in the first congressional district republican representative brian fitzpatrick faces a challenge from democrat scott wallace. thethey met for an hour and andf to debate renewable energy. immigration and gun control among other topics. for the racthe race is listed ap by real clear politics. >> good morning and welcome to the congressional debate with the league of women voters by the central county chamber of commerce, pennridge chamber of commerce for this the greater 2,181st congressional debate. i am your moderator and have the

privilege of being a cochair of the committee for the central county chamber of commerce along with heather. i am delighted to serve today with my co- moderator with the league of women voters. this morning we have with us the incumbent brian fitzpatrick republican candidate and challenger scott wallace democratic candidate. thank you both for being with us this morning. we look forward to an exchange of your opinions, plans and concerns. now to take a moment and address a special request of the audience. we are privileged to be able to come together as a community and ask important questions of our candidates for congress. we can learn about them and their positions on topics that are special to us. the more time we allow the candidates to focus on the questions, the more we will

learn. we are here to learn from them, not from you from the audience so they ask you please turn off your electronic devices, the quiet, please do not be rude but do not applaud any candidate or any answer to any question. your unwanted attention will disrupt the proceedings and take our global time away from the forum. you may be using your technology to take notes into social media and i would ask that you take a moment right now and silence your devices. please be aware of the proceedings are being recorded y cable news and the intelligence and the courier is also video taking and taking photography. we ask you to refrain from taking pictures.

my question to the audience may i ask you to adhere to these rules. thank you very much. the president of the university our host for this morning to come up and say a few words. [applause] >> good morning everyone and welcome to delaware university is an honor and a pleasure to host the congressional candidates forum. our thanks to the chamber of commerce and to the league of women voters for organizing this morning's gathering and to the candidates brian fitzpatrick and scott wallace for agreeing to participate. from the beginnings in the 19th century, we've taken the role in the community seriously. our founder was a tireless advocate for public goods. for the evolution into a

comprehensive university we've probably called the county home and strive to enhance the well-being of the region. it's only natural to host the discussion between the two candidates who seek to represent the country in the united states house of representatives. one of the university's commitment as an educational community is to value of the worlthe worldof ideas and diffe. nothing a demise is this more than welcoming all of you here today for a robust conversation on the issues most relevant to the first congressional district. on behalf of all of us thank you again for being here. [applause] thank you for your hospitality. i would like to thank the university security further special assistance leading up to today's activities that we undertake to be at this morning.

but before i begin i would like to turn over the program she will go over the debate rules for us. >> our goal this morning is to provide an opportunity for you to hear the views of the two candidates for the first congressional district on important public policy issues. the format this morning consists of opening and closing remarks. questions from the organizers the league of women voters of the county chambers of commerce and most importantly, questions from you. there are members of the organizing group collecting your questions. i would try to indicate to them and they will be on the side aisle, so if not to interrupt and ask you finish writing your question pass it to the side aisles. the questions are screened for

duplication and then will be brought to us when we start the portion of the forum. and i believe i said it is a time to format and the candidates are aware. if you see them finishing up what they are saying they've seen the 15 seconds so with that we are ready to begin opening remarks they drew positions. mr. wallace, one minute. thank you to the hosts and all for coming. when i was in the u.s. senate i never dreamed of today's hyper partisan imbalance in washington. i was hired by moderate republicans to write bills to fix big problems. but he never asked what my party

registration was. i was there to write legislation to help millions of people. we passed compensation for agent orange veterans exposed and damaged by it and we passed comprehensive crime control and the missing children's act and we did it through careful painstaking analysis of facts and science and costs and benefits and from that came i partisan consensus. now why can't we do that today, why can't we do that anymore lacks because the corporate money has bought politicians. we can' can have action on the people's business skyrocketing healthcare costs, clean air and water, gun violence. instead, we give tax cuts for billionaires and the corporations and the rest of us to pay for it through the cuts to social security and medicare. thank you.

>> warninmorning everybody and k you for hosting the phenomenal organization that i'm a proud supporter of and thank you for being here. the fact that you are here at 8:00 in the morning tells me everything i need to know and i'm glad i spent 15 years in the fbi. new york city and everywhere in between working counterterrori counterterrorism, cybersecurity incredible important cases with the most amazing men and women i've known. i'm a member of the problem solvers caucus and the only in congress 24 democrats and 24 republicans every bill that we advance is bipartisan interest of the most independent district in the united states of america representative was ranked number

one. scott and i had a debate in his comment i think that exhibits the problem and that's what we are going to be talking about today for the rest of the campaign. a major piece to test the congress was the first fundamental rewrite of the tax code since 1986. small businesses utilizing these progrowth changes to the tax code have created jobs across america and will you support extending its making this individual and passed through cuts for individuals and small businesses permanent? >> i will not support any bill that adds another $3 trillion to the national debt unless we have

a plan to pay for it. the last bill added $2 trillion to the national debt and hasn't been paid for and now we have mitch mcconnell going in front of the american people and paul ryan who was here during a doina fundraiser for my esteemed opponent saying that we have to now cut entitlements as they put it and the rest of us put it earned benefits and to cut social security and medicare and medicaid to pay for it. the resolution approved by the house budget committee recently has a $1.5 trillion cuts to medicaid, have a trillion dollar cuts to medicare, and i will not support something that is not paid for. it wasn't correct when they say the tax bill would pay for itself through economic growth and current projections are the estimate of 1.9% growth a recent analysis by "the wall street journal" of the 60 leading 16 lg economists in america said long-term growth over the next

