Nearly 600 Huntington area residents flocked to The Awakening Community Church on Hauenstein Road Friday evening to watch congressional and senatorial candidates debate back-to-back at the Huntington TEA (Taxed Enough Already) Party.
District Five Republican Congressional Candidates Mike Murphy, Luke Messer, Brose McVey, Dr. John McGoff, Andy Lyons and Ann Adcook and Democratic Candidate Dr. Nasser Hanna were first to debate, followed by Republican Senatorial Candidates Don Bates, Jr., Richard Behney, Dan Coats, John Hostettler and Marlin Stutzman.
Congressional Democratic Candidate Tim Crawford and Incumbent Congressman Dan Burton chose not to participate in the event.
No Democrats are currently running for the Senate seat that will be vacated by Sen. Evan Bayh.
In each debate candidates had one minute to respond to questions submitted by both the audience and the Huntington TEA Party group. Congressional candidates were each allowed one one-minute rebuttal and senatorial candidates were allowed two one-minute rebuttals.
The most emotionally charged topic was the controversial health care reform bill that passed the House 219-212 last Sunday after a months-long push by the Democratic Party through staunch Republican opposition.
All congressional candidates save for Hanna said had they been elected they would have opposed the bill. Hanna, who referred to the reform bill as “landmark legislation,” said he believes the bill will be a tremendous aid to the uninsured.
“I take care of the uninsured. I take care of those with bad insurance and VA (Veteran’s Affairs) Benefits. I understand the health care system really well,” said Hanna, who is a cancer doctor at the Indiana University School of Medicine. “I see the insurance abuses every day. I see the people denied coverage. I see the struggles that people have every day, worried about how they are going to pay bills.”
McGoff, a colonel in the Air National Guard, said he has seen the negative effects of socialized medicine in countries around the world.
“I’m vehemently opposed,” he said. “I would have absolutely voted against it.”
Murphy, a member of the anti-health-care-bill website www.repealit.org, noted that China is currently working to repeal their national health care system and move toward a private system.
Lyons called the bill a monstrosity, an abomination, and a violation of the Constitution and the 10th Amendment.
McVey, who said the bill may be the straw the breaks the back of the U.S. economy, said he would have “thrown his broken body” in front of the health care “train” to stop it.
Messer, acknowledging the need for health care reform, said the bill is not the reform our country needs and the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
“Every other country in the world has a rationing of care,” Messer said. “The arrogance of people who have told all of the Americans to shut up and listen and things will be okay is remarkable.”
Adcook said she would have actively sought health care reform, but rejected the controversial and expensive package offered.
“We need health care reform, but we don’t need it to the point where it’s going to bankrupt everybody,” she said, noting insurance should be offered at more affordable rates, but not for free. “Would I have voted against it? Yes. Would I have asked for something different? Yes. There are good points in that bill, but not at the cost it’s going to cost us.”
On the heels of the passionate debate on health care, each congressional candidate expressed the economic philosophy he or she would take to Washington if elected.
Messer, McVey and Lyons agreed that people need freedom from heavy taxation and government regulations for the economy to flourish.
Adcook emphasized the importance of working hard without expecting government perks and handouts.
“We have to stop demanding benefits and favors from the government, the health care bill being one and welfare being another one,” she said. “The only way these benefits are going to get (paid for) is raising taxes.”
McGoff said it’s important for anyone – including the federal government – not to spend more than they take in. But Republicans shouldn’t hold the current administration responsible for all the debt.
“We’ll be $20 trillion in debt by 2020,” McGoff said, explaining when the Republican Party was in power, it failed to handle money responsibly, turning federal surplus into a deficit and attaching a record number of earmarks to legislation. “Congressman Dan Burton’s fingerprints are all over those budgets.”
Murphy reminded the audience that nothing in life is truly free.
“You can’t spend more money than you have,” he said, explaining the federal government has gone too far. “When you max out your credit card, you can’t ask your neighbor for their credit card.”
Hanna disagreed with the other candidates, believing it’s important for the federal government to make every effort to fortify the workforce to spur the economy.
“The stronger the workforce … that results in business (growth),” he said, explaining he believes the Wall Street bank bailout was a tremendous waste of money. “That cost us trillions of dollars.”
In the senatorial debate, candidates discussed a number of topics including health care and restrictions on the right to bear arms.
All candidates were adamantly opposed to the health care reform bill as presented.
Behney said if he had his way, the bill wouldn’t have been discussed, much less made it to the floor for a vote.
Coats said he believes the bill will milk billions of dollars from state governments and cause a spike in Hoosier taxes.
“This bill shouldn’t have been taken up. It’s not the time to take it up,” he said. “We need to get people back to work. How the administration could make that secondary is a disgrace to America. We should be doing these other things later.”
Hostettler advocated a free market approach to health care reform and said the Senate must begin to repeal provisions in the bill and replace it with good policy.
“Let them (Americans) purchase health care policies across state lines, to create alternatives,” he said. “There are reforms. There are ways the government can get out of this process.”
Stutzman said he believes the problem is not with health insurance, but the cost of medicine.
Bates advocated that the entire premise of the bill was wrong.
“Socialized medicine is the goal of the president and we are headed down that road,” Bates said, scolding Republicans who failed to pass medical malpractice reform when they were the majority party in the House and Senate. “Free market principles must always be the premise.”
All senatorial candidates also stood in opposition to any restriction on the right to keep and bear arms.
Stutzman, a former state senator and a member of the National Rifle Association, said he co-authored legislation that promoted the right to keep and bear arms, including a bill supporting lifetime handgun permits.
During his service in the U.S. House of Representatives, Hostettler said he voted against President Bill Clinton’s gun ban and sponsored pieces of legislation that would allow those licensed to carry guns in their states to be able to carry across state lines.
Behney and Bates agreed they will also refuse to support any bill that infringes on the right to bear arms.
“My forefathers signed a document called the Constitution that gives me the right to carry,” Behney said. “Anyone who wants to work with that, don’t trust them.”
Coats, a former U.S. congressman and senator, said in his past campaigns he gained the support of the NRA. But during his previous term in the House, he did vote in favor of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act. Known as the “Assault Weapons Ban,” the legislation put a temporary ban on assault weapons that were being shipped into the country illegally – a decision Coats said he would stand by.
Hostettler argued that the legislation, although temporary, was still an infringement on an individual’s right to bear arms.
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