Politics & Government
GOP Congress challenger insists Democratic spending fueled inflation
West Hartford physician Lazor supports negotiating prescription drug costs through Medicare and addressing climate change
Larry Lazor John Larson Barbara Kennelly
Donald Trump Joe Biden Matt Corey
By Scott Benjamin
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WEST HARTFORD – First District Republican congressional candidate Larry Lazor says “Democrats need to answer” why inflation has soared under the Biden Administration and how their recently-approved Inflation Reduction Act will lower it.
“John Larson has been a cheerleader for spending for 24 years,” he said of the Democratic incumbent, who was elected when the federal government had its first balanced budget since 1969 and the inflation rate was 1.56 percent.
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Lazor of West Hartford, a physician for 32 years, said even some Democratic economists have stated that the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan is partly responsible for an inflation rate that escalated to 9.1 percent in June and then dropped slightly to 8.5 percent in July.
Steven Rattner wrote in The New York Times last November, “They [the Democrats] can’t say they weren’t warned — notably by Larry Summers, a former Treasury secretary and my former boss in the Obama administration, and less notably by many others, including me. We worried that shoveling an unprecedented amount of spending into an economy already on the road to recovery would mean too much money chasing too few goods.”
“We spent five times what we spent in 2008,” Lazor said of the stimulus that was allocated dating to the start of the pandemic in March 2020 in comparison to actions taken during the Great Recession.
He said that with the higher rate of inflation, the typical family of four is now paying more than $6,000 more a year for its goods and services than it was a year ago.
However, the Democrats point to a 3.5 percent national unemployment rate, the same place where it was under Republican former President Donald Trump when the pandemic began. That was the lowest rate since 1969.
“I like the fact that people are working,” Lazor said in an interview with Patch.com. “It is wonderful.”
However, he noted that the Federal Reserve Board has recently made two consecutive 0.75-point increases in the interest rate with others likely to come to help reduce inflation.
“There is going to be pain in this,” Lazor commented regarding a likely climb in unemployment and a possible recession.
“We haven’t gotten to that point yet,” he explained.
The Democrats are underscoring their $730 billion Inflation Reduction Act, which was approved on party line votes in both chambers of Congress. They say it will curb costs through negotiated prescription drug prices, increased Internal Revenue Service auditing, increased taxes for the wealthy and climate change initiatives. There is $430 billion in spending and $300 billion in revenue increases. Democrats claim new revenue will largely come from tax cheaters, the wealthy and large corporations.
Lazor remarked, “It will increase taxes on people in the middle class” and does little to reduce record budget deficits.
Wall Street Journal economics commentator Greg Ip, wrote that Biden has said that, “Passing it is the “most consequential thing that Congress can do” to keep inflation from getting worse.”
Ip stated, “There are two problems with this. The first is that the claim largely rests on estimates that the bill will, over 10 years, reduce the budget deficit by about $300 billion, thereby reducing aggregate demand and inflation pressure. But the timing and composition of the bill mean it will actually have virtually no impact on inflation in the next few years, when it matters most.”
Ip added that the Democrats have already recently increased spending through commitments to infrastructure reform and semi-conductor production at a time when the annual federal budget deficit exceeds $1 billion.
There has not been a balanced federal bud get in 21 years.
Lazor commented, “Larson is talking about being a cheerleader for funding in Connecticut without asking about the debt.”
Larson spokesman Owen Hooks Davis wrote in a prepared statement to Patch.com: “In the past two years, John has helped us all bounce back from the pandemic by passing bills to put vaccinations in arms, kids back in their school seats, and people back to work. And earlier this month, he and fellow Democrats passed a law to make health insurance and prescription drugs cheaper, fight climate change, and create jobs.”
He added, ”Meanwhile, Larry Lazor's fellow Republicans voted against affordable health care, against job creation, and even against benefits for veterans exposed to toxic chemicals. While Republicans like Larry Lazor complain from the sidelines, Democrats are delivering for working Americans."
Lazor also was critical of Larson’s campaign fund-raising.
“There probably is no Democrat who gets more special interest money than John Larson,” he declared..
CT News Junkie columnist Susan Bigelow wrote earlier this year, “He’s taken money from the PACs of Morgan Stanley, Wal-Mart, AT&T, Comcast, Google, CVS Health, CIGNA, Travelers and Toyota, to name a few. It’s the same old cesspit of corporate dollars that every other serious” candidate swims in.”
In his Daily Ructions blog, Hartford Courant political columnist Kevin Rennie of South Windsor has pointed to Larson’s “acceptance of thousands from Vincent Roberti, the Washington lobbyist and former Connecticut legislator who has made millions representing Russian energy interests.”
In the First District - which encompasses the metro Hartford area, a small part of Litchfield County and a portion of Middletown – no Republican has won an election since 1956.
