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Photo Vincent Guadazno
Sen. Ted Kennedy pals around with Provincetown Selectman Sarah Peake, the Democratic candidate for the 4th Barnstable District seat, at Bayside Betsy’s Monday. Kennedy and Congressman Bill Delahunt were in town and all over the Outer Cape that day, providing a boost to Cape Democratic candidates and local environmental projects.
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Photos Sally Rose
Sen. Ted Kennedy talks about local and national issues at the Banner offices Monday. |
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Kennedy urges ‘creative’ housing solutions
By Pru Sowers
Banner Staff
PROVINCETOWN — Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass) said this week he would consider using Cape Cod National Seashore land to help alleviate the affordable housing crisis on the Outer Cape.
Kennedy, in an interview at the Banner on Monday, acknowledged that residents, particularly young people, are being forced to move off-Cape because of the high cost of real estate. He also said the federal government has been steadily reducing the amount of financial support it gives to local communities for social services, including housing.
Recently, the federal Dept. of Housing and Urban Development cut the amount of an annual affordable housing grant to Barnstable County by seven percent.
“What we’ve seen in the period of the last eight years is a massive reduction in terms of federal support [to the states] by $30-40 billion: reductions in terms of housing assistance and reductions in community development block grants, where some funding was used in terms of housing. So you’re in danger of losing the real fabric of the community, which is so much a part of the charm of Provincetown and the area,” Kennedy said.
When asked whether he would support using land located within the Seashore national park, which is owned by the federal government, Kennedy said that “creative” solutions to the affordable housing crisis need to be found. Towards that end, the senator said he would consider exploring different ways to use Seashore property to provide housing for the Outer Cape.
“I think we need to find new ways to look at some of these kinds of problems. I think everything needs to be out there and looked at, without threatening environmentally sensitive areas. There are ways of doing it that wouldn’t [alarm] people who say, ‘Oh, my goodness, this will interfere with fragile areas.’ But there are places that are suitable for these kinds of activities. And we need to be more creative in terms of doing it,” he said.
In a wide-ranging interview touching on a variety of topics, Kennedy, who is running for re-election this November to his eighth term as a U.S. senator, offered opinions on several issues including healthcare, the death of bipartisanship and last week’s ruling that same-sex Rhode Island couples can be legally married in Massachusetts. On healthcare, while not completely ruling out support for the “Cape Care” proposal, where all 15 municipalities would band together to offer residents health insurance, Kennedy said he would prefer to let the state program enacted earlier this year take its course.
That legislation, aimed at expanding healthcare coverage for Massachusetts’ 500,000 to 600,000 uninsured, requires all residents to purchase new, low-cost insurance plans by July 1, 2007. In addition, all businesses with 11 or more employees must provide coverage.
“I had signed on to what we had done at the state. I worked with [Gov. Mitt] Romney in terms of the waiver and getting resources, some $460 million. The [Massachusetts] Chamber of Commerce supported that and also the major hospital and health providers came together. And there are still some aspects of that that will have to be realized. [But] I’d like to see the state program put in place and see if that works,” he said.
Kennedy added that he is ultimately in favor of “single payer” health insurance, also known as universal healthcare, which would be provided to every American. However, the political reality is that type of program, similar to Canada’s system, where all residents have equal access to healthcare, is a long way off, he said.
“I have what we call Medicare for all, which basically expands the Medicare program for everyone,” Kennedy said. “Medicare is tried and tested so it isn’t a new program and it has low administrative costs of three to four percent. Put that in place with recent technology and programs in terms of preventative health. We’ve got to get information technology, we’ve got to get preventive care and we’ve got to do case management. We have to get the Senate back so we can have hearings and people can find out and begin to understand about it, build that kind of constituency so it becomes a national program again.”
Kennedy then segued into the national political arena, attempting to draw a distinction between the two primary American political parties. Summing up this fall’s mid-term elections as “the politics of fear and the politics of hope,” Kennedy said the “politics of division, destruction and personal destruction of candidates” has been the Republicans’ modus operandi.
“We’ve seen the politics of fear played in this last session of Congress, where we had the debate on flag burning [and] on gay marriage, when the Republicans knew neither of those was a serious effort but they wanted to [instill] the politics of division. That’s what people ought to look at [this fall]. When they’re listening to candidates, which side of the coin are they on,” Kennedy said.
As to the perceived death of bipartisanship in Congress, Kennedy said there are individual Republicans such as John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) who don’t “play that card.” But the Republican leadership, he said, “goes back to it every time. We’ve got to get away from that and we can.”
Asked how, the senator retorted, in partisan support, “First we have to win the election.” He charged that Republican leadership has “radicalized” the concept of conservatism.
“Conservatism is supposed to be about preserving institutions. And they [Republicans] are radicalizing institutions. They’ve radicalized the CIA, the FBI. They’ve radicalized the [judicial] confirmation process. That is a threat to the country and the Constitution,” he said.
As for the Massachusetts trial court decision last Friday that there are no explicit prohibitions in Rhode Island law that would prevent same-sex couples from marrying in Massachusetts, Kennedy was matter-of fact.
“My sense is the world hasn’t fallen in in Massachusetts since the [state Supreme Judicial Court] decision [allowing gay marriage]. People are living and respecting people’s rights. I think this is going to be an issue where 20 years from now, it isn’t even going to be a question. And it certainly makes sense to me,” he said.
psowers@provincetownbanner.com
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Businesses thwarted by high rents, too
Wind energy explored for MacMillan Pier
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Oct 5th, 2006