PORTLAND — Congressional candidates Jaime Herrera and Denny Heck disagreed Friday over the federal government’s proper role in lifting Clark County out of the economic doldrums. Their fast-paced 22-minute debate is scheduled for broadcast by KGW-TV at 6:30 p.m. today.
The two, who are locked in a close race for the 3rd Congressional District seat being vacated by U.S. Rep. Brian Baird, also disagreed on health insurance reform, the Bush-era tax cuts and the war in Afghanistan in response to rapid-fire question from moderator Russ Lewis. The debate was taped at the KGW studio Friday morning for broadcast today on “Straight Talk,” the station’s public affairs program.
Herrera, a 31-year-old Republican state legislator, repeated her assertion that the Obama administration’s $800 billion stimulus has failed to create jobs and said the government should cut spending, get out of the way and let businesses recover on their own without bailouts or other interventions.
“When government picks winners and losers, we all lose,” she said.
Heck, a 58-year-old businessman and former state legislator, said that with 13 percent unemployment in Clark County, the district needs Congress to be an active partner by helping businesses get access to credit, fixing the federal tax code and investing in infrastructure.
Rebutting Herrera’s claim that the stimulus has failed, he said, “Every mainstream economist says it saved or created 1.4 million to 3 million jobs.”
Heck said he would have voted for the stimulus but added that it was far from perfect, noting that half the money it dedicated to infrastructure development remains unspent and that it failed to target struggling areas like the 3rd District for extra help. “I would have fixed it,” he said.
Pressed to say where she would cut government spending, Herrera said she would use $270 billion of unspent stimulus money to pay down the federal deficit and institute a pay freeze for federal employees, which she said would save about $30 billion. She also advocated repealing the health insurance reform bill, asserting that it will cost families $1.2 billion.
Heck again stepped in to rebut Herrera’s numbers. “The Congressional Budget Office has said the health care bill will reduce the federal budget over 10 years by $140 billion,” he said.
He said his own plan for cutting the federal budget would include giving the president the authority to exercise line-item vetoes of expenditures approved by Congress, eliminating Department of Defense expenditures that even the Pentagon hasn’t asked for, and finding a way to rein in health care expenditures. Without controlling inflation in health care costs, he said, “We will never balance the budget.”
On the Bush administration tax cuts, which expire at the end of the year, Herrera said she favors extending all of them, even though that would cost a projected $700 billion over 10 years. Heck said he would favor extending tax cuts for the middle class, which needs tax relief, but not for earners in the top tax brackets.
The program featured clips of TV attack ads that have been aired on behalf of both candidates. Lewis speculated that many Clark County residents won’t know much more about the candidates than what they see in those ads and pointedly asked both why they aren’t debating in the district’s most populous county.
Herrera said she will appear at a candidate forum at Camas High School on Monday that the Heck campaign has declined to attend, citing a previous commitment.
Heck said he will take part in a debate sponsored by the League of Women voters on Wednesday with or without Herrera, who has cited a conflict and won’t attend that event.
The two held their first face-to-face debates of the general election campaign Wednesday in Lacey and Longview.
