Transcripts For CSPAN2 Delaware Senate Debate 20141015

Cspan was a worthy Television Channel to leave a comment. I have never done Something Like this. Just got done watching benjamin that nephew the Prime Minister of the israeli state. Thank you for cspan for displaying important world events like that. I just wondered why you cover the values voter thing constantly. Its been on like 90 times and why is it continually on cspan . Is either on cspan1, cspan2 or cspan3. I enjoy the intelligent discussions on cspan and i love the fact that there are no commercials. Cspan is my favorite station. More campaign 2014 coverage now with a look at the race for california seventh Congressional District in eastern Sacramento County. One of the most closely watched house contests this election season. Firstterm democrat ami bera is running for reelection against former republican doug ose. The rothenberg political report and roll call each raids the racist tilt democrat. Sacramento tv station kvie hosted the debate. Its just shy of an hour. Ahmadzai good evening. Two candidates are vying to represent california seventh district in congress. Income and ami bera and challenger doug ose. Tonight they will debate at the kvie Television Studios a onehour live broadcast begins now. The bera said 32014 california seventh Congressional District debate sponsored by capital public radio, the center for california studies at sacramento state, fulsome lake college, kvie Public Television to Los Rios Community College District and the Sacramento Bee. Moderator in less than a month voters will decide who will represent california seventh district to the u. S. House of representatives. The seventh district is situated in eastern Sacramento County and includes the cities of elk rose Rancho Cordova and folsom. This close race has attracted National Attention and this is the only scheduled debate between incumbent democrat ami bera and republican challenger doug ose. Representative bera was elected to the post in 2012 and doug ose represented californias Third District from 199,192,005. The path to capitol hill for either of them goes through the kvie studios tonight and gentlemen thank you so much for joining us. I am dayton shelves your moderator for the evening and we have a panel of three journalists who will be questioning the candidates. Lets meet them now. Marianna managing editor capital public radio, dan smith of Sacramento Bee Capitol Bureau chief ben mikayla of Folsom Lake College on line newspaper. Also with us tonight is studio audience and they have an app to save their applause have been asked to say their conclusion. My job to make sure the rules are followed questions are answered and to keep an eye on the clock and with that in mind lets get started. Well begin with Opening Statements and we decided those with a con coin toss. I want to thank the moderators in the audience and those watching at home. My story starts with the parents who immigrated into from india in the 1950s. My wife janine and i have been married for 23 years living here and ill grow for the last 19 years. Our daughter just started her last year of high school. I ran on three simple promises to introduce and help pass no budget or no pay pay. A law that says members of congress dont do their job and pass responsible budget they shouldnt get paid. I kept that promise. I promise not to take any pay raises and work across the aisle to get Sacramento County working in. Ive kept that promise and i promise not to take attention and make sure we protect Social Security from being privatized. Its been my honor to be a doctor to be your member of congress these past two. Now time for mr. Oses a moving statement. Ose when my wife and i talk about the future for our children and our country refocus and im an optimistic america one that focuses on three or four games but an individual can make a difference. Hard work pays off. We are all in this together and we need to get to work. Sadly today my confidence in our country is shaken because washington is broken the economy is not creating jobs and its very uncertain whether it ever will. Obamacare is not working as costing us jobs. Our water is being sent south. My hope is that we will fix those things. Congressman bera has put politics before people in advocating for things that are adverse to this district. To paraphrase the candidate from 2012 trusting ami bera to solve these problems is like trusting a burglar to stay in your house while youre out of town and expecting good things to be there when you get back. Moderator thank you. Your time is up. Appreciate the Opening Statements there are no rebuttals for Opening Statements for his time to move on to questions from the panel. The candidates were not shown these questions in advance and had no say in deciding the topics for tonights debate. Each will have 90 seconds to answer the question and they will also have 30 seconds for rebuttals. We only have an hour so im going to be strictly enforcing those time limits gentlemen. Our first question by a coin toss goes to doug ose and will be asked by maryanne russ. Mr. Sim professor with health care pity mentioned the Affordable Care act in your opening statement. You have said that you support the repeal of that bill would keep certain aspects such as covering coverage despite preexisting conditions but i wonder what your plan is for the millions of californians who now have Health Insurance and the States Health Care Exchange for the expansion of medical. Ose obamacare is failing and all sectors dealing with Small Business and life. Obama has promised that they would deal to keep our doctor and the president promised the price of health care would go down. That has turned out to not be true and while there are a couple of things within the 3000 pages of the Affordable Care act that have merit, the vast majority of the bill is not consistent with the needs of this country. What we need to do is make sure that