As you all noticed, when you ask questions about negative ads congressman cotton talks about obama. Ask a question about the cotton bill . He talks about obama. You see a pattern . Clearly he is running against one man but i am running for 3 million arkansans. That is what this race is all about and the difference in this race. Im on your side. When i looked at you and i come home and travel the state and hear what is on your mind, thats when i go to work. Congressman cotton loves to throw out these phony stirks about how much i have agreed with president obama. You all know me. You know i dont agree with president obama on a whole variety of things. Just take the Keystone Pipeline. Take the dpa regs on carbon. Take the cuts to Social Security. I disagreed with him last year on gun control, so much so that when i voted no on his legislation, mayor bloomberg of new york city ran ads in arkansas criticize major league for standing up for your second mendment rights. I disagree with obama plenty and yes ive been disappointed in him. I am not going to sugar coat it. My philosophy is this. If you look at the rankings of the people in the senate and how we vote not the tv ads and all the rhetoric and spin, every year ive been in the senate, every year, they have ranked me as the most or one of the most independent senators in washington. Thats because i listen to you. You know, when president bush was in office, there were times i agreed with him. There were times i took heat from my party for agreeing with president bush. Arkansas comes first and thats what i mean. Rebuttal . Thank you. It is Pretty Simple what id like to do with my first sixyear term as your u. S. Senator. Id like to take arkansass senate seat that is up for election this year and give it back to you, the voters, and the citizens of arkansas. Right now, a hundred out of a hundred seats in the senate are controlled by Interest Groups of an array of areas and backgrounds. One thing that associates them all is big money, big donations, big campaigns, big influence in washington, d. C. You are going to influence my decisions in washington. What is best for you . What is best for americans and america . That will be what guides my decisions. One big issue id like to focus on is term limits. For all members of the United States congress. That would help end this perpetual cycle of fund raising, doling out benefits to big donors, fund raising again. I think we have to make big structural changes in washington and with your support i will work to make it happen. Next question from mr. Hedlund goes first for mr. Cotton. Congressman cotton, for those who have served in washington, you and senator yor, which key pieces of legislation have you helped with that you are most proud of if you can name one and also name one that you perhaps would like to take back . And for those of you who havent served, maybe what is your key priority if elected . Well, i havent been in washington very long, less than a year. But ive been there long enough to know as calvin cool inge said that its just as important to stop bad laws as it is to pass good laws. Frankly weve been stymied a lot over the last two years in trying to pass good laws, trying to reform obama care, by preventing you from having to pay a tax if you cant afford a plan from obama care that you dont like. Trying to stop businesses from having to pay a tax because they dont provide obama care compliant employees. Trying to stop obama care from turning our country into a parttime economy. Unfortunately, we have been stymied in that effort because mark pryor and barack obama have let almost 400 bills from the house of representatives pile up on the desks of the senate. They wont even take an up or down vote on it. Look whats happening. 4,000 seniors just got cancellation notices of their Medicare Advantage plan here in arkansas just a few days ago. Look at what happened at walmart just last week. They announced 30,000 parttime workers are going to Lose Health Insurance because of obama care because of the cost it imposes on all workers at walmart, following other Companies Like target or home depot. Look whats happening to Companies Like u. P. S. Ive met many u. P. S. Employees all around the state of arkansas who are losing coverage for their spouses because u. P. S. Had to cut Spousal Coverage for certain employees because of the cost obama care is imposing. This is very frustrating to me. It is very frustrating to arkansans because they know that washington is causing them this kind of pain, this kind of stress and dislocation. Yet we cant move forward because the senate is in the hands of liberal democrats like mark pryor, who are always going to protect Barack Obamas legacy and enforce his policies. Thats why a vote for mark pryor is a vote for barack obama. Well, one of the very important things i would put at the top of my agenda, something we havent heard from tonight, and that is a law passed dictating equal pay for equal work for working women of america. I also will support strongly passage of the equal rights amendment, long overdue. I studied and found there have been 135 pieces of legislation passed by state legislators in recent years, mostly dominated by republicans that provide negative restrictions on womens rights to choose their own make their own decisions about reproductive issues. This qualifies rightly as a war against women. And i think it needs to be stopped. Women have never been treated equally in this country and its history so far to this day. And its long pastime that we remedy that and an equal pay for equal work job bill would be on the top of my agenda. Additionally, something ive already mentioned once and will mention again because it is very