Maxwell: 'I Support the Second Amendment'

Third of a four-part series written by Scott Benjamin

DANBURY, CT-- Matt Maxwell of Sandy Hook, is competing with three other contenders for the Republican nomination in the Fifth Congressional District, and has proposed an across- the-board federal tax cut that he insists would save $5,000 for the typical Connecticut family of four that earns $53,000 annually. The package also would lower corporate tax rates.

How can the federal government afford a tax cut when it has had budget deficits for 15 consecutive years and the current shortfall is more than $544 billion?

Maxwell said the answer is to eliminate the vast waste in the federal government by closing and restructuring departments.

For example, he said he wants to close the federal Department of Education, which was established in 1979.

“There’s little evidence that the money gets to the schools,” Maxwell declared.

He also wants to abolish President Obama’s signature health care plan and replace it with a series of measures.

Maxwell said he would have the federal government allow companies to offer insurance across states lines; make prices transparent; establish health savings accounts that are tax free and also would be free of estate taxes; make insurance premiums tax deductible; send block grants to the states for Medicaid; and get new drugs into the market easier.

He said he would not make any revisions in Social Security or Medicare.

“You need to preserve it,” Maxwell said. “It’s a promise.”

He said that he’s against Obama’s 2008 campaign proposal to raise the payroll tax threshold from the current $118.500 to $250,000 in hopes of making the program solvent for a longer period of time. There is a concern that it will eventually run out of money as more members of the Baby Boomer generation retire and there are fewer workers to support the system.

Discussion about the long-term solvency of Social Security date at least to former President Bill Clinton’s second term when presidential town meetings were held to discuss the issue.

Regarding gun legislation, Maxwell said he opposes federal comprehensive background checks, adding that they are “an infringement” on the Second Amendment. Connecticut and 18 other states have comprehensive background check laws.

“I support the Second Amendment,” he said.