people can have coverage for preexisting conditions and we allow them to shop across state lines to get the best deal that would allow them to pick their own doctor. The problem is that obamacare is killing jobs and if you dont have a job you can afford to pay for the Health Insurance that you so desperately need. Im in favor of repealing it and replacing it, something that works, that doesnt kill jobs. The other thing that concerns me about obamacare is the legislation strip 716 billion from medicare which is a safety net are seniors have come to rely upon. Thats bad policy. Its simply bad policy. If i were a senior in my representative for proposing that in defending that i would be seriously concerned about whether they are worried about my interests. Moderator congressman bera the Affordable Care act. Bera lets address that matter. Its deja vu all over again. Two years ago congressman ose made the same claim. Your apps have made the same claim calling it a lie. Congressman how many times does someone have to call something a lie and they stop telling it . I look at the Affordable Care act from the perspective of the doctor and as a doctor are you taking care of far too many patients who may have lost their job and they show up by volunteer in free clinics. They may show up and maybe they and you can see the fear on their face and you want to work this out. I am frustrated when you cant. The Affordable Care act is not the solution that i would have come up with is a Health Care Expert but its now the law. Lets take this law and fi fix t and make it better. Thats why i have worked across the aisle to come up with nononsense Solutions Working with republicans like the Small Business and family relief act that helps lowers the cost of air so they average Sacramento County that would be 600,000 a year 6000 a year. Congress contrast that with what congressman ose has wants to do. If you had a preexisting illness you could be denied coverage. That is taking us backwards. Lets fix this and make it better and move forward. Moderator mr. Ose your opportunity to respond. Ose congressman bera has subscribed to the talking points and let me share them with you. The Affordable Care act strips 716 billion from medicare funding going forward. Thats not my number. Thats the Congressional Budget Office number. In addition the consequence of the Affordable Care act is that people get moved onto medicaid and doctors are refusing to take medicaid now because the reimbursements are too low. Theyre costing people coverage congressman. Moderator congressman your chance to reply. Ose thats blatantly false. We looked at that ad earlier this week and its a false statement if you want to keep repeating that lie you can keep doing it. This is about doctors being able to take your patience. This is about making sure people get health care they need. I dont want to go backwards when fleming can get charge more than men and when a person comes down with cancer. I want to move forward. Our next question comes from dan smith for congressman bera. Congressman bera you wanted to help Small Business. Californias Unemployment Rate is still 7. 4 the fourth largest in the nation. What have you done in the last two years to create jobs in this region and wait going to do when we send you back to washington. Bera many families are struggling to have been hit hard by this recession and people who talk about economic recovery but for a lot of those families they are still living paycheck to paycheck and the economy has not recovered. Thats why when iran reran on this promise. I wasnt going to take any pay raises until we got Sacramento County working again. I kept that promise inherentsomethings we have done. I got full funding for folsom down. Thats the biggest federal projects in the country right now. Its going to help us and protect our community. My office has done dozens of Small Business workshops. Small businesses really are the backbone of creating jobs. We have shown those Small Business owners how they can actually access to capital through the Small Business administration, how they can use census data to better plan their expansions of business and then we have worked with major employers like Aerojet Rocketdyne rocketdyne intel. Those are major manufactures and in fact we have worked closely with siemens to get locomotive contracts and they just got their biggest light rail contract. That will create hundreds of jobs. We still have a long ways to go because we were hit hard by this recession. Congressman ose voted for tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas. Thats not going to help us recover. We have got to create those jobs here and reward companies that bring jobs in america. Moderator mr. Ose witness to happen to create jobs . Bera just last week ose last week congressman bera spend money to advertise a Small Business workshop the purpose of which was to meet with smallbusiness owners and educate them about tools the federal government has in things they can do. The problem was such an important thing for them to this pledge mean so much. He didnt show up for the workshop. I dont know how else 90 of his job congressman is showing up and you didnt show up for your own workshop. He spent federal resources throughout all these smallbusiness owners and then you didnt show up to take their testimony or the input. I dont understand that. Small business is the backbone for this economy. Im a smallbusiness owner. Ive been a smallbusiness owner since the day i got out of college. I know what it takes to create a job. I know what it means to sign the front of the paycheck and its not easy. Small business is not getting any assistance it needs from congressman bera in todays environment and that needs to change. Now you mentioned vsb. I know the folks at psp too. Just as an aside the programs you have been advocating for like the Affordable Care act you may not be aware of this but psp just got a bill 2 weeks ago for 25 