Issues. Lets get right to it. Donna kelley. [inaudible question] it has been a firestorm over leon panettas book that came out a day ago. Everybodys talking about a democratic congressman who was a former cia director in the obama administration, a former secretary of defense, and he is laying this squarely at the feet of the administration for not getting in those negotiations with the iraqi Prime Minister so we had to leave. I will get to that question with you. How long could we stay if malik he was not willing to let us stay there . A good question. I was reluctant to enter iraq. My soninlaw as a navy seal. If you go to war you make sure you go to war to win. You get rules of engagement so our troops will win. In iraq, leaving, we left without a sofa agreement, a status of forces agreement. That should not be overlooked. That allows our soldiers, they get prosecuted if they are allegedly conducted something wrong under our judicial system. Without a status of forces agreement one of our soldiers could be prosecuted under islamic law. If a pilot errors he could be executed for murder rather than our law. Control and status, look what is happening with isis today. Were going to fight isis. I would rather fight them in iraq than the streets of america. It is already here. Ask the girl from great falls. That is isis. [inaudible] there were multiple operations to stay. They would chose not to. They were multiple opportunities to check isis in the beginning and we chose not to preach this is what happens when you leave from the rear. If the United States does not lead no one else will. Are we playing catch up in the game . Fighting isis with airstrikes . Trying to get back territory that we are ready spent blood and treasure on . The cd of americans is our number one. Isis does not share our values. They have no regard for human life. We need to learn from the mistakes of the last 12 years. When i hear i would rather fight a war in the deserts of iraq than here at home, i think that is a simplistic way of looking at the problem. They estimate there are one billion muslims in this world. They are not all in that region. One billion muslims. Out of that they say 15 are islamic extremist. 15 , 150 million extremist. The idea that we can bomb our way out of this problem is not realistic to me. Bikes for both of you, airstrikes now to try and gain background . Will there have to be boots on the ground . I support doing whatever we need to do to keep our americans safe. Security is number one. We need to be thoughtful about our approach. Number one, Congress Needs to debate this issue and authorize force, to fill their responsibility. How much is it going to cost . What is the budget . I dont think the correct response is to instantly say we need to put troops on the ground. My opponent called for economic sanctions against isis. Tell me how you economic sanctions against a nonnationstate. Maybe we should write a letter . The issue is isis is a danger. You have to have a read wrong approach read shut down our southern border. It is no longer an immigration issue. It is a security and immigration threat. A nation that can build the panama canal can build a fence on the 21st. Unfortunately it is going to call for america to lead. You cannot control isis by air alone. In the words of general conway there is a snowballs chance in hell the air operations will work. To limit our Ground Forces to special forces, to supply and support, we make sure our coalitions that we choose our watched and trained. We limit our involvement, that make sure that isis is destroyed. A quick follow up. No one answered how we are paying for this. We have put two wars on the credit card. Would you support a war tax to support perpetual war . Two clearly different approaches to this situation. I am saying we need to be thoughtful and responsible. A letter is not going to get the job done. This is somebody who called for invading mexico a few weeks ago because we have an american in jail in tijuana. That is not the judgment i want representing me in congress. Instant reaction to the president s announcement that we would have airstrikes was lets send in more troops. He said a couple of years ago that when the president announced women should serve in combat roles, he said that is nearly certain to cost lives. That is not the judgment we need in congress. It is a good question. How much is the point to cost . It needs to be debated in congress and authorize. Had we pay for this . By having a strong economy. A navy costs money. Bridges, schools. Infrastructure. That costs money. We need a robust economy. I know you didnt serve, but he is a marine languishing in a prison for six months. Every man and woman, everybody that serves in this country is not sure the america has their back. When america doesnt have their back like benghazi or mexico, what happens is it sends a signal to every veteran fighting. America is not going to be there. I did not advocate invading mexico. I advocated the president doing his duty to get the marine back. [applause] the next question. Talking about money. You criticized zinke for taking money out of state. John kessler got his money in the same vein. The reason i said 70 of the money ive raised is from montana, it is unusual. I am proud of that. I have worked very hard to raise and finance this campaign from montana. There is a huge difference between the way i have done and the way my opponent has done it. He has raised most money from california, texas, and florida. Those three states combined half 116 were in congress. We have one representative. I said from the beginning we are going to run a montana campaign, antenna ideas. I have worked hard with that. Im very proud of that record. Comparing it to the 2012 election is comparing apples and oranges. 