among larger players in this framework, some of the things the jets is doing. what can the government do? obviously vulnerability can spread throughout the infrastructure. >> we have to separate the two key things, what smaller firms are building and are they building security into those things and what are firms using and operating the firemen securely. in both of those places you can see the key huge challenge in

small firms. the request for information in february which is the government's way of having a conversation with the industry about how do we help small and medium-sized businesses and i can say there were not a lot of clear answers. if you are a small company and you are an innovative start making up new software applications, you can postpone some of the security risks. some of those don't seem as important because you have other risks. you never know, you might run out of pizza tomorrow. i don't think anyone has cracked the code. we are partnering with the small business administration to try to reach out to small business and see how we can offer, a stay tuned, there are no great answers yet. >> other questions from the audience? >> people brought up trust which

is a relevant piece. professionals think about the user. the questions that i want to ask which is relevant to the size of the organization is we have a lot of trust in things like protocols, some significant challenges to them and one of the unspoken things was a round certificate authorities and protecting and revoking security and that is the level of the company's up there and to hear some thoughts and ideas of what is going on at that level of fundamental things that are sending -- something big dogs can do that relevant to you? >> i like the middle of trust and verify, protocols and d s f but i do not trust that there are no vulnerabilities in these protocols. that is why we build extra -- to

give problems, in the protocol, there is a certificate exchange that is an important part of that insignificant ecosystem that has shown flaws and i totally felt something called cert pending which goes one step further and in general you might except this certificate has been issued by one of these authority's, we noticed a certificate authority is compromised and they end up issuing certificates to the bad guys so we do some extra checks and it shows -- it lead us to detecting users that were being targeted. at the root of it was a compromise certificate authority. a specific example, i do think as an engineer and somebody who started her career finding bugs

i trust very little and assume there are bugs and i get my kicks out of finding them. i expect they are there and you hope that somebody can't change together all of the bugs and a trip off something. >> chrome providing -- leverage that is well so the entire ecosystem, in terms of using core library -- and across the industry and sponsoring additional resources and minimizing the threat area, a model of vogue and implementations are pretty good and that there could be problems it responds very quickly to these issues. >> the identity ecosystem is a place where there's a great opportunity for adoption of

existing practices and enhancements on how to use it to manage across the ecosystem. one thing that is hardware based roots of trust. sometimes when people say identity, what we are talking about, what is the identity associated with a piece of data or an application or operating system, what is the identity associated with that hardware and how can you combine those elements of trust to get the user experience of intrusted system and trusted experience from potentially parts where the components -- >> a lot of fans apologized for that. thank you to our online audience and thank you for the panel. >> today's national league of cities releases its annual

report with physical conditions in u.s. cities. at 10:00 a.m. eastern the white house council of economic advisers chair joins mayors and city leaders to discuss the report. live coverage on c-span2. an noon eastern the killer institute examined self driving cars. that is live as well c-span2. >> here are a few comments we have recently received from our viewers. >> i am a nurse and i just watched c-span regarding our trips to liberia in regards to is the ebola virus. i am ok with that. however i really do believe that the only way to keep americans safe is to prevent anybody

coming over from liberia to the united states. and we don't have a vaccine yet for the ebola virus and it can and american does become ill and dies because of it, it is not available to the american people, keeping us safe. >> i am a retired nurse practitioner and i must say in listening essentials the to the medical experts speak on tv to the american public i am shocked, completely, inaccurate comments, that one concern about contagious and this is a

patient, some viruses, the most contagious before the day, before they even show symptoms. i checked with enough local college to find out you are right. it sounds like a lot of people are confronting that with information. >> what happened is the united states is not prepared to deal with this in an efficient way, homeland security is not efficient, and the transportation security administration did not do its job in dr. oz hospital to which this man went do his job, seems to me people from dangerous areas should be not allowed to come to the united states or be quarantined or allowed to put in a special force to undergo a

medical examination up on getting off the plane. >> continue to let us know what you think about the programs you're watching. call 202-26-3400. e-mail us at comments@c-span.org or send a tweet to c-span/comments, like us on facebook, follow us on twitter. >> the first debate between senator mark pryor, his republican challenger tom cotton. this debate also includes the two third party candidates, libertarian nathan lafayette and mark sweeney. the political reports recently released as a tossup. it is 90 minutes. ♪