million, just a tax because they provide Health Insurance for their employees. Moderator congressman bera. Bera in Sacramento County we have created 30,000 jobs but the jobless rate in Unemployment Rate is still too high right around 7 . Too many families are struggling. Its important that my office and core to our job to go out there and work with those Small Business owners that we do workshops. My staffs direction is to be there to work for the people who live here and im proud of that. Thats part of our job. Moderator mr. Ose an opportunity for one more rebuttal. Ose mr. Bera spend our tax dollars organizing a workshop 10 at 212 smallbusiness owner showed up and he didnt. This is called Representative Government for a reason. If you call smallbusiness owners and youve got to give them the courtesy of listening to their testimony. Moderator thank you gentlemen. The next question goes to mr. Ose from mikayla. Mr. Ose you have two daughters in college so you must know its a significant challenge for many families to pay college tuition. What steps do you think congress should take to help those who cant afford college . Ose its a great question and appreciate you mentioning it. My younger daughter is your age. The first thing we need to do is get this economy rolling so the kids in high school and college today can finish their education with the certainty that when they get done they get to come out and find a job in their chosen profession. Right now this economy remains uncertain and jobs are at risk. This is a function of the policies that president obama, nancy pelosi and congressman bera have continued to pass. There are or things i want to mention. A we get the economy rolling and that gives us the chance to create the jobs for these young people. B, we figure out what it is that we need in this economy. We need engineers engineers engineers, doing a basket weavers . What do we need and then we find a way to incentivize those disciplines that allow us to advance their economic needs. And to find a way and congressman bera doesnt have anything to do with this and i know he shares my view about this, the you see system recently changed its mission process to increase the number of overseas and outofstate solicitations they make for student enrollment. I just kind of went wait a minute, we pay for the you see system. Those spots out to be for our kids not for somebody from out of state and im sorry my time is up. I could talk about this for quite a while but the point is we have to get the economy rolling so kids in school can come out and get the job so they can afford to pay their debt that they otherwise incurred. Moderator congressman how can College Affordability be addressed . Bera i went to Public Schools from kindergarten through high school and did a years worth of Community College work along the way there and went to undergrad in med school. I pay 393 a quarter to go to med school. Our daughters a senior in high school and she and i sit down there and it doesnt cost that today. Kids are graduating with hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. We have got to make College Affordable again. There was a promise that i grew up with in california. This promise of Higher Education but if you have the desired and the abilities you are guaranteed the ability to go to college. The you see system is one of our greatest assets are in the state. Its one of our best grants so yes we have got to fight in congress to make sure we keep Interest Rates down on Student Loans but the biggest question is how did it go from 393 a quarter going to a Public University to what kids today are paying a full 40,000 a year and maybe even higher than that now. What we have to do is get to the root cause and start bringing the cost of education down. Thats an investment that was made in us. I am only here because of the education i received it i know none of that i worked hard to give to ramp up that opportunity existed. This state in this nation made those investments and we got to start investing again in your generation. There is no greater investment than we can make that our young people. Moderator thank you congressman. Mr. Ose. Ose we are in broad agreement about the value of the you see system and think like that. We are both graduates of the you see system. A member of congress has the opportunity to use their influence to reverse this disproportionate assignment of students lots to out of state or foreign statements but we also have the ability as a member of congress to exercise the ability to take control costs. We need to do that its in the proper role for a member of congress. Moderator congressman ber bera . Bera i was the associate at uc medical school. We are paying for the public universities and our students in california should be given priority to go to those schools. Now i cant tell the regions what to do but absolutely id do use the bully pulpit and in fact we started the you see caucus with a republican jeff denham one of my colleagues and this is the California Public of Higher Education caucus ettore cal state schools because we have advocate for this. Moderator thank you very much. Marion arrests your next question is for congressman bera. Congressman bera as you well know california is in the midst of a drought. Wells are running dry and cities are relying on groundwater yet there is still no agreement in washington on legislation to assist california. He mentioned the folsom dam project but what else are you doing to help the region and the state cope with the drought . Bera we are in the worst drought of our life. Its affecting every family and our economy. Its affecting food prices so its hurting. We have been working from day one to try to address this drought. We have been working with folks at various water agencies. We have flows reduced to their lowest levels. We have been able to get them down. Folsom dam as you mention we got the funding for folsom dam. When completed that