LITTLE ROCK — Democratic congressional candidate Herb Rule and Republican incumbent Tim Griffin are clashing over an overhaul of Medicare, ending tax cuts enacted under President George W. Bush for taxpayers earning more than$250,000 a year, and repealing the federal health-care law.
Griffin also is accusing Rule of “false attacks,” citing Rule’s assertion that Griffin has a military pension and Rule’s radio ad that says Griffin “was wrong to take a five-week vacation.” Rule is sticking with his remarks.
Rule of Little Rock, a 74-year-old lawyer who was in the state House of Representatives and on the Little Rock School Board, is waging what he called a “shoe leather” campaign to oust Griffin of Little Rock, a 44-year-old former aide to President George W. Bush. Griffin alsois a former interim U.S. attorney. They’re seeking central Arkansas’ 2nd Congressional District, which includes Conway, Faulkner, Pulaski, Perry, Saline, Van Buren and White counties.
Green Party candidate Barbara Ward of Little Rock, a 69-year-old programs coordinator for the Historic Arkansas Museum, and Libertarian candidate Chris Hayes of Little Rock, a 54-year-old office manager for Woodbury Technical Services, also are running.
Two years ago, Griffin defeated state Sen. Joyce Elliott,D-Little Rock, in becoming the second Republican elected to represent the district since Reconstruction.
Rule said voters should support him because he has been committed to the growth of Arkansas’ people and businesses for more than 50 years and his experience in the Legislature taught him that “trying to stitch together good improvements for Arkansas required people to work together, even when we didn’t agree 100 percent.”
Griffin said people shouldvote for him because he’s a conservative who believes the country is on the wrong track, and he’s f ighting for policies to encourage job creation, including overhauling the tax code, “getting our spending under control, and spending taxpayer dollars wisely.”
Rule said he wants “to try to end the dysfunction in Congress where people shout slogans and don’t work together for the good of the country” andwork with other congressmen on legislation to create more jobs and help get control of federal spending and debt for the benefit of Arkansas.
Griffin said he’s interested in getting onto the House Ways and Means Committee, which he expects to work on revamping the federal tax code next year.
As to whether Congress is dysfunctional, Griffin said, “I would remind Mr. Rule that the Constitution splits power around [to] the House and the Senate and the president ... We have passed numerous bills relating to job creation and they are sitting in the Senate, going nowhere.”
Rule said Griffin voted to create a voucher system for the Medicare program, and that turning the program into such a system will essentially privatize Medicare.
He said he’s read reports that show a voucher system would cost the average Medicare recipient in Arkansas anywhere from $5,000 to $6,000 more a year than the current system and many Arkansans wouldn’t be able to afford that.
But Griffin said he doesn’t consider the changes to the Medicare program that he voted for to be “a voucher program,” and that’s “complete nonsense” to suggest the changes would cost the average Medicare recipient in Arkansas $5,000 to $6,000 a year more.
For people 55 or over, the Medicare program wouldn’t be changed “one bit,” and those under 55 would have theoption to stick with traditional Medicare program or opt for “premium support,” under which part of the premium is paid by the government and the other part is paid by the Medicare recipients, Griffin said. Medicare recipients would choose from health-insurance plans that meet federal standards and the program would be administered by the federal government, he said.
“People like Herb Rule, their policies will ensure the bankruptcy of Medicare,” Griffin said.
Asked about Griffin’s contention, Rule said he supports vigilant monitoring and action by Congress to make sure that funding sources for Medicare “will remain in perpetuity.”
Griffin said he wonders why Rule wants to cut Medicare because the federal health-care law signed by President Barack Obama in 2010 that Rule supports “eliminates almost $800 billion from Medicare.”
In response, Rule said the federal law is projected to save about $716 billion over a10-year period to rein in payments to hospitals and healthcare providers and isn’t “taking money away from the benefits that people have,” adding that Griffin voted to support similar cost reductions as part of the House’s version of the federal budget. Griffin said the House’s budget that he supports “saves Medicare because we adopt fundamental reforms that lower costs and we reinvest those savings in Medicare to extend Medicare’s life.”
Rule said he doesn’t favor repealing the federal healthcare law because it benefits hundreds of thousands of Arkansas residents in making health care and particularly preventive health care available as part of the Medicaid, and will save lives by treatingillnesses earlier.
But Griffin said he supports repealing it because “it is a massive, complicated expensive job-killing expansion of the federal government’s role in health care.”
To help reduce the budget deficit, Rule said he supports ending the Bush-era tax cutsfor people earning more than $250,000 a year “so that those who benefit from the freedom and protection and the security and the military and use the highways ... and use the government for regulatory purposes are paying a more reasonable share of the cost.”
But Griffin said he opposes ending those tax cuts because “people already pay enough in taxes.
“Until the federal government gets its house in order and puts together a sustainable spending path, we shouldn’t come ... and ask for an extra penny,” he said.
