>> business news from the capital region. this is "washington business report" with abc7 national correspondent rebecca cooper. captioned by the national captioning instute --www.ncicap.org-- >> thanks for joining us for a look at business and fince here in the washingtonegion. this week, a major merger did not happen. paul ryan and joe bidenen tangled over taxeses a how we get out of the red while we salute the washington nationals. coming up later "the washington business journal" out with a new list. first, a look a the red hot ra in the u.s. senate.

a mpaign is a among the most fiercely contested and the outcome will help detetermine which party will control the senate. this week, i sat down with former senator and governor, republican george allen. thank you for joining us for "washington business report." summit of the issues you he been dealing with have focused on the economy. those automatic spending cuts scheduled to happen i in january. you strongly oppose the idea now. at is the alternative? >> the alternative is leadership. putting off decisions to another commission. if they fail to come up we result in devastating cuts to our military readiness and over 200,000 jobs are at risk in virginia.

the right thing to do is not raise taxes as they are proposing. it would cause more job losses. i do not think these 200,000 jobs ought to be used as a ba bargaining chip to raise taxes on job-creating small businesses. what needs to be done is starting with what the use of representatives passed in the month of may. the senate has not even passed a budget in three and a half years. this is an unprecedented irresponsibility by the senate. make cuts elsewhere in defense but get revenue and one of the best ways is unleashing our american energy resources. one of theirst bills i will introduce is to allow us to produced oil and natural gas off our coast and then i would like virginia to use the royalties

for transportation. if we used our energy resources my goodness, the federal government could get over $1 trillion in revenues without raising taxes. we would have more affordable fuel food, and electricity. to me, leadership is about setting priorities and getting people to work together to achieve those goals. >> you have heard your critics saying you have not been specific enough. tim kane says he has s a plan that would lay out real measures including increasing revenue through tax increases. you have pointed to the plan passed by the house including medicare cuts. do you support those c cuts as part of your alternative? >> might alternative wou start

with the house plan but that would be modified. that is one of my objections to t obamacare. taking $750 billion out of medicare. that would only cause more job losses. the solution iseinvigoratg our economy. there may be loopholes that are closed. the federal government gets revenues off of federal lands and waters. in virginia, we are ready willing,nd able to provide america with energy. the house plan has some merit but not in all parts. we should not be cutting medicare. it is already having problems in solvency.

you have heard the economic experts who say it does not add up. if you do not tackle medicare -- >> you are talking in a broader sense. >> if you do not enhance revenue or tax increases, it does not get us there in terms of decreasing the deficit. >> tax decreases w wouldld be harmful to our econo we need comprehensive tax reform. we need a more simple, fair, closed more lpholes, and have a more competitive tax system for our countr that would create over 500,000 new bs a year. gettining rid of loopholes and

making the tax system more fair, i want to work with republicans and democrats to come up with that proach. which tax system will help create the most jobs here in america an make our country more competitive? that would do it. also so companies can bring money back into the united stateses. >> y even embraced a flat x buthere are some conservatives who say that is the wrong way to go that we should beewarding people by giving them some big tax breaks. where does the flat tax makes sense? >> good question. i was talkining about the tax on businees. insofar as iividual taxes are concerned, i think it would be unfair to change thtax system like for home mortgage interest

deduction or charitable contributions. i am advocating the choice of a flat tax spending. hong kong has done something similar to this and they found most people migrated to the flat tax. let the taxpayer decide. whether they want to stay witith this complicated system or go to a more simpler one. >> you remain behind in this race according to all the recent polls? why are you losing? >> the decision wille made and about a month fr now. the world is controlled by those who show up. i and endorsed by realtors in virginia as does the fraternal

order of the police. most folks know my record and my opponent's. i amondent anybody who uses of electricity or drives a car or thinks health care decisions ought to be made by doctors and patients, anyone who pays taxes or car about the future of their children or grandchildren will be on our side. i am confident virginians are going to want to see america began to ascend again. >> you are either crazy enough or patriotic enough to do it agaiain. we appreciate your time today. thank u for joining us. >> we will have a tim kaine for next week's program. tune in for our second campai. important lessons learned from

losing to raise the last time around. our roundtable is ne. this year, america's privately-owned freight railroads plan to spend $23 billion on their network. that's like building 4 t's stadiums, 5 wilson bridges, and 8 dc convention centers...all in one year. and not a penny of it comes from taxpayers.

this year, america's privately-owned freight railroads plan to spend $23 billion on their network. that's like launching 4 mars rovers, 10 gps satellites, and 20 space shuttles ...all in one year. and not a penny of it comes from taxpayers.