50 million was spent in montana in the senate race alone. That is disgusting to most. We are going to keep doing what we are doing, focusing on montana ideas and focusing on running a montana race financed by montanans. [applause] im not going to apologize for having a national stage. Im not one to apologize for having coalitions between different congressmen carry the facts are this. I have 18,000 donors. Most of them are small donors. 18,000 donors compared to 3 represents veterans and seniors. America is exceptional. While a fact that you to reach out of the state . No. Max baucus had 90 . No one criticizes that. He backed the matter is having a National Platform means you can do national things. You can reach and coalitions. We only have one congressman in the state of montana. You are going to need a big coalition, friendships, relationships. Next question goes to hu jintao. Janel. I would like to address where Montana Voters see you on television and political ads. Mr. Zinke, you referenced your milestones in life versus john lewis and his age. Your milestones as he is growing up. Can you help us with the message that you are trying to get across in this ad . More leadership among less politics. I have spent my life leading. I have an mba. I have that education. A naval officer is more than just leading trips into combat. It is looking at challenging problems and finding solutions that are real. I have set down with warlords and agreed backandforth on solutions. I can certainly sit down between democrats and republicans as i did in the senate to find real solutions. You bring up his age. You believe that because you are older you make a better leader . No. I bring a comparison to lives. It is a positive campaign. Ive done a lot of things in my life. I have been more than a washington staffer. I have been more than in politics. I have been a business guy. I understand the private side. I have been an educator. I know how to lead. I know how to solve problems. The problems in our country are large and daunting. But they are fixable. We created them. We can fix them. John lewis . Age is arbitrary. What you stand for is not. I cannot do anything about the fact that i was born in 1978. My experience is very relevant to what were trying to do here. I have worked on legislation in d. C. Helping veterans. I have worked on issues here in montana. I had been to all 56 counties helping seniors get Social Security. That experience is relevant. Go back to what i said in the beginning. This election is about the future. What ideas you have for the future great not what you were doing in the 1980s and 1990s. [applause] a followup. Lets talk about, can we agree that john lewis did not write the Affordable Care act . It was his job to make sure that values and interest were reflected in that bill. When montana businesses called, what were they told . Dont grow your business past 50. Dont employee more than 30 hours. That hurts business, that hurts every family. As the state director that is your responsibility. Your ad says that he wrote it. That is not what you describe. On the typewriter. On the typewriter. [laughter] i dont think you wrote it all. You say you want to cut congressional pay . It is when you take an act of congress to cut congressional pay. Let me Say Something quickly about the health care ads. We have millions of uninsured americans in this country. What is the solution to ensure those americans . There are tens of thousands of montanans benefiting. There are some in the audience tonight, he is a parttime teacher and lost his insurance in january. He signed on the exchange for insurance today. He is paying half of what he paid before. There are thousands of montanans like that. If you want to repeal obamacare, what are you want to tell his family and his kids . He would lose that insurance. We are not cutting congressional pay. Congress has a 90 approval rating. They need to do their part. Will it solve our deficit issues . No. If you cannot pass a budget you if you cannot pass a budget you should not get paid. Congress hasnt passed a budget in 1000 days. This is about congress doing their part. There are 20,000 montanans who have lost insurance. 