Hultgren: Cut spending, improve health care

DeKALB – Running for the 14th Congressional District, Republican Randy Hultgren told the DeKalb Rotary Club Monday that he wants to eliminate wasteful spending in Washington, D.C. and better the country’s financial situation for future generations.

Hultgren, currently a state senator for the 48th District, is running against Democrat and incumbent Bill Foster and Green Party candidate Daniel Kairis for the seat in Congress.

Hultgren said he hopes to build and increase prosperity for the people he represents, because he’s concerned current elected officials are simply passing on a bad situation. On the current economic state, Hultgren said consumer confidence is still “shaken” and unemployment and underemployment numbers are too high.

“All of this money being spent on stimulus and bailouts and all of these other things really has done nothing to turn our economy around, except drive us further into debt,” Hultgren said.

Hultgren said he has signed a pledge that he will not raise taxes.

“I strongly believe it’s absolutely the wrong time for us to raise taxes on families,” he said. “I believe our problems are spending problems, not taxing problems. We’re already taxed too much. We need to lower our taxes.”

Hultgren said legislators need to approve a budget at the federal level to get spending under control.

“… We need a budget that we can use as that framework but also that we can hold our elected officials accountable to,” Hultgren said, adding that he wants to see zero-based budgeting implemented, and no Congressional salaries approved until a budget is passed.

Hultgren also talked about health care reform, which he said has only brought more complexity and bureaucracy through moves like the 1099 provision, requiring companies to issue the tax forms to any person or company they purchase more than $600 from in goods or services. He argued the added paperwork will hurt small businesses because companies will choose a larger vendor so they won’t have to file multiply 1099 forms.

When Joe Bussone of Sycamore asked Hultgren if he planned to vote to repeal “Obamacare” if elected, Hultgren replied he would.

“I think that’s one of the most important issues that we must deal with. I’m frustrated with the Republicans when they had control that they didn’t deal with the real problem of health care, which is cost of health care,” Hultgren said.

DeKalb County Board member Paul Stoddard, D-DeKalb, asked Hultgren where specifically he planned to cut spending. Hultgren said one thing he’d like to see a 10 percent pay cut for Congressional salaries and federal employees.

“We can make real cuts. We can go after wasteful spending. There’s some list of 100 items with Citizens Against Government Waste. Some are little, some are big. It’s not going to solve the problem,” Hultgren said. “But it’s a real effort of going after areas where we can have more accountability, more recognition of the public, that we hear what you’re saying, we’re going after areas that we’ve been wasting money, throwing money away.”
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