>> moderator: welcome to debate week, the arkansas educational television network. i am steve barnes. we are in the reynolds performance hall of the university of central arkansas. at this hour the race for a seat in the united states senate. the contestants, u.s. rep tom cotton, the republican nominee, mr. nathan lafrance representing the green party, mark pryor, the democratic nominee and mr. at the 11, from the green party. nominees will be questioned by panel of arkansas journalists. moro glenn morris of arkansas business, greg thompson of northwest arkansas media.

each candidate will have two minutes for an opening statement. each will have 1 minute and 50 seconds to respond to a question. rebuttals are limited to one minute. at the conclusion of the broadcast each candidate will have two minutes for closing statements. the order of the opening statements questioning rebuttals and closing statements was determined prior to the appearance tonight by drawing in which candidates could representatives participated. our timekeeper is elizabeth lewis and our first opening statement comes from mr. sweeney. sweeney: thank you for watching this debate. i am with the green party. the green party is the only progressive political party in the senate debate. the green party has core principles that distinguish itself from other parties. sometimes i hear people say they think the green party is like

the democrats. this is not the case. the green party has three principles we believe very strongly in. that got a lot of our positions on the issues, they are peace, social justice and protecting the environment. early in his first term as a senator senator mark pryor was a strong supporter of the iraq war. that war in 2003 cost 4,477 lives of our finest americans come added more than a trillion dollars to the national debt and did nothing to protect the united states of america. the green party believes it is immoral and wrong to hire people to work and not paid them enough money to live during the time that they are working. because of that we support a living wage which is more than a minimum wage. but senator mark pryor can't even supported the party's call for increasing the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour.

really wants to go as far as a dollars and $0.25 an hour. the green party believes climate change is the most serious problem facing the planet and carbon tax is the first step to address this problem. mark pryor voted for a bill in congress that had it passed would have prevented congress from even discussing a carbon tax. these adjust some of the differences with the green party and the democratic party. >> moderator: mark pryor, two minutes. pryor: thank you for allowing me to be your senator and i want to say 12 years ago you sent me to washington to work in a bipartisan way, in america and arkansas. we have done a lot of good things to get there from saving jobs to funding research at arkansas state, making a police say for our children after shrinking the size of the

federal government but the same time honoring the commitment we made to our veterans. i believe i represent the best state in the union and the best people in america and i also believe we have a lot at stake in this election. i don't know if you heard the audio but several months ago tom cotton went to a luxury resort in california to spend time with his billionaire donors. there is an audio tape on this where they brag about him as they introduce him for a farm bill. is a vote against arkansas. you can hear the motion on the tape, and he is not listening to you. he is listening to them. and those dollar signs are in his eyes. congressman, and allowed his ambition to get the best of him. he will do anything, say anything, vote however pecan, so he can get their money to win

this race. this is all i ever had is you, the people of arkansas. you prayed for me, you have given me the courage to keep going and set the course and given me direction. that is why i am asking you for your vote on nov. fourth. and arkansas is moving. that is what i mean a hart senate office building nice a arkansas comes first. lafrance: and like to thank the university of central arkansas for hosting this debate. it is an honor to be here among other candidates for the u.s. senate. during this debate, you'll find a distinct dichotomy between myself and the libertarian party platform and the other three candidates for the u.s. senate. what i mean is the the republicans, democrats have their own issues they focus on,