20,000. Yes there are. Let me say this. Do we need Affordable Health care . Absolutely. Can we do it better . Absolutely. Onesizefitsall isnt the solution. I understand there are good things about obama. We are going to see more and more people lose their insurance. What makes you think that if you couldnt afford insurance before then all of a sudden you magically get a subsidy and you have a 9,000 deductible . What makes you think you can pay that deductible if you cant afford insurance in the beginning . You cant. There are a lot of ways to make sure we have Affordable Health care. Tort reform, individual health care accounts, a number of things that make a difference to montana, which is an aging population. Next question, we have one more question that we go to break. As long as we have brought up age. Some of us are approaching Social Security. Others, we have done for decades and decades. We have talked about it as the holy grail. For those of us getting close, and that is me raising my hand, the ball is moving down the field. 62, than 65, then 70. Would you change it . Can we keep it . Can we make it better . I think we can keep our promises to Social Security. I sat down with the numbers. Social security is actually healthy for those who earned it. If you work all your life and that was a promise made, that portion of Social Security can be healthy. What has happened is you have a lot of new people that are draining it. Congress has told them multiple times. How are we going to afford these things . We need a robust economy. How do you get that . You have to look at making sure that government goes back so american can innovate and think outofthebox again. The Regulatory Environment and burden on business and one year was 3. 6 trillion. One year. And you look at that amount of overburden regulation that doesnt involve clean air and clean water, it is stifling innovation. Energy independence. Im an optimist. If we focus on those things that we can keep the promises dream we can make sure we honor our veterans. They are expenses out there. 18 trillion, 10 years to balance the budget is reasonable. We can accelerate our economy to have a prosperous economy. We can fix it. I am positive we can. When this gets to zero that is 60 seconds. Your rebuttal . I didnt hear an answer about Social Security. If we do nothing today Social Security trust fund will be solvent until 2033. We do need to do something and keep it solvent for many years. I support an idea endorsed by aarp, to raise the payroll tax cap. For people who make over 117,000, they need to continue to pay into that trust fund so we can keep it solvent. For how long . Be more specific . If theyre making over 100 grand. For how long . We should all do our part, absolutely. With the goal of making that trust fund solvent for many years beyond 2033. On the retirement age do you support raising the retirement age . Is that something he would look at . I do not at this time. People work their lives for these benefits. They need the assurance that it is going to be there for them when they retire. Lets not keep moving the goalposts for retirees. I dont support that. I dont think it is necessary. I would not support it. The Social Security program itself, if you look at those who have earned it, and mostly montanans have earned it over their lives, it is solvent if you look at that. It should go back and make Social Security what it was. For those people who have earned it over time. It will be there. We have to make sure we keep our promises. Im the guy trying to save it. Im trying to make sure we are financing and, save Social Security so the check clears. We are halfway through the debate we will invite you back and take a one minute break. Our live coverage of the debate continues in a moment. We are listening to the u. S. House debate between republican brent vicki and Democrat John lewis. Were going to throw out a question about personalities. I want to give you guys an opportunity to tell us about yourselves. What inspires you . What is your greatest accomplishment so far . Get behind the facade and tell us about ryan zinke. I love to fly fish. My greatest compliment is marrying up. I love my kids and my grandkids. I am proud of my daughter, who i told two things predont join the navy and dont marry a navy seal. She did both. My sons are doing well. I care about working families in montana. Im a bluecollar kid. What matters to me as making sure our kids have the same legacy and opportunities that i had. I had a wonderful childhood. I want to make sure our kids and your kids have the same experience. Maybe you can put those skills to work in washington. [laughter] my family inspires me as well. After you get on the campaign trail you go back and do the real job. We have an eightyearold and a sixyearold. We coached two games of soccer. My wife is the head coach. I am the assistant. My daughter is eight years old. Soccer is getting to that serious level. I looked over at the game a week ago and people were tailgating. [laughter] soccer is serious. I want them to have what i had growing up in montana. It is what we have, a a way of life. I worry about the future. Crisis to crisis. I am a solution oriented person. That is what i want to do in congress. Back to the issues. We are going to go back to obamacare. A question from a Business Owner, he says in 25 years as a Business Owner he paid a lot of medical insurance. He didnt get any payback rate this is the first year he has had it. He says it is the first Reliable Health insurance is working life. He is worried about your campaign ad to eliminate that. Specifically to reassure him, that is what he needs to survive and