Tuesday, October 20, 1998

Excerpts from the Election ‘98 Special Insert

Michael Coles

• Coles on income tax reform: I support simplifying the tax code because the IRS has become too much a part of our everyday lives.  Our current system is cumbersome and unwieldy and we must work to find easier and fairer ways to collect government taxes.  I also support eliminating the “marriage penalty” that some Georgia families now pay on their income tax. 
   
• Coles on federal spending: As a businessman, I understand the need for fiscal responsibility and cutting taxes.  I think any and all new federal spending should be offset by matching cuts to other programs.   The federal government still wastes billions of dollars on things that do nothing to help Georgia’s working families.  As a U.S. Senator, I will give my salary to charity.
   
• Coles on improving education: In order to improve the quality of public school education, we must decrease class size, especially in the early grades, so that all our children get the individual attention they need to develop basic skills.  In April, Paul Coverdell voted against amendments to increase the number of teachers and build and repair more classrooms; I will support that kind of legislation.
   
• Coels on agricultural programs: I will fight to repair the harms done by the 1996 “Freedom to Farm” bill  the most disastrous federal farm legislation since the 1920’s.   The value of crop insurance policies should at least be based upon the amount invested by the farmernot past yields.   The federal government should deal with farm losses caused by floods or droughts in the same manner that it deals with the loss of a home or a business due to natural disaster by making substantial emergency assistance immediately available.
   
• Coles on environmental protection: One of my top priorities as a U.S. Senator would be to ensure that all Georgians have access to clean and safe drinking water.  I will fight for more federal funding for water infrastructure and improvement projects in Dougherty County, and elsewhere around the state. 
   
• Coles on veterans benefits: Veterans who served 20 years or more were promised health care for life.  Congress has broken that promise, but I think we should keep it.  I would start by restoring the $17 billion in medical benefits that Paul Coverdell and his colleagues voted to cut in July.  Coverdell cut veterans benefits to pay for highway construction.  I do not think that this is right.
   
• Coles on social security:  First, we should agree to reserve the federal budget surplus to protect the Social Security Trust Fund.   Then, the President and Congress should establish a National Commission on Social Security Reform, similar to the bipartisan panel that saved the program back in 1983.  Any major changes to the Social Security system should be announced several decades before they are implemented, so as to allow individuals to plan for their retirements. 
   
• Coles on drugs: Paul Coverdell was one of only 20 Senators to vote against the Safe and Drug Free Schools and Community Act of 1994, which provides $655 million a year in federal funding for local programs of school drug and violence prevention.  I would support and work to improve this and other federal anti-drug education programs.  I would work with all local community groups  churches, civic organizations, teachers, police officers, business people  to help coordinate an effective response to this mounting crisis.

Paul Coverdell

• Coverdell on income tax reform: The current tax code is unfair and in urgent need of reform.  I have been studying both the flat tax and the idea of a national sales tax-either would be preferable to the current system. One condition: A national sales tax must include a repeal of the 16^th Amendment that authorizes a federal income tax.  Otherwise, we would leave ourselves open to the possibility of one day having an income tax and a sales tax.
   
• Coverdell in federal spending: I am proud to have helped load the effort to restore fiscal sanity to Washington. We successfully balanced the budget for the first time in 30 years and now have passed consecutive balanced budgets.  The debate today is over surpluses, not deficits.  However, I will remain vigilant to ensure that our federal government remains in the black.
   
• Coverdell on education: My bipartisan legislation to provide Georgians a world-class education was the most comprehensive to pass Congress in a decade.  Unfortunately, the bill was vetoed by President Clinton at the behest of the special interests.  The Coverdell bill would provide important incentives for families to save for their children’s educational futures. It would also provide additional funding for a reading program and merit pay to reward star teachers.  I will continue to work for education reform that moves control away from Washington and toward states, communities and most importantly, parents.
   
• Coverdell on Agriculture: Initially, we need an immediate infusion of capital into rural Georgia to recover from our devastating back-to-back weather disasters.  I’ve worked to pass a bill that will provide the largest relief to Georgia producers in history.  Another bill I sponsored which has been signed into law, has ensured that over 30,000 drought-stricken farmers in Georgia receive relief more quickly. I also believe that crop insurance must be reformed immediately-the current program is not working.  Finally, as chairman of the Senate Agriculture Marketing subcommittee, I will continue to work to increase global trade opportunities for our products abroad.
   
• Coverdell on Environment: I have fought to protect Georgia’s environment, securing funding to protect environmentally sensitive areas on Cumberland Island, the Chattahoochee and Chattanooga river corridors and the Appalachian Trail.  I have also introduced legislation to force the federal government the nation’s biggest polluterto live under the Clean Water Act, just like everything else.
   
• Coverdell on Veterans benefits: As a veteran, I have worked to protect veterans benefits and expand health care for military retirees.  My bill, The Military Health Care Fairness Act, will give all military retirees health-care coverage equal to federal employees.  I also voted four times to restore tobacco-related  health benefits that President Clinton proposed to cut. I have also cosponsored the Persian Gulf War Veterans Act, recently passed by the Senate, that give presumption of service-connected illness to veterans of the Gulf War.
   
• Coverdell on Social Security: There is no more deeply rooted contract between the American people and their government than Social Security.  Generations of Americans have faithfully paid into the system and the federal government must honor its end of the agreement and ensure that these programs are preserved for future beneficiaries.  I believe that preserving Social Security must be the highest priority of any budget surplus.  I have also cosponsored legislation to repeal and refund President Clinton’s 1993 tax increase on seniors.
   
• Coverdell on drugs: There is no greater threat to our children and communities than the scourge of illegal drugs. My plan, the Drug Free Neighborhoods Act attacks the drug war to win by providing critical resources to our law enforcement community and the necessary funds to stop drugs at the source.  It also provides incentives to root out drugs in our schools and our workplaces.  I also founded Operation Drug-Free Georgia, a grassroots, anti-drug initiative that works to raise awareness of the drug epidemic and encourage Georgia teens to remain drug free.  The organization currently has over 600 members in more than 110 communities. I will continue to fight to make our streets and neighborhoods drug free.

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PAID FOR AND AUTHORIZED BY MICHAEL COLES FOR U.S. SENATE, INC.