in place for small businesses, which he describes as "unfair."
"The tax code, as it's currently structured, provides a subsidy to large businesses to buy health insurance for their employees because soul proprietors and more than five percent owners of S-corps have to use post tax dollars to buy their health insurance and companies are able to use pre-tax dollars," explained Hackett. "So there's an inherent unfairness to that process so we need to move to a system where we pay for using pre-tax dollars for all health care expenditures through the expansion of health saving's accounts, HSAs, would be the way to go."
Hackett also called for a large deductible model, which would prevent overconsumption of health insurance at "dollar one," or near free coverage, and better alignment between insurance companies and their customers by using longer term policies, like 20-year policies, to create services to help keep their more long-term customers healthy.
Speaking about the farming community, which makes up a large portion of the 10th district, Hackett pointed out that 72 percent of farm subsidies only go to 10 percent of farmers.
"It's more of a large farm welfare system the way it's currently constructed and it doesn't serve the need of small farmers that we think about when we think about the business risks of disease or drought," said Hackett. "To me, I believe we need to push the special interests aside that are getting this big chunk of money each year for their mega-farms and start to really have a farm policy that supports the needs of small to medium size farmers."
Steering towards alternative energy, Hackett continued that he believes using corn for ethanol is not a good idea due to an eight percent decrease in projected corn planting for the upcoming season in light of increased prices for soy beans.
"The market is driving certain behaviors and we really should let the market drive some of this stuff instead of the government saying, ‘We're going to subsidize corn production so we can use it for ethanol,' because it's driving up all of the other costs for farmers for feed and actually for consumers as well . . . To me, using corn for ethanol is not nearly as smart as using saw grass or the other high cellulose products out there we can use to generate ethanol."
Hackett also believes a comprehensive energy police needs to be in place including considerations for drilling in the outer continental shelf, nuclear, solar, wind and thermal power if they are cost efficient and market competitive. He also noted that the recently discovered local gas supply could specifically be beneficial for this region in regard to economic development and attracting businesses.
Criticisms of Hackett's pledge to accept no new earmarked funds as martyrdom is just classic Washington speak for pork barrel spending, according to Hackett.
"When you have people like Obama, who are signing on to earmark pledges because they see how broken the system is, or Henry Waxman who see how broken the system is, that's when you realize that there's a real problem in Washington with the way this corrupt earmark system is," said Hackett. "At this point, Dan Meuser is to the left of a guy who has a 100 percent rating by the ACLU and a presidential candidate who is considered the most liberal senator in the Senate. So, that's not ground I would want to occupy if I was running as conservative in the 10th Congressional District."
Hackett added that currently 39 members of the House of Representatives and seven members of the Senate have signed similar pledges, and the ranks continue to grow against the "wasteful spending."
"And the ones that are clinging to it are the ones like John Murtha, who are able to extract campaign contributions for the earmarks they get for businesses," continued Hackett. "The reality is it is a corrupt process. It's a way the leadership shackles new members of the House and the Senate to vote their way by holding this pork barrel spending out as a gift for going along with their party. I think that's wrong. A representative form of government is based on one man, one vote, and you have to do certain things to get reelected. That's when the process is broken down."
Hackett described the funds earmarks have brought into local businesses as taking $100 and giving back $25, and telling businesses how to spend it.
He is also a supporter of the Right to Bear Arms, referring to gun legislation as only serving the bad people, and pro-life.
Speaking about education, Hackett said the problem doesn't have anything to do with funding but everything to do with competition.
"I believe we should move to a model that more mirrors our higher education system than the current kindergarten through 12 government-opolies we currently face," said Hackett. "Whether it's charter schools, public schools, private schools, parochial schools, I really don't think it matters. I really think we should attach the money we use for funding of schools to the child and allow the parent, who I believe knows what's best for the child, not some bureaucracy . . . and allow them to make the decision on where their child will go to school."
Hackett also feels the increased competition would make each school strive to improve their services.
"And if you look at legislation like No Child Left Behind, I believe that's been an abject failure on so many fronts. It's not just been a failure to the children and a failure to the parents, but a failure to the teachers because it's usurped their ability to teach in the way they think would be most effective. They end up having to teach to a test so the results that their able to generate meet standards."
These creative ways of teaching would also help children who learn differently, according to Hackett.
As voters prepare to cast their ballot in the primary election, Hackett stated, "Look for the true conservative in this race . . . Look at the details, because I think the details show that I want to return to core conservative values and that I am the best person to beat Chris Carney in November."
For more information visit, www.ChrisHackettforCongress.com.