U.S. Senate Candidate Gary Trauner Explains Candidacy [Video]
Wyoming Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Gary Trauner says the American people "have been sold a bill of goods" on ''trickle-down economics."
He made the comments on Wednesday morning on KGAB AM in Cheyenne.
Trauner, who is running for the seat currently held by Republican John Barrasso, said that throughout the roughly 100-year history of the income tax in the United States, people in the top tax bracket have typically been paying about 60 percent of what they make in taxes to the federal government.
By comparison, he said that same tax bracket is currently paying a tax rate 'in the 30s." He said the result of that policy has been to "put the burden for the future on our kids" while running up a massive budget deficit.
Trauner, who is a Wilson businessman, said that while waste in federal programs does need to be cut, the bottom line is that revenues also need to be increased.
Trauner argued that even if the entire discretionary federal budget were to be cut--everything aside from military spending, Social Security and Medicare spending--the budget could not be balanced at current revenue levels, because of interest payments due on the existing federal debt. He also said he finds it interesting that while people ask how Social Security will pay for itself, no one ever asks that question in regard to the military or the court system.
On his campaign website, Trauner says Barrasso has done little for Wyoming during his ten years in the U.S. Senate. He accuses the incumbent of being more interested in helping campaign donors as opposed to Wyoming residents.
Trauner has twice been the Democratic nominee for the U.S. House of Representatives. In 2006 he lost an extremely close election to then-incumbent Republican Rep. Barbara Cubin, falling short in the final tally by 1,012 votes. In 2008 he lost to Republican nominee Cynthia Lummis ay roughly 25,000 votes.
A spokesman for Senator Barrasso, Tom Wiblemo, said Wednesday morning that while the incumbent Republican has not yet made a formal campaign announcement, he will be running for re-election to the Senate this year.