there and interest groups that influence washington, all three parties have one common goal, to grow the size of the federal government. it is to consolidate, control and power over our lives in washington d.c. because that control means more money from special-interest groups for campaigns and continuous cycle that needs to end and end now. the overarching goal of my platform is to take this consolidated power in washington d.c. and diffuse it down to the state level, the county level, to your communities because this is america and this was founded on local government and very limited federal government. now we have a federal government that has a deficit of over $18 trillion. the federal government, republicans and democrats have control over the past ten years

and no matter which party was in power we saw spending growing deficit grow. it needs to end and end now. what i will bring to arkansas and the rest of the country is a voice in washington for true limited government. i will cut the federal government, and turned at power back to you and the your local communities. >> moderator: thank you, mr. cotton. cotton: as i travel around the state of arkansas listen to a stuck -- truck driver and eldorado to a nurse in hot springs to a farmer in junksborough. they're frustrated with washington and they should be. i haven't been in washington very long but i've been there long enough to know it needs to change. washington could use more of the common sense i learned growing up on my parents' farm. washington could use more of the

traits are sought in display in iraq, leadership and courage as a combat infantry officer. washington is not work and some for arkansas families. wages a down, prices are. obamacare is a disaster. national debt is almost $18 trillion. parents are worried about the kind of future we leave our kids. so am i.. we were so excited last week to announce we are expecting our first child, and a baby boy. we want to make sure our baby has the same future we all had. not a country that is poor with less opportunity and less secure. unfortunately that is the kind of future barack obama's policies promise because he failed us in arkansas. mark prior note and loyally supported the obama agenda. roading with barack obama 93% of the time, casting a decisive vote for obamacare, avoiding -- voting every single penny of new deficit spending. barack obama doesn't offer a lot to rural america, a state like arkansas. i agree. i don't understand why he would vote for him 93% of the time.

barack obama said his policies are on the ballot, every single one of them. i agree with that too. in arkansas those policies are called mark prior. as you listen i hope you agree there's a better way. let's get our economy moving. let's repeal obamakaren start over with health care reform, balance the budget, rebuild our military and stop terrorists before they attacked us here again. if you are ready for change i am ready to serve. >> moderator: our first question goes to mark pryor. >> lot of our conscience are turned off by negative attack ads in this campaign especially those from outside groups. a lot of what these briefs are having. citizens united ruling was key. what do you think? pryor: i'm turn not on the negative don't as well. i wish that these outside groups

that set the tone, super pac and citizens united set the tone about 20 months ago, they spend $20 million on television trying to get me out of the senate, to get my opponent into the senate seat and you have to ask why and the answer is very clear, that is what you see in this campaign playing out on your tv screens in mailboxes is a business transaction. you have congressman tom cotton who goes out here to hang out with his friends, his billionaire supporters in the california resort. there is more on that audio tape by mentioned a few moments ago. there is the defense in there where he is in a room and face a you are in a room full of investors. why should we invest in you. that sums up the race for a well. i never heard it stated so clearly. they are investing in tom cotton like they would invest in the company. they want to get a payback on disinvestment and they will.

if he's elected to the senate they will get six years of paydays. you will do things like cut social security, increase the age to 70 on medicare and social secret, the against farm bills, did things like that, the savings over here, then turn around and give them enormous tax breaks over it there. so congressman tom cotton is a good investment for them and that is why they spent $20 million on television trying to buys this senate seat but ladies and gentlemen, you know what? this sheet is not for sale. doesn't have the title to this seat, you do. is that? went to senator to listen to you, i am the man. mark pryor, look forward to having your vote. >> moderator: mr. l afriends. >> i have not heard a single spot nick and he adds in the state of arkansas so i am sure a lot of television viewers here will appreciate that. you can turn on the tv today without seeing a half dozen of

