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5TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES DEBATE GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN, GOVERNMENT SURVEILLANCE IN FIRST TELEVISED DEBATE
Candidates for the Massachusetts 5th District Congressional seat in the
2013 special election, left to right: State Sen. Will Brownsberger,
D-Belmont, State Sen. Katherine Clark, D-Melrose, Middlesex County
Sheriff Peter Koutoujian, of Waltham, State Rep. Carl Sciortino,
D-Medford, and State Sen. Karen Spilka, D-Ashland.
By Shira Schoenberg, The Republican on October 08, 2013 at 7:00 PM,
updated October 08, 2013 at 10:00 PM
With much agreement and a few skirmishes, five of the Democratic
candidates running for the 5th District congressional seat discussed
topics ranging from the federal government shutdown to U.S. government
surveillance in their first and only televised debate.
Tuesday's debate, which was broadcast on New England Cable News and
moderated by NECN's Jim Braude, came one week before voters head to
the polls for the Oct. 15 primary. The debate featured state Sens.
Karen Spilka, Katherine Clark and William Brownsberger, Middlesex
County Sheriff Peter Koutoujian and State Rep. Carl Sciortino. Several
times, Brownsberger was the odd man out, disagreeing with his opponents
on issues including negotiating with Republicans and an amendment
regarding government surveillance.
The candidates met as the federal government remained shut down for a
second week due to a budget dispute. Congressional Republicans refuse
to pass a spending bill that does not delay funding for Democratic
President Barack Obama's health care reform law, which Senate Democrats
will not agree to.
All the candidates but Brownsberger said they would not negotiate on
any Republican demands. "We cannot give in to extremist Republicans
who are holding our economy hostage," Clark said.
Spilka compared congressional Republicans to "a two year old having
a temper tantrum, when we tell the parents don't cave in." "What if
we went to Republicans and said we're not going to do a budget unless
you pass gun safety, unless you pass immigration reform?" Spilka said.
"They would not put up with that."
Brownsberger said he did not know the solution to a budget deal,
but he would be willing to negotiate on repealing the medical device
tax, a part of the Affordable Care Act that Brownsberger and several
Massachusetts politicians oppose, in order to prevent the country
from going over a financial cliff. "When push comes to shove, are you
going to let it go over the cliff?" Brownsberger asked his opponents.
Sciortino responded that he would support Obama if the president were
to rely on a constitutional provision to unilaterally raise the debt
ceiling - something Obama says he will not do.
Clark, Spilka, Koutoujian and Sciortino all disagreed with Obama's
willingness to means test Medicare and adopt a new formula that lowers
Social Security cost of living adjustments. Koutoujian suggested
raising the Social Security payroll cap, so the wealthy pay more
benefits - something all five Democrats then said they support. Clark
and Koutoujian talked about the need to rein in health care costs,
while Spilka said government can negotiate better prescription drug
prices and introduce standardized coding and billing.
Brownsberger would not support means testing, saying it introduces
a "whole new bureaucracy." He did not address Social Security, but
he has said in the past he would not necessarily oppose the use of
"chained CPI" in the context of Social Security reform.
All the candidates except Brownsberger said they would have
supported the Amash amendment, which would have stopped the National
Security Agency from blanket surveillance of Americans and allowed
the government to only collect phone records from people under
investigation. "There's always tension between our personal privacy
and civil liberties and security, and frankly, as a country, we've gone
too deep into the road of violating civil liberties," Sciortino said.
Brownsberger said the Amash amendment did not go far enough because
it only addressed collection of metadata, not collection of content
like actual emails. "We need a more comprehensive resolution," he said.
All the candidates criticized Brownsberger for refusing to oppose the
Keystone XL oil pipeline, a controversial pipeline that would carry
oil from the tar sands of Canada to the Gulf Coast. Brownsberger has
said the focus should be on reducing carbon emissions, not targeting
projects like Keystone that can be "regionally divisive."
