Lake superior college to train new mechanics to service the jetliners at the airport. See, we have the skills gap in the country. 3 million plus jobs that businesses cannot fill because they cannot find workers with the right skills. So i took this model of community and technical colleges working with different business sectors to train up skilled workers and made that a focus of congresss First Successful reform of our federal workforce training system. Now more americans and more minnesotans will have the opportunity to train for these highskilled, goodpaying middle class jobs that will make our economy stronger. It has been an honor working with and for the great people of minnesota and the United States senate. We have a lot of work to do to make sure that our state and country work for all minnesotans. And i look forward to this debate to build on what we have achieved so far. Thank you. Mr mcfadden. Two minutes, sir. Thank you for the invitation. I want to thank the audience. I appreciate you being here at an early time in the morning. Want to thank senator franken for your service over the last six years. I want to recognize franny. The two of you are celebrating your 39th wedding anniversary. A day early, i would like to congratulate you i was going to use that. You can use it again. You can use it again. I am mike mcfadden. I am running for u. S. Senate because we can do better. We have to do better. I would like to describe myself as just a dad. My wife and i have been married 26 years, and we have been blessed. Mary kate and i are so concerned about what we are handing off to our children, 17 and a half trillion dollars of debt. Now were asking them to pay for our Health Care System as we get older with a system that doesnt work and needs to be fixed, and i will do that. We also have an overzealous Regulatory Agency that has been an enemy of mining and farming, and i going to fix that. I am running against al franken, who has voted with president obama 90 of the time. I hear that people do not believe the press event is leading us in the right direction. The economy has gone absolutely sideways since al franken became a senator. It would be food, gasoline, energy. We are the greatest country in the world. I know how to get us on the road to growth and prosperity. I have a plan. My plan is the three es. I will get these mines open, i promise you. Energy and mining. Education and effective government. We have nine or 10 questions. I want to ask about the negative things some of your opponents have said. You side with corporations and hide your money offshore. How do you respond to critics who say you are wrong for minnesota . I am proud of my business career. I worked very hard. My dad grew up on a dairy farm. My dad was able to go to college because my uncle john paid for it. So i have been able to participate in the american dream. I have worked very hard. I will not apologize for it. I i am disappointed in al franken to run negative ads. Every News Organization has come forward and said they are false. I run a company headquartered here that pays income taxes in the United States. We can do so much better. I am so tired of politics as usual. I entered the private sector. I believe the single Biggest Issue is we created this class of politicians. I believe senator franken has become part of that class. He has voted with the president 97 of the time. He is the most partisan senator in the democratic are two. He has voted 159 out of 161 votes with the Democratic Party. That makes him the most partisan senator in washington. That is a fact, that is not my opinion. I left my job and put my family at risk because i believe we can do better. We have an opportunity to see our best days ahead of us by getting on the pathway to growth and prosperity. It begins with effective government. I will get pipelines built. I will get lines open. That will get more money and your pockets and allow us to grow in your pockets. Thank you very much. Franken ifnk and, you believe some of the commercials, you are nothing more than a comedian, dont spend any time in minnesota. You vote with obama and even proposed abortion on demand. How do you respond to critics who say you are wrong for minnesota . I dont subscribe to those websites. I always vote in what i believe is the interest of the people of minnesota. In an era where there has been a lot of gridlock, i have worked across party lines to find commonsense solutions. I worked with so Many Republican colleagues with dick luger on the Diabetes Prevention program. Which is saving lives. 75 of the cost of health care is chronic diseases, and diabetes is one of the biggest. On workforce training with Lamar Alexander of tenneesee. On pharmaceutical safety i did a bill with pat roberts of kansas. The farm bill, i cowrote the energy title. I work for renewable energy. My first bill with Johnny Issacson of georgia was a veterans bill. We have a propane crisis. I have worked across party lines and gotten things done. Part of the reason we had this meltdown six years ago, five years ago, was because the Credit Agency gave aaa ratings to all this junk. I did a bill to regulate these so they cannot give aaa these financial products. I did that with senator roger i did that with senator roger wicker, a republican of mississippi. You can slice and dice these numbers anyway you want and come up with things that say pretty ridiculous things, but i work for minnesota every day, and i have been proud to do that. Lets get to the issues. I was told we would get a rebuttal. One thing i am going to ask everybody to do is watch his actions and not his words. Politico magazine ranks him on a bill to cosponsor legislation. That is a fact, not my opinion. He has done nothing to accelerate the polymet. He has not approved the Keystone Pipeline, which has been under review for six years. Look at his actions, not