Republican Matt Corey of Manchester, who ran against Larson three times, said the First Congressional District “is probably the safest seat in the country.”
If Larson wins the November 8 election, he will become the second-longest serving U.S. House member in Connecticut history ,trailing only U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, who was first elected in 1990 in the Third District.
Larson tallied 63.9 percent of ballots in 2020.
.Corey said, “He shows up at kids’ graduations. He’s just a neighborhood guy.”
However, he added, “He had this reputation as a moderate from his years in the state Senate [in the 1980s and 1990s], because he voted against the income tax. But over the years in Congress, he has voted with the far left.”
Lazor called on Larson to debate him three times this fall.
Regarding the outlook in the region, he said all 21 U.S. House seats in New England are held by Democrats. Yet, three of the six states in the region have GOP governors.
Closer to home, a majority of the 27 municipalities in the First Congressional District have Republican mayors or first selectmen or a GOP majority on the town council.
“I think we need to find a way to be relevant at the congressional level,” Lazor remarked. “Voters are begging for an honest, eloquent Republican who has moderate views and that's my lane.”
“If you are 0-21 and you are the manager of the Red Sox or the Yankees, you’re going to say that, ‘This isn’t working.’ “
What about the Trump factor? The former president won the Connecticut presidential primary in 2016, but reportedly hurt GOP candidates in 2018 and 2020, particularly among suburban women.
Yet, Sacred Heart University Government Department Chairman Gary Rose told Patch.com shortly after the 2020 presidential election that had "never seen a president get so much accomplished in such a short period of time" as Trump.
Said Lazor, “When you talk about Trump you have to talk issue by issue.”
“Never before have minority groups done so well,” said Lazor.
He also praised the former president’s border policies.
“We now have four times the number of illegal immigrants than before Biden took office,” Lazor exclaimed.
University of Chicago economist Casey Mulligan, who worked for Trump’s Council of Economic Advisors, has stated that the former president frequently asked about what the United States was spending on foreign nations and what America was getting in return.
Lazor commented, “For us to be paying for Germany ‘s defense, Japan’s defense, South Korea’s defense, makes no sense.”
“However, I think that Trump is wrong about the election,” he said regarding charges that voter irregularities cost the former president a second term.
“Right now, Trump has a big influence on the Republican Party, but I think that is changing,” said Lazor.
“Looking to the future, probably Biden and Trump should both not run again,” he said. “I think we can find better people.”
According to recent data, there are 18 major insurance companies that have presence in the metro Hartford area. The last three congressmen from the First District – Democrats Bill Cotter, Barbara Kennelly and Larson – each have served on the U.S. House Ways & Means Committee.
Kennelly told The Brookfield Journal in 1998 when she was the Democratic candidate for governor, “The insurance companies in my district have always sought to get more than they deserved and I have worked to get them a fair deal.”
Lazor said, if elected, he would seek a seat on the powerful U.S. House Ways & Means Committee, but acknowledged that it would be “tough” for a freshman to get that assignment.
Although, Lazor said he doesn’t think the Inflation Reduction Act will do much to reduce inflation or lower the budget deficit, he offered at least moderate praise for some of its features.
Regarding the negotiated prescription drug prices, he said, “I like that they’re capping the costs on the patients on Medicare. I like the idea of insulin being capped.”
“There needs to be oversight on these costs, and I also believe that there is always a balance between the amazing innovation that the health care system has, and the costs,” he explained. “You want to encourage companies to come up with new products.”
Lazor said he also hopes that generic drugs take a larger share of the market.
“That’s a great option,” he commented.
“Health care is way too expensive in the United States,” said Lazor. “It is crushing businesses. It is crushing families.”
He pointed to the 20.4 percent average increase currently being sought by insurance companies in Connecticut for their 2023 individual health plans.
“It is insane,” Lazor said.
He explained that he took over a surgery center two years ago in Farmington that was going out of business. He turned into “an A-plus quality” facility, also noting that it is one of just a handful of multi-specialty independent surgery centers in Connecticut.
He said that,” The cost per patient is $800 less when compared to a hospital-run surgery center. We’re saving the health care system $3 million to $4 million a year.”
“Hospitals make their money on their out-patient surgery centers,” explained Lazor.
On energy reform, the GOP candidate said he generally supports the $369 billion in climate change that was included in the Inflation Reduction Act, but “would argue on some of the specifics.”
“The car rebate benefits the rich buying EV cars.,” Lazor remarked. “We need to address climate as a transition over time. Stop dirty coal plants around the world but keep US supplying cleaner natural gas as we transition.”
He added, “We can’t solve this on our own. We need India and Russia to sign on.”
References:
The Brookfield Journal, August 14, 1998.
https://ctmirror.org/2022/08/15/ct-insurance-department-reject-rate-increases-hea
https://patch.com/connecticut/brookfield/rose-rates-trump-highly-except-