important, i think we need a tax on wall street. I think we need to restore revenue to the government. The goff has been starved of revenue con the government has been starved of revenue contributing to National Debt. I want to see a tax on wall street and i want to see restoration of these revenues that have been removed from the government over the past 10, 15, 20 years by republicans whose agenda is only to make life easier for the wealthiest people in the country, which, by the way, 1 of our country now owns 90 of all the wealth. This is a serious problem. I would work to reverse that to whatever extent possible. Mr. Pryor . Yes, thank you. I would say that my probably largest hard to single this out but my hardest single legislative accomplishment was the passage of the Consumer ProductSafety Improvement act that kept lead out of toys and made toys safe. There is no doubt that that act has saved lives. Its worblingd. We worked with business. We worked with consumer groups. We also worked it through the process by the book exactly like you learn in eighth grade civics where we had conferences. We had full amendments on the floor and in the commitees and it worked just perfectly. Its a good example of how bipartisanship works and how we should do things. In addition to that, i passed about 70 pieces of legislation, almost all of it bipartisan. Thats the way i work. In fact, 13 of those bills were for men and women in uniform and our veterans and im proud of that. But also, im proud of the nonlegislative accomplishments ive had where i picked up the phone and called the ceo and asked him to do a plant expansion or bring their business to arkansas and theyve done that. Im proud to do that. You know what, ladies and gentlemen . You just heard congressman cotton basically admit that he hasnt passed anything since hes been in the house. Even though he was there for one month, and he ran a poll on the senate race, did he know where the bathrooms were but nonetheless now he thinks he is entitled to be in the senate. His approach is my way or the highway thats dead end politics that leads to fiscal cliffs and shutting down the government. Let me say this. Leadership in washington involves walking across the aisle. Congressman, you dont have the reputation, ability, or the desire to walk across the aisle to get things done in washington. Mr. La france . I can tell you i feel no entitlement to this United States senate seat. But you are entitled to this senate seat. You the voters, you the people of arkansas, this is your seat and i want to help you take it back. My key item, my key project will be to get washington out of our lives as much as possible. When this country was founded, they did not want a society where every decision you make, every turn you take you have to think about what the federal government is restricting, what regulations are here, what regulations are there. This is not a free society where we can own our own lives and our own future. Freedom is hard. Its hard work. It takes sacrifice. Politicians in washington today, they try to make everything better for everybody, taking money from one person, giving it to the other. Wealth transfers, provide favors, you know, its got to stop. We as individuals, as families and communities, are the owners of our own destiny. If i go to washington for you, im going to make sure that you have the opportunity to own your future. A couple of key other items real quick, term limits as i mentioned, that goes along with my desire to get the influence of money in washington as limited as possible. Term limits will be a big help as the days of the career politician are long gone, and i think a significant reduction in federal spending will go a long way. Right now were spending 3 trillion. You know there are people that are trying to get influence and get access to that money. People Rob Convenience stores for a hundred dollars. What are people doing for 3 trillion . Im going to remove this influence as much as possible and bring a senate seat back to you. Thank you. Rebuttal, mr. Cotton . Senator pryor, id like to talk about leadership in washington. I Learned Leadership in the streets of baghdad and the mountains of afghanistan. You can learn a little more there than in the halls of congress. Leadership requires toughness, courage. Senator pryor simply isnt tough enough to stand up to barack obama and put arkansas first. He cast a decisive vote for obama care. If it wasnt for his vote, it wouldnt have become law. He can claim to make fixes now but why didnt he demand them then . He had the power to protect arkansas from all the harms of that law. Senator pryor likes to talk about how he is led on epa he has led on epa regulations yet we passed legislation and he cant get a vote on it. He likes to talk about the Keystone Pipeline. We passed legislation to permit the pipeline. He cant get a vote on that. Why is that . Because he likes to talk one way in arkansas but votes like a liberal when he gets to washington, d. C. Thats why a vote for mark pryor is a vote for barack obama. Next question from mr. Ompson and goes first to mr. Swainy. Recently as , as 2011 the president was willing to cut a deal. He was willing to raise the eligibility age on medicare. He was willing to make changes to Social Security. To the frustration of much of his partys del quation in washington delegation in washington, but conservatives balked because it included tax increases. He insisted on that. In hindsight, was conservative inflexibility on this matter a mistake . Yes. Yes, it was. Social security is one of the most successful programs of legislation thats ever been enacted in the United States of america. And its not really in trouble. They want you to think that it is, but its not. It needs a little bit of help. Probably all we really need to do is to remove the cap on payroll taxes, people that make more than 117,000 a year are not paying into the Social Security system. I think that ought to be removed. That may do the job by itself. But if not, what would be left would be a very small percent increase in the payroll tax, which according to the governments figures would solve the problem for the United States government for 75 years. 