7/26/2010

Balancing budget is priority for Rich Ashooh

By John DiStaso

MANCHESTER – As a second-generation American whose grandparents emigrated from Lebanon, Republican congressional hopeful Rich Ashooh is all for immigration, but only in the proper, legal way.

Ashooh, 45, a former defense industry executive and community activist, says he understands the threat illegal immigration brings to law-abiding Americans.

"It is a national security risk and in some parts of the nation, a source of crime," he said. "There's a massive cost to society in the drain on resources. Hospital costs, for example."

That's why Ashooh, one of eight Republican candidates vying for the nomination to take on Democratic 1st District U.S. Rep. Carol Shea-Porter in the fall, has a zero-tolerance policy for illegal immigrants.

If they are found, he said, they should be deported.

He accuses primary foe Sean Mahoney as being "out-of-touch" on the issue because Mahoney wants to register and track illegal immigrants, but not deport them unless they commit a separate crime.

Mahoney said it is impractical to "round up" all illegal immigrants and deport them.

But Ashooh said in an interview on Friday, "There are processes to do it. I don't believe we are not deporting illegal aliens because we lack a process to it. I don't know why we're not doing it. All I know is we're not following the law."

He said he is not proposing "rounding them up," but he said, "In the normal course of events if you detain an illegal alien, they should be deported."

He said he would fine employers that hire illegal aliens in order to finance deportation, thus "disincentivizing employers to get them here in the first place."

17 years with BAE

Ashooh, a member of a well-known Manchester family and Bedford resident, has been to Capitol Hill as a senior aide to former Sen. Warren Rudman. He has headed the deficit-fighting Concord Coalition, co-founded by Rudman and the late Massachusetts Sen. Paul Tsongas. He has been active in the state Business and Industry Association and has served on the boards of the state university system and Franklin Pierce University. He's a past chairman of the Christa McAuliffe-Alan Shepard Discovery Center Commission.

For the past 17 years, he has been a senior executive at Nashua-based defense contractor BAE Systems, most of those years as vice president for government relations, meaning that he was a key player in winning government contracts for the company.

Ashooh is now on leave from the company, drawing no paycheck and having no ties, he said.

If he becomes a congressman, he will officially resign from the company, he said.

That will be enough, he said, to avoid any conflict, and as a result, if he goes to Capitol Hill, he will not recuse himself from matters related to his former employer, which, he said, draws 95 percent of its business from the federal government.

"BAE Systems would then become to me one more very important employer," which, although not located in the 1st District, is a key employer in the state. He said there are several important defense employers in the 1st District, such as Insight Technologies.

"The knowledge that I've accumulated working for this company is absolutely relevant to the district because there are a number of companies that thrive in the same way," Ashooh said. "When it comes to doing my job, it's not going to be one company over another. The litmus test is going to be what's good for the war fighter and it won't matter whose name is on top of the sheet."

Spending must be cut

He said his nearly two decades of national security policy experience "is unique to this field" of candidates.

But primarily, said Ashooh, "I'm in this race to balance the budget" without raising taxes.

Besides keeping intact the tax cuts that went into effect in 2001 and 2003, Ashooh said the government needs a "draconian austerity plan" to cut spending, and regardless of whether it's a three-year or five-year plan, "it's important that we get the plan in place and it has teeth."

To cut the budget, "You start anywhere that the government is competing with the private sector," such as the Department of Energy's national laboratories, which were created in the 1970s to reduce the nation's dependence on foreign oil.

He said the Obama administration has drastically expanded the areas that the government competes with the private sector, to include a planned electric car battery plant in Michigan that received $151 million in federal stimulus money.

The Obama health care plan is a prime example, he said.

He said the tax cuts earlier this decade allowed business to plan their expenses, but now, he said, businesses "are tormented by the uncertainty."

He opposes earmarks, which he defines as "congressional pork done in the dark of night. It's rife with corruption." He said earmarks "do not have a defined needs, are inserted without public scrutiny and is not competed."

He said he assumes unworthy projects in New Hampshire have been funded by earmarks, but he could not name them. Overall, he said, federal spending should have a "well-researched and defined need and is the subject of public scrutiny and is competed."

But, he noted, the Obama-signed stimulus plan "was one big compendium of earmarks. It was the worst of government spending."

U.S. goals in Afghanistan

Ashooh said the U.S. has not yet "fully adapted to the nature" of its war on terrorism.

"Most of the way our government operates is still one that gears toward large military conflicts," he said. "

"I don't believe we've adjusted not only our structure and our resources, but also our attitude."

Ashooh said the Taliban and al-Qaida "are all part of the same threat. It is not an Islamist threat, but it's certainly fueled by it, that we face in many countries."

Ashooh said he does not believe the Muslim religion "is necessarily the problem," but sects of that religion "are absolutely dedicated to our destruction."

He said he does not believe that all Muslims want to destroy the U.S. but many people "use the cover and rationale of that religion to justify their actions." He said Iran is the state sponsor "that's common to much of this threat."

The Taliban, he said, is active in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, as well as Afghanistan. He said he did not now if there is a "hard difference" between the Taliban and al-Qaida. "To me, they are the same threat."

He said the U.S. goal in Afghanistan is to help the Afghanis maintain and preserve stability, and he said there should be no publicly announced timetable for U.S. withdrawal.

According to Ashooh, the U.S. will be safer if Afghanistan is stabilized, but, "What will make me feel better will be our ability to prosecute this after (terrorists) have scattered, our ability to adapt to the changing nature of this threat. And I think we need to do some work there."

Ashooh said he agreed with the "concept" of the Department of Homeland Security, but he said the department "is not staying ahead of the threats. We are much more reactive than we should be."

Only three terms

Ashooh said he would serve only three terms in the House if elected. But instead of promoting flat term limits, Ashooh would reform seniority rules to allow all members to compete for chairmanships and other leadership and he would limit chairmanships to four years. He would end congressional pensions, which is an incentive to "long-term career service," and mandate that a congressman's salary when elected remain flat through his or her service, with no increases.