CHARLESTON, W.Va. U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito said it has been the honor of her life to serve West Virginia in the United States Senate. Capito on Tuesday is running for her third full term in the Senate.
Speaking on MetroNews Talkline Friday, Capito said she believed she had demonstrated her ability to serve Mountain State residents in Washington and stands on her record.
“I think I have a good sense of where West Virginia wants to go and I think I’ve been very helpful through my appropriations and other things to be able to increase West Virginia’s power in Washington. That’s important to me and I want to uplift people, keep more young people in the state. I think I’m set up to do that well and would like to go back and I’m humbly asking for votes,” said Capito.
Capito answered a range of questions about her record and what she’s done during her time in the Senate. She tackled the tough question about health care and the struggles created for many when Biden era healthcare subsidies were allowed to expire.
“Those were never intended to be permanent, the $300 Billion entitlement was designed to expire and that’s what expired,” she said.
Capito said other subsidies for healthcare are still in place and she supported tax breaks for working families, but at the end of the day the Medicaid program needed to be reined in with work requirements. She though, she’s sensitive to the cost of healthcare and agrees it’s too high.
Related to the same topic, the National Debt continues to grow and is something which is never far from her mind as policy positions are created.
“If we turn the keys to the Senate over to the Democrats we’re going to have more tax and spend, more Billons of dollars in green spending, and all the packages we’ve been trying to scrape out from the Biden Administration,” she said.
Another hot topic heading into Tuesday’s vote nationally is the future of Artificial Intelligence and how we learn to live with it and use it to benefit our lives. Capito said a lot of the things she’s heard are probably unrealistic like creating a “kill switch” if the technology gets out of control. She also didn’t believe a lawsuit protection measure for the industry was achievable either. She chose to instead focus on the positives A-I could hold.
“I think we will look at regulations, but I get excited about what it can do for healthcare and cures for diseases and rapid personalized medicine we see with cancer treatments,” she said.
After the election, Capito hopes for a vote on one of the most impactful bills she’s driven on Capitol Hill. Permitting reform is expected to get a vote in the lame duck session and it carries strong bi-partisan support. Capito said it’s a necessary measure to lift what has been a stifling roadblock to progress.
“Permitting reform is about moving the building and infrastructure and energy development, transportation, communication, water, manufacturing, and housing. It makes it so it’s not so long and expensive to build in America. We’re bringing jobs back to this country,” said Capito.
She was also asked if it would be her last election.
“As I learned from my dad, I’ve got to deal with the one right in front of me, and we’ll see what the future brings,” she said.