these ads every 30 minutes program. it is a shame because the negative ads are not informing voters of arkansas about what senator mark pryor or congress and tom cotton are going to do for them. their mere attacks on each other. they are not discussing the real issues whether it is an attack ad or personal ad shown down the street or doing whatever. that is not telling you of the voter what they're going to do view in washington because that is what matters in the end. what they are going to do for you. i can tell you i will work for you, arkansans, every single day in the united states senate. the fact that i don't have big donors and i don't have a lot of influence from outside parties, people that donate, hundreds of thousands, millions of dollars, the special-interest groups, super pac saw not doing it out of the kindness of their heart. they're doing it for a return on

their investment just like a business would. for the democratic and republican candidates, who ever would win if they were to, they would expect that return on investment through their votes in their favor. there is no such influence with myself as a libertarian party candidate. i will work for you. you don't have to be a big-time doughnut to call my office or visit me in washington to talk about the issues because every single arkansans every day will have access to me as the united states senator. >> moderator: thank you. tom cotton. cotton: arkansans have a very tough in the obama economy. the last thing they want to hear about politicians whining about negative ads on tv. i have dr. oz real bullish on the streets of baghdad. metaphorical bullets on a political campaign. what troubles me is that he arkansans are facing because of the obama mark pryor economy. mark pryor voted 90% of the time with barack obama and

unfortunately that meant real hardship for arkansans. a couple in eldorado i've met on the campaign trail few weeks ago. two income family, they both have jobs, young children, they had to sell their mortgage and move in with their parents because the cost of their health insurance increased so much. all arkansans who are struggling to find a job or whose wages are not what they might hope. look at where we have coming six years under barack obama. we created 28,000 full-time jobs in arkansas yet we have added 88,000 people to the food stamp rolls. 60,000 people dropped out of the work force altogether because they are so discouraged they don't want to look for work. think of what obamacare has done. 2.5 million jobs. in arkansas we can expect to see a premium increase, 130%. mark pryor voted to cut medicare by $700 billion to pay for

obamacare. arkansas seniors, 4,000 medicare advantage plans canceled. i saw one last week in south arkansas, got a cancellation notice because of those cuts. time and time again mark pryor rubberstamp to barack obama's big government agenda. a vote for mark pryor is a vote for more of barack obama's policies. >> moderator: thank you. mark sweeney. sweeney: i am glad you asked that question. a very good question. i am not disturbed by the negative content of these ads that come from out of state but i.m. disturbed by the citizens united decision that made them possible and inflated the huge sums of money that are now devoted to these campaigns. the green party is very opposed to this particular decision of the supreme court, citizens united, because it leads to the concept of corporate person would. the idea that a pile of papers equal to an actual flesh and blood human being.

this is something we are very strongly opposed to. as a result we are in favor of and support a constitutional amendment that would change the constitution define human beings to be natural flesh and blood persons and nothing else. and see this decision overturned. the second decision that would be overturned by such a constitutional amendment would be the hobby lobby decision which we think it's a very bad decision and goes into the realm of imagination, flights of fancy by the supreme court where they imagine a court oration can have religious feelings. this is simply into the realm of the ridiculous. corporations already have a number of tremendous advantages over natural persons and if we add to that by giving them even more advantages we are all going to be building ourselves in a bad life to live so we oppose citizens united decision and

supporting constitutional amendment to repeal it. >> moderator: for rebuttal, mark pryor. pryor: let me say the negative ads in my view are bad for our system. they said people's confidence in our government and the problem with this information these ads created not good for the system. let me say there are two things you never want to see any political campaign when it comes to money. you don't want to see unlimited money, you don't want to see secret money and that is what you have with citizens united and the it is bad for the system, corot's is, money as a corrosive effect, we are seeing it in arkansas. we see it, around two to four years so understates have seen it but it is the first time and it is an ugly picture. i voted to change this system and i will continue to work to change this system. the fact that the supreme court has said that citizens united can allow secret money and unlimited money, i think that is bad and what it does is it

