U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow in a Muskegon Chronicle and MLive editorial board interview Oct. 9, 2012, in Muskegon.
MUSKEGON, MI – Democratic U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow defended Obamacare and tax breaks for clean energy, talked up her own record on agriculture and jobs and criticized China's trade record and Republicans' Medicare proposals during a visit to Muskegon.
In an editorial board interview with MLive and the Muskegon Chronicle, Stabenow touched on a number of issues. Her focus: jobs and farms.
She was in West Michigan to take part in Wednesday morning's opening of the Fremont Community Digester, a $22 million project to convert food waste into energy. Stabenow helped secure a loan guarantee for the project from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Stabenow focused on her role as chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee. As such, she plugged the 2012 Farm Bill that passed the Senate with bipartisan support but hasn’t been taken up by the House of Representatives.
The bill would cut spending by $23.6 billion, she said. Without passage by the end of the year, Stabenow said, disaster assistance will lapse for fruit growers and farmers hurt by this year’s drought.
She defended tax breaks for private development of wind and solar energy, saying it helps consumers by leveling the playing field with the oil industry, the beneficiary of tax breaks for nearly a century.
Stabenow supports tax incentives for “advanced manufacturing” to support clean energy, such as new battery technologies, despite embarrassing failures such as Solyndra.
“We’re in a global race” with other countries, she said. “It’s the next industrial revolution. We’ve got to support those that work and discard those that don’t.”
Stabenow defended her record on jobs and farm issues, pointing to her endorsement for re-election this year by the Michigan Farm Bureau, which more typically endorses Republicans. Stabenow faces a challenge from former Republican Congressman Pete Hoekstra of Holland.
“Our country should focus on making things and growing things,” she said, maintaining that that’s been her focus in the Senate: support for U.S. and Michigan manufacturing and agriculture.
Stabenow criticized what she considers unfair trade practices by some countries, one in particular: “The biggest culprit truly is China,” she said. She said the Obama administration has become aggressive enough in dealing with Chinese trade practices, although she doesn’t believe it was at first.
Stabenow defended the Affordable Care Act, often known as Obamacare, against criticism by some that it’s hurting business investment and dampening job growth.
“I’ve listened to businesses talk about exploding costs of health care for years and years,” she said. “We’ve seen the growth in premiums start to come down” in the last two years. “Doing nothing is a recipe for disaster for families and businesses in Michigan.”
She defended the Affordable Care Act’s reduction of Medicare funding by more than $700 billion over a decade, calling it “stopping overpayments” to medical providers.
Stabenow criticized Medicare reforms proposed by U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, now the Republican vice presidential nominee, calling it a voucher system that would dramatically hurt the elderly once it’s in place.
“I come from a basic premise that Social Security and Medicare are a great American success story,” she said.