George Cicotte: Government needs to get its nose out

George Cicotte (pronounced "SEE-cot") isn't a career politician, and doesn't want to be. Besides being a husband and father of seven,  he's a lawyer specializing in healthcare and employment issues, which he believes gives him the experience and tools to fix some things that he sees going wrong in the nation's capitol. He wants to make some changes, he says, and then get out.

The first thing Cicotte sees that needs to be fixed is the federal budget. "Everyone says that," he said, "but I actually have skills that are relevant that can make a meaningful difference. What do I mean by that? Literally fifty percent of the budget this year is healthcare and retirement spending. I'm a healthcare and retirement lawyer. For my entire career, twenty-plus years, I've been helping employers save money on healthcare and retirement costs. I want to take those same skills out to DC to balance the budget."

One of Cicotte's proposals is to raise the retirement age for Social Security, a move that's ignited firestorms in the past. Cicotte said that it's actually mathematically sound, considering the increased life expectancy of retirees. Currently, for people born before 1960, the retirement age is 65, but for those born after that date, it's 67. Cicotte believes the trend should continue. He proposes that people born from 1967 (his own birth year) to 1974 be eligible at 68, those born from 1975 to 1980, at 69, and those born from 1981 to 1986, at 70. Otherwise, he said, there may be no Social Security at all by the time the younger generation is ready to retire.

On the matter of healthcare, Cicotte believes his experience will be valuable in dealing with the changes in the system caused by the Affordable Care Act. The law, he said, was intended to help more people acquire health insurance, "but it doesn't do that in a sustainable way. All we're really doing right now is selling debt to China, so the government has more money in its coffers, to give people tax credits so that they can pay for the insurance that they otherwise couldn't afford. We've done nothing about the underlying problem."

Cicotte pointed out that the basic principle of supply and demand applies to health care as much as to anything else. People are living longer and needing more health care, which increases demand. Cicotte gave three examples of areas where the government is actually restricting supply and making healthcare unnecessarily expensive: "People, equipment and (insurance) policies."

The federal caps on medical school enrollment and residency slots, he said, are "absurd."

As for equipment, he said, "Obamacare puts taxes on medical devices. Any economist will tell you that if you tax something, the economy produces less of it. We should not be taxing medical devices, we need more medical devices."

Cicotte said that laws that restrict choice in insurance policies are also harmful. Currently, he said, we have three policies to choose from in Washington state. If policies could be sold across state lines, we could have 20 or more. "Insurers are not going to like me much," he said, "because I'm going to make them compete against each other."

Cicotte also has strong feelings about immigration. While he appreciates the need for security, he's firm in his belief that immigrants are important to our economy.

"The immigrants that I see are hard-working people. To me, hard work is one of the greatest American values. Anybody who's going to come here and work hard and contribute to our economy, I have respect for. We have to make a way for those folks to be here legally."

The problem, he said, is the same as with healthcare: the government "sticking its nose" into an otherwise workable free-market system. Since when, he asked rhetorically, has the federal government ever been good at centrally planning an economy?

That planning failure is especially visible in immigration, he said. "We give something like 5,000 ag worker visas a year. That's absurd. I know one farm that needs 5,000 ag visas a year."

Cicotte disagrees with the position he said the Republican party took in 2012, which he described as "self-deportation and reentry." He said that the vast majority of immigrants in this district are working hard and contributing to the economy, and aren't getting in any trouble with the law, and it's morally and ethically necessary to find a way for them to be here.

Cicotte emphasized that he's not talking about giving away citizenship. The naturalization process is established, and it wouldn't be "respectful to those who have worked hard to become citizens" to allow others to take short cuts. "But we can provide legal status, and once they have legal status, they can work toward citizenship if they want it. If they don't, they can deal with whatever the terms of their legal status are."

Cicotte also departs from the party line that immigration is off the table this year. He said what we need is an omnibus bill, rather than a piecemeal approach.

"We have learned what happens when you jam through a piece of complex legislation so quickly that you have to pass it to find out what's in it. It's called Obamacare, and it didn't work. We don't need another Obamacare solution." The current law, he said, was proposed in 1966 and passed in 1974. So for eight years, he said, there were joint committees, edits, hearings, and amendments until a law was passed, and "it has worked well for 40 years. What are we doing now? We're taking a Band-Aid solution. A patch here, a patch there." Rather than try to rush something through in an election year, he said, the party should commit to passing a law during an off-year down the road, and start working on it today.

On the recent Farm Bill, Cicotte said it's a sad state of affairs how many people are on Food Stamps. But rather than vilifying them, he said, the solution is to get the economy working so they can feed their families without that help.

"The economy grows best when the government interferes the least. Because no matter what the government tells you, when they say 'we're trying to improve the economy,' it's hogwash. It's special interests. Everybody wants to manipulate the economy for their own benefit. The best thing we can do is try to get the special interests out and let the economy work. Let the American people work."

Editor's note: We invited all the contenders for the 4th District Congressional seat to submit a guest editorial or, alternatively, be interviewed on their positions. These articles are for introductory purposes only. The BBJ does not endorse any candidate.