>> we arare back with our roundtable. this week, doug fruling execututive editor of "the washington business journal," and per morici frfrom the university o of maryryland s school of busineness. peter is already laughing at me. >> i am laugng at the debate we had. onone wa as boringng as an accountant. joe bididen proved to us why he cannot be president of the united states. the ceo has to be able to listen. he did not let that poor guy get fiveve wor out of his mouth without interrupting. >> he w was very lively doug fruehling. he did interrupt far t often been bent onon the other hand, the

previous debat eveveryone complained was n interrupted enough. i liked the foformat of both. i cannnnot tell you how many times i go out and talk to voters and i hear them say i wish they would talk more specifics about the issues. wewe the media do not alwayays cover it. i like the debate because they have more time to really go onn at length. that was bororing the fit time around. i want to gett doug's response. >> it was the vicpresidential debate and it should have been feisty and they should have gone after each other. that is what made it so lively. they are a always me lively than

e presidentitial debates. >> what did you hear? >> a lot of numbers that may or may not be right. it is the fact checking. >> we tried to d do fact cheing rapidly afterwards. beaus in the eye of the holderer. george allen perked up when i mentionepeter moricici's name. >> there is a man with a good sense of values. >> you may know more about conservatives than liberal. whatat did you hr that you thought was accurate? >> i thought they wereretty careful becauseolks swayed withth the presidential debate. they really were accurately presenenting as well as they could. mr. joe biden went on about two

wars that were not paid for prescription drug coverage that was not paid fornd thahat is malarkey. let me prove my y point. in 2007 with t wars raging, the prescription jarred p plan in place and the bush tax cutsn place, the bget deficit was only $160 billion. nospending because of inflation. addition tax cuts that mr. obama has put i in place. all ofhose things were not paid for. i am so disappointed that the republicans have not figured out yet to make that point. >> anything that costs money can be pointed to that addss to the deficit whether it is subsidiess for big bird or if it is war.

>> after all those thihings were in place, the deficit was a very smsmall. doug fruehling there is a lot of arguments. they say they do not want more deficit spending you cannot have itit all you u cannot have beenostly wars and tax cuts and g grow in tandem of programs and think at thehe end of the day it is n going to cost y you somewhere. whato businesses want most to see from the adminisistration? >> it is like watching two 300- pound man tackle each other on the football field. le pen vginia. you had thinterview w with george allen. a very strong ececonomy. republican and democratic gogovernors, aery strong economy. they want that kind of a modelel.

they want the freedom to add jobs. >> peter, the other thing businesses say they want is a certain date. they want to know whether tax cu are going to expire or not. one of the reans unemploent is not doing better, you say intern about what obamacare will cost. i think businesses just want to know one way or the other how health care is goi to play out. >> the obamacare program w supposed to reduce cost. they did promise to lower premiums by $2,500 perer family and it has not happened. health care costs are frfrightening to businesses. 50% more than the germans and they cover everydy and we

don't. they get better outcomes. therere are other models out there and sadly neither party is willing to look att those other models. >> we don't fully know what obamacare will do to premiums. we are going t to go to b break. state to end. first, let's go to our federal hot minute. >> one of the many unique characteristics of the government market is sometes politics influence business decisions. last week the house intelligence committee warned organisation's buying products from a chise big high-tech company. another interesting example has put some defense contractors in the middle of tw c conflicting political sources.

ging an employee a 60-day notice of sequestration. it is no different in europe with the political forces prevented a merger between two enormous government contractors. contractors need to keep aeye on business opportities as wellll a the political fororces behind them. go to

>> we e back k for more with peter morici and doug fruehling. gentlemen, welcome back. i want to tatalk to you about this list that everyone wait for. the 50 fastest-growing cocompanies. let's take a look at theist. 403% grorowth. they areased in arlgton. >> the three guys there were in

here yesterday, three years ago they got together and started their own company. now they have 32 employees. >> we will get to number four, but lelet's do it number two.. asset management. 237% growth.h. one of the things poininted to in the profile is a big conact. it was years in the making. they took time to develop relationships and that led to ernight success. >>they have built these companies on relationships which is making these companies grow right now. >> number three is in arlington. they are in coulting. that i 154% growth in leesburg.

867 employees in leesburg dng government services. >> all four companies have done the govement work and are all based in virginia. >> onone of the things to always recognize a good deal of governme work has be outsourced. it is less expensive to use ntractors to do it a lot of regulatory work. they do not make the policy but they do the worker bee work that needs to bebe done. it is the rationships that matter ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer

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>> welcome back. : number of the weeeek is 69. it is e percentage of full- time workers who say searching r job opportunities is part of their regular routine. a survey says 39% say they look aroundnd at least oe per week. the majorityf employees are lling to consider other opportunits. we thank you for considering us. asas always, we hope to see you next week forr "washington business report.""

this year, ar,rica's privately-owned freight railroads plan to spend $23 billion on their network. that's like building 4 nat's stadiums, 5 wilson bridges, and 8 dc cotiention centers...all in one year. and not a penny of it comes from taxpayers.

this year, america's prately-owned freight railroads plan to spend $23 billion on their network. that's like launching 4 mars rovers, 10 gps satellites, and 20 space shuttles ...alln one year. and not a penny of it comes from taxpayers.