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| Mike McIntyre |
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| Ilario Pantano |
President Barack Obama signed a bill on Monday that is supposed to help small businesses expand and hire by cutting taxes and creating a $30 billion loan fund to encourage lending—by providing capital to small banks with incentives to increase small business lending to those hard hit by the difficulty securing bank loans and credit.
"The Small Business Jobs Act cuts taxes and opens up lines of credit that can help our small businesses create jobs. This bill is fully paid for, will not add to the deficit, and helps Main Street—not Wall Street. This is good news for our area, and our economy," 7th District incumbent and Democratic candidate U.S. Rep. Mike McIntyre said Wednesday by e-mail, following the signing.
During an interview Tuesday, Sept. 28, Republican challenger Ilario Pantano said, "There needs to be some sense of permanence to tax cuts. Raising taxes in a recession absolutely is a guaranteed pathway to higher unemployment," Pantano said. "When you make it harder for businesses to hire, when you make it harder for people to buy goods and services, they do less. And then there is less demand, and without that demand there will be no need for more jobs and more hiring."
McIntyre, who is serving his 7th term, said he voted for the Bush tax cuts originally.
"I favor extending all the tax cuts so that we can have that money out in the economy working for people in small businesses," McIntyre said during a phone interview Sept. 21.
Extending the tax cuts, which started in President George W. Bush’s administration and were set to expire Jan. 1, 2011, could come up for a vote in Congress after the elections.
"We’ve got to have that money back in the local economy creating jobs," McIntyre said.
While some members of Congress favor letting the tax cuts expire for wealthier individuals earning more than $200,000 and married couples earning more than $250,000, Pantano said that would include–and hurt–small businesses.
"That’s another person who’s either going to lose their job or be underemployed," Pantano said.
Health care bill repeal
Repealing President Obama’s health care bill is another priority for Pantano, who argues that government spending and growth have created uncertainty in the private sector market.
Pantano worked as a Wall Street trader with Goldman Sachs in the 1990s. His campaign website states he began as a clerk in the oil and gas markets of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) and ultimately worked up to a position trading electricity. He also worked for a period as a television producer which ended when he re-entered the Marine Corps after the Sept. 11 attacks.
"In one piece of legislation you’ve got increased regulation, increased taxation, increased government involvement in people’s decisions from cradle to grave and, of course, no litigation reform," Pantano said, "so there’s nothing to actually deal with one of the things that creates the high cost of health care. When an employer doesn’t know what it will cost to hire people, he doesn’t hire, she doesn’t hire," Pantano added. "When someone doesn’t know what the upside will be for them to go to medical school any longer, they don’t go. We’re going to lose doctors; we’re going to lose the quality of care."
McIntyre, who voted against the health care bill in Congress this past March and favors its repeal, described himself as a fiscal hawk. He said his major goal is to help balance the federal budget and reduce the national debt.
"That is done by cutting back on the government spending," McIntyre said. "I’ve long been in favor of that. That has ramifications everywhere, in terms of the economy, in terms of jobs, in terms of businesses being able to reinvest their own money."
The national debt is now about $42,000 for every man, woman and child, McIntyre said.
During one of three debates with Pantano, McIntyre had voiced support for pay-as-you-go spending and to sunset government agencies and programs no longer doing anything. When questioned on what programs he would cut, McIntyre said a review of all government agencies is needed.
"Every agency should have to give an accounting, a transparent accounting, showing why it is justified to continue to exist or not and cut down on the waste, the fraud and the abuse," McIntyre said. Most government agencies and departments are exempt from such scrutiny. There are certain targeted programs that expire on their own terms. Unfortunately that is rare."
Aggressive campaigns
Both McIntyre and Pantano have been aggressive in their campaigns, with Pantano questioning McIntyre’s voting record and McIntyre questioning Pantano’s understanding of southeastern North Carolina issues. But McIntyre’s campaign has shied away from attacking the former Marine over the charges of premeditated murder of two Iraqi civilians in 2004. The Marine Corps dropped the charges in 2005.
Pantano has acknowledged that McIntyre has some similar views against what he considers bad policy.
"The problem is that my opponent is part of a majority in Congress that has enabled this stuff," Pantano said.
McIntyre has defended his record, saying he voted against all the bailouts and the Cap and Trade legislation. He added he has worked under both Republican and Democratic presidents, speakers and majorities in Congress since first elected in 1996 and that he has always fought for issues based on how they would affect southeastern North Carolina.
"My opponent emphasizes a very, very partisan agenda," McIntyre said. "I have always worked with people on both sides of the aisle."
During a debate this summer McIntyre questioned a comment he said Pantano made: that it does not matter what district Pantano represents because he represents the United States.
Pantano said, "That’s been distorted a little bit where he’s tried to suggest that I don’t care about southeastern North Carolina, and that couldn’t be farther from the truth." The New York native grew up in Hell’s Kitchen— attended the prestigious Horace Mann School on half-scholarship and graduated from New York University. A veteran of the Gulf and Iraq wars, Pantano was assigned to Camp Lejeune as a Second Lt. In an earlier interview on Sept. 20, he said, "My children are in public elementary school here, I’ve served here as a deputy sheriff in the community and I came here as a transplant with the United States Marine Corps.
"My wife and I made a decision to stay here because I love it and I love the values," Pantano said. As far as what is good for the country being good for southeastern North Carolina, Pantano said on Tuesday that issues such as the district’s high unemployment and foreclosure rates show that national politics are local politics. (North Carolina’s unemployment rate was 9.7 percent in August, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ website.)
Pantano, who pledged to limit himself to six terms in office, said the nation’s founders intended for citizen legislators to go to Washington, D.C., represent the people and then come home to live among the laws they created.
"That idea has gone away," Pantano said. "I am seeking to try and make changes."
The central question in the race is who is most qualified to represent the district and who knows it best, McIntyre said.
"You have to have a deep understanding and knowledge if you’re going to fully and vigorously represent the people on those issues and concerns," McIntyre said.
McIntyre added he has experience fighting for issues critical to the area, including beach renourishment funding, and he emphasized his role in forming the Congressional Waterways Caucus.
"Our coast is both an economic engine and an environmental treasure," McIntyre said.
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