By Lauren Otis, Staff Writer
LAWRENCE — U.S. Representative Rush Holt (D-12) and Republican challenger Alan Bateman differed over taxes, the conduct of the current Democratically-controlled Congress and how best to withdraw American troops from Iraq, but often appeared more in agreement than disagreement at a debate yesterday on the campus of Rider University.
The 12th District encompasses Princeton, West Windsor, Plainsboro, Lawrence, Hopewell and Pennington, among other municipalities. The debate was moderated by Ben Dworkin, director of Rider’s Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics, and held at the Bart Luedeke Center auditorium at Rider.
Noting that Rep. Holt supported the repeal of President George W. Bush’s temporary 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, Mr. Bateman said he supported memorializing the cuts permanently.
”I don’t know families who can afford that much more money coming out of their paychecks,” said Mr. Bateman, who is deputy mayor of Holmdel Township.
”Clearly there is a difference in our philosophy. I believe individuals should keep more of what they earn,” said Mr. Bateman. He said he also supported lowering capital gains and business taxes, noting “government can’t be looking at businesses as an ATM machine.”
”It is entirely wrong to call this a tax increase,” Rep. Holt said of not making the 2001 and 2003 cuts permanent. He said President Bush’s tax cuts penalized the middle class rather than helped them and not making the cuts permanent “is removing the unwise economic and fiscal policies of the Bush administration. You saw what it has brought us, it has brought us economic devastation, not prosperity.”
Rep. Holt agreed that over the tax issue he and Mr. Bateman were philosophically divided. The issue was “whether we can do it all on our own or not,” he said, noting that Mr. Batemen seemed to be supporting every individual taking their paycheck and doing everything from financial services regulation to road maintenance “on our own.” Citing infrastructure maintenance and improvements as one example, Rep. Holt said “there are things we can do better as a country than we can do separately. That takes revenue.”
Rep. Holt cited as one of his proudest accomplishments this year the enactment of a federal tax deduction for individuals of up to $1,000 for property-tax payments.
In Iraq, Rep. Holt said the withdrawal of U.S. troops must begin immediately. “Political and economic stability cannot and will not be accomplished at the end of a bayonet,” and will not come to Iraq as long as there is a continued American military presence there, he said.
The fact that the Bush administration gave no good justification for its invasion of Iraq in the first place, and then changed its justifications over time, only adds to the damage of prolonging its presence in the country, Rep. Holt said. The sooner troops are withdrawn “the sooner Iraq will be stable and our standing in the world will improve,” he said.
”I would like to see the troops out of there as soon as possible,” said Mr. Bateman, who noted, however, “I don’t agree with setting a drop dead date (for troop withdrawals), I think our enemies would just wait for that date and swoop in.”
Mr. Bateman criticized Congress and Rep. Holt for withholding funding for U.S. troops in Iraq.
Responding, Rep. Holt said, “I not only take issue with it, I bristle at this claim, that we want to defund the troops. We were refusing to fund an open-ended war,” he said, noting that funding for troops, and programs for returning soldiers have significantly increased since the Democrats took over Congress in 2006.
At one point, Mr. Bateman criticized Rep. Holt’s support of Gov. Jon Corzine’s current budget, which he said shifted large burdens onto the shoulders of municipalities like his own. Rep. Holt said this was not true, and Mr. Bateman was referring to an expression of support he made for spending cuts the governor was proposing.
Rep. Holt and Mr. Bateman agreed that education should be a priority for the country. They were largely in agreement when asked by Mr. Dworkin about what energy policy they would pursue; the success of President Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” education reform; whether they would act to rein in a regionally aggressive Russia; their views on engagement with Iran; and whether they supported the current $700 billion federal rescue package enacted to resolve the current financial crisis.
Both said the Bush education reform had been a failure: Rep. Holt because President Bush had failed to fund it appropriately, and Mr. Bateman because it resulted in students “training to take tests, not learning.” Both said the U.S. should stand up to Russia when it engaged in aggressive actions toward its neighbors such as its recent invasion of Georgia, and should engage rather than isolate Iran. Both also expressed hope the federal plan would ease the credit and financial crisis.
Rep. Holt and Mr. Bateman agreed that the U.S. needed to explore long-term energy alternatives to oil, although they disagreed on opening up more U.S. territory to drilling. Mr. Bateman said states should be able to drill off their coasts and drilling should be allowed in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which he called “really a frozen desert up there, the moose don’t even live up there.”
”I’ve been there, yes it’s a wilderness but it’s not a wasteland,” Rep. Holt said of the ANWR. “It is not worth drilling there. It is too valuable, too precious as a territory to spoil it for a little bit of oil,” which would only supply the U.S. for six months, Rep. Holt said.
Additionally, “it’s not worth risking the tourist economy of New Jersey for oil and gas exploration offshore,” Rep. Holt said.
Rep. Holt often directed his harshest remarks not at Mr. Bateman but at the Bush administration. Mr. Bateman sought to call into question the leadership of the current Congress, both Democratic and Republican, and portrayed Mr. Holt as having become too close to a Washington which “believes government is the answer.”
Rep. Holt said he ran on his legislative record of the past 10 years, and the personal help he and his staff have given to over 17,000 citizens over that time, seeking to “beat back the cynicism about government.”