Griffin said he is disappointed that Rule has made “false attacks” against him, and Rule “has no idea what he is talking about.”
Griffin said Rule’s radio ad that suggests that he’s taken five weeks off “would come as a surprise to my 2-year-old and my 5-year-old and my wife, who never see me, because I am usually out working.”
According to Rule spokesman Adam Fogleman, the radio ad says in part that “Herb Rule thinks Tim Griffin was wrong to take a five-week vacation before finishing critical business to help the economy,and another one without passing a farm bill.”
Rule said his radio ad is fair because Congress is on recess, and Griffin “is taking a vacation and he is getting paid. They are not legislating.”
Griffin said Rule made light of the fact during a recent meeting in Maumelle that Griffin has turned down his congressional pension and that Rule indicated Griffin doesn’t tell people that he gets an Army pension.
“Well, that’s not true,” Griffin said about already having a pension. “I hope to get an Army pension one day, but you got to serve 20 years in the Army to get any Army pension and I am working on my 17th year, so I don’t qualify for an Army pension.”
Rule said he isn’t backing off from his remarks that Griffin doesn’t tell people that he gets an Army pension because he believes they were fair.
“Let’s put it this way. He hasn’t refused it or said he is going to refuse it.”
Rule, who was charged in August with driving while intoxicated in Fayetteville and whose trial is scheduled for Nov. 28, said a judge recently stayed the cancellation of his driver’s license pending the outcome of the case. He reiterated that he’s innocent of the charge, adding “I think I will win it in court.” In 2010, Rule was charged with DWI in Rogers, and later was found innocent in that case.
Fogleman later said, “The voters of the 2nd District have every reason to be confident in Herb Rule’s ability and integrity to serve in Congress.
“The video reveals that Mr. Rule was frustrated given the circumstances but it’s clear he was arrested without grounds and the charge unjustified,” he said.
Griffin declined to comment when asked about Rule’s DWI arrest.
Arkansas’ 2nd Congressional DistrictName: Tim Griffin Age, date of birth: 44; Aug. 21, 1968. Birthplace: Charlotte, N.C.
Current town of residence: Little Rock.
Education: Magnolia High School;
bachelor’s degree, Hendrix College;
law degree, Tulane University; attended Oxford University in England.
Current occupation: Congressman and officer in the Army Reserve.
Business/political experience: Associate independent counsel for the U.S. Office of Independent Counsel 1995-1997; counsel for the U.S.
House Government Reform Committee 1997-1999; campaign manager for Republican attorney general candidate Betty Dickey in 1998; deputy research director at the Republican National Committee 1999-2001;
special assistant to U.S. Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff 2001-2002; research director and deputy communications director at the Republican National Committee 2002-2004; special assistant to President George W. Bush and deputy director of the Office of Political Affairs at the White House 2005-2006;
interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas 2006-2007;
general counsel for Mercury Public Affairs 2007-2008; owner of Griffin Public Affairs and Griffin law firm from 2008-2010; and officer in the Army Reserve since 1996.
Family: Wife, Elizabeth; a son and a daughter.
Name: Herb Rule Age, date of birth: 74; Nov. 21, 1937.
Birthplace: Little Rock.
Current town of residence: Little Rock.
Education: Central High School;
bachelor’s degree, Yale University;
law degree, University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.
Current occupation: attorney.
Business/political experience: An officer in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1959 to 1961 and an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve from 1961-1968; co-owned Charlie Brown’s Cowshed in Little Rock from 1969-1975; Arkansas House of Representatives from 1967-1971; partner in a farm at Keo from 1975-1988;
partner in development of residential property from 1975-1984 and in real estate investment in Pulaski County from 1971-1978; board member and stockholder for Mid-South Plywoods Inc. in Wynne from 1970-1978; Little Rock School Board, 1977-1982; attorney, Rose Law Firm, 1964-2012, who also lobbied from the late 1980s-2012.
Family: Divorced; three sons.
Name: Chris Hayes Age, date of birth: 54, Sept. 12, 1958.
Birthplace: El Paso, Texas Current town of residence: Little Rock.
Education: Parkview High School;
attended University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
Current occupation: office manager for Woodbury Technical Services.
Business/political experience: salesman and manager for Little Rock Paper Co. from 1979-1999;
managed a restaurant in Austin, Texas, from 1999-2007.
Family: Single; a son.
Name: Barbara Ward
Age, date of birth: 69, May 3, 1943.
Birthplace: Lawton, Okla.
Current town of residence: Little
Rock.
Education: Sulphur Springs High
School; bachelor’s degree, University
of Arkansas at Fayetteville; bachelor’s
degree, University of Central Arkansas.
Current occupation: programs coor
dinator, Historic Arkansas Museum.
Business/political experience:
1982-1988, talk radio host and/or
program director for several radio
stations; salesman for SilverMate Co.
from 1988-1999.
Family: Husband, Mark Jenkins; a
daughter.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 10/15/2012