diminishes the voice of real people and real arkansans and that is not good for the system. >> moderator: next question from glenn morris to mr. lafrance. >> i feel sorry for people who don't have bidi ares because whenever i accidentally watch one of these political ads i feel dirty. some of some of party been called out for multiple pinocchios and pants on fire and yet they keep going forward and some of these are not from outside groups, some of these are from the candidates on campaign. on the same lines what is the responsibility that you as a candidate have for the tone of your ads and are you responsible for making sure that your ads don't leave the voters misled about your position on issues that are of critical importance in their lives? lafrance: the citizens united

decision was definitely a tumultuous one in that we now have all of these groups in state, out of state, the don't have to reveal where the money is coming from, they can air attack ads on whoever they want, spend however much they want. personally, i think that the ads the we air, television, radio, should be informing the voters of arkansas what we would do while in office. the negative ads are just that. they are usually misleading people or they take a single statistic and blow it out of proportion and that is not right. is not fair to the voters who are trying to make an informed decision on election day. unfortunately, with the supreme court decision, right now there's not a lot that and be done all the like can say as a candidate i would encourage my other candidates to do the same,

i would come out publicly and specifically said i do not want this kind of support for mike and he. i do not want attack ads running against my opponent in many more for my campaign. i don't think that is the right way to run a campaign and i don't think it is informative to the american people. arkansans -- don't want to hear politicians whining and tv or radio or elsewhere. they want to. solutions and barack obama hasn't offered those solutions. mark pryor said he doesn't have allowed to offer. if he keeps voting with the 93%. here is what we need to do to address the real problems facing arkansans, high unemployment or underemployment, we need to get back to basics and balance the budget and has a balanced budget amendment which i support. we need to get the economy going. >> are you asking my question about what your job as a

candidate is. are you doing talking points? is it your responsibility as a candidate to make sure your ads are not misleading? >> i have to allow him to go ahead. we have no provision for a follow-up question. do you want to go ahead? cotton: i am proud of the campaign we have run. is talking about solutions without trying to balance the budget, passing a balanced budget, get our economy going denzel we can put more people back to work, not on food stamp rolls which is what happened in the obama mark pryor economy. 24,000 full-time jobs that 88,000 people on food stamps, real wages falling by 5% or what is at a nationwide, the top 5%, people live on assets and investments said doing attended the obama mark pryor economy seeing their incomes go down but people who live off of their labor, have to work to put food on the table have seen their incomes decline.

mark pryor always stands with barack obama for higher taxes and lower spending. more big government regulatory programs. i don't think that is right for arkansas and that is why i don't think arkansans will cast a vote for mark pryor because if they vote for mark pryor they're voting for barack obama. ..

i am opposed that the green party is opposed to the death penalty. this subject has not been discussed much in the senate race but i want everybody to know that i am opposed to the death penalty. and when i am lucky enough to be elected, i will work hard to eliminate the devastatingly in the federal system. i wanted to make a statement in case i didn't get a chance to say so otherwise. thank you. >> moderator: mr. pryor. pryor: thank you. gwen moritz, i want to thank you for the question because i'm responsible for the content of my own television ads, and one of the differences in the two campaigns here and members of the me know this is when ever we released an ad, we provide documentation to that add, or the fact that it's in there, every statement, we put the context in there. this is something i sat down with my campaign team on day one and i said look, one of the things we want to see about this campaign is integrity. the people of the state of arkansas deserved that.

they deserve honesty when it comes to campaigning. one thing you just heard about from my opponent and one thing you see on this ad is his rhetoric is very clever. that's a great for advancing his political career. that's going to help him climb the political ladder, but the problem is arkansans are smarter than that. our voters in arkansas are amazingly independent and smart voters. time and again you will see, in fact i can talk from experience in some of my racist. back in 2002, i won the state very big and so did mike huckabee. you can find these kind of election results in basically every given election cycle. people don't like to be told about a bunch of misinformation and that information. most people i talk to when they now see the ads come on television, they hit the mute

