LITTLE ROCK — U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln asked U.S. Rep. John Boozman on Friday why he has twice co-sponsored a 23 percent national sales tax to replace the income tax when an adviser to former President Ronald Reagan has said it was a bad idea.
“Most of these economists do agree it’s a windfall for the wealthy but actually raises taxes on the middle-class families and the people living on fixed income, like our seniors,” Lincoln said.
Boozman responded, “I’m glad you support President Reagan and embrace his philosophy.” He added that a national sales tax is “worth looking at.”
“Can you imagine doing away with the IRS and getting a [payroll] check that’s all yours?” Boozman said.
Boozman’s sponsorship of legislation that would establish a national sales tax, which its supporters call a “fair tax,”was among several topics the two addressed in Little Rock during their second debate in their U.S. Senate race. Other topics included health care, the deficit, aid for farmers, abortion and congressional travel.
Lincoln, a Democrat from Little Rock, is being challenged in her bid for a third term by Boozman of Rogers, a five-term congressman for the 3rd District of Northwest Arkansas.
Boozman told a storyabout getting a tooth knocked out during football practice when he was a backup offensive lineman for the Arkansas Razorbacks.
“I cleared that with the chancellor, who said it was OK to talk about,” Boozman said.
He was referring to the University of Arkansas objecting Tuesday to a Boozman ad that contained images of Razorback Stadium and the Hogs logo.
He said the Senate election is a referendum on the “tax and spend and borrow mentality coming out of the Obama administration or whether we’re going to go back to the free-market approach that made this country great.”
“Sen. Lincoln is a good friend, but we just can’t afford her anymore,” Boozman said. “When push comes to shove, 95 percent of the time she’s voted with the Obama administration.”
Lincoln touted her chairmanship of the Agriculture Committee.
“My responsibility is to use that committee as a pipeline for jobs and opportunities in our state,” she said.
“Congressman Boozman has chosen to put the needs of the party line ahead of Arkansas,” she said. “I’m an independent voice for Arkansas. Some say I’m too conservative. Others say I’m too liberal. I think that puts me square in the middle with most Arkansans.”
At one point in the debate, Boozman confused Lincoln with Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, who lost against her in the Democratic primary. Boozman referred to her as “Sen. Halter.”
Regarding pending payments to farmers to compensate them for flood damage to their crops, Lincoln said she makes “no excuse for fighting on behalf of farmers,” while Boozman had voted against aid to farmers.
Boozman said he’s a “friend of the Farm Bureau” but questioned whether Obama had the authority to make the payments without congressional authorization. He said he had voted against it because it was “all lumped together” in an unrelated bill.
“The accusations that the USDA does not have the authority to make the payments is absolutely moot,” Lincoln said. “I tried to do it through Congress, but the Republicans wouldn’t let me.”
She said the same payment method had been used previously, including to help farmers on behalf of U.S. Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., a Boozman supporter.
Boozman likened it to Obama “bailing her out.”
Lincoln criticized Boozman for favoring earmarks - which are legislative measures used to fund particular projects - in the past and voting for deficit-increasing measures during the Bush administration. She said that’s inconsistent with his current statements calling for government cutbacks.
“This is not [about] what’s happened in the past,” Boozman said. “It’s what we’ve got to do right now.”
Boozman asked Lincoln if she would “still pass the deciding vote for Obamacare?”
Lincoln didn’t directly answer. She touted the benefits of the health-care legislation and said it wasn’t perfect.
“I would simply ask, if we’re not going to do something, is it OK to do nothing? Are we just going to continue the status quo?” Lincoln asked Boozman.
Boozman responded, “Certainly something needs to be done, but the idea that we’ve got to do something and that’s the solution is what’s wrong with government.”
Lincoln asked Boozman whether it was appropriate for taxpayers to pay for his trips to 11 countries “since the economy has collapsed.”
Boozman said most of those trips were to Iraq and Afghanistan to “pat our troops on the back. I’ll be glad to compare my record of being in Arkansas, listening to them at town halls, with your record.”
Lincoln responded, “I’m working to not only represent Arkansans but to be a good mother and a good wife. Idon’t think there is anybody, any working mom out there, who would criticize me for trying to be a good mom.”
Boozman said, “I wouldn’t criticize you for that.”
In her final question, Lincoln asked why Boozman voted “to protect the rights of fathers who committed rape or incest against a minor to be able to sue the doctor who performed an abortion on that victim.”
“I really don’t know what you’re talking about,” Boozman said.
“Well, it’s in the record,” she said.
“What bill are you talking about?” he asked.
“I don’t have the number with me,” she said.
Boozman said he didn’t think he would have voted for such a thing and that “it would be nice” if Lincoln was making accusations that she would have more details.
Lincoln spokesman Katie Laning Niebaum later described it as a vote on a motion to send a bill back to committee with instructions to amend the bill to ban rapist fathers from filing such suits.
“Boozman doesn’t know his own voting record putting the rights of rapists above the rights of victims,” the Lincoln campaign said.
Boozman spokesman Patrick Creamer described the proposed amendment as a way to kill a bill barring people from transporting children across state lines for an abortion in certain circumstances. He said Boozman supported the bill but opposed the procedural vote.
“Blanche Lincoln’s efforts to paint Congressman Boozman as an advocate for ‘rapists’ rights’ are preposterous and shameful,” Creamer said.
Boozman and Lincoln’s previous debate was last month in Hot Springs. Friday’s debate was hosted by Talk Business and KLRT-TV, Channel 16, in Little Rock.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 09/11/2010