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Herseth Sandlin touts House's pay-as-you-go rules
October 11, 2008 | Sioux City Journal

SIOUX CITY -- U.S. Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-S.D., said she voted against the $700 billion bill to shore up financial markets the first time because it lacked specifics, was not coordinated with markets in Europe and elsewhere and was so rushed members of Congress didn't have time to talk to constituents about it.

"I feel the administration was making this up as it went along to get $700 billion," she said Friday in a discussion with the Journal's editorial board on a range of issues.

She voted against it the second time, she said, for many of the same reasons, but also because the Senate had tacked on additional spending.

Herseth Sandlin, 37, an attorney, is opposed for re-election this fall by Rapid City Republican Chris Lien, director of the South Dakota Chamber of Commerce.

She initially took the state's only seat in the House by winning a 2004 special election to replace Bill Janklow, who resigned after being convicted of manslaughter in a traffic accident. She was re-elected in 2006.

Herseth Sandlin pointed out several times Friday that the House has adopted pay-as-you-go rules requiring that new spending be offset by cuts elsewhere in the federal budget. The Senate has not. She said she'd like people to look at the two houses of Congress separately and not vote against all incumbents. And she cited "extra spending" by the Senate as one of many factors for Congress's low approval ratings, currently straying into single-digit percentages in some polls.

"The budget process is broken," she said. "People see that. It isn't how average South Dakotans make their spending decisions."

Asked to differentiate an earmark from "pork," Herseth Sandlin said pork projects are anonymous, aren't prioritized and don't go through the appropriations process. Many failed in that process, she said, so the House member tries to push them through another way.

Herseth Sandlin referred to herself as a Blue Dog Democrat and said there are more than 20 of them in the House. She defined the Blue Dogs as a group that is fiscally conservative, politically moderate and more hawkish on defense and national security than other Democrats. They tend to disagree on social issues, however.

She said she favors tax credits for all kinds of domestic energy sources, including wind, biodiesel, ethanol, shale oil, nuclear and clean coal, to reduce dependence on foreign sources. She said that is a smarter investment than the "tax holiday" for oil companies, which was established before oil hit $40 a barrel.

Given the depressed economy, Herseth Sandlin said she doesn't think Congress can tackle major health care reform in the next two years. But it should work on the "two ticking time bombs," Medicare and long-term care," she said, as more middle class Americans divest of all their property to qualify for Medicaid to pay for their long-term care.

She called for both private and public sector health care initiatives, including such things as workplace wellness programs, insurance for adults modeled after the national children's insurance program and more alternatives to emergency room use.

Herseth Sandlin said she is most proud of her efforts on the 2006 Biofuels Act, which became part of the 2007 Energy Bill, and of her successful leadership in writing and passing a modernized Montgomerey G.I. Bill covering both traditional military and National Guard and Reserves.

In the next session, she said, she plans to continue work on those issues as well as on two bills to meet treaty obligations pertaining to law enforcement and health care on Indian reservations.

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