six years with the 1.8%. we have a huge hole in the dead and they won't support a cutting back of the tax cut that was initially enacted. >> you want that question repeated? >> we had a tax code written in 1986, 31 years ago when nobody had a computer in their home in digital didn't exist and the corporate tax rate was 35% highest in the world by a mile and our neighbors to the north a teen%. 12.5% for crying out loud about 20%, 35% corporate tax rate and modernizing the code after the decade of a gdp growth rate going up 1.5 and 1.6%. last year 2.7% and the last quarter 2%. we needed to do something to jumpstart this economy. and everybody is benefiting. three plaintiffthree plaintiffsn unemployment rate to the lowest

since 69. we were renamed the most competitive in the world. everybody knows the economy is doing well. we had to jumpstart and the biggest threat we had to the programs, the biggest funding to the environmental preservation, education, public education, the social safety net, the biggest threat is an economy that is growing at 1.6% having been through the budget battles that is a sustainabl unsustainable g. it was 1.9% gdp, last year 4.2% last quarter. that's what we need. anybody that wants the answer to the question, walk down the street and the storefronts there are three vacancies. that's economic growth and that's what we need to do. >> mr. fitzpatrick. >> question number two is about healthcare.

you have the opportunity to direct the legislative and administrative opportunities to provide business with cost-effective solutions to provide health insurance for small business owners and their employees. what are you planning on advocating? >> the problem solvers as everybody knows both of the attempts into the project vehicle that led to the attempted repeal. repeal. i may be a leader in identifying what works and what is broken and fixing it. i don't believe in single-payer healthcare and the point of equilibrium of the most important thing and the problem solvers identified several key components for the reimbursement is nominated for 2.3% device tax text and allow for the competition. if there's one place to get it the cost is going to be i produced a three reinsurance fund and allowing for the association health plans these

are commonsense steps and the ce most important thing is voter reform. there is no cap on the economic damages. think of what that does into premiums for physicians in pennsylvania because of this. if we kept that economic damage to my medical insurance premiums will go down but the medicine would stop. it is not a physician that fulfill you they don't know where to test. that puts a tremendous burden on the healthcare system and that is what has got to change. >> do you want the question or are you okay? >> on what do we do about healthcare in this country? the health care system that we have, the affordable care act is being dismantled bit by bit and piece by piece. brian fitzgerald voted for it which is donald trump said cut the heart out of the affordable care act and the repeal of the

individual mandate. there is litigation going on right now in texas held by 20 state attorneys general and two governors to say the repeal of the mandate makes the entirety of obamacare unconstitutional and the u.s. attorney general sessions filed a briefing in the case sayin of saying at the vert it makes protections for pre-existing conditions and unconstitutional. i haven't heard of a protest about this position of our government saying that pre-existing conditions productions must go away and the entire thing is unconstitutional. he voted on the floor of the house on may 4, 2017 for a bill that would prevent pre-existing conditions and there was a long debate about should we do that or not and what would they do to the protections in those that have pre-existing conditions it

was all on the table and he voted to protect them from coming up to the healthcare bill. mr. wallace. >> we will launch a regulatory burdens question. to roll back excessive burdens from the regulations that interfere in the ability of companies to do business and create jobs. do you support these burdens? clean air and water they mean a lot to the people in the district. these regulations were not written to the interface this. they were not returned to damage jobs. they were written to protect jobs in america. clean water here is an existential threat for the

70,000 households. clean water protecting the climate, and we are seeing the effect on the super storms. regulations are not written out of a whim or malice. they are to protect people, workplace safety. i do not look at these and i know that in the obama white house they have a whole office devoted to making sure the regulations were at the least burdensome as possible and the least costly in terms of jobs and productivity. i oppose some of the regulations mr. fitzpatrick has ordered particularly in the environmental area to regulate clean air and water and restrictions on renewable energy i support 100% transition to renewable energy by 2030. the work for climate change and renewable jobs. >> thank you, mr. fitzpatrick. >> everything he told you about pre-existing conditions is a

lie. i am the cosponsored first of all i voted against the attempt and in the cosponsor the bill at 1121, which would protect the perpetuity so i don't know what you are referring to perhaps you can give me the number that was a sense of the house resolution completely nonbinding but doesn't do a thing and you know it. >> you have something in the back that would give everybody a post article watching about it it says it is a completely false attack. of course i support the protection for pre-existing conditions. it is one of the many reasons i voted against the two attempts to repeal the affordable care act that provide protections for pre-existing conditions. the articles are in attack with you repeated and it is 1000%

false. >> the government fiscal stability how would you persuade congress to follow the regular order on policy including the timely passage of the budget resolution and spending bills all with the view towards fiscal restraint and urged congress and the administration to elevate the reform on the entitlement programs? >> we developed a bipartisan solutions ongoing violence and transportation infrastructure anintransportation infrastructue and reform on healthcare and immigration and we agreed as a bipartisan caucus right of center and left of center on the way forward. in order to get the bills through the floor of the house is the gridlock package and we all committed to support a speaker candidate in the next congress that is going to agree to the changes which will bring back regular order.