function. He is one of the few. I agree that it does work for some. I use the term abandonment. When a ship is sinking, and i think it is sinking, when a naval officer abandons a ship he doesnt jump into the ocean. You go to a safer more stable vessel. There are a lot of ways to make sure montana is represented. Tort reform is one of them. Business pulls. Pools. Individual Health Reforms pretax deductions. What we want is Quality Health care. We want access and affordability. I think one size does not fit all. Montana is an aging population. What makes sense sometimes in washington dc or washington doesnt make sense in montana. It will continue to hurt. Part of the obamacare package hasnt even been implemented yet. Wait until the whole thing. I am concerned. I think the challenge to congress is to quickly come up with a better solution articulated, and make sure montana is represented. When i hear abandoned ship, it is jump ship. There is no plan to get people to shore. We had 50 votes in the u. S. House to repeal the Affordable Care act. To go to what . Come back to millions of uninsured. We have yet to hear a plan of what we are going to do about that. Many of those folks get health care. You can go down to Emergency Rooms and get the care that you need. That costs are spread around to everyone else. Well, the answer is ensuring more americans, insuring millions of americans. Every industrialized country in this world has ask themselves the question, is health care a right . Every single one of them has answered in the affirmative except the United States. We need to continue to improve the Health Care System. [applause] not jump ship when there is no plan to insure more americans. Could you both point two what you think is not going right . What on the business side, a consequence intended by design, when you penalize a business for going over 50 people and growing your business over 50 people, when you penalize employment over 30 hours, montana, you need 40 hours and benefits. When you have a system that penalizes over 30 hours, penalizes medical innovation, you look at what has happened. What has happened to families. When you cant get a 40 hour job because you are penalized for it that means you are one to have tothree parttime jobs. When you have parttime jobs, one is going to be just for making the payments for insurance. What happens when you have erratic hours . Who is at home . It is affecting working families and businesses in montana. Can we do it better . Yes. Should we Work Together . Absolutely. [applause] i will tell you what is affecting working families not having insurance. The scare tactic that businesses are going to pay the huge price isnt true. I read an oped the other day, competition in the Insurance Marketplace. Three Companies Offering insurance through the exchange. Blue cross, pacific source, and the montana coop providing competition amongst each other. Companies that have over 100 employees, they currently may have approved plan through blue cross blue shield. Rates are going through the roof. Here are their options for you get a new group plan through one of those other companies, or sending people in the Insurance Market where the company is going to pay less. States that dont have competition like wyoming, one insurance company, the highest insurance rates in the country. Businesses in the long run are going to benefit from ensuring more americans. Are there some areas where we could tweak it . He is saying there are areas that maybe we could do better here. Are there a couple of places . Absolutely. Did the law fix our Health Care System . Absolutely not. We need flexibility in the system. Innovation. We have one of the coops. 22 states have a coop. Lets do more of that provide competition in the 22 states that have the coop. Individuals are paying 8 less for insurance rates in those 22 states. I hear from Small Businesses, there is too much paperwork. Lets reduce the paperwork to make it less complicated. This is a longterm problem. We are not going to solve it overnight. We need to keep doing things to make the law flexible and fix things that arent working. What about the woman on this panel who has a preexisting condition. What about that . Would you do anything with that . One of the big parts of obamacare, to cover folks who have a preexisting condition . I agree on preexisting conditions. There are a lot of people who have preexisting conditions that couldnt leave a job because if they did they could not get insurance on the next. I agree. That is a big part. What happens when obamacare in a few years when 14 get a raise in Home Health Care . What happens when medicare payments are reduced . What happens to our urgent care facilities when we dont have premium on medicare . There are issues in montana that dont fit a model of a large urban state. Montana is rural. The power base of this country is on the west and east coast. What about montana and wyoming . South and north dakota . We are rural. We have to protect our interest we can do a better. There wasnt one republican vote on obamacare. It was done at night. Nancy pelosi was right. We dont know what is in it until we vote on it. We passed it. That is not right. We can do better. I