SHELBYVILLE TN - U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr., a candidate for the U.S. Senate, visited Shelbyville on Thursday and toured Economy Pencil Co., telling the firm's Allen Pitner that his policies would be friendlier to small businesses than those of his Republican opponents.Ford, a Democrat from a prominent Memphis political family, sidestepped the issue of his aunt Ophelia Ford's disputed election to the State Senate, telling the Times-Gazette he wouldn't comment on a court decision Wednesday which kept the State Senate from blocking Ophelia Ford from taking office.
"I don't get involved in court decisions," said the congressman. "I leave that to the courts." He later claimed that Republicans would use criticism of his family to draw attention away from more central issues.
Ford made his fourth visit to Iraq just after New Year's and heard positive reports from the troops there.
"Morale this time was higher than it's ever been," he said. He said the new U.S. ambassador to Iraq is liked and trusted by the Iraqis.
"The mood was good," said Ford.
Ford said President Bush did a poor job at the outset of the war communicating to the American people the serious long-term nature of U.S. involvement in Iraq, and was too quick to declare victory in the military conflict.
"He declared it over long before it was over," said Ford.
Ford also criticized the administration's use of illegal wiretaps, saying existing law gives the president all the powers he should need to wiretap when there is a legitimate reason to do so.
The executive branch, under existing law, can begin wiretapping suspected terrorists while seeking a warrant from the so-called "secret court," and that wiretapping can continue up to 72 hours before that warrant must be obtained. Ford said that procedure should be sufficient to cover any legitimate operations. Even if it is not, he said, the president should try to change the law rather than simply violating it.
"I'm against what they're doing, the way they're doing it," said Ford.
Ford visited Shelbyville in August 1999 as the guest of the Pitner family, attending the Celebration and speaking to a Sunday School class at First United Methodist Church. He was considering a Senate campaign at that time.
Economy Pencil is an imprinter of advertising and promotional products. Pitner said that health care and energy costs have hit small businesses hard. He said that health care costs for employees are one of his biggest fixed expenses and that his natural gas bill is twice this year what it was last year.
"We can't absorb any more costs in our company," said Pitner.
Ford said one of his proposals to help small business is to allow companies to write off their health care expenses, provided that their employee insurance plans meet certain minimum standards.
He said the Republican administration and the Republican-controlled Congress have been unable to make progress in the health care crisis.
"They've been in charge for five years, going on six, and there's more people without health insurance than when they started," said Ford. He said the new Medicare prescription benefit has confused customers and mainly benefits drug companies.
He said that his Republican opponents boast about tax cuts but would apply them in a way that would help mainly the most affluent.
"They're good guys," said Ford. "They just have the wrong priorities."
Ford said his proposals would help give more benefit to small businesses and domestic employees.
Ford also said the U.S. needs a new energy policy.
"Four years and five months after 9/11, we still have essentially the same energy strategy we had before," said Ford: buying oil from the Middle East.
"We pay more for the oil, and we're buying more of it," he said. There's also the constant risk that money spent in the Middle East will wind up in the hands of terrorists.
Ford said he is "pro-family" and a supporter of the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. He also said he is in favor of keeping the words "Under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Ford's major opponent in the Democratic primary is State Sen. Rosalind Kurita. On the Republican side, former U.S. Representatives Ed Bryant and Van Hilleary are seeking the party nomination.
Source: Harold Ford Jr. For U.S. Senate