given a minimum of one where they waited a full committee markup and a vote on the house of representatives. the return to regular order is how you loo we look at the bipan bills including the balanced budget amendment. it's focused on the revenue side and economic growth. it doesn't need to be cutting expenses. if we plan to grow it at three to 4% a year. >> mr. wallace. >> i agree it is essential to being responsible about the balance of money coming in and going out. i think that it was utterly irresponsible to vote for the tax bill which exploded the debt

by $2 trillion, and we have not yet paid for it. i am extremely disappointed to hear the republicans plan to pay for it out of social security and medicare, to take it out of the 99% to pay to the 1%. brian fitzpatrick voted for that and that isn't solving problems. that is part of the voting 85% with donald trump. you can talk about bipartisanship all you want to talk about being right down the middle. but if you are 85% with donald trump time and again, you are part of the problem they are paid for on top of the 2 trillion this is from the party that preaches fiscal responsibility. what is the solution? i save make the rich pay their fair share. we gave them a tax cut they didn't need and we gave corporations a record tax cuts, 15% tax cut.

now some corporations are paying zero taxes because we didn't do anything about the loopholes. jared kushner by the way he has apparently not paid any taxes at all for the last several years. we have to cut the loopholes and make the rich pay their fair share. >> small businesses agree that the american workforce must focus on identifying the skills and education needed to prepare american workers to compete in the 21st century. what actions will you take to protect th generation to be gainfully employed? >> i'm a supporter of the schools here in the county. it is a great solution to a large chunk of our kids who are not necessarily college-bound for the liberal arts degree in philosophy or sociology to get to them and employable skill within the high school years where they can come out with a skill that is matched to the

trade because it was designed by the board of the schools which are a local business and industry leader. we should be moving towards debt free colleges and universities in pennsylvania. when i went to law school, the total tuition is $2,500 a year and you could literally work your way through with a part-time job at mcdonald's. we have two get back to college affordability. when i was an outside advocate, i worked three years to get the congress passed legislation to avoid student loan forgiveness to take a job as a prosecutor and public defender and i saw these kids graduating with $200,000 in debt and here they are expected to take a public interest job that pays $30,000 into the temptation to work for a corporation is huge.

i praise and admire their public spiritedness. i think we can do more of that. 7.1 in this country two reasons, the inability to pass a drug test in second reason is the skills gap. they are starting a brand-new program with a facility that is going to address this and the week before that, we gave a $1.7 million grant. the overwhelming majority in the district and across the country the metric of success is placed in the four year colleges and universities. they are not giving an alternative paths like the ones i saw the sheet metal workers in philadelphia the kids graduating at 18-years-old and entering

apprenticeship programs 60,000 a year to start and college tuition, five years to graduate, no college debt sometimes making 90,000 or 100,000 a year with a great alternative path so that the answer to the question. i want to revisit the question and i want everybody here to knoto knowthat the old tax coded people like mr. wallace who inherited hundreds of millions of dollars, and every forum i'm going to be out, i'm going to reinstitute. we can solve this question very easily. we don't need to hypothesize. we can calculate the numbers and see who benefited under what code and i will ponder the answer and he can blow the campaign wide open but he's not going to do it. he won't give tax reforms because under the tax code he did more than every single one of you in this room.

>> mr. fitzpatrick. >> energy independence is a national objective and the topic of political discussion on a daily basis it gives us the way of life that we enjoy. how can the united states becoming a state energy independence given the burdens implementations on the discussions of climate change? >> we need to get to energy independence and we are way behind the curve it's been going on for a while. this is one thing where the green energy jobs are the growth in the economy. so these are not mutually exclusive and gone are the days that you have to make a protecting of the environment and advancing the economy. you can advance both at the same time and myself we developed to work with the environmental defense fund, a phenomenal

organization that reaches throughout the country particularly in dc. we did something very bold the institute event offered up a carbon tax, $24 per metric ton that would exceed under the paris accord. we think bringing that together just and easy to do, it came together on this bill and advancing things like that, and are marking that money to infrastructure which everybody realizes is very integrated in the country, not just roads and schools and bridges but the electrical grid and the water piping. this is the way to fund and rebuild the infrastructure that is going to be needed for the economy and that is the way to do it for the green energy jobs. >> mr. wallace. >> briefly on the tax issue, i'm getting tired of this stunned that he pulls to challenge the release of tax returns.

he voted 18 times to prevent the release of donald trump tax returns and introduces a bill which says we must release the tax returns of presidential candidates. who does he exempt? donald trump. let's have enough of the political stunts on green energy and renewable energy and independence. i support an immediate transition 100% renewable and i don't believe in natural gas as a transition fuel. natural gas releases more greenhouse gases than coal when you consider the release of methane during the process, it is 84 times more potent as a heat trapping gas than co2. we have to commit to the new sources of energy gravitational research that is going on right now. there is a lot we can do.