Clark said Brownsberger is wrong. "The way we extract from the tar
sands is one of the dirtiest, most polluting (methods), and affects
climate change in a radical way," Clark said.
All the candidates agreed on the need to bring down the cost of college
education. Spilka said there should be interest-free student loans so
anyone who wants to go to college can. Sciortino suggested free public
higher education for qualified students. Koutoujian and Brownsberger
said they support Obama's plan to target federal money at colleges
that provide good value and have lower tuition. Brownsberger promoted
the use of online courses. Clark talked about the need to invest in
public education.
There were a few skirmishes. Brownsberger criticized Koutoujian for
voting for a resolution in the Massachusetts House that supported a
Supreme Court decision upholding an individual's right to own guns
for self-defense and striking down Washington, D.C.'s handgun ban.
Koutoujian said he is "no friend of the NRA" and they "won't like me
in Congress."
Browsnberger criticized Sciortino for "raising three quarters of
his money outside of the state." Sciortino attacked Brownsberger for
supporting the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, which allows
corporations to make unlimited political expenditures. Sciortino said
he is proud to have supporters around the country "who want to see
progressive leadership."
On foreign policy, all the candidates were reluctant to back military
action if negotiations with Syria over the country's chemical weapons
supply fall apart, though most of the candidates made clear that
their decisions would depend on circumstances.
Sciortino said military force should be "an absolute last resort," and
the current diplomatic solution gives him hope that the U.S. avoided
all-out war in the Middle East.
Asked whether they would support military intervention to prevent
genocide, Spilka, who lost family in the Holocaust and whose father
helped liberate the Buchenwald concentration camp, said in the case
of genocide, the U.S. should build up international support "so all
the countries go in together."
Koutoujian, the grandson of survivors of the Armenian genocide,
called genocide "an offense against humanity." "We all have to have
a stake in that game," Koutoujian said. "My people, Karen's people,
suffered because the world stood by while genocide was occurring."
http://www.masslive.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/10/democratic_congressional_candi.html
Candidates for the Massachusetts 5th District Congressional seat in the
2013 special election, left to right: State Sen. Will Brownsberger,
D-Belmont, State Sen. Katherine Clark, D-Melrose, Middlesex County
Sheriff Peter Koutoujian, of Waltham, State Rep. Carl Sciortino,
D-Medford, and State Sen. Karen Spilka, D-Ashland.
By Shira Schoenberg, The Republican on October 08, 2013 at 7:00 PM,
updated October 08, 2013 at 10:00 PM
With much agreement and a few skirmishes, five of the Democratic
candidates running for the 5th District congressional seat discussed
topics ranging from the federal government shutdown to U.S. government
surveillance in their first and only televised debate.
Tuesday's debate, which was broadcast on New England Cable News and
moderated by NECN's Jim Braude, came one week before voters head to
the polls for the Oct. 15 primary. The debate featured state Sens.
Karen Spilka, Katherine Clark and William Brownsberger, Middlesex
County Sheriff Peter Koutoujian and State Rep. Carl Sciortino. Several
times, Brownsberger was the odd man out, disagreeing with his opponents
on issues including negotiating with Republicans and an amendment
regarding government surveillance.
The candidates met as the federal government remained shut down for a
second week due to a budget dispute. Congressional Republicans refuse
to pass a spending bill that does not delay funding for Democratic
President Barack Obama's health care reform law, which Senate Democrats
will not agree to.
All the candidates but Brownsberger said they would not negotiate on
any Republican demands. "We cannot give in to extremist Republicans
who are holding our economy hostage," Clark said.
Spilka compared congressional Republicans to "a two year old having
a temper tantrum, when we tell the parents don't cave in." "What if
we went to Republicans and said we're not going to do a budget unless
you pass gun safety, unless you pass immigration reform?" Spilka said.
"They would not put up with that."