what he says. We can take these issues one by one. That study said ted cruz was one of the most nonpartisan senators in the United States senate. He he is the guy who led the shutdown of the government. If you are sighting that kind of thing i think that shows a weak position. Thats all. They are opposite sides of the actor. Al franken is the ted cruz of the Democratic Party. Except that ted cruz is more bipartisan than a majority of the senate. Lets move on with some of the issues. What is your position of safe transport of oil, the backload of commodities to market, and where you stand on the expansion of pipelines . I am a huge fan of energy and a huge fan of pipelines, and i will work hard to get pipelines illtimed approved. We are sitting on the doorstep of an Energy Renaissance that will allow us to see the best days ahead of us as opposed to behind us. We have the opportunity to be energy independent, which is historic. We have not been Energy Independence since the early 1960s. What Energy Independence allows me to do for you is put more money in your pocket. Heating bills go down. Gasoline prices go down. We have had over a 1000 days of gas being above three dollars a gallon. In december of 2008 it was one dollar 60. We have become a manufacturing superpower once again. We are able to compete globally. We are able to insource goodpaying, highpaying jobs, not outsource them. I am a huge supporter of u. S. Steel. I am going to tell you the facts. The number one way to make our Steel Industry as competitive as we can globally is to lower the cost. Al franken wants to get rid of the coal industry, which will ruin the port of duluth. Half of that ship out of the sport is cold. At the mine they spend 1. 3 million every month on electricity, which is driven by coal. I will make our industries more competitive. I will get us back on the road to growth and prosperity. That is why i want you to vote. We need a diverse portfolio of energy, and that includes fossil fuels. Global warming is real, and eventually we are going to have to move to renewables. Now, you can grow a big crop. If you cannot get it transported someplace that is a problem for market. That is why this rail issue is so big. I have been going to the transportation board since i got to the senate. I worked with david vitter, a republican of louisiana, to get the cost of filing a complaint with the transportation board that regulates the railroads from 20,000 to 350 so people can file a complaint. I got the transportation board to come out here. I got them to come to minnesota bsff andorders to Canadian Pacific and to make sure they would get fertilizer to our farmers. Then i got them back out again. It is not just grain. It is coal for our utilities. I dont want to get rid of coal. One thing we are using for electricity is natural gas. That came from this renaissance in fracking, which was developed by the department of energy. That is why we like to do energy research. I am chairman of the energy subcommittee, and this is something i love talking about. With all due respect, your lack of Energy Policy and lack of Energy Policy from president obama has caused a railcar shortage. You havent approved any pipeline. The Keystone Pipeline has been under review process for six years. That is crazy. That is too long. Pipelines are proven to be the most efficient, most environmentally sensitive way to transport oil. Until you start passing pipelines we are going to have a rail car shortage. I know how to get us on the road to growth and prosperity. You are putting bandaids as opposed to going to the root causes. We need pipelines in this country. I want everyone to know i am for pipelines. I will get them built. That is the number one way to alleviate our railcar shortage. The Keystone Pipeline really has nothing to do with the with this oil. How about alaska . What i voted is to not circumvent the regulatory process on keystone. Let me tell you what i have voted for. I have voted that if we build the Keystone Pipeline, it will be built with american steel. Mr. Mcfadden, after our first debate, said it would be ok with him if the Keystone Pipeline were made with chinese steel, if we are a little bit cheaper. Those are minnesota jobs. I fight for minnesota jobs. Maybe that is the difference between me and mr. Mcfadden. Maybe he sees profit over people. When i see a pipeline i want it built with american steel. We have other pipelines. We have to make sure they are cited correctly. Pipelines are more efficient than rail, in many cases. I want mr. Mcfadden to address the chinese steel issue. The difference between mr. Franken and myself is i will Talk Straight to you. I dont want to see for and still used in pipelines anymore. He doesnt want you to know he he doesnt want you to know he voted against the Keystone Pipeline. He has voted against the pipeline multiple times. Period. I will get the pipeline built. By taking advantage of the renaissance is the number one may number one way to make u. S. Steel as competitive as it can be. I know that and will get it done. They have been working to get permitted nine years and working to get precious metals. Do you support Copper Nickel mining . Can it be done safely . We will begin with you. I think the vast majority of minnesotans want those jobs to happen. They are going to be good paying jobs. And good jobs. I also think that the vast majority of minnesotans want to make sure the groundwater isnt contaminated. Minnesotans want to make sure this is done right. I met with the heads of polymet. They say this process is a good process. They say the regulators are tough but fair, and they want this done. They say the project has improved. It is safer. It is less likely to contaminate water for possibly centuries. I have the same view as the entire iron range delegation. All the delegations of the state legistslature have a