it takes a huge national commitment. there are currently more solar jobs in america than coal. it's the fastest growing segment in the world. china is getting it from india is getting it. they are eating our lunch on producing renewable energy, and we have to make a commitment i'm going to pass over to my co- moderator to ask questions at this point. >> if the audience has additional questions they have not turned in, please hand them towards the side aisles. although i can assure you we have more questions we are going to get through. i may move to some o of yours during the questions from the league of women voters of the county. this goes first to mr. wallace, i believe. unless i've lost track.

it's a question related to the national deficit is rising. would you support changes to social security and medicare to address the deficit? >> no. the only change i would support for social security is to make it myself and over the indefinite future and the only way to do that is to remove the cap on rich people coming to it you don't pay any taxes on income above $130,000. there's been talk if you raise the $10,000 to $140,000, you could make it in solvent for the next ten or 20 years. i say we would move it completely. why is the second billion-dollar income protected from the first $131,000 is not? this is part of the rich paying their fair share and how we call the entitlement program as are

those that people paid into with every paycheck social security and medicare and i think it is a travesty to give goodies to the top 1% of corporations and expect reveals in thi privity ad from everybody else in the country to pay for it out of their precious earned benefits. i would keep it solvent and look at other ways to improve to bring down the debt by the way the national deficit went up 17% this year by the new estimates 779 billion-dollar deficit. a record deficit because we put in place the tax cuts that benefit so few but the cost of so many so there is a lot we can do and it involves taking the 1% to pay their fair share. scott says the 1% need to pay their fair share and i couldn't agree more. he's the 1% of the 1%.

he could dispute it and we could set an example for the country. they keep saying no. a lot would be fun if you solve them. or social security, we absolutely need to preserve it. the structural changes have two things that would increase the payment streams for the population including my parents both the lid on social security. number one, both bills which i am a cosponsor, tax-free social security act of 2018 taking all payment streams tax-free social security in and of itself as a product that shouldn't be taxed on the disbursement and received by the senior population. the second thing that the social security benefits is something of the cp cpi even though i'm oo the consumer price index for the elderly. it's not just the cpi data tracks typical inflation. it is a inflationary measure for the senior population because often times inflationary places

are very different for the senior population who are on medication and need hospital products and the like. that is how we secure social security in two ways, having a rocksolid policy and id to make the changes and progrowth economic policies that are going to bring the revenues into the government so we have the financial ability to fund social security and then the two legislative pieces that will increase the payment to seniors. >> next question for mr. fitzpatrick on the minimum wage. current federal minimum wage is 725, which for an individual working 40 hours a week would grow approximately 15,000 per year. do you support raising the minimum wage and if so, to what level and how you would do it or if you are opposed why would you not raise its? >> it needs to be raised and we need to raise it to the livable

wage for every locality, single parents, families of four, single individuals identify and attach it to the cpi said that it attracts real inflation and deflation and get it out of politics and that is what we ought to do. every human being that is working should be able to pay for the cost of living expenses. it is an absurd situation where people are working and they can't afford to live because what that does is create an incentive not to work where it is more cost effective for people not to work them to work. i would support an increase to $15 an hour so it is not a shock to a small business.

the social security benefits should be indexed to the elderly cpi because the different mix of expenses and i think we need broad changes to the system of tax equity in america. it's not just lifting up the bottom. its loopholes for the wealthy. real estate developers in the country have a system that they can gain complete big like donald trump and jared kushner where there are loopholes that you don't have to pay any taxes at all we should remove the tax incentives for the drilling of fossil fuels and substitute incentives for the creation of clean energy. there's a lot we can do with the tax code to make it more fair and equitable and make them pay their fair share bring up the top and the rising tide should lift all boats.

>> thank you. the next question will be for you on immigration. do you support requiring immigrants who are unlawfully present in the united states to return to their country of origin before they are eligible for citizenship? we have to design a comprehensive immigration reform that makes sense allows some sort of pathway to citizenship for the 11 million people that are here without documentation. i don't know if we need to do the charade of sending them back so they can come back. there are other ways to do that without disrupting families for months perhaps years. i do support comprehensive immigration reform. i was working for senator simpson at the time that he passed the last immigration reform bill in 1986 and it was not easy. you have to balance these

competing needs of border security and the rights of families have been here and raised children who are americans themselves they benefit from the employer sanctions and it isn't easy but i can tell you one thing we have to do immediately. there are a couple of immediate problems those that are brought here when they were younger through no fault of their own we need to get immediat give them e relief and fix the family reunification problem at the border. mr. fitzpatrick is on the homeland security committee and i would be out there filing subpoenas that bring the immigration people in to say how the hell are you letting this happen and why aren't you fixing its? >> no applause, please.

