The DREAMers are going crazy over this, and have launced an alert to call Sen. Warner and demand that he starts supporting the DREAM act.

Warner: A Need To Act Posted 2009-04-17

New Senator Says Economic ‘Flood' Required Choices


By Jeff Mellott



Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., says he had reservations about the $787 billion stimulus package, but inaction in the face of economic distress "would have sent the economy reeling." Warner addressed a town hall-style meeting Thursday at James Madison University's Grafton-Stovall Theatre.

Photos by Nikki Fox

HARRISONBURG - The first 100 days of the term of Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., has in his own words been filled with decisions on unprecedented issues involving the economy.

Warner, 54, a businessman, found himself voting for large spending packages to stimulate the economy.

Government help was urgently needed in the financial markets to avoid a credit crisis, he said.

"We are facing the equivalent of the 100-year flood," he said Thursday of the recession while addressing a town hall-style meeting at James Madison University's Grafton-Stovall Theatre.

Unsustainable Deficits

Warner said he supported the stimulus plan in spite of reservations he had about the $787 billion package designed to jump-start the economy.

"I didn't like a lot of the things in the stimulus, but the idea of doing nothing would have sent the economy reeling," he said.

Warner also voted for the Senate's version of a $3.53 trillion federal budget plan for fiscal 2010. The Democrat-controlled House and Senate adopted different spending plans - without a single GOP vote in either body - and have yet to be reconciled.

Critics worry about the effects the spending will have on the federal deficit, estimated by the Congressional Budget Office to be at least $1.8 trillion by the end of the current fiscal year and $1.4 trillion for 2010.

"The Obama administration said it can cut the deficit in half of what they inherited," Warner said after the town hall meeting. "If their numbers are right, then great. If the numbers are a little more aggressive, then we are going to need additional cuts."

The administration also is putting into place measures it believes will help stabilize the economy, Warner said.

To help improve the economy, Warner supports giving tax incentives to developing alternative energy sources similar to those oil industry now enjoys.

Warner also backs President Obama's efforts to provide government help to develop broadband Internet access, stabilize the housing market and improve to the country's infrastructure, including transportation.

"Will it work? I hope so. I don't know what plan B is. I think it will work," he said.

Debt Concerns

Business consultant George Pace of Harrisonburg rose during the town hall meeting and expressed his concerns about the large government deficits.

The nation's creditors may raise the interest they charge for the borrowed money, Pace said. Also, Pace said he is concerned that inflation could re-emerge and push up government costs for entitlement programs.

Warner said he supports a bipartisan commission to study entitlements and their costs.

Controlling costs of entitlement programs and health care would be necessary to reduce future deficits, he said.

"I would match my deficit-hawk credentials against anyone in Washington, because I have had to balance a budget," said Warner, a former Virginia governor.

Dream Solution

Among the other subjects at the town hall meeting was the proposed Dream Act.

The bill provides a path to U.S. citizenship for youth who have entered the country illegally.

Under the proposal, they could get conditional legal status by earning a high school diploma or its equivalent.

If in six years, they graduate from a college or trade school, or join the military, they would become permanent residents and could move toward citizenship.

Immigrant advocate Sam Nickels said he knew of a person who was the child of undocumented immigrants when she came to the United States.

Despite graduating from college, Nickels said, she was unable to find work because she could not get a Social Security number.

But Warner said he opposed the Dream Act because the proposal made the path to citizenship too easy. The nation's laws must be followed, he said.

While better border enforcement is needed, Warner said, business owners also must be given an easier way to check a potential employee's immigration status.

Centrist Target

Although Warner was elected in November to his first six-year term as senator, an audience member still asked about his presidential plans for 2012. Warner said he would not make any predictions about his political future.

Warner had considered seeking the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008. Instead, he weighed running for governor or the U.S. Senate, before seeking the seat held by former Sen. John Warner, R-Va., who retired at the end of last year.

In defeating Republican James Gilmore, a former governor and attorney general, Warner pledged to form a centrist coalition in the Senate to bridge the harsh partisanship among lawmakers.

Asked after the meeting on Thursday how his efforts to be a Senate centrist were going, Warner said with a smile, "I am getting grief from both sides."

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