will allow us to hold off more water during dry years and then we obviously also have a seven years its wet it will keep our community more safe but we have got to do more. Congressman ose and i agree on. We got to increase storage and worked with a Water District to let people know what they can do as well. Sacramento county residents should be proud of themselves. We have reduced water consumption by 20 . We have got a ways to go. Longterm though we have to make sure we fight against proposals like the time of the governor wants to build. Ive been working with my colleagues and we have taken the lead against the bec p. Because it doesnt create additional water. We also have to have smart plans. The climate has changed. We have lost our snowpack. My opponent congressman ose thinks Climate Science is sketchy and doesnt necessarily believe in climate change. I think it has do we have to come up with new ways to catch water stored them of the water. Moderator mr. Ose. So by the question is not about drought. A member of congress does have the ability to take the bureau of reclamation to reduce outflows at folsom dam at a time we are at historic lows in terms of rainfall. When i was in congress before i worked on that. For the past 15 months i have been talking about reducing the outflows from folsom dam because of the very real possibility that we are going to need that water in here we are. We need the water. Congressman bera has declined to make any effort to reduce the outflows from folsom dam. He has today were recently at least come out in opposition to the tunnels which is in opposite of what he was in 2010 when he was in favor of the tunnels. My problem here is we need solutions. We have got to protect our Water Resources and stop spending stop sending it south. Understand please, additional releases from folsom dam constitute taking our water and sending it south to los angeles. Congressman bera has not spoken up on this. He has not picked up the phone, talk to the bureau about reducing outflows. Thats why we are sending out thousands of feet per hour or more flowing into folsom. That has to stop. Moderator congressman reducing outflows. Your chance to respond. Bera and january 30 cap the fishing season short and kept folsom dam outflows to low as possible. If cap those levels at very low levels. We have talked on a constant basis with the bureau and with the various water agencies and worked with them. There is more water and folsom lake today than there was back in january but theres not enough. We are in a severe drought. That is why i fought against the republican plan that actually wants to take water south and you support that plan. Moderator mr. Ose your chance to respond. So by their member when the bureau of reclamation spokesperson was out of the building is that members of congress dont usually contact us to talk about water releases. I was in direct response, direct, and said i had made and after i made them he said nothing. We need to save this water and a member of congress has the ability to do that and congressman bera has not stepped up and down his job. Moderator thank you gentlemen. If anyone knows how to make it rain please let us know. Lets move on to your next question. Dan smith from the peco for mr. Ose. House republicans have been called to support an immigration bill that not only secures the border but provides a path for legal status for undocumented immigrants. Collectively you encourage the House Republican leadership to support this approach and please tell us why or why not. Ose the speaker supports reform of our immigration laws. Hes been very clear about that. Congressman bera nevada and i know that. Read the peco its in there. The first is the need to take on immigration is to secure our borders and our ports of entry to prevent additional individuals coming in here that we dont know who they are or where they come from. The problem is the folks in leadership on the democratic side today were the lieutenants last time our country tied to take on reforming immigration and they were part and parcel after the passage of the 86 reform and not implementing the republican side of the deal so the problem we have here is that there is no faith that mrs. Pelosi or steny hoyer or any of the others are going to actually do anything, that they will sit at the table and actually do both sides of the deal. Thats what republicans are worried about, that this comprehensive immigration the congressman bera is about to talk about is undefined. It doesnt allow us to control who comes in. I do want to add one thing though. I know congressman beras parents immigrated from india and thats a good thing. They came here legally. I am for Legal Immigration consistent with our laws. Im delighted his parents are here even given the circumstances that the fact of the matter is we have a legal system. We need to enforce our laws. We need to start by closing or securing the border. Bera im glad my parents are here as well and they were able to emigrate. We are a nation of immigrants and we have a nation of immigrants won Successive Group after another but we have got to solve this conference of immigration bill problem. We agree. Lets secure our borders. Im a cosponsor of the comprehensive immigration bill that passed in a bipartisan way out of the senate. It is a nononsense bill that does have plenty of funding to secure our borders and also starts to address the larger immigration issues. We should want the best and brightest to come here but we should also want them to stay here and build the companies here and create jobs here. If you look at the bill, this is the bill the Congressional Budget Office said will add over 100 billion to our economy. Its a good bill. It has supported largely by the Business Community and by the farming community. A pass in a bipartisan way and it is a good bill. Congressman ose you didnt answer the question is whether you would support a cosponsor that comprehensive