>> mr. fitzpatrick. >> the bipartisan problem solvers caucus as a package that is bipartisan. we interviewed on to the mongo to explain what it is. it addresses everything, the border complement and verify component and the undocumented immigrant peace. to answer the question, no there shouldn't be deportation. it is an absurd suggestion that is unbecoming of american values. what we do need to do is for once we got to solve this immigration crisis. 1986 was the last rewrite. think of how much has changed at the border the drug problem, all these challenges that have exacerbated and because of extreme partisanship to tell you

all you need to know the only way forward is if we expanded the problem solvers caucus and we are coming up with a bipartisan solution that have democrats and republicans coming together, people are allowing the so-called enemy of the good both on the far right and far left because they are digging in and they are insisting on ideological purity in their bills. as long as that mentality continues and perpetuates, the problem is going to continue to get kicked down the road. >> this is a question on gun safety. what measures can or should congress take to protect students in schools in relation to gun violence? >> i speak to you as someone

that carried a gun around my ankle for 14 years for the purpose of saving lives and protecting it as a prosecutor pr who put away dangerous criminals who violated the nation's gun laws. that was my professional career before. since entering congress and the leader in gun violence and gun prevention and gun safety, gabby giffords has endorsed us and we just got another one this week. every single gun safety organization has endorsed us because they know we are playing the leadership will do everything we can to bring a bipartisan compromise together because folks will call you that republicans have failed and democrats have failed. nothing gets done because the extreme hyper partisanship that brings us back to the gun safety package in place. universal background check and i

authored the bill with mike thompson, the assault weapons ban everything we need to address the mental health crisis that we have in the country. >> mr. wallace. >> here we go again about the problems of his caucus about immigration and guns. i haven't seen those problems solved yet. he talks about endorsements. all these groups have a challenge. these are at least one republican to be able to say that they are bipartisan. some of them have chosen brian. the number one gun control advocates in america i have been endorsed by moms who demand action, and when it went for

brian fitzpatrick the local group disbanded and created a new group i was endorsed yesterday by terence. we have to do things that are not on the problem solvers agenda. we have to ban high-capacity magazines and dump stock silencers and remove the ridiculous legal liability congress granted to the industry in 2005 at the request of the nra, and i would require biometric locks in america. newtown was a 17-year-old disturbed boy who took his mother's gun and killed 20 preschoolers. if that had been equipped with a fingerprint recognition technology, the tragedy couldn't have happened. there's a lot we can do. he refuses to sign onto the band

as much as he talks about wanting to do something about it there is a bill with 176 cosponsors. related to the campaign finance reform in particular to it and congress is a disclosure act that requires groups that are formed in 527 who can accept and spend money as long as they don't coordinate but they don't have to disclose what is your position on that. it requires a publicly traded corporations to disclose the

donors assumed of course congress would require the disclosure of donations they voted it down repeatedly. it's the bare minimum let us see what they are doing so that the consumers of america can decide dwho i want to buy coke, no i want to buy pepsi. when you have the disclosure, corporations say wait a minute i don't want to jeopardize my customer base and that's the ultimate goal. we need to amend the constitution to overturn citizens united to finally allow congress to strictly regulate corporate money in politics. there should be a law passed as teddy roosevelt passed to say no corporate money effort in politics. they are not human beings they don't have feeling feelings they

have one interest and that is their bottom line. they shouldn't be players in american politics and we should regulate the time and the amount of spending you can only spend like $10,000. [applause] >> no applause, please. mr. fitzpatrick. i do support the disclose act, and in march or april of 2010 for citizens united to the decision was released with national supervisor of the fbi political production unit. i got called up to the office and he wanted to know what affect is this going to have on the corruption cases and i said it's going to increase them because money is the root of all evil there's no question about that and i want to get the money out of politics. i've got to say i always

chuckled anytime he talked about money and politics, this is a man that inherited $300 million from dupont, the company by the way that created what is poisoning our water here and he's still making water off of it. he spent $10 million -- this is my time. they created agent orange as well. >> incorrect -- >> the man that says it is a problem has put $10 million of corporate money into this race.

with one that says no money in politics. give me a moment i have a question for you. i asked the audience please. we are daring to turn to the questions that you submitted many more than we can answer and we will alternate as moderators asking the questions if it remains 92nd response is. the firsus. the first question will go to mr. fitzpatrick. what will you do to leverage the government programs that have businesses prosper? please provide some details.

67 counties and only two of them got grants. we bolster the three schools. and we start getting to killing the 7.1 million in this country by dealing with the opioid epidemic which i'm the vice chair of the bipartisan task force. that's been my sole focus on that crisis and get into the workforce training those are

concrete steps we can get people into these jobs. >> thank you, mr. wallace. >> i totally agree stimulating small business entrepreneurship should be a high priority. the small business administration is currently run by a woman who ran the national wrestling federation. i'm not sure if it is the best qualified person to build small businesses in america. but between the department of labor and the department of commerce, the small business administration we should have robust grant programs to promote innovation and entrepreneurship. we were recently in israel and they do a much better job of setting up entrepreneurial hubs and providing specific innovation grants i recently

paid off my student loans and my wife still has hers. the money i was spending on mine is going towards saving for my son's future education. what are your plans to address the student debt crisis hampering my and future generations? >> is a huge problem. the cost of education has gone up far higher than the cost of the consumer price index. there are a lot of reasons for that, but they have to deal specifically with students with these incredible 100 or 200,000-dollar loan debt problems. the biggest problem i think is the lenders that are making money off these loans. we have to prevent the for-profit and make sure they are not into the air fare to

