Ann Kuster, Democratic candidate for Congress in the 2nd District, said in her recent interview with The Telegraph of Nashua: “We can’t afford all this corporate welfare.”

She proposed eliminating tax breaks for oil companies but also, in a surprising move for a Democrat, those for renewable energy companies. What would she do with that newfound revenue? She would subsidize research into alternative technologies. So, she wants to trade one form of corporate welfare for another.

(She added that it would be better to pay down the federal debt. She failed to mention that Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson of Simpson-Bolwes fame have endorsed her opponent, Rep. Charlie Bass, for his work to reach a balanced budget.)

We wonder how many 2nd District voters remember that in 1996, House Budget Committee Chairman John Kasich said, “Charlie Bass led the biggest attack to date on corporate welfare.” Bass helped craft a budget that eliminated 26 corporate tax loopholes. In this term he voted for a House budget plan to “immediately terminate all programs that allow government to play venture capitalist with taxpayers’ money.” Kuster criticized him for that vote. And earlier this year, Bass was the only member of the New Hampshire delegation to vote against reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank, a behemoth of corporate welfare.

Kuster tries to paint Bass as a big advocate of corporate welfare, but he actually has a pretty good record of opposing it.