NH Business: Senate GOP candidates take on inflation

Sep. 11—HENNIKER

THE PAIN consumers have been feeling at the gas pump and grocery store will loom large over this fall's election season. For incumbents, inflation is kryptonite. President Joe Biden hopes weeks of declining gas prices will soften the blow of a midterm correction.

How do GOP Senate hopefuls aim to fix the economy?

During Tuesday's primary, Republicans in New Hampshire will choose a challenger to face Sen. Maggie Hassan in November as the Democrat seeks a second term.

The Union Leader participated in a debate Wednesday with the five Republican contenders: Senate President Chuck Morse of Salem, retired Brig. Gen. Don Bolduc of Stratham, former Londonderry Town Manager Kevin Smith, bitcoin millionaire Bruce Fenton of Durham and entrepreneur Vikram Mansharamani of Lincoln.

The 90-minute Live Free or Die GOP Senate Primary Debate at New England College was sponsored by AARP New Hampshire and moderated by Chris Ryan, host of "New Hampshire Today," the morning talk show on News Radio 610.

The panel posing questions to the candidates featured Union Leader reporter Josie Albertson-Grove, New England College student journalist Lily Geber, and yours truly, who kicked off the debate with a question about the economy:

"Consumers have been hit with higher prices for just about everything, as fallout from the pandemic, the supply chain and the war in the Ukraine affect energy prices, food prices and other commodities. What steps does the federal government need to take to arrest inflation and protect the economy from future shocks?"

Here are the candidate's responses in the order they were presented. Each had 60 seconds. Their answers were as varied as their backgrounds, blaming inflation on COVID-19 relief, monetary and energy policies, and other factors. Morse, who aims to upset front-runner Bolduc, chose to use most of his time to attack Hassan.

Bruce Fenton: "Inflation is caused by broken money, and politicians have broken the money. This is a cycle that started over 20 years ago — really actually it was 51 years ago when we went off of the gold standard. The U.S. dollar used to be backed by something real, a real form of money — gold — which had been recognized for hundreds and hundreds of years as a form of money.

"In 1971, they went off of the gold standard and created what we have now, which is just pictures of dead presidents that people call money. And the politicians print it from thin air without accountability and with wild abandon for increasingly reckless bailouts of cronies and projects and pork projects and green new deals and things like this.

"The printing of new money from thin air without accountability is what has caused inflation. That is what is causing inflation. And any politician who says they can easily fix it is most likely lying or they don't understand the situation. The way to fix it is to go back to a sound money standard and exercise sound economic policies."

Chuck Morse: "The way to fix it is to stop the spending and stop the borrowing. That's what we need to do. Maggie Hassan can't understand that. Maggie Hassan thinks the only way to make things happen in Washington is for Washington to do it. She wants to fund education and spend a trillion dollars right now to write checks.

"That's an insult to everyone in the state of New Hampshire that's paid their bills and signed on the dotted line to do it and every parent that worked hard to send their kids to school. She signed on an infrastructure bill that she spent over a trillion dollars on and came back to New Hampshire and said, 'Here we are. Here's New Hampshire's share of it.' We were 51st in the nation when Maggie delivered that bill.

"She can't stop spending. We need to end this. We need to go to Washington and live within our means, exactly like we do in New Hampshire. We're the envy of the Northeast because of the way we govern in New Hampshire and the way we budget in New Hampshire. Let's take that to Washington and do it the 603 way."

Vikram Mansharamani: "I think one major cause of the inflation that we face today is really energy policy. We have a really socially driven energy policy that begins with climate alarmism, where we've chosen to beat up cheap, reliable energies that can power our economy. Fundamentally that extra energy cost has bled through into all goods and services.

"I've been fortunate to serve on the board of a trucking company, and I can tell you that the cost of diesel has driven up the cost of freight. And anything moved by a tractor trailer will therefore have higher costs.

"So a bad energy policy where we went from energy independence — able to export energy to our friends and our allies — to an energy policy where we are dependent upon countries that hate us — is not a good policy. It's producing inflation. It's putting our country at risk in a geopolitical sense, and it's absolutely hurting Granite State families.

"Inflation is a tax. We are paying the tax bill for bad policy."

Kevin Smith: "Let's not forget how we got here. We've had so much money flooding the system right now between all of the COVID-relief monies, the infrastructure bill, this latest college loan bailout. We're devaluing the dollar. The way we get back to bringing down inflation and making the economy booming again is going back to what we were doing just a couple of years ago.

"Number one: We need a balanced budget. We haven't had a balanced budget since 1994 when we had a Republican Congress and Bill Clinton was president. I've said let's go back to having the Gramm-Rudman amendment, which called for an actual balanced budget, and there were automatic budget cuts if we didn't have one every year.

"We need to cut the individual tax rate. We need to cut corporate tax rates. Let's repeal the Jones Act, which puts higher costs on shipping around liquified natural gas and oil. And let's end a lot of the environmental regulations. And also I agree with Vikram. We have to become energy independent again because so much of these higher costs are dependent on moving goods and services around. If we have higher energy costs, that eats into it."

Don Bolduc: "It's simple. It's not difficult. It's common sense. And that's what we lack down there. We have energy dependence now. We need energy independence. We need to re-initiate the XL pipeline. We need to reverse all of Biden's policies that have put us in a situation where we are energy dependent. We need to start drilling. We need to start fracking. We need to start drilling offshore. We need to start drilling in Antarctica.

"Yes, we need to focus on a balanced budget, and I agree with that. We have to cut taxes. We have to. It's essential. People can't live. They're suffering out there. I've seen the moms and dads. This is what we need to do to bring America back to where it needs to be."

Mike Cote is senior editor for news and business. Contact him at mcote@unionleader.com or (603) 206-7724.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author. They do not represent the views and opinions of the sponsor, its members and affiliates.