immigration bill. I think its a smart approach and i think its the right thing to do. Moderator mr. Ose have had opportunity to respond. Ose and congressman beras b. That means all the folks that are here illegally are given amnesty and citizenship. That is what he is after. Im not prepared today to go that far. I want to have the border secured and i want to have a calm dispassionate discussion about how we improve our immigration system. That is our system works the best and thats how we need to move forward. Bera ose ten times you have voted to protect legislation that strips 716 billion in future funding for medicare recipients. Why do you do that . That is just bad policy. Bera days of of all over again and this same debate. Ose to leave it to the media to decide whether that is a liar not. When it comes to medicare a look at this as a doctor. We have to do everything that we can, not only to protect medicare, but to strengthen it, to make sure it is theyre not just for today but for our kids and grandkids. That is why i have fought against attempts to cut medicare. The president of my own party wanted to cut the Affordable Care act in medicare and vantage. I stood up as a doctor and pushed back because Medicare Advantage actually is working. It is offering preventive services, diagnosing diseases early and keeping people healthy. We fought back, rally folks, democrats and republicans, and pushed back and one. That is because this is about protecting medicare. Congressman, you supported a budget that actually turns medicare into a voucher plan and in the medicare guarantee as we know what. That is not protecting medicare. This is about making sure my parents thought my patients have the care that they need. Moderator you have an opportunity to respond. Ose congressman, there is no way around it. You voted to cut 716 billion for medicare bill read the Congressional Budget Office, nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office the works for congress, which is where you work, says this bill cuts 716 billion from medicare funding. I dont understand why you cannot say why used to cut funding. Ten times, congressman. Ten times. My parents, your parents, neighbors, they will all be thrown well, who knows where they will be thrown. Moderator we need to move on to the next question. Bera congressman, and your three terms of congress can you name three focus where you stood up to wall street bankers . Ose you bet. The first was when the wall street bankers decided that they wanted to hide behind the Campaign Finance laws and not disclose to whom there were giving money. Was a cosponsor of mccain fine gold that allowed americans to know where money comes from. Pier with me. Were made where money comes from and to whom it goes. In contrast, congressman ami bera has made a career of taking money from wall street and in return granting them an exemption from the Affordable Care act. The other items that i stood up to wall street on have to do with their desire to have special treatment under tax laws and special provisions for their unique enterprises, something they you have routinely and regularly voted to defend. You not only car got an exemption for yourself and your colleagues in congress from the Affordable Care act, you also carved out an exemption for wall street. I mean, i dont understand what your fealty is, what your loyalty is to wall street. I mean, it is just totally that you do this. Moderator congressman, a short reply. Bera they could not even name one of worry stood up to wall street bankers because he is protecting wall street banks. He voted to deregulate wall street banks the became too big to fail and took us into this recession. I will stand up to the middleclass, protect our seniors, and that is what this is about. Moderator thank you. It is time to move back to our panel and questions. The next question is for congressman ami bera. Congressman, california just adopted the yes means yes law which creates the standard that of california campuses, the absence of know does not mean consent. Sexual assault on College Campuses is not just a california issue but a national one. To you believe that congress should adopt a similar policy . Absolutely. As the father of a daughter yes means yes. This is about Domestic Violence against women. We have to get a handle on it. And the congressman and i agree on this. We are both supporters of the violence against women act. It is important, and im sure he looks at the same white youth. We have to address violence on campuses. We have to make sure all women are protected, and that is why i advocated, spoke on the house floor to pass the violence against women act that protects all women. So, yes, i support to before mr. Doug ose. Ose i am a strong supporter of making sure our campuses are safe. I am delighted that the California Legislature passed and the governor signed the legislation you are referring to. This has been a central theme of my Previous Public Service that we cannot allow inappropriate behavior by young men or women on our campuses. The violence against women act provided significant funding to address these issues through local Law Enforcement and the like. I was one of six republicans at the time to vote in favor of that, one of six. There is within title nine a provision that requires different campuses and universities to provide reports on the incidence of such crime. Some complied, some do not. I think it is inappropriate role for a member of congress to insist that universities comply with title nine provisions in these reports. The reason they dont pass to do with the fact that they do not want to put out in public adverse information for future students and their families to consider when they get around to thinking about college. This is something that strikes right at the foundation of Representative Government. You either stand up and try to address this we should not be in office. Moderator it sounds to me like you