dont view life through a red lens or a blue lens. I view it through a red white and blue lens. I think we can [applause] there were no solutions there about health care. [applause] i did hear one idea about didnt hear one idea about solving the Health Care Crisis in this country. I am someone who is solution oriented, focused on that if im fortunate enough to serve. Lets move onto another issue. Lets talk energy. Are you in favor of developing proposed export terminals in the state of washington to deliver montana and wyoming coal overseas . It is a complicated situation. For one, montanans deserve and need markets to send products where there it is coal, whether it is a product, whatever it is. We have congestion on route rose. Railroads. The question we have to ask is, do we want washington to come in and solve this for us . Do we need to figure out a solution between our states . I dont think it is fair that one state can tell us that we cant sell through that state. We have commodities coming from the west coast that travels through montana. What if we said that cant come through montana anymore . It is a complicated question. We need a solution. I think it needs to come from montana and washington states so we can get products brought. I dont think it is complicated at all. We need them. Any energy plan, your did not have oil and gas. Your energy plan did not have oil and gas. If you do not have an plan that supports oil and gas in montana it isnt an energy plan for montana. We can do it better. Our gas plan in this country is enormous. Each coal train is 300,000 of revenue to montana. 24 of the tax goes to k12. If we want new schools in montana, which we should have, roads, highways, infrastructure, how are we going to do it . We have to use our Energy Resources wisely, which we can. We dont have to take north dakota as a model of excellence. We can do it better. We need to develop our resources wisely and develop them now. We can be Energy Independent in five years. The rail lines are already crazy busy for lack of a better term. We are pushing through oil and coal and pushing wheat off of our rail lines. With these export terminals increasing the coal heading to the west coast, how are we going to handle it . What are you going to tell communities . I did talk to matt rose. It is an issue that we need to build pipelines. The Keystone Pipeline is one of many. My opponent in the last debate talked about trucking. We are not going to try oil. We need pipelines. Whether you sit on the left or right of global warming, three and a half Million Barrels is flared every day. It is wrong to waste it. We need infrastructures to export montana commodities and shore up our Transportation System with a railroad to make sure that the factory in sydney has trains going out. Are we and commodities, we need to make sure we have the rail system to provide products. It is not true that oil and gas is not my energy plan. I called for investing in all forms of energy that we have an abundance of. I heard him say whatever you say on global warming. That is accurate of what his position is. There is somebody that was endorsed by the ontario conservation voters running for the legislature, sent a letter to president obama calling on him to do something about Climate Change, and now all of a sudden is a denier. We shouldnt invest in renewable energy. Which is it . Lets have consistency on this issue. I am calling for investing in the longterm future. Not just traditional coal, oil, and gas. Those support thousands of jobs. Lets invest in the longterm future. I would like to see my opponent share those positions that he once had, but today he does not. [applause] on the subject of global warming, do you believe it is a human caused event . There was an article recently that everyone should read. It was by a former obama administrator. It had three points. Is climate changing . Yes. Is it maninfluenced . Yes. What is the influence . That is not what science is settled on. The last 16 years there is no model that shows doom and gloom. Temperatures have not been rising significantly. It is not a hoax. But it is not proven science. You dont dismantle americas power and energy on a maybe. We need to be Energy Independent first. We need to do it better. It is not a settled science. For the president to say that Hurricane Sandy was a result of Climate Change is simply a false claim. [applause] again, signed a letter to president obama asking for him to do something about Climate Change. A few years later, saying a volcanic explosion to add Greenhouse Gases in the world than any manmade cause. I read an article a few months ago that now it wasnt any man cause things, and it is the rising of the ocean levels and the warming of the temperature that is causing global warming. He said that. I want to see consistency on this issue. Above all, we need people in congress are solution oriented, and want to be a part of the solution. The debate is not going away. When you put your head in the sand and say it is not true that is not helpful. You can ask whole companies for is not helpful to the debate. I have a question for both candidates. Student loans. I watched news last night. United states is making billions