Hurt promises to cut taxes, regulations

If elected to Congress next week, Republican Robert Hurt is promising to cut taxes, reduce government regulation of business and balance the federal budget.

Hurt, a state senator from Chatham, is seeking to unseat freshman Democrat Tom Perriello in Tuesday’s closely watched 5th District congressional race.

Hurt outlined his fiscal policy views Thursday morning in a wide-ranging interview with reporters and editors of The Daily Progress.

In Hurt’s eyes, the economic recovery has been hamstrung by Democratic initiatives of the past two years such as health care reform, the clean energy bill known as cap-and-trade, tougher regulation of Wall Street and the economic stimulus act. These measures, Hurt said, have been an “assault on our free enterprise system” and have created economic uncertainty, discouraging businesses from hiring.

“If we have a big day on Nov. 2, I think that that in and of itself will speak loudly to the people of the 5th District, the job creators, and will send a message that we’re going to put a check and balance on what’s going on in Washington and really start, I hope, to focus on policies that help them, not hurt them,” Hurt said.

If elected, Hurt promised to permanently extend the Bush administration’s tax cuts that are set to expire at the end of the year, lower corporate income tax rates and eliminate the federal estate tax.

How would Hurt pay the nearly $4 trillion it would cost to make the Bush era tax cuts permanent?

“I don’t look at this as a revenue problem, I look at this as a spending problem,” Hurt replied. “If it means we have to look harder to balance our budget, that’s what we need to do. I don’t look at this as blowing a hole in the budget, I look at this as desperate, desperate relief that people need to have at this time when the economy is struggling more than ever.”

In a series of televised debates, Perriello has repeatedly criticized Hurt for failing to identify specific budget cuts that would offset the sizable price tag of Hurt’s tax cut campaign promises. Perriello, for his part, favors extending the Bush administration’s tax cuts for everyone except the top 2 percent of taxpayers who earn more than $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for couples.

In the interview, Hurt identified two relatively modest budget cuts: congressional pay and corn ethanol subsidies. Ethanol subsidies have long been mentioned by Perriello as a necessary budget cut.

Hurt, who has served in the General Assembly for 10 years, said his approach to balancing the federal budget in Washington would be similar to his approach balancing the state budget in Richmond.

“I’m a member of a General Assembly that’s managed to do that year after year, despite having to make some choices that are difficult,” Hurt said.

The key to balancing the budget, Hurt said, is not for him to identify areas to be cut, but rather to start with the notion that the budget must be balanced and then undertake a “systematic effort” of cutting in Washington.

“I think what’s a better way to approach this is to apply my experience in the General Assembly,” Hurt said. “Legislators don’t go to Richmond with a long list of things they want to cut. That’s just not realistic. That’s not the way it works. The way it works is we all know that we have to balance the budget. That’s the first thing we have to do. We have to have that expectation, that commitment and discipline that we’re going to balance the budget.”

In balancing the federal budget, Hurt said, he would refuse to cut defense spending or Social Security.

Jessica Barba, Perriello’s campaign spokeswoman, said Hurt is being unrealistic and promising a budget of “gum drops and lollipops.”

“Only a career politician like Robert Hurt would try to fool voters into thinking he’s serious about balancing the budget when his ‘plan’ makes it mathematically impossible to do so,” she said. “He had no problems raising 28 different taxes and fees in the General Assembly to balance the budget but now claims he won't do so in the future.”

Perriello supports a budget commission that is set to make recommendations in the coming months on how to balance the federal budget. Hurt has said he instead supports a Constitutional amendment to require a balanced budget, a move that Perriello says is unlikely to pass for years.

Hurt was asked if he worries that the GOP is over-promising results and may face a backlash of its own in two years.

“People ask me, are you nervous about the election? I often say I don’t lose sleep about Nov. 2. I think we’ve run a good campaign and regardless of how it turns out I’ll certainly be proud of the campaign that we’ve run,” Hurt said. “What I lose sleep about is Nov. 3 because that will be the time when we will have to … see whether or not we are truly committed [and whether] there are enough people who [believe], like I do, that we have got to go to Washington and get our federal government under control.”

Hurt was also asked if voters should expect him, if he is elected, to hold a similar number of town hall meetings as Perriello has over the last two years. During the run-up to the health care reform debate, Perriello held more town hall meetings with constituents than any other congressman.

Hurt declined to commit to holding a specific number of town hall meetings, but promised to listen to constituents.

“I can promise you this, I will certainly be as accessible if not more accessible than Congressman Perriello has been,” Hurt said.