students. the goal is public college and universities should be allowed to graduate debt-free. if we took that 1% of the corporate tax cut, raised the corporate tax rate from 21% to 22% we could devote all that money and solve the student debt crisis and make it possible for every student to graduate debt-free. that is some $600 billion we could free up with a simple change, so i am all in favor of it. >> mr. fitzpatrick. >> two pieces to the puzzle. the student interest there is the college education itself. so, we are advancing to something called the know before you go acted all transparency measure for everybody in the secondary institution and for every dollar you spend on tuition, for transparency and disclosure 1% goes to educating student at 1% of developers to placing students in jobs and 1%

as overhead, or indeed an administrative salaries. every student in the country knows no matter where they go, healthy universities are spending the money is subsidizing student interest loans is irresponsible because we are trying to get people to jump start their career early on, and this is where the alternative path comes in as well as college. offering that dual track in the students that do choose secondary education making it as affordable as possible by the cost of college education is way too high but it's due to lack of transparency. people don't know where their money is going and that is a good step for the federal government. >> mr. fitzpatrick. >> what are you going to do to engage the other side for more bipartisan decisions and part number two how will you get the bills to the floor in the congress rules that may not

allow them to be put into the floor? >> the only thing that is going to save this country just got hired by my democratic colleague, he's a democrat in new jersey and he came to my district to support me. my democratic colleagues in congress that are part of the problem solvers caucus and my closest friends in congress we respect each other as human beings, we care about each other's families and we want to cosponsor bills together and see each other succeed. that is the future of the united dates in america and the only thing that is going to save the country and we need to expand it. in the gridlock package which i admit that is what is going to fundamentally change the way the rules are written so that these bills do get to the floor. one of the many provisions and you can look it up i encourage everybody here to go to the labels.org. if you go to the website and get the policies you will find everything that i believe in my

core is important about the changes we need to make in congress because if you have a broken system that is garbage in garbage out, we've only supportt a speaker's candidate that supports those changes. these are. all the things that have been jammed up by decades of both parties in control and rigid ideologues, that's what has to stop. ththe problem solvers folks, please, look at their website. it is the onlthat is the only ts going to fix the country. >> thank you, sir. >> the problem solvers caucus is good to talk. but you have a leadership in the house of representatives now, paul ryan now and somebody else presumably next time, who will not bring these floors to the congress -- his bills to the floor of congress. they will not bring a gun

control bill. they will not bring environmental regulation bills. they will lock them up and never see the light of day. if you wrote a bill on the carbon tax, 24% which is less than the exxon bill which is $24. both parties voted to ge get a n balance. >> three days before you introduced the bill, paul ryan rand on the floor of the house saying under no circumstances will the house of representatives ever even consider the concept of the carbon tax and by the way, $24 per ton is far less than exxon mobil build utheexxon mobil bui0 tax per ton. we have to have a change of leadership. the secret is not just a label and photo op trips to see. the secret is as i said in my opening statement bipartisan fact gathering. the stories are real people from

ben and sprayed by agent orange and have problems that are not curable. examine the facts and the science and from that will come bipartisan consensus. this is where we bring people together. >> mr. wallace. this is an environmental trade question together. the questioner states recently renegotiated nafta in this person's opinion falls short of protecting our environment, job outsourcing and human rights. will you commit to seeing it fixed to ensure that these protections are there before approving it in the next session of congress? >> yes. i think nafta can be improved more in the free trade agreement has to have protections for labor and environmental protections. it is somewhat of an

improvement, but trade is the window through which we can start to bring equity back to our economic system and our tax system. we need open trade with fair trade with labor and environmental protections. >> mr. fitzpatrick. >> labor and environmental standards need to be protected and we need to renegotiate deals that benefit the united states of america. we've been running an annual $800 billion every single year which manifests itself in the united states drops which has an increase in the unemployment and reduces revenue to the federal government which means we have less money to fund our priorities. smart trade policy is important. guess it has to protect environmental standards and it o has the benefit the american worker. there's absolutely nothing wrong with looking at a very scrutinizing eye at every single trade agreement we have if it

benefits the united states of america they negotiate it. it's going to increase the economy that we have right now and it's very important. >> ..

. >> to reenter society when they can contribute to the economy and to the country to reduce the stigma so that they are incarcerated that 85 percent will be released. >> i have spent the bulk of my legal career working on criminal justice reform. it isn't easy but the bipartisan consensus is coming along nicely until mister trump gave in. we have done some backsliding since then. i only asked the question if america has 5 percent growth

why do we have 25 percent of the worlds prisoners? the incarceration rates in the world? and now to spend more on incarceration rather than education i have trying to answer that question with the department of justice the criminal justice system is more effective which by the way is reducing crime not locking people up. 's what we did was bring together of judges and prosecutors and social services providers how we can work together not just to address the offense that day but the offender if he has a drug problem on mental health issue? homeless?

