Get Sound Analysis

News Transcript: June 26, 2000
By Jenny Brundin

To listen to the campaign ads for second congressional district candidates Merrill Cook and Derek Smith, you'd think they were a Republican and Democrat doing battle. But the two Utah Republicans hold similar philosophic views--they're opposed to federal government interference in small business and in schools and both believe government should be more efficient. But they differ on details--and both candidates have pounced on those details with gusto--making the 2nd Congressional District race one of the most bitter in this state's primary election season.

Sandy businessman Derek Smith and Republican incumbent Merrill Cook do share common ground. Both support some form of prescription drug benefits for seniors. Both are leery of school vouchers for private schools, but do support tax credits for parents. Both are committed to a strong defense and support the death penalty. But the game of politics is highlighting--indeed exaggerating--the differences you have with your opponent, as we see in excerpts from this radio debate.

MODERATOR: "One minute rebuttal?" COOK: "Well, first of all, Derek clearly doesn't understand the Social Security system. If he thinks that the contributions..." (cross fade) SMITH: "I'm just incredulous at the way Merrill has just completely mischaracterized this in the hope that... (cross fade) COOK: Now Derek Smith believes that we should not get our deduction for mortgage interest. I think that that's an untenable position... SMITH: (interrupts) "That's not true." COOK: "...in trying to come up with a flat tax. Yes, it is true." SMITH: "It is not." MODERATOR: "We'll give you a chance to rebut."

On closer analysis of the two candidates, there are differences. Let's start with Social Security. Smith endorses George W. Bush's plan to privatize a portion of the $387 billion Social Security program--the theory is that money invested in the stock market will earn more than the no-risk treasury bond investments of the current system. Smith doesn't specify how much of the payroll tax should be invested in individual accounts. But if workers were allowed to put in even 2 percent, one estimate shows Congress would have to find $1 trillion to pay obligations to current retirees because of the money pulled from the system. Smith is skeptical of such cost estimates.

SMITH: "The definition of insanity is to keep doing what we always did and expect a different outcome. So I want to try something radically different, I want to empower individual people to be able go out and do some self-direction. We can do that within acceptable thresholds that doesn't imperil any of the current recipients, but I think that would do a lot to close the delta between the funding we're going to have for the program in the future and what we have for it right now."

Smith pounds home the point by stating that if his own grandmother had put her retirement into a savings account, or into another investment fund, she'd be getting thousands of dollars a month now rather than just $800. But Smith's opponent, Congressman Merrill Cook, has a different opinion.

At a west side senior center, Cook makes his pitch that the government shouldn't be rushing out to privatize Social Security.

COOK: "One of the questions before Congress is, 'Should we invest those trust funds in the stock market?'" CROWD: (shouting) "No!" COOK: "Thank you. That's reason enough to vote for me, against my opponent who wants to do that."

Cook says the stockmarket is too volatile. He says younger people--and here Cook typically makes reference to the 35-year-old Smith--have only seen bull markets and don't remember the bear markets of Cook's younger years.

COOK: "I think it could be a real mess. I think the most important thing with regards to Social Security is for the lock box legislation to be enacted to keep the trust fund monies from being raided for other government programs. Which they have been. They've been raided to the tune of almost $2 trillion over the last 25 years. I think to put a stop to that and then to allow reasonable individual retirement accounts to be invested in instruments that are still conservative, and secure, but higher yielding than treasury bills and bonds, makes sense."

SMITH: He's out there blasting me on the radio saying I'm supporting a flat tax with no deductions and exemptions, and he's absolutely right because I don't think anybody who's being intellectually honest on the topic can look at that and say, 'Oh, but wait, here in Utah we're going to protect your charitable deducations and this and that and the other,' because you head down that path and it's not a flat tax anymore."

(sound from Cook ad): "The issue: tax reform. Should Congress eliminate the deduction for home mortgage interest? Derek Smith says yes, according to the Deseret News. Congressman Merrill Cook says no."

Cook ads are making the most of Smith's position. Charitable and mortagage deductions are very popular in Utah, where many residents pay a 10 percent church tithing and home ownership is high. But Smith contends that research by billionaire Steve Forbes and House Majority Leader Dick Armey show that in the end, a completely flat tax will save taxpayers money even with no deductions. But perhaps the topic that's caused the most firey debates so far is education.

SMITH: (from radio debate) "The issue here really is, 'Who can make the best decisions on how we educate our kids?' Right? I'm saying that we can do that best when parents and teachers are involved."

Alongside taxes and small business, education is the issue that Derek Smith is running on. Smith's mother was a public school teacher. He went to public school. His daughter attends public school. But Smith doesn't like what he sees.

SMITH: "They're dysfunctional, they're broken. I just want to get in there and fight for change."

When asked if he favors dismantling the Department of Education, Smith won't answer yes or no, but he's passionate about declaring that there's nothing the federal government can do that states couldn't be doing better.

SMITH: "They only contribute something like 6 to 8 percent of the total budget that goes into our schools but they exercise a degree of influence that's completley disproportionate to that. They dictate all kinds of things through mandate and strings attached to that money at the school board level here in the state, and really I haven't seen a thing that they do better than I feel we could do as parents and that the teachers could do."

Cook, too, supports returning 95 percent of education dollars to states. But Cook strongly believes that federal programs--Title I, Title V, and Title IX--should continue. Title I is the $8 billion program designed to boost academic achievement of low-income children. It includes the free school lunch program. Title V guarantees equal opportunity for the disabled and Title IV mandates gender equity in school sports programs, and supports Native American education.

COOK: (from radio debate) "Title V, first of all. Derek, do you know what title V is and if..."

Smith was reluctant to answer the question on a recent radio debate on K-Talk, leaving an aggessive Cook to accuse him of not knowing what Title V was. But Smith's views on education did impress several educators at the University of Utah's Hinkley Institute of Politics. John Braithwaite teaches at Davis High School.

BRAITHWAITE: "Derek Smith to me seemed to articulate a bright position of progressivism that's absent in most or a lot of Utah Republicans, and he seems to have some programs that would please me."

Light rail is now running in Salt Lake City. Merrill Cook hopes voters remember that he brought home the federal dollars to make it possible. Cook says he also fought for millions for the I-15 and commuter rail. Cook can't understand his opponent's opposition to commuter rail.

COOK: "And he ought to be willing to allow the congress to go ahead with $200 million of program money for the commuter rail, which I think could save tens of billions of dollars on freeway construction that we don't need! That's environmentally damaging, and is going to break the bank here in Utah."

Smith doesn't believe commuter rail will ease congestion. But he says that if the majority of voters want it, he'll fight for it.

If voters still can't decide between the two candidates as they go to the polls next Tuesday, maybe they'll gather some insight by knowing each candidates' favorite historic leader. Smith's is Gen. George Patton. Smith says whenever anyone said it couldn't be done, Patton figured out a way to do it. Among Cook's favorite historic leaders: Teddy Roosevelt. Cook says he had an independent mind, stood up for what he believed in, and fought for the little guy.