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Begich says his business constituents want compromise

July 31st 7:10 pm | Margaret Bauman Print this article   Email this article   Create a Shortlink for this article

In the midst of the congressional effort to avoid a federal government default, Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, said his constituents are telling him they want a long term solution to budget issues and an end to partisan bickering.

Begich made his comments to Congress earlier this weekend, on the eve of a tentative deal today that reportedly could avert a national fiscal calamity.

Hours after Begich spoke, national news media reported that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, had tentatively signed off on a budget deal being negotiated with top Republicans by the White House. There was hope, said Reid, that he would have a vote on the plan as early as tonight.

Begich said what he is hearing from Alaskans contacting him over the budget deficit is that "besides the frustration of what is going on here, they want us to focus on building this economy, to get regulation out of the way, to help invest in the needed things, to insure that businesses can create the jobs that we desperately need, not only for the people who are unemployed today, but for the future generations."

Begich, himself a small business owner, as is his wife, said what is needed is a long term federal plan, because "businesses that set a short term plan are the ones that say 'going out of business'.

"We're not going to quit here. We're going to have a long term plan," he said. "I challenged earlier this week to businesses that want a short term plan to call my office," Begich said. "No one business called my office and said 'give me a short term plan.' But I will tell you several Alaska businesses did call my office and said compromise, get a long term plan."

One of those callers, said Begich, owns a web design firm, whose clients are also small business owners already seeing the affects of the uncertainty. That caller told Begich that her clients said if the government defaults on debt, the resulting interest rates would put them out of business.

Another small business owner, an Iraq war veteran whose firm provides engineers and management services to the oil and gas industry, told Begich "there's always room for compromise," so all parties can walk away with the feeling that they got a fair deal.

Begich said that constituent told him he fully expects an increase in taxes and he is okay with that, to continue to support our country.

 

Margaret Bauman can be reached at mbauman@alaskanewspapers.com, or by phone at 907-348-2438

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