and then we will not see them come back year after year unaddressed. 's on the national association of drug professionals doing these collaborations across the board and we work to promote. >> you support term limits for members of congress and supreme court justices and the means that we do that is the vote and you have that opportunity coming up in 18 days to make the choice to throw the people you don't want to put in the people that you do. i do not want someone telling me if i think i have the greatest senator in the world daniel patrick moynihan that they did their best work in third and fourth decorate the best legislators of the

history of congress. if they represent me is highly undemocratic to tell me i cannot have them as my representative but if you don't want them throw them out. it is a cover for the real problem the advantage that incumbents have that they have lost their way because they are in congress and have power. stop the corporate money in politics that is to reduce the power of incumbency which is the underlying concern which is totally legitimate. 's the second part? . >> the supreme court justices. i believe we should have term limits on supreme court justices. [laughter] the idea of life tenure, 40 years for someone who passed 51 / 49 i think a nine year term would be better for democracy.

fitzpatrick: i could not disagree more on legislative term limits. the first bill i introduced was a broad sweeping set of government reform bills there is no more important change we can make in this country. to resign the military commission and to start term limits all that he wanted to do was go back to his farm to live under the laws he helped to pass as the most organic democracy you can have. that every single president through fdr that congress passes the 20 send amendment to the constitution. that that did not apply to themselves.

. >> and representing silicon valley we said we have got to get this done we will get it done it was rare if ever the politician two or 34 years in office because what we saw was the most those that entered the system term limits are very very important. >> thank you. >> mister fitzpatrick why should social security be taxed? what do you do to help it improve retirement of seniors? . >> there are two bills i am a cosponsor of. no tax on social security 2018

and tying the benefits which would dramatically increase the seniors intimate that the unequivocal method that is always there. that cuts to the core of everything i believe in my legislative staff will tell you if there is any bill that jeopardizes that that is the ironclad position in the office. wallace: one follow up on term limits. personally i will term limit myself no more than three terms and ironically my grandfather was a great beneficiary of a lack of term limits serving as vice president in the third term of

roosevelt. it was a time that worked for america because world war ii was underway but on social security i agree with my esteemed colleague over here, no tax on social security benefits and then use the elderly people's expenses and as i said before lifting the cap on taxable income that goes into social security. do not raise the retirement age or cut the deficits we can maintain to protect the futures if we lift the income cap. . >> a question on legalizing marijuana for medical and recreational use and i would like you to address it from

the role of congress with this issue as opposed to the role of the state. >> good question. i support congress getting out of the way of states experimentation. states have experimented with medical marijuana, some have chosen recreation. they are raking in hundreds of millions of dollars of tax revenues to the state not one single overdose death by marijuana in the history of america. but yet the federal government has listed schedule one as a controlled substance act that means it is a category with zero medical benefit the highest potential for abuse up there with crack and meth and heroin. no. it belongs at least schedule

five which is proven medical benefit low potential for abuse i personally would take it off completely it is less dangerous than alcohol and that is fully legalized in this country to talk about gateway drugs to more serious drugs alcohol is number one. i favor states deciding what they want to do the evidence shows so far that it is a net benefit with no increase in crime no appreciable increase of drug use and huge increases of revenue for also to the criminal justice system on court cases public defenders and resources. fitzpatrick: the additional use there are two different components one is hallucinogenic another is medical piece that has been separated out the fda reports to the dea they delist that medical peace. so the question comes about the physician community and recovery community it is a

legitimate conversation with the crisis we are facing across the country which has hit our community particularly hard, what does that mechanism on reevaluating pain management? opioids are very addictive we need to take a hard look at marijuana because i can tell you they have their concerns and we ought to hear them out their concerns that it is unverified of the long-term impacts. so it could potentially be a very positive path of pain management. >> the congressional accountability act replace sexual harassment and discrimination suits against members of congress. you support use of taxpayer money with the enforcement of

victims signing nondisclosure agreements? fitzpatrick: of course, not. that was an epidemic across the country and the media outlets and congress throughout america. of course, we should not use tax payer funded money on those bipartisan bills. wallace: of course. this is an easy one for us to agree on it is ridiculous to pay taxpayer money to settle sexual impropriety by members of congress we have a deeper problem than just members of congress behaving badly and spending taxpayer money to settle it we have a huge problem at the top of this country with misogyny and ignoring the rights of women and not listening to women just like in the kavanaugh hearings with a foley charade fbi investigation into the

allegations of three women none of the potential corroborate her's that was not a real investigation by the fbi. that nomination was rammed through. to talk about the elephant in the room, the president and his behavior how he dismisses every woman who has challenged him or made allegations against him. the tone starts at the top congress has to start holding people accountable for the executive branch. not just for misogyny but corruption we need stronger congress not a lapdog we have a president who is without shame and a congress so let's fix it. >> i am a 17 -year-old junior in high school mister wallace.

what are you planning to put in place now that will benefit myself and others my age? wallace: that's a good broad question. [laughter] i've talked to a lot of you folks in the issues that i hear most frequently are guns you are frantic that we do something so that you are not afraid to go to school and i described what i would do about guns including banning assault weapons capacity - - completely and holding gun manufacturers accountable and moving the liability the congress granted them. they care about climate change. and our generation the grown-ups in the room screwing up their planet and that science does not exist we just saw the new report from the un climate panel saying it exist and it is an emergency it is

almost too late to do anything about it that is when i called for the project initiative to bring in renewable energy right now and to care about student loan debt is driving them nuts and limits their career options they have to do something to tackle student loan debt so they can graduate debt-free and get on with their lives. fitzpatrick: the next generation doesn't want gun violence they want to be safe from cyberattacks and the number one threat we face in this country with an economy that's growing and that allows for more job opportunities, higher wages, a health care system that works and not just kicking the can down the road but a bipartisan solution that's what they want.