both agree that the yes means yes law should be nationwide. Ose absolutely. Moderator no disagreement. Should we move on . Bera it shows that we can agree on things. Willing to Work Together and put people first and put our kids first we can get things done before in that case we will move on. Next question. The ebola crisis became more real for americans today when the first person to be diagnosed with the virus died. Also the Obama Administration announced it would begin screening for the disease. What additional actions of the government take to make sure the public is safe with her go to hospitals and transportation . Ose dealing with a challenge like ebola is extremely difficult. In 2005 the United States government adopted rules that were in place until 2010. The point of which was to allow screening from arizona to from areas where ebola or other diseases break out in terms of trying to keep it from coming to the United States. In 2010 much tuesday dismay of many, the Obama Administration repealed clothes and went back to what existed before. Essentially we were defenseless. I believe ten days ago there was a hearing in the House Foreign Affairs committee at which the three american survivors who were airlifted out of liberia, i believe you were there. There was not a single question posed to those three people about what protocols need to be adopted to protect this country from having ebola come here and affect our population. I think the administration is finally stepping out and starting to take this threat seriously. I applaud them for doing that. I wish they had done it weeks ago when it first broke out in august, if i recall because i think we would be far further along to making sure that the homeland was protected. Moderator are we behind the eightball . I was medical director for Sacramento County. And post 911 we did a lot of work when we will read. How you get ahead of things like this, contain it, audrey ashe. Now, i was on the phone with the head of the cdc last week. I have been paying close attention and looking in from the perspective as a doctor and Public Health expert. In that conversation tom reassured us that we are safe. We do have to step up screening mechanisms. Bera i support the president stepped up screening mechanisms. We have a tremendous Public Health infrastructure, but we have to up screen people in country, and we have to work with border and customs agents here in america to make sure the people are developing symptoms where isolating and identifying. Now, if we want to get ahead it is going to have to happen in west africa, and i support the president sending some of our resources to build the infrastructure to build those isolation suites. It is incredibly important. Again, we have a Public Health infrastructure that is fantastic and that will help us. We dont need to panic at this juncture. Will we do need to do is get ahead of this. I support the president s plan. Moderator mr. Doug ose ose ebola is nonpartisan and affects everybody without regard to party registration. My point here is that i stipulate, and the congressman knows more about Public Health than i do. My concern is he sat through a public hearing of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee that he sits on dealing specifically with testimony from ebola victims who have been airlifted to the ad states for treatment, and he did not ask a single question about the protocols necessary to protect the homeland. Moderator congressman, there is a specific address to you in a hearing. What to reply to that . Bera again, i have been at the forefront of this. Working with the cdc to get ahead of this. The preeminent Health Care Organization in the country or in the world, better than the world health organization, and theyre really taking the lead. My conversations. Moderator thank you, gentlemen. Dense mats with a question. Im sorry, we have a followup. Apologies. You mentioned protocol, but i am curious what protocol specifically would support, for instance restricting flights. Ose i think protecting the homeland is the number one job for the federal government and its elected representatives and that involves under circumstances , hopefully the cdc will share with us. I would restrict their flights. I do think that the testing at the point of embarcation as opposed to the point of demarcation in the United States makes sense. I mean, this is the very real, serious threat. That cannot be dismissed because he did not read your National Security briefing or not willing to ask questions. This is something that members of Congress Need to jump into and get their hands all over. Moderator congressman. Bera i agree that congress has to take this very seriously, which is why i do. I would not ban flights at this juncture, but i would certainly step up screening in country. Before people get on that flight. Then i would work with them. Customs and Border Security here in our homeland. When people and to also do the screening. Again, in conversation with the cdc, that is the protocol before very good. Now we will move on to dan smith. Congressman, congress is not updating its war authorization. But still the United States is conducting air strikes against the Islamic State. And judy pierce from sacramento submitted this. I think it is more likely that i will be killed by a drunk driver, criminal, or mentally unstable person and by a terrorist. Do you think going after the Islamic State is an effective use of our limited dollars . Bera these guys, the Islamic State, these guys are terrorists, and these guys are the worst of the worst. That said, this is a challenge that has to be dealt with by the people in that region, the rockies, the jordanians, the saudis. I did support the president s limited air strikes and so forth because we have to degrade isil. We have to combat them. We have to set them back, but i am against putting Ground Forces in the middle east again. We have been down that road before. The