uniform view on this. Lets do this right. We want to make this happen, but lets make sure we do it right. The only thing worse than taking a long time to get this right is getting it wrong. Because rangers want sustainable mining. This is a new kind of mining. We have been mining iron or on the range for decades. I just expanded what they were doing to help get permits. Mining is so important to our state. We need sustainable mining. And that is what i am four. Mr. Mcfadden, can Metals Mining be done safely . Did you say nine years . I want everyone to know i will fight for miners. The fact it has taken over 2 Million Dollars in regulatory review is not acceptable. It is crazy. It is crazy. I remind you the democratic had the the city opportunity to put forth in a platform that they support mining, and they didnt. And watch al frankens actions and not his words. In six years to accelerate the review process of polymet. He has written multiple times on issues, but he has not fought for miners, because he is connected at the hip with extreme environmentalists. I am tired of this that you are either for the environment or for jobs. You can do both. I do not want to do anything that would harm our 10,000 lakes. But we have a process that has taken nine years and we still do not have an answer. The reason we do not have an answer is that there are seven different regulatory agencies as possible for making this decision. This is lunacy. When now franken says that he has talked to polymet and that they are ok with the process, that is crazy. I fight for effective government. I know how to have efficiency. So let us be absolutely clear. I support the mines. I support miners. I am the one who is going to get these minds open. Senator franken said six years, and we have made no progress. Senator franken, im going to give you one minute to rebut that. I have been talking to et representatives eversons i got your. I speak with a very friendly. They know that this process has improved the project to make it the likely to contaminate groundwater, which would be a disaster. We are talking about mitigating that for centuries. That would be an unbelievable cost. There are seven agencies because this is both federal and the state that has to weigh in on this. The Forest Service has to weigh in because it has led exchanges. This is too important not to get this right. We need to get this right, and to the range delegation, and the state legislators in the delegation, they get elected by the people on the range. They want sustainable mining. They want to make sure that this is done right and if right, and if it is done right, it will be sustainable. Differencethe between al franken and myself. He has got to washington and he has been washingtonized. He is telling you that nine years is a reasonable process. That is not reasonable. That is the definition of unresolved. That is unacceptable. We have talked about this conceptually. For the good people on the iron rate, they have just lost another generation because there are no jobs. We have the opportunity, not met, with copper and nickel of there, because it is a large opportunity to create thousands of jobs and billions of billions and billions dollars of Economic Impact in the state. And also with any region in the state with a high on employment rate. It is almost twice the rate of the rest of minnesota. I in here to tell you today that i, mike mcfadden, fight for andrs, i write for readers, im going to win up in the range because i am your advocate. Us talk about the Affordable Care act. It has withstood dozens of challenges in congress, it has withstood the scrutiny of the supreme court, and it is currently the law of the land. Is this a settled issue, or in your opinion, where should we go witfrom here . Mr. Mcfadden, i start with you. Issue in this country. I know that as a businessman. I know that obamacare is a wrong answer. It is a train wreck. Quoting democratic senator matt baucas. It is a wreck. Disasternot have this but for al franken. [laughter] please audience, please. Endhat frustrates me to no is that this was implemented based on life. Lies. It is the largest a mastech policy arrangement in a generation, and it was signed nobody read it. And it was based on mistruths. The first one being that you could keep your insurance policy. Well 100 40,000 minnesota spout out that that was not true. The second was that you could 0eep your 140,00 minnesotans know that this is not true. The second was that the you could keep your doctor. That is not true. Senator franken said repeatedly that it would lower the average cost for a family by 25. I went to tell you the truth. That is a lie. That is not good to happen. Period. I look at cost. I look at accessibility. I look at equality. My plan will lower cost, increase accessibility, and maintain equality. And al franken will say i dont have a plan. I do have a plan. I have put a proposal for drink obamacare is a disaster. It is not working. It is a disaster. I will roll up my sleeves and i will go to washington to get this fixed. I will make sure that people with preexisting conditions can get insurance at a reasonable rate. That is a promise. Senator franken . There have been obviously problems with the rollout and aca. My job is to make the Affordable Care act work as best as it can for every minnesota. But let us look at what has happened. We have reduced the number of uninsured in minnesota by over 40 . Minnesota now has 95 of its people with health insurance. It is second in the country. People with preexisting conditions can no longer be turned down because they have a preexisting condition. To havewhat you used lifetime limits. If you hit your lifetime limit, you were thrown off. Whose daughterom had cystic fibrosis. Lifetimeit her limit. Her child is alive today because of the Affordable Care act. Kids now can stay on their policy un