Pryor Tells Delta Group That Priorities Are The Same

Democratic incumbent Senator Mark Pryor faced a friendly audience at the Delta Grassroots Caucus a day after his Republican rival riled the group.

On Friday, Pryor told the Democratic-heavy crowd that the Delta’s priorities were the “same priorities” for America as he walked through his positions on jobs, education, infrastructure, and equal opportunities.

“We want the same things, we believe in the same things,” he said.

Pryor used the forum to declare “sharp contrasts” between himself and GOP challenger Cong. Tom Cotton, who had defended several controversial positions at the Delta caucus the day before.

The Farm Bill provided the biggest contrast between the two men, Pryor said. Cotton said the measure should be renamed “the Food Stamp” bill — a phrase he’s used frequently in describing his primary reason for voting against the bill in Congress — while Pryor said the legislation should be titled “the Rural America” bill.

Saying the bill has a host of positive policy and funding measures aimed to help the Delta and non-urban areas of Arkansas, Pryor said he supports Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) funding as well as reforms to the controversial food stamp program that evolved from the latest debate last year.

“I do support funding SNAP where it is,” he said.

Pryor also said he supported continued funding for the Delta Regional Authority (DRA), an eight-state commission that focuses on health, education and economic development issues in the Mississippi Delta. A day earlier, Cotton had defended his vote to defund the DRA and other regional commissions saying he didn’t feel taxpayers were “getting a good return on their investment.”

“They’re getting about one percent, or a little bit less, of all the money the federal government spends on those commissions – much of which is being spent on administration, expenses and other overhead,” Cotton said on Thursday. “I strongly support the projects the organizations like the DRA funds, but I think that Arkansans can get a little bit better return on their tax dollars when you look at the amount of money we’re spending on regional commissions all across the country.”

Pryor disputed that assertion, as did the Delta Caucus which issued a press release on Friday asking Cotton to reconsider his stance.

“In the case of the DRA, the allegations that this agency inefficiently spends large amounts of money and that the federal deficits could be significantly reduced by its elimination are ludicrous, because the DRA is a small agency with a very limited budget of only $15 million that stretches its small resources a long way to serve an economically distressed population of the Delta areas in eight states,” said Caucus director Lee Powell.

Claiming the DRA’s budget is too small, Powell said Cotton’s position was troubling to its members and led to the issuance of the statement.

“At Delta Caucus conferences over the years the members of Congress have been overwhelmingly supportive of the DRA, and we are baffled that a member of Congress from Arkansas would be so dismissive of the agency,” he said. “It is rare for our organization to make a statement publicly taking issue with a member of Congress, demonstrating the depth of feeling on this subject.”

Pryor also drew more distinctions between Cotton and himself on the issues of raising the state minimum wage and supporting the Paycheck Fairness Act, which purports to improve equal pay for women. Pryor restated his support for raising the state minimum wage to $8.50 per hour and said he was in favor of the Paycheck Fairness Act.

Cotton has not taken a position on the state minimum wage initiative and has declared his opposition to the Paycheck Fairness Act on the grounds that it would “empower trial lawyers to file more frivolous lawsuits,” in turn driving up the costs for business owners.

Pryor defended his vote on the federal health care law, Obamacare, citing a previously stated position that “the law is not perfect” and that he was open to changes.

The Cotton campaign questioned Pryor’s stand and reminded reporters that Pryor once called Obamacare “an amazing success.”

Pryor also declared he would continue to “fight hard to protect Medicare and Social Security.” The assertion led to another challenge by the Cotton campaign who highlighted a 2011 interview that Pryor did in which he discussed raising the retirement age to improve Social Security’s solvency.

“[Y]ou could pretty easily make Social Security solvent in perpetuity,” Pryor told KTSS in a June 6, 2011 interview. “Probably the biggest change would be is that you would take my kids’ generation, teenagers today, and life expectancy is longer et cetera, and probably say that they couldn’t get Social Security until they turn 68 or 69. If you just did that one change you would fix about 80% of it right there.”

Meeting with reporters after his speech, Pryor said, “I’ve always been consistent on this. I’ve never advocated for raising the age on Medicare. There’s no doubt about that. I’ve never advocated raising the age to 70 on Medicare. I’ve always said that was a terrible idea.”

He said his 2011 interview referred to entitlement reforms that were part of a national discussion following the Simpson-Bowles report, a bipartisan document that looked at ways to balance the federal budget and reform entitlement programs.

“For me, Social Security is age 67, for my parents it’s age 65. I think you talk about it, but I actually think there are other ways to fix it. You don’t have to do that,” said Pryor. “I feel like I’ve been very consistent on Medicare and Social Security in terms of saying that we need to do entitlement reform, but we need to do it in such a way that we protect our seniors because – like I said in there – for the vast majority of Arkansans to hit age 65, all they have is Medicare and Social Security.”

“I can’t remember all the criteria that Simpson-Bowles went through but I think raising the age was one, I can’t remember what they all were. But again, I think we sit down, we talk about that, and see what we can come up with. But I absolutely do not support raising the age to 70,” said Pryor.

Fred Brown, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee, issued a statement after Pryor’s remarks claiming the Senator had “selective amnesia.” He claimed Pryor contradicted his previous positions on health care reform and Social Security.

“Senator Pryor started off his talk launching into attack mode over raising the age of retirement for Social Security. That begs the question, when did Senator Pryor no longer believe that raising the retirement age to 69 would ‘solve 80%’ of the program’s problems?” Brown said.

“Senator Pryor was also asked about his support for Obamacare. Instead of answering, Senator Pryor danced around the question, deflecting attention from his deciding vote on the law. Not only did the Senator vote for the law, he has called it ‘an amazing success story,'” Brown also stated.