iraqi people have to be willing to fight for their country. We can send our men and women into harms way to fight for their country. The syrians have to be willing to do it. The saudis and others have to be willing to do it. I also believe the 2002 a umass has expired. We have to repeal that and give you know, if were going to do this it has to be a limited authorization. Contrast that. We were at a forum last week or two weeks ago, and the same issue came up. You were in congress and voted for the biggest Foreign Policy failure of our lifetime. In that form you talked about wanting to put troops on the ground again. That is, in my mind, the wrong approach. Moderator an opportunity to respond. Ose this is a great question. You were not listening last saturday. The authorization to use military force which was given to president bush on the same circumstances, same set of facts, i would go ahead and vote for it again because protecting the homeland and preventing people from getting away with killing 3,000 americans is very much irresponsibility of the federal government. I wish that those like congressman ami bera could step forward and we were confronted and told us all that they knew so that we would not have made the mistakes we did. We did make mistakes. We did not have his counsel, and that is a loss for the country. I do believe that the president has not paid attention to isis. It has manifested itself into something that is quite serious that is going to require a joint effort. I am concerned that the president s efforts on the International Front are failing to create a coalition that will address the very real question that every military expert has said. We have to have been some the ground. Like a member of congress, you can be tired. You still have to confront it. This however is not the number one National Security issue we face. I am open we get to the number one which is the possibility of an Iranian Nuclear state. That cannot be allowed. Moderator an opportunity to reply. Bera i will give congressman doug ose the benefit of 2002 and, but in hindsight knowing what we know today, to get votes authorize the iraq war a mistake . Moderator you can reply. It is your opportunity. Ose again, the number one and four National Security issue rather than talking about something ten years or 12 years ago remains the possibility that iran will be nuclear arms. We have had a parade from the president and his allies in congress that says, we can trust the iranians. We have a paper document. Reminds me of Neville Chamberlain in the 30s. They are not to be trusted. The reality of them having an operable Nuclear Weapon is a catastrophe, and he has done nothing to address that. Moderator okay. We need to move on to our next question. The images from ferguson were impossible to ignore this summer. Many americans have begun to focus on the increased militarization of our police forces. These military grade weapons and equipment are supplied by the federal government. Do you agree that our local police are becoming too much trust . Ose this is a great question. The kind of question and i like to deal with. We have a history in this country of providing assistance to local lawenforcement by discharging to them equipment from the military that is out of service were out of date. There have been instances where those discharges have proven excessive, and we need to carefully examine the parameters under which we released this equipment to local Law Enforcement. I will tell you, local Law Enforcement is up against the wall. The people theyre having to deal with to protect our neighborhoods and schools and families are increasingly wellarmed with heavy, ballistic equipment. I do not want to send local Law Enforcement out into the situation where they are outgunned by orders of magnitude. I am very sensitive to how we address that. What happened in ferguson was a tragedy. I am hoping we get to the bottom of what happened. I am hoping the attorney general and his task force will share with us the facts in a timely manner. And someone has done something wrong then they need to be held accountable. Moderator are our police to militarize . Bera absolutely. I dont want to see tanks rolling down the streets of sacramento, the italian uniforms in sacramento. I agree. Law enforcement is doing a wonderful job. They have a tough job, but i dont want to see militarization of Law Enforcement. The other issue is the issue of race relations. And we have seen a number of incidents. Here in california with the chp officer and a homeless woman. It just reminds us that we have a long way to go. We are now where we need to be. We still have a ways to go. It is a stark reminder. Your original question, i dont want to see militarization of our local officers. Moderator mr. Doug ose ose i think that reflects the lack of understanding of the kind of situations local lawenforcement finds itself an increasingly. Notwithstanding what happened which was a tragedy the equipment that was used that should not have been used, the fact remains that in our neighborhoods and our communities there are people who are significantly heavier armed than our Law Enforcement people, and we have to find a way to protect neighborhoods and our people. Bera i am a strong supporter of Law Enforcement they need the equipment. But i dont think they need heavy armor vehicles. I just think that crosses the line. I think many would agree. If they have then there will be tempted to use them. Moderator there is federal legislation to limit the amount of equipment going from the federal government, the pentagon to local police departments. Sounds like you would support that . Bera i would. Ose and not familiar with the legislation. As reasonable limitations i would support it. Want to make sure that the listening audience is aware, have a longstanding history with Law Enforcement, endorsed by the district attorney, endorsed by the sheriff, endorsed by Law Enforcement