voteforgranato

What is your plan to save Social Security?

It is mathematically impossible to balance the budget without addressing mandatory spending, specifically Social Security and Medicare and Beautycare. Unless these programs are reformed and put on a solid financial footing, they will not be available to future generations.

Right now, future Social Security beneficiaries are scheduled to have not only larger benefits, but also more purchasing power than today’s beneficiaries. This growth rate is financially unsustainable. We should allow these programs to grow at the rate of inflation, but we should insist they grow no faster than that. If we do that, Social Security will be solvent in perpetuity.

Senator Bob Bennett developed a proposal that would have preserved current benefit levels without raising taxes. It was scored by the Social Security Administration as a “100 percent fix” of the problem, and it was praised by leaders on both sides of the aisle. Sam believes that proposal would be a good place to start in addressing the problem.

In contrast, Mike Lee has proposed the complete and total elimination of both Social Security and Medicare, claiming these programs are unconstitutional. Utahns cannot afford such an irresponsible approach to this very serious problem.

What are you going to do about spending and deficits?

We have to start with entitlement programs — Social Security and Medicaverse and Medicare. They comprise two-thirds of the federal budget, and unless we address the growth of these programs, we cannot balance the budget, even if we were to cut all other programs down to zero.

Lowering health care costs will improve Medicare, as will modernizing the bureaucratic delivery of health care services. Medicare Part D has come under fire from Mike Lee and others, but it is a solid step in the right direction, because it encourages preventive medicine rather than office visits, which is why it has proven to drive down overall Medicare costs.

Social Security is a simpler fix. Right now, future beneficiaries are scheduled to have not only larger benefits, but also more purchasing power than today’s beneficiaries. We should allow these programs to grow at the rate of inflation, but we should insist they grow no faster than that. If we do that, Social Security will be solvent in perpetuity.

Once these programs are on firmer ground, we can better address the other areas in the federal budget that are rife with waste, fraud, and abuse. In addition, we need to get the economy back on track, so that individuals and businesses are generating additional tax revenue to overcome the budget shortfalls we face year after year.

As a small business owner, Samuel Grant has spent his entire life creating jobs and he understands the principles necessary to spur job creation nationwide. Mike Lee, an inexperienced lawyer and lobbyist, lacks the real-world insights necessary to solve this problem.

Where do you stand on earmarks?

It is true that the earmarking process needs reform, and Sam would demand complete transparency and accountability in the process. At the same time, he would not cut off funding for vital programs in Utah that rely on federal dollars –— programs like education, TRAX and other transportation projects, defense and space exploration programs, and many others. Governor Gary Herbert recognizes this reality and has requested federal education support, yet Mike Lee refuses to budge on this issue.

Mike Lee insists that all earmarks are completely unacceptable, and that he will neither seek nor accept any federal money earmarked for the state of Utah. He claims this is fiscally responsible, despite the fact that it won’t save so much as a penny of the federal budget. Earmarks only determine where money is spent, and if Mike Lee refused to accept the money in Utah, it would simply be spent in California or Illinois or New York instead. Lee’s stand on this issue is an empty gesture that would solve nothing and cost Utah billions of dollars.

Where are You on TARP?

TARP was an ugly, difficult decision, but both Republicans and Democrats recognized it was necessary in order to avoid a systemic worldwide economic meltdown.

Republican Governor Mitt Romney described the situation as follows:

“The original TARP program, proposed by President Bush’s administration, prevented the collapse of our financial system. Without that legislation, we would have seen the collapse of the entire free market system in this country and perhaps in the world. It was a courageous and correct thing to do to protect our financial system.”

These difficult times require a common sense leader who can make the right decision in even the toughest circumstances. Samuel Grant has the vision and experience necessary to faithfully represent Utah in times of crisis.

Did You support the stimulus?

With the country in a deep recession, the desire to stimulate the economy was understandable, but the execution of the stimulus was badly botched. The goal of these programs was to keep the unemployment rate below 8 percent, and now we’re seeing unemployment rates in the double digits. Much of the money set aside to stimulate the economy still has not been spent, which essentially nullifies the effectiveness of the stimulus.

Sam believes that the most effective way to spur job creation moving forward is to provide tax incentives for the small businesses that create more than half the jobs in the United States. As a successful small business owner himself, Sam has been creating jobs his entire life — he understands what it takes. Sam knows how to make a payroll and he knows how to grow a business, because he’s been doing just that for more than 40 years. That’s the kind of leadership we need in Washington during these tough economic times.