off of student loans. It is obscene. Would you support reducing the Interest Rate on these loans . Or back legislation to have them renegotiated . Absolutely. I would support being able to refinance those student loans. It has replaced Credit Card Debt as the highest amount of debt and young people starting out in the world. The average montana and starts out with 27,000 in debt. We need to start with that. We need to more pell grants we need students to refinance student loans. In the ryan budget it cuts pell grants. Half of the students receive pell grants. I heard criticism about my debt plan. It is not just about selling used cars. But he supports the ryan budget that says certain things in there he doesnt like, like privatizing medicare and selling off public lands. That is a rounding error. If youre not in favor of that, how does the ryan budget work . [applause] it is not the ryan zinke budget. I do support balancing the budget in 10 years. I set as a chairman on the Montana SenateEducation Committee for a reason. The link between education and a good job. Education is an investment, not an expense. If the government is making money on our backs of our students trying to better themselves, it is wrong. We should prosecute those for doing it. I also have incentives through grants. Our skills we need in america. They are not being filled. Everyone complains about jobs going overseas because there are engineers overseas. How about training engineers here . So we dont have to look overseas for software development. If we need to demand skill in america, make those Funds Available for students to fill those high demand jobs. There doesnt have to be a four year degree. There are welding jobs in montana. Three dollars an hour. Show up on time. Thirty dollars an hour. Show up on time. Of the government is making money on these loans, the wall street journal, 60 billion since 2006. Probably the only thing theyre making money on. [applause] [laughter] that welding job per hour is higher than that. A personality question. If you win, who will you thank . If you lose, who will you blame . Im going to thank my family and my wife. My wife has been through a lot. When she was a service spouse, my daughter and myself and my soninlaw were deployed together. That takes an enormous amount of sacrifice. If we lose, im going to blame john lewis. [laughter] if we win on one thing my family, my wife and my kids. It is a huge sacrifice to do this and run for public office. My wife has been there for me through thick and thin. I cant thank her enough. Im going to thank the people of montana who have funded this campaign. The vast majority of the money i raised is from montana. I believe in what were trying to do here. If i come up short, that is tough. I know we will give it everything weve got. Maybe try harder next time. With that our our is mostly up. We have you scheduled for a closing statement. We did flip a coin. John lewis decided you get to go first. I want to thank you, and i want to thank you ryan for doing this again. And our panelists. Tonight, throughout this election, we have seen a clearer choice in this race. The approaches we would take in congress. If you want a show horse, he is your guy. If you want a workhorse, im your guy. [applause] i promise that im fortunate enough to serve i will work as hard as i can on montana issues, remembering who we serve. This comes back to the best vision for montana. We need somebody that is going to be a champion for protecting public lands and furthering access. Lets be proactive. Lets get better access. Somebody will be a champion for medicare and Social Security, not support proposals that would privatize them and take away benefits from seniors. If you were a woman making a Difficult Health care decision, we need people who think we should let women make those decisions. Not politicians. [applause] senator zinke is proud of his service. I think we all him a debt of gratitude. We do not owe him our vote. I respectfully ask for your vote. I thank you for the opportunity. Thank you. [applause] i am an optimist. I think the problems facing our country can and will be fixed. I think the 21st century will be an american century, but we have to earn it and Work Together. This is not about republicans or democrats. It is about americans. I have always viewed life about being an american first. Then a montanan, then a republican. I tried to persuade you that maybe the republican side is better. It is not always better. My voting record was clear. I voted on the merits of the bill and not who sponsored it. I will do the same in washington dc. I dont yield to pressure. I have been wrong, as we all have. That is part of the leadership, that corrects your course if you are wrong, get better fast, and learn from your mistakes. Facts, and learn from your mistakes. Our president , you may like or not, but he is our president. Today or yesterday, he made a couple of remarks that are interesting. He said while i am not running for office, make no mistake, my policies are on the ballot. Every one of them. What that means is this election is about whether you think the policies of Barack Hussein obama are correct. I dont believe they are correct. I will