i would ask the kids all the time one of the best part of the job is talking to the youth and hearing their aspirations and dreams. my advice that i gave to them as the fbi agent when they say what do you recommend we do for our future? i say find you are passionate about what gets you really fired up and go with it don't worry about what job that may or may not lead to because if you love what you do you will be good and proud and successful and i gave that to every single kid. but we had a climate that would allow them to have good jobs and have a good start in life and make sure the community also. >> this is the last question then into closing remarks. will each of you commit to holding in person town halls.

[laughter] during your term? . >> that's interesting. i cannot begin to account how many public appearances i have been to. how many public appearances i have been to where it is a q and a forum. rotary club, chamber of commerce we could list them all out for you. the issue is accessibility. yes we should be having them. we should have as many different as possible in person, telephon person, telephone, all of the above of course. because a member of congress should be as accessible as possible and at this point i think 30 percent of this community has my personal phone number. accessibility is incredibly important and every single

form a lot of people call something a town hall where it's at a high school that turns into complete mayhem and that doesn't benefit anybody but the key is with a healthy exchange and people feel comfortable to go to the representative to have their issues served. >> does anybody here know how many live in person this congressman has had in the last two years? . >> weight. >> you didn't need to answer that but it was one. [laughter] he has a telephone town halls announced three minutes before they happen if you happen to pick up the phone you can call and ask somebody will screen it if it is uncomfortable it is not asked. i commit to holding live and in person to halls to everybody not just country

clubs yesterday and nice fundraiser with secret service guards in case ordinary person wants to get in. no. real people real town halls i promise i pledge at least four per year but i expect to do more than that the job i am running for is to be a representative i cannot represent people if i don't talk to them i need to hear from everybody whether for me or against me i will work for you i will be available to you and talk to you and be open to you. >> before we go to closing thank you for all of your questions. somewhere partially answered in another question but some of the ones we did not get to there was a question about military spending, opioids

, department of education, armed police officers in schools. another on immigration and specifically the wall. campaign-finance and the environment. and elections and renewable energy which was answered partially in another question. freedom of the press as an issue on family planning. thank you for your interests and your attention and at this point we will go to closing statements from the candidates. they have two minutes mister wallace. wallace: thank you. i guess we need to have

another debate soon. that is a long list. thank you to the chamber of league of women voters for hosting and also allowing us to use the space. i think the choice that you have is pretty darn clear. we have someone who says he is a problem solver buy votes with donald trump 84 or 85 percent of the time. you cannot dress that up any other way that is a trump team player you have someone who has taken $1 million of corporate tax money when you get $50000 from the health insurance industry and a 100-dollar donation with a pre-existing condition wants help from congress who do you think congress will vote with? if it somebody from goldman sachs who will regulate taking money from exxon mobil? climate change?

and hasten the transition to a renewable energy future to protect those fossil fuel polluters? i offer an option someone that doesn't take corporate money if i get a donation from any person in this congressional district i match it dollar for dollar i will always work only for you never corporations i will work on the issues that i hear from you in town halls and affordable health care for all and work to reduce the cost of prescription drugs to allow the federal government to negotiate for lower drug prices. strong public education system and the gun violence and clean air and a healthy climate for america's future. thank you very much. fitzpatrick: if any of you run

for office i highly recommend not running against someone who has inherited $300 million. i want to read something to you as a woman i know it is like to be discriminated against and to be taxed tens of thousands of dollars that scott wallace has attacked my integrity and character are despicable because he knows it is a lie it's the only way he can win. those are not my words but his democratic opponent i will tell you that what we are a part of it is on trial right now and one thing i am a big believer we have such a rapid swing far left and far right the american people never get what they want which is at the core of the caucus that at some point it stopped in the middle. there are these percentages

that are ridiculously bogus numbers because by the way you ask anybody what obama score was last time you did not exhibit one - - existent was a creation this year but georgetown university all 3000 votes how sponsorships are built and how frequently are those with other parties? number one that he would never say that it doesn't help his campaign. the number one most independent freshmen congress managing to get them to have that spending endorsement in the chamber of commerce. with the gun safety group? national education association firefighters, everybody has

endorsed our campaign because we believe in bipartisanship and we don't need a hatfield and mccoy government but a centrist government for a centrist community that's what i offer you another term. [cheers and applause] . >> excuse me. we are almost there i will allow you to seconds to take a deep breath. i would like to thank our candidates for their participation and acknowledge them by a round of applause. [cheers and applause] also thank you to the audience for coming out this morning and at least trying to live up to your promise give yourselves a round of applause. [applause]

we all go to the voting booth on election day much more informed behalf of league of women voters and the county and the chamber of commerce thank you all and we encourage you to exercise your franchise and vote. good morning have a great day sa

was 2008 to campaign for barack obama. sen. harris: there is a lot of [cheers and applause] . >> how is it going paul county? are you ready to vote? i knowt'