For Sali, it’s all about family in 2008 election
By JESSICA KELLER
ARGUS OBSERVER
Sunday, November 2, 2008 1:36 AM PDT
BOISE—After serving in the U.S. House of Representatives for one term, Idaho 1st District U.S. Rep. Bill Sali (R-Idaho) seeks re-election to continue what he started two years ago and said he is back in the race for his family.
“Every election is about the future, and it’s about the future that you’re going to give to your kids and your grandkids,” he said.
Sali conceded the current campaign has not been easy. However, he said he is running again with his six children and their spouses and his six grandchildren in mind.
“I want them to have a future that is full of freedom and safety and prosperity,” he said. “That’s why I’m running.”
Sali faces Democratic challenger Walt Minnick.
Sali said the past two years in Congress has been a learning experience for him, and, now that he is more familiar with working in Washington, D.C., he feels confident he can do more things to “actually help move the ball down the field.”
“I hope to go back to my 111th Congress and really make a difference,” he said.
Three main topics he would like to continue pushing for are health care, immigration and tax reform.
Sali said he favors small, limited government, coupled with less taxes and less regulation.
He also said he supports veterans and a strong U.S. defense system, which also includes concentration on foreign intelligence and “learning who the enemies are and where the dangers are in the world.”
One of his top priorities, if he gets re-elected, is to address reducing the national deficit.
“For the first time ever, our budget will be almost $3 trillion,” Sali said. “We’ve got to get that under control.”
He also wants to reform the way Congress does business, he said. One way to do that is to require single-subject legislation, instead of a bill that has a number of different items on it.
What isn’t approved through the consent calendar, he said, would receive a vote.
He said legislators should not confuse things by piling on a number of subjects.
The way the current system works, he said, a person may be voting for 10 things he or she likes and nine others he or she doesn’t. He also said single-subject voting would help eliminate earmarks and pork-barrel spending.
He said he also seeks to change the power structure and specifically the power of the Speaker of the House has by limiting it and disbursing it among all the membership.
When one person has so much control and voice, he said, other legislators do not get to do what they are elected to do — represent their constituents.
“That’s part of the reason Congress has an 8 percent approval rating,” he said.
On health care, Sali said he wants to continue work to expand on reform that would accomplish two things: It would offer incentives for doctors to practice in rural areas and provide a way for people to address their own health care by allowing them to buy their own policy.
“Every American should have health care that they can afford,” he said, adding government-run health care is even more expensive than the current system.
He also would like to continue working on an immigration bill that includes securing the borders, increasing interior security and allows for a well-regulated temporary worker program that imposes certain restrictions on who is entering and for what purpose and provides for intelligence measures, beyond simple background checks, to determine the people who are coming in are here for what they claim.
“I don’t want to make it sound like I want to keep people out,” Sali said. “I think we need to be careful of who does come in either as a temporary worker or as a new citizen.”