union groups all around this district. They trust me. They know that when i talk to them i talked to them straight, and they know that if i say, that is unreasonable, then they mean that. They also know that i deliver. Moderator we are running out of time. Time for one last question, one response each. We will start. More oil coming into california by rail. About onefifth of it is now highly flammable balkan crude oil. After several disastrous explosions state lawmakers have made some attempts to improve public safety, but primarily it is a federal issue. What would you do to increase the safety of rail cars moving to our community . Bera we have been talking about it. It worries me because those rail cars come right down the middle of sacramento, right down the middle. If one of those cars were to explode, that would be a disaster. We have been pushing the department of transportation to be more transparent, at least with local agencies. Let them know when the cars and moving through. And i support working with the state in with the state of california is doing in terms of increasing standards. We have to keep our communities safe. And as these time bombs are going through, at least let us know. At think we have got to think about how to make this more safe. Moderator mr. Doug ose ose i support the legislatures efforts to advise communities of the safety questions. I mean, i have seen enough accident several crossings to know that that can put we get out of control. I was shaken out of my bed in 1972 when the bombs went off and rosedale that had been ignited by virtue of a rail car fire. So i have more than a personal experience in this. One of the things that we need to do in addition to improving the safety of rail cars and thickening of the skin on the outside to we need to get the railroads to go back into the rail beds and fix the foundation on which the rails are set. That is the primary safety issue. The rail bed is not safe. Kid doesnt matter how thick the sides are, the cars will go over and were going to have a catastrophe. Moderator thank you, gentlemen. We are out of time for questions. We need to move on the closing statements. And for those you do each have 90 seconds. By coin toss, again, representatives ami bera gets to go first. Bera want to thank the moderator, the audience, and those watching on television you saw two different visions tonight. Mine is leading by example. When i ran for Congress Iran on three simple promises, to introduce and help pass no budget no pay. Members of congress dont do their job and pass a responsible budget they dont get paid. A promise to fight against efforts to privatize Social Security and would get my pension. I kept that promise. I promise not to take any pay raises and work across the aisle to give Sacramento County working again. I kept that promise. That is leading by example. Contrast that. When he was a member of congress he took multiple pay raises. He voted for tax breaks for companies that ship our jobs overseas, and he voted to privatize Social Security. And tonight we talked about the iraq war, the biggest failure of Foreign Policy in our lifetime. He did not move away from that. Even in hindsight we know today, it has been an honor serving our community for the last 19 years as doctor. It has been my privilege being a member of congress this past two. I would be honored to have your vote on november 4th. Moderator thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for letting me spend this hour with you. Youve done a great job. It matters. We see it across the country and around the world. Right now we dont have it. Washington is broken. Simply put, our country is on the wrong track. The congressman is in washington and not doing anything to change the direction of policy or our prospects. He has voted to increase taxes by two and a half trillion dollars, voted to those of you who own a home, he has voted to deny you, to take away the Home Mortgage interest deduction. He has voted to take 716 billion away from medicare funding of the next ten years. He has voted to increase fuel taxes on the gas we buy for our cars and pickups. He has done nothing to protect our water. In fact, he has been silent on controlling the releases from folsom that amount to thousands of gallons per second of water that we desperately need. And he sent to the south. That is not. That is abdication. Ladies and gentlemen, i have a record in this community of getting things done using realworld experience. I am asking you tonight to join me in my quest to get our country back on track. We can do this. Matters. God bless the United States of america. Moderator thank you. Thank you, congressman. I think you will both agree we covered a lot of ground and gave folks something to think about all the various issues. Want to make sure i say thank you to our esteemed panelists. Online newspaper. Of course thank you to our studio audience. They do keep the applause down. The opportunity comes basically now as we end. We want to thank the viewers at home. Make sure you are informed. You have heard from both candid its. It is now your job to go out and vote. Good night. [applause] campaign 2014, more than 100 debates control of congress. Follow us on twitter and like us at facebook. Our campaign 2014, coverage continues with a week full of debates. Live coverage of the florida governors debate between incumbent governor republican rick scott and former governor democrat charlie crist. Next we go live to the university of delaware for the debate between Delaware Senate candidates incumbent democratic chris coons and his republican challenger kevin wade. Live coverage. This is delawares debate. Moderator welcome. On behalf of delaware public media and the university of Delaware Center for Political Communications welcome to delaware debate 2014. Made possible with Financial Support by the william c. Frank foundation of delaware and the American Cancer Society cancer action network