button. i hear that over and over and over. like i said in my previous answer, it's not good for our system. we need to change this. we need to get to get the u.s. supreme court to reverse citizens united argued campaign finance reform or amend the constitution to make sure this doesn't happen in the future. >> moderator: mr. lafrance. lafrance: thank you for the opportunity for a rebuttal. again i would just reiterate what i already stated, that is that the money being donated, not money being donated by people like you and i, $25, but the money being donated by the large special interest groups, by the unions, by the wealthy individuals, wall street banks, big corporations across the country, that money is not being donated to these campaigns because they have a strong political beliefs or because they think it's the right thing to do. they are making an investment, and every candidate that they throw money at.

that's an investment that you and i and the rest of the people across this country cannot afford to make. so our voices are not heard in washington. i'm going to change that. there is no special interest influence in my campaign, and i will work every day for you, the people of arkansas, and no one else try for next question comes from mr. thompson goes first to mr. cotton. >> mr. cotton, there's open war in syria and iraq. there's something that looks a whole lot like a declared war going on in ukraine. and our soldiers for a couple decades, our service personnel have all branches of service have been asked a lot, ranging from extended deployment, it is often very expensive. what strategies should we have to contain these threats such as these that can be applied in a

bipartisan manner to over a long course of time that we can afford? cotton: the most fundamental responsibility of our government is to keep america safe. and barack obama's foreign policy of weakness, hesitation and a decision has made america face greater risks in the world. unfortunately, mark pryor has been rubberstamping that foreign policy. but if you look at what's happening in iraq with the islamic state, they are rampaging across the region. they're killing americans, crucify christians, burying people alive. this is happening because of barack obama failed to take the vice of his generals in 2011 when asked for a small stay behind force. not a frontline trigger pullers like a soldier in iraq when we're fighting the precursor of the islamic state, al-qaeda and iraq, the trainers,

planners, advisors. because of that decision we lost our luggage with the iraqi government. we called into question the trustworthiness of the united states among allies in the region, and we allowed al-qaeda and iraq to recruit. and moved is your duty to finish of the vacuum. they're not just a terrorist group. they are a terrorist army. they are the most well-financed or cassation potential in modern times. if we don't stop them they are going to continue to rampage across the middle east and they could attack here in the united states. there the united states. theithere only when his releasem captivity last decade since i will see you guys in new york. the president does have an effective military strategy. he has a political strategy to get us beyond november 4. what we need is to take it seriously, and no commander-in-chief would ever take any option off the ground, including boots on the ground. because the islami islamic statt certainly isn't taking any options off the table. barack obama does that, or prior once again rubberstamps his failed policies.

>> moderator: mr. cotton, thank you. mr. swanee. swaney: it's a very difficult situation. could go on and on about why you think the situation got so bad and what could have been done differently, i think that war is generally a bad idea. i usually don't support it but i'm not a pacifist and i believe there are two reasons that i personally will support military action. one of those is to defend the united states against attack, and a second one is to put an end to mass human rights violations. it's my judgment that the situation in syria and iraq with isis needs -- meets both those try to. and i support military action to destroy isis. i think congressman todd was cracked when he listed the vast quantities of human rights violations in committed by these

people, reported by into the observers from all over. but i think that congress did authorize it and i think we need to seek support from the united nations that i think we need to seek support from other islamic countries and i think that support also should go to helping to defray the cost of this because isis is the threat to the entire world, not merely to the united states. briefly speaking about ukraine, we have no business messing around there. i have a strong suspicion that we initiated a problem and it's a blowback case. if the russians are trying to influence a group of people in mexico, to deliver over the election government and put in a government in mexico that was hostile to the united states will be upset. i think we need to be working constructively with the russians. we have common enemies and we need to be working constructively with the chinese. we have common enemies. >> moderator: thank you. mr. pryor.

