U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa, while canvassing in Hawaii Kai, spoke with a retired couple who helped put the economic recovery into perspective.
"One of the things the husband said to me, straight out, was, ‘Ask me if I’m better off,’" the Democrat said.
The man explained that his retirement savings, like many who have Individual Retirement Accounts or 401(k) plans, had recovered from the stock market losses of the recession.
Hanabusa has looked for such signs of optimism in her re-election campaign in urban Honolulu’s 1st Congressional District.
Former Congressman Charles Djou, the Republican, sees a starkly different picture. He said he believes the economy continues to languish and that Hanabusa is part of the status quo in Congress that has failed to confront federal spending and a $16 trillion national debt.
"I think that’s fundamentally a lot of the difference, you know?" Hanabusa, 61, said. "To be a naysayer, or to continue to say that things are bad and so forth, really takes away the one thing that I think makes us in Hawaii a very special place. … We have been — always — a nation and a state that have had people who are believers and positive. They have hope. They have always worked towards getting better."
Djou, 42, said the political atmosphere in Washington, D.C., has become so corrosive that bipartisan solutions are difficult.
"Either we give in to the status quo and just say, ‘That’s the way it’s always going to be,’ or you stand up and you try to change it," he said. "And I believe we should change it."
Their November rematch is the third time in 21⁄2 years they have faced each other.
Djou defeated Hanabusa and former Congressman Ed Case in a May 2010 special election to serve out the final months of Neil Abercrombie’s term after he resigned to run for governor. Hanabusa ousted Djou in the November 2010 general election.
While the public policy disagreements between Hanabusa, a former state Senate president, and Djou, a former City Council member, are largely the same, the contour around this election is different. Hanabusa could benefit with Hawaii-born President Barack Obama on the ballot for re-election.
Djou, an opponent of the city’s rail project, could be lifted if there is a surge of anti-rail voters behind former Gov. Ben Cayetano, who would stop the project if elected mayor.
Hanabusa said she would continue to pursue federal money for rail as long as the project is alive. "I believe it is my obligation to do what the people want to do," she said.
Djou said he would respect the views of the new mayor on rail, whether it be Cayetano or former acting mayor and city Managing Director Kirk Caldwell, a rail advocate. "And if Ben Cayetano doesn’t want this project, we shouldn’t be pushing this project," he said.
Both Hanabusa and Djou support Native Hawaiian federal recognition as indigenous people similar to American Indians and Alaska Natives. Djou said "the single biggest reason" a bill has failed to pass is because Hawaii has not had a bipartisan congressional delegation.
But Hanabusa said she doubts that Djou alone could persuade conservative Republicans who have blocked the bill in the U.S. Senate for more than a decade as unconstitutional race-based discrimination to suddenly drop their opposition.
"No," she said. "There is no way."
Hanabusa and Djou are divided on the Jones Act, the federal maritime law that insulates the domestic shipping industry from foreign competition. Hanabusa said the law needs to be preserved to ensure the reliability of a domestic fleet that protects the flow of goods and serves national security interests. She said the neighbor islands would be especially vulnerable if domestic shipping were disrupted.
"We need to maintain that, and that’s why we clearly need the Jones Act," she said.
Djou would seek an exemption for Hawaii, which, unlike other states, is unable to receive goods from rail or trucking as alternatives to shipping, so consumers often pay higher costs. He called the Jones Act "anachronistic."
Hanabusa would not extend the federal tax cuts for the wealthy approved under President George W. Bush.
She would support raising the payroll tax cap on income in Social Security, which would mean the wealthy would pay a greater share, but has reserved judgment on whether to raise the retirement age to collect full benefits as a tool to sustain the entitlement program.
The congresswoman opposes a premium-support option in Medicare, which involves voucherlike payments that seniors could use on private insurance instead of the traditional government plan. She favors the federal health care reform law that reduces Medicare’s growth by $716 billion over a decade and uses some of the money on expanding preventive care and prescription drug coverage for seniors while extending the life of the program.
Djou favors a bipartisan package, similar to the one drafted in December 2010 by former U.S. Sen. Alan Simpson, R-Wyo., and former White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles, that may include a variety of tax, entitlement and spending reforms.
"What’s essential to me here is comprehensive reform," he said. "You’re taking a look at simplifying the tax code, reducing the number of tax rates, reforming entitlements, fixing the long-term problems we have with our deficit."
A singular element of Djou’s political identity is that he has never voted for a tax increase, but he said he would not rule one out in the context of comprehensive reform.
"I rule nothing out," he said.
If asked to vote in isolation, however, Djou said he would extend the Bush-era tax breaks. He would also repeal the federal health care law, which he believes is incomplete because it does not include medical malpractice liability reform or the ability of insurers to sell policies across state lines to increase competition and consumer choice.
Djou, a major in the Army Reserve who was deployed to Afghanistan for six months, said the experience has helped him put priorities into focus. But while he said he has a better understanding of the pressures on military families and veterans, he does not believe the military should be exempt from spending reductions.
"I believe that we’ve got to turn around our economy. I believe we’ve got to start balancing our budgets. I believe we’ve got to bring down our national debt, because if we don’t, we’re going to ruin our country for the next generation. It’s that serious and it’s that important.
"And I don’t believe there should be any sacred cows in the federal budget."
Hanabusa said Obama and Congress have agreed to caps on discretionary spending intended to reduce the deficit over the next decade.
Hanabusa is also suspicious of Djou’s bipartisan commitment, predicting that if he returns to Congress, he would more likely be another Republican vote.
"I believe the president will do great things in the next four years," she said. "And I think what he needs to have is a Congress that is behind him. And he doesn’t have that right now, and that’s why we’re having all this difficulty.
"Party matters. Party matters up there."