5 trillion of the National Debt is because the federal government borrowed the money from the Social Security trust fund and the Medicare Trust fund. If we enact small taxes now, that would be very easy to do, we could eliminate over that time period 5 trillion of the National Debt and put the Social Security system back on a good foot. And put the medicare system in a solid position. And so i do support tax increases to save the Social Security system, to replenish the Social Security trust fund and the Medicare Trust fund so that that excellent benefit is available for all americans from now on. Mr. Pryor . Thank you. I think your question was about a global deal to get everything on the table, medicare, Social Security taxes, entitlements, everything on the table to talk bout it. Imi support getting to a balanced budget. Its hard. Dont kid yourself, folks. This is hard but this is why we run for these offices. We run for these offices to get things done. This is something ive been pushing for for years and i havent been successful yet but i havent stopped trying. The difference in congressman cotton and i when it comes to these issues is i want to do it responsibly so for example in the last three years i voted to ut 4 trillion out of spending. In the last several years i we had the trillion dollar deficit. Those are completely unsustainable. If there is good news this year when it comes to the budget it would be that were now somewhere down in the range of 400 billion a year. So it is going in the right direction. Its still too much. Here is the key to really getting our budget back ontrack. We need to Work Together in a bipartisan way to get this done , and everybody has to agree and hold hands and do it together like back in the old days when ted excuse me. Tip oneill and president reagan worked out Social Security, we need that same kind of leadership but we need to get the economy rolling again. If we can get the economy rolling again, a lot of the budget problems start to take care of themselves because the revenues come in. Thats why i support the American Made strong package of jobs legislation. We need to focus on the middle class. We need to focus on manufacturing jobs. One of the differences in congressman cotton and i if you look at his votes, he wants to build the economy from the billionaires down. I want to build it from the middle class out. Mr. La france . Thank you. These entitlement issues dont have to be hard. Its not the 1930s or the 1940s anymore. We have an opportunity to scale these back, save these programs out, and return these tax dollars to the American People, have the money in their pockets and let them decide what to do with it. For Social Security, my plan is pretty straight forward. For retirees, people near retirement, theyre going to see their full benefits. For mid career workers theyre going to see partial benefits but also a phase out of their Social Security tax. For younger workers, theyre not going to have Social Security benefits. However, the Social Security tax is going to be limb filletd for them over the next several years. In addition to what we pay, as working arkansans, our employers also have to pay 7. 5 Social Security tax. These taxes, these regulations are what are restraining our economy today. Its not that america doesnt have the potential to grow and grow strongly, its that our businesses cant cope with the regulation, cant cope with the tax burden. I want to change that and i want to get our economy growing again. When it comes to programs like medicare and medicaid, as i mentioned earlier these are programs that the government needs to be taking money out of one persons pocket and giving it to another. We can have private, charitable organizations set up to assist those that are clearly in need, get the medical services that they need. Same thing with the Welfare Program and the foodstamp program. Government is inefficient. Government is messy. Government is often corrupted. They dont need to have control over this kind of money. It shouldnt be their decision where it goes. The American People are compassionate. We care for each other. Were capable of helping each other out in times of need. Mr. Cotton . The last thing our economy needs is tax increases and mark pryor has voted for every one of Barack Obamas tax increases. When i think about taxes i think about campaigning down in arkansas and i was shaking hands as the shift was coming out. It was dark. I tried to shake everyones hand as they came out. A woman said when i asked for her vote are you a republican or democrat . Here we go. The county has been kind of democratic like most of the state for a long time. I said, well, maam, im a republican. She said, good. Because i cant work enough hours to pay all the taxes that theyre putting on me. Shes right. Working families in arkansas are suffering from higher taxes. Day in and day out. We dont have a taxing problem in this country. In fact, last year the federal government had the highest Tax Collections that weve ever had in the history of our country. We still have deficits because we have a spending problem. Mark pryors solution is to keep increasing taxes. Hes never voted against one of Barack Obamas tax ib ceases. In fa