stand on a better vision, and i will stand on a better legacy giving to my children of freedom, liberty, and making sure we earn it. A vote for my opponent is a vote for the policies of this president. If you agree with them, great. If you dont, im going to ask for your vote. Thank you, god bless america, god bless all those who defend her. [applause] the connecticut governors race is currently listed as a tossup by the kirk and rothenberg lyrical reports, the race features democratic incumbent dan malloy and republican challenger tom foley. The two candidates recently debated at the university of connecticut or it topics included taxes, education, and the economy. This is an hour. Live from the Jorgensen Center for the performing arts at the university of connecticut, fox connecticut, the Connecticut Daily Newspaper Association and yukon renew the gubernatorial debate. Good evening and welcome to the Jorgensen Center at the university of connecticut or it i brent harden from fox connecticut news. The party endorsed candidates for governor are joining us for a one on one debate just weeks ahead of election day. , republican candidate tom foley and our Current Governor and democratic candidate dan malloy. Welcome and good luck tonight. We will cover several major topics in the next hour, after which the candidates will deliver their closing statements. Your is the format. Once a question is asked, each of the candidates will have 90 seconds to answer. After the questions are answered, each candidate will have up to three minutes in rebuttal time, but each candidate will have only 13 minutes of rebuttal time for the entire debate. That will require some strategic discretion. Join me on the desk here is Jim Bernstein and chris keating. The candidates have drawn cards to determine the order in which they will answer, and the audience here in the hall has promised to remain quiet. No cheering, no applause, no outbursts of any kind. We thank you. Our first set of questions dealing with something very important to all of us here in connecticut, the economy. Chris keating will ask the first question. Chris . Connecticuts economy has grown by only 1 total during the past three years. What specific steps should State Government take to kickstart the economy, and how big of a role should financial incentives play . Its great to be with you. I want to recognize my wife, kathy, my son, daniel, and the great Lieutenant Governor nancy. For puttingank fox this event on. The economy is a very important issue. Im proud we have seen the creation of the 60,000 private sector jobs, but thats not enough. I wont rest until every person in connecticut who wants to have a job has a job. We are making progress in that regard. You asked are there incentives that should be applied. Of course there are. One of the things im proudest about is the Small Business express program. Before nancy and i were sworn into office, there was no toolset to help grow Small Businesses in connecticut even though most job creation takes place in Small Businesses. We have treated a tool that is allowing us to stand alongside Small Businesses, many of them owned by Minority Group members and women. I am seeing 1200 of those Companies Making very rapid progress in employing people and Building Confidence and investing in our economy. That toolset is extremely important and part of an overall toolset to make sure we are adding to our economy. There are other incentives we have applied. Were very proud of those as well. Is really important is that for the first time in a long time, we are making the kinds of investments that will produce jobs well into the future. In this university, we are seeing massive new investments in technology as well as bioscience and other areas. Thank you very much. Mr. Foley . Im also very pleased to be here tonight. I would like to recognize my wife, leslie, my running mate, heather summers. Thank you to fox cg for hosting this debate. Youre going to hear a lot of figures and numbers tonight from governor malloy. I call it molloy math. Some are true, but most arent. You to be listening particularly carefully. When the governor says, let me be perfectly clear, then you should listen very closely. What hes about to say probably isnt clear or true. Lets talk about the economy. 1 growth, one of the worst growth rates of any state in this wonderful nation. I believe at least part of the reason why our growth rate has been so slow is that governor malloy saw the largest tax increase in connecticut history. It has put a lot of pressure on connecticut families. It has driven up electricity rates, also put the big squeeze on families. Families dont have as much money as they used to have. He has also let spending go out of control. Public spending is now crowding out the public sector. If you look just at publicsector growth, it has shrunk. If the governor is correct and he has created these jobs, private sector wages this is a very bad situation for connecticut. Later in the discussion tonight we will talk about the policy that will get the economy going. Thank you, time for both of you to have your rebuttals. You are pulling time out of your 13minute rebuttal bank. Youre limited to three minutes for questions. Before nancy and i came into office, connecticut had failed to net jobs. No growth at a time when the rest of the country, 48 states michigan and connecticut did the creation of 23 million jobs. What we have done since then is see the creation of 60,000 private sector jobs. I would like to point something out to you. In the last two quarters of 2013, after we made historic investments in the future in connecticut, we grew faster than other states in new england. 