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Who’s Your Taxes Match?

by Paul Bass | Nov 2, 2012 1:50 pm

(8) Comments | Commenting has been closed | E-mail the Author

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 Should the Bush tax cuts be repealed?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?

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posted by: RCguy on November 2, 2012  2:06pm

I’m sorry to say that New Haven is tired of the current regime.
Local, State & National… there needs to be more turnover.
I wonder who will have the grace and the “class” to step down to give someone else a shot. Wayne Winsley may win!

posted by: PH on November 2, 2012  5:23pm

Winsley appears to fallen off the Tea Party bus and into the wrong part of town.  A flat tax would create a deficit the likes of which this country has never seen and its harm would fall disproportionately on the poorest Americans.  American taxes are at the lowest they have ever been in 80 years (may not feel like that, but it is true).

Winsley’s dreams would harm the poor and middle-class Americans, give away vast sums of money to the corporation-people, create a bottomless deficit, leave consumers at the whim of mega-corporations and generally send our country down the tubes.  Thank god he is going to lose.

posted by: streever on November 2, 2012  5:29pm

PH
Winsley is so against “big government” that he believes the government should restrict marriage rights.

posted by: Charl on November 2, 2012  9:08pm

Another case of “Neither of the above.”

Seriously, neither Winstanley or DeLauro have any logical, rational, reasonable sense about their stances. 

It is pretty outrageous that the people of New Haven continue to re-elect the same people: DeLauro, DeStefano, et al.

If there was a 1 term limit for every federal position, America would certainly experience much, much, much less graft, nepotism, outright theft, political maneuvering, “spin,” and outright lies.

posted by: HhE on November 3, 2012  9:42am

Charl, I am with you until, “If there was a 1 term limit for every federal position, America would certainly experience much, much, much less graft, nepotism, outright theft, political maneuvering, “spin,” and outright lies.”

So much of corruption in American politics is driven by PACs, lobbyists, and other kingmakers that term limits would only serve to increase the relative power of unelected (and often unnamed) part of the machine. 

I know that Congresswoman DeLauro is very popular, but for the life of me I do not know why. 

Mr. Winsley is an interesting candidate, but the more I learn about his positions, the more “interesting” means crazy.

Can someone please explain to me why the “conservative” party in this country has so lost its way from core values?  It has rejected conservation and stewardship (remember Teddy Roosevelt?)  Says it supports family values, but does not value families.  Talks about getting the deficit under control, but spends recklessly while cutting revenue.  Says it is against big government, but (Rep. Ron Paul aside) is extremely anti liberty.

posted by: AMDC on November 4, 2012  5:28pm

Just a little bias here, no?
Is this a newspaper or a rag for the Dems?
If yes, just say so and don’t try to “report”. We have enough corporate rags who do what you do. We need real facts and truth

posted by: HhE on November 4, 2012  11:50pm

AMDC, I find the NHI rather uncritical of Congresswoman DeLauro, and all to ready to give her positive press.  The funny thing is though, so much of what I take issue with her I learn in the same stories that seek to support her.

posted by: FromTheHill on November 5, 2012  9:57am

I voted for Rosa the first time she ran but now I’ll just leave the Congress block blank like i have been doing for so many years,  I like her politics but for personal local reasons (won’t say why, the NHI will delete), I will never vote for her

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