(Adella Harding/Elko Daily Free Press) – Former Republican Assemblywoman Sharron Angle, who has her eye on the U.S. Senate seat now held by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said nearly everything she hears on her rural campaign tours “funnels back to the economy.”
Job creation is a major element of the economy, but Angle said even health care reform has an economic element because of the potential for higher taxes to pay for changes in health care, and illegal immigration and energy policies have ties to the economy.
She said raising taxes is not the solution to the job shortage because businesses won’t hire as many people if they face higher payroll taxes, for example.
“I’m advocating lower taxes and less government regulation, which stimulates economic growth,” Angle said.
She also wants to see the federal budget capped at the 2010 level and cut back 5 percent each year after 2010, and she wants to see any unused bank bailout and stimulus money applied to the deficit.
Angle said she doesn’t propose any Medicare and Social Security cuts, however, because the government “made a contract with senior citizens. But going forward, we need to do something different.”
She also said she would like to see the Federal Reserve audited, especially to determine its role in subprime mortgages that were a culprit in the housing crisis.
“That’s an agency that needs to be reined,” Angle said.
She said she also believes funding “czars” in Washington are unconstitutional. “The president can have all the friends he wants, but I don’t need to subsidize them.”
On the state level, she also said she opposes new taxes on the mining industry that would cut into their profitability.
Gov. Jim Gibbons said earlier one of the options for more revenue would be to change the deductions the mining industry is allowed to take before paying a net proceeds tax on mining so fewer deductions would mean more revenue. He said, however, that this wouldn’t be a tax increase.
Angle disagreed.
“Even profitable businesses say how much can we do,” Angle said. “Nevada is as big as a nation in gold production, and that kind of economic foundation needs to be nourished.”
Proposals for mining law reform at the national level also attack businesses, she said, adding that the word “reform” is never good.
“We need to talk repeal. I like that word better,” Angle said.
Angle also said that whenever a governor says there will be a budget shortfall, lawmakers look for a place to tax, but “taxes stifle growth.” She said the first place to look for savings should be government waste and fraud.
Angle also advocates for more responsibilities at the state level, rather than the federal level.
“Nevada needs someone in the federal government who understands Nevada and will look out for the best interests of those at home,” said Angle, who is one of a half dozen or so Republicans who plan to run in the primary to win the chance to challenge Reid.
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
RSS