3. 1 and 2. 8 . The fastest growth in new england. We are growing faster than new jersey, a place where mr. Foley brings in the governor on a regular basis. And we are also making sure we are paying our longterm obligations, something connecticut had not done for a very long time. Im not happy that we had to raise revenue and cut services and go back to the negotiating table, but that is what a leader does. State withherit a the largest per capita deficit in the nation, somebody has to leave. It fell upon us to do that. What have we done . We are investing in transportation, in education. We are going to make sure every child has an opportunity for prekindergarten learning experience, be the first state in the nation to do that. What else have we done . Made sure people have health insurance. We were the most successful state in the nation when it came to implementing health care. In large part, thanks to the work of the great Lieutenant Governor. Things,done many other including that toolbox i was talking about, to make sure we are creating jobs for the future in connecticut. Class andmay graduated from uconn found it easier to find employment in any class in the prior six years. We are seeing job growth that is consistent with the job growth around the nation. We are seeing Economic Growth that is consistent with other states in the nation. Some are higher, some are lower. Were making real progress. What we are doing for the first time is investing in our future. Mr. Foley . A couple of examples of molloy math there. Governor, you claim that 60,000 jobs were created since you and your Lieutenant Governor came to office. Thats not true. 25,000 of those jobs were created under governor romney. You said no jobs have been created in a prior administration. You only created 35,000 jobs. You say the economy is growing. Are you aware we lost 3600 jobs in august alone in connecticut . Youre not right about growth rates in neighboring states. Massachusetts economy has grown 11 since the bottom of the recession. We have only come back 2 or 3 . It is simply wrong, governor. You are antibusiness. Your antibusiness policies have driven jobs out of the state. In the meantime, you are giving away billions in taxpayer dollars to large, wealthy corporations in a job program that has failed. It simply has not created any jobs. In many cases, you have tied these incentives to things that have no relation to the jobs. The incentive you provided for utc, 400 million. Not one job was connected to that 400 million. Governor, we will create jobs in this wonderful state. We will stop having antibusiness policies that discourage employers from investing in the future of connecticut. We will get the economy going. We will get things back on the right track. Not with this governor and not with his policies. Thank you. Mr. Molloy, do you wish to respond . No thanks. We will move on to question two. Mr. Foley, the State Government often gets blamed as being a drag on the economy, partly because of the taxes it takes to support it. Should the size of State Government be reduced . Tell us specifically which areas or functions you would cut. Spending under governor malloy has gone up 3 billion. That is simply too fast. To reduce something the growth in spending. It is crowding out private sector economic activity. I will hold spending flat for two years. I will allow revenues to catch up. We will be able to balance budgets and get our spending back in line with what we can afford. That doesnt require reducing the size of the state employees. In many areas, we may be understaffed. If anybody has recently gone to the dmv, we have some of the longest wait times of any state in the nation. That is partly a management problem. I will bring 35 years of management experience. In some cases, we are understaffed. I dont think the way we are going to hold spending flat and get control over spending is by reducing the size of the state workforce. Are plenty of other areas where we can make savings. I want to save money in the delivery of health care services, not just to state employees and teachers and retirees, but to everyone in connecticut. We would be a huge boost to the economy. We see real rapid growth if we can bring down the cost of delivering health care services. Im talking about if a heart attack costs 90,000 to treat today, lets make i can do that with my business experience. Mr. Foley talks about his business experience. I ran a city for 14 years. I saw it grow during the time i was mayor. Added housing, added educational institutions, made progress. But we also understood that we have to build a city for the long run. We have to invest in infrastructure. Guess what we are doing in connecticut . Just of that. We are not driving the state