Brownsberger said he did not know the solution to a budget deal,
but he would be willing to negotiate on repealing the medical device
tax, a part of the Affordable Care Act that Brownsberger and several
Massachusetts politicians oppose, in order to prevent the country
from going over a financial cliff. "When push comes to shove, are you
going to let it go over the cliff?" Brownsberger asked his opponents.
Sciortino responded that he would support Obama if the president were
to rely on a constitutional provision to unilaterally raise the debt
ceiling - something Obama says he will not do.
Clark, Spilka, Koutoujian and Sciortino all disagreed with Obama's
willingness to means test Medicare and adopt a new formula that lowers
Social Security cost of living adjustments. Koutoujian suggested
raising the Social Security payroll cap, so the wealthy pay more
benefits - something all five Democrats then said they support. Clark
and Koutoujian talked about the need to rein in health care costs,
while Spilka said government can negotiate better prescription drug
prices and introduce standardized coding and billing.
Brownsberger would not support means testing, saying it introduces
a "whole new bureaucracy." He did not address Social Security, but
he has said in the past he would not necessarily oppose the use of
"chained CPI" in the context of Social Security reform.
All the candidates except Brownsberger said they would have
supported the Amash amendment, which would have stopped the National
Security Agency from blanket surveillance of Americans and allowed
the government to only collect phone records from people under
investigation. "There's always tension between our personal privacy
and civil liberties and security, and frankly, as a country, we've gone
too deep into the road of violating civil liberties," Sciortino said.
Brownsberger said the Amash amendment did not go far enough because
it only addressed collection of metadata, not collection of content
like actual emails. "We need a more comprehensive resolution," he said.
All the candidates criticized Brownsberger for refusing to oppose the
Keystone XL oil pipeline, a controversial pipeline that would carry
oil from the tar sands of Canada to the Gulf Coast. Brownsberger has
said the focus should be on reducing carbon emissions, not targeting
projects like Keystone that can be "regionally divisive."
Clark said Brownsberger is wrong. "The way we extract from the tar
sands is one of the dirtiest, most polluting (methods), and affects
climate change in a radical way," Clark said.
All the candidates agreed on the need to bring down the cost of college
education. Spilka said there should be interest-free student loans so
anyone who wants to go to college can. Sciortino suggested free public
higher education for qualified students. Koutoujian and Brownsberger
said they support Obama's plan to target federal money at colleges
that provide good value and have lower tuition. Brownsberger promoted
the use of online courses. Clark talked about the need to invest in
public education.
There were a few skirmishes. Brownsberger criticized Koutoujian for
voting for a resolution in the Massachusetts House that supported a
Supreme Court decision upholding an individual's right to own guns
for self-defense and striking down Washington, D.C.'s handgun ban.
Koutoujian said he is "no friend of the NRA" and they "won't like me
in Congress."
Browsnberger criticized Sciortino for "raising three quarters of
his money outside of the state." Sciortino attacked Brownsberger for
supporting the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, which allows
corporations to make unlimited political expenditures. Sciortino said
he is proud to have supporters around the country "who want to see
progressive leadership."
On foreign policy, all the candidates were reluctant to back military
action if negotiations with Syria over the country's chemical weapons
supply fall apart, though most of the candidates made clear that
their decisions would depend on circumstances.
Sciortino said military force should be "an absolute last resort," and
the current diplomatic solution gives him hope that the U.S. avoided
all-out war in the Middle East.
Asked whether they would support military intervention to prevent
genocide, Spilka, who lost family in the Holocaust and whose father
helped liberate the Buchenwald concentration camp, said in the case
of genocide, the U.S. should build up international support "so all
the countries go in together."
Koutoujian, the grandson of survivors of the Armenian genocide,
called genocide "an offense against humanity." "We all have to have
a stake in that game," Koutoujian said. "My people, Karen's people,
suffered because the world stood by while genocide was occurring."
http://www.masslive.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/10/democratic_congressional_candi.html