First TV debate tonight for 25th Congressional District candidates
Syracuse Post-Standard
Mike McAndrew
October 6th, 2008
It won't be Biden vs. Palin. Or even Obama vs. McCain.
But the first televised debate between the 25th Congressional District candidates will be broadcast at 7 p.m. tonight on Time Warner's News10Now.
Republican Dale Sweetland, Democrat Dan Maffei, and Green Populist Howie Hawkins debated for about 54 minutes at 1 p.m. today before a crowd of about 50 mostly senior citizens at the Time Warner studio in DeWitt.
The AARP-sponsored debate focused primarily on the candidates' views about Social Security, saving for retirement, health care and the $700 billion bailout of Wall Street investment banks.
All three candidates vowed to stop the government's raiding of the nation's Social Security funds to pay for other government expenses; said they would oppose proposals to privatize Social Security benefits by allowing citizens to invest them in individual retirement accounts; and said they support letting Medicare negotiate lower prescription payments for senior citizens.
"People in (Sweetland's) party, John McCain on down, continue to support private accounts and privatization of Social Security. They continue to talk about how Social Security is going broke. Social Security is not going broke. Nobody in this room, no retired American currently, has anything to worry about their Social Security benefits," Maffei said. "We do have some challenges we have to address to make sure Social Security is there for my generation and subsequent generations."
Maffei was the only one of the trio who supported requiring employers to automatically enroll their employees in 401K retirement accounts to encourage them to save for retirement.
AARP supports having employers automatically enroll employees in the retirement savings accounts, according to Marilyn Pinsky, the AARP New York State president, one of the panelist who questioned the candidates.
"It's not the government's job, I don't believe, to say on the front end you must save this much and then live with the rest," Sweetland responded. "We can not penalize people because they need to take care of their families on the front end."
Hawkins said that 10 percent of corporate profits should be converted and used to pay for a national defined benefits pension fund for all American workers.
Hawkins was the only candidate who said he would support a single payer universal health insurance system run by the government. Maffei said he would support providing government-supplied health insurance for all children.
All three candidates criticized the $700 billion bailout of the Wall Street investment banks because they said that the legislation does not do enough to keep the CEOs from profiting and does not help millions of people facing foreclosure on their home mortgages.
"One of the things that reallly bothers me is that last week Congress had a chance to act like statesmen. They didn't do that," Sweetland said. "They added $110 billion dollars of pork to the economic bailout bill. And I was disappointed that Mr. Maffei also last Monday said I want to add $100 billion to it."
The debate lacked the drama of the recent vice presidential debate between Senator Joe Biden and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
The only audible reaction from the audience, a few seconds of laughter, came when Hawkins said, "I offer a real alternative. The paper says, 'He's run 13 times, he's lost 13 times.' We'll I have a clue for you. These two (Maffei and Sweetland) both lost their last elections, too. You have a choice between three losers."
Maffei lost his 2006 congressional race against incumbent Rep. James Walsh, R-Onondaga. Sweetland lost a 2007 Republican primary for Onondaga County executive to Joanie Mahoney.
Some of the other debate highlights:
Sweetland, on fixing Congress: "I decided to run for Congress for one basic reason. Washington is broken. Washington needs a new attitude. Washington spends way too much time pointing fingers at each other and at other people to find someone to blame for what goes on and what doesn't go on. This Congress especially this year, has proven it to me and proven it to you, that they don't act until there is a crisis. An energy crisis. An economic crisis. We need that attitude to change."
Maffei, on Sweetland's frequent criticisms of government: "It concerns me when you continue to bash government. (You say) that government has no role. But then you turn around Dale and say you 're against privatization of Social Security. Well Social Security is government. It may be the best government program ever devised. But it is government."
Hawkins, on his campaign: "I'm the only candidate who opposed the Wall Street bailouts from the start and who promotes the alternative of economic democracy for an economic recovery. I'm the only candidate that calls for universal health care through a single payer national health insurance system. I'm the only candidate who calls for an immediate withdrawal from Iraq, Iran Afghanistan and Pakistan and for investing the money from deep cuts in the military to build that green economy."
In addition to tonight's broadcast on News10Now, the debate will be posted on News10Now's website and broadcast on digital cable on News10Now on demand on R News on demand.
The other panelists who questioned the candidates at the debate were News10Now senior reporter Bill Carey and Rochester's R News anchor Jim Aroune.
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