pryor: before and after this question, congressman, let me say thank you for your service. let me talk about isis for a moment. i want to be clear about this. minor one priority and send it to keep america safe from terrorism. and isis is a terrorist organization. but they're basically a terrorist army. we must meet threats like this head on. isis -- that's what i support the airstrikes in order to damage isis, and we have to destroy their capability to harm america. whenever it comes to something like this i have three criteria. this isn't new. this isn't something i created in the campaign but this is something i've thought about poverty in my first month innocent when president bush was in office. first, there must be a clear national security threat. second, there must be a clear mission with a definable and attainable goals, and that means we know when we hit and instead,

in other words, when the job is done. and third there must be an international coalition preferably with regional partners in their who are bearing the burden alongside americans, and putting themselves at risk just like americans are in harm's way. i'm not quite sure what congressman cotton's criteria is what comes to some electors but it seems he's arguing for a more open ended commitment in iraq. one of the interesting things about his voting record is he is for nation building. he voted to do things like send billions in places like afghanistan for schools and roads and hospitals but he's voted to cut schools, roads and hospitals here in arkansas. i believe for us to be strong at home, for us to be strong abroad, we have to be strong at home. >> moderator: to mr. lafrance. lafrance: thank you very much. again i would also like to thank representative cotton forest service but it's greatly appreciated. when it comes to isis and the terrorist threat in the middle

east, i think as americans we need to take a pause, to go look in the mirror and realize a lot of this is her own doing. this began with the bush administration decision to invade iraq and overthrow saddam hussein with no plan about what to do after that happened. that left a significant power vacuum that was filled 10 years later dealing with. we helped install prime minister that was very discriminatory against certain factions in iraq that did not bring the country together. he was our guy and he helped to divide the country even further. and affect isis has gained such a stronghold there because there's such decisions and because so many iraqis don't trust their own government. they would rather trust someone associate with her own religious sect. so isis being what it is now is a threat. i think we need to take some action but it's not unilateral. this has to be an international

effort, middle eastern countries, european countries, the united states and others, to ensure that we defeat this threat and then allow these countries that have been dealing with wars within their borders for years and decades to finally heal. to finally have democracy, to finally have some self control over their own future and their own government. i think that's a way to approach this. now, representative cotton, i do disagree with him on some foreign policy issues. one major one was his support of barack obama's effort to interact with syria last year. barack obama wanted to bomb syria, armed syrian rebels, even though a third of those rebels were terrorists. and tom cotton supported that, while 500 to one arkansas and oppose the. i think tom cotton is wrong on foreign affairs and i think i would provide safety and security for america.

>> moderator: thank you. for rebuttal, mr. cotton. cotton: when your income but you learn basic lessons and those don't just apply on the front lines. the applied among nations but when we go into new sector in baghdad, we would set up a security perimeter if you look hard and tough, your enemies will think you are hard and tough. but if you pull up in your lollygag around, get out any weapon training by your second you will look soft and people will take a strike at you. barack obama has made america look weak and soft in the world. senator pryor has been weak and unstable incomes are safety institute. a year ago when i was a lonely voice calling for action against our enemies in syria, senator pryor after hillary clinton called and asked to support said no. four months ago he wrote an amendment that would've prohibited the very action he voted to support just last month. which is supporting syrian opposition forces against the islamic state but i don't know what changed in the meantime but maybe barack obama said he needed is no. whenever barack obama says he

needs of senator pryor spoke, he gets his abode. >> there's been talk about food stamps today, and the farm bill passed this year, includes funding for the supplement and nutritional assistance program, commonly known as food stamps. they have been linked for decades. should they be linked? swaney: yes, i think so. farm bill is worth $100 a year, about $80 billion is set for the pro gun and i support that food stamp program and i believe that food stamp program should stay in the farm bill because the money goes to farmers that grow the food that the americans. and actually find it offensive that people in congress who give away sometimes hundreds of billions of dollars worth of revenge to the richest people in this country and started our federal government of needed

revenue don't do anything about the effect that has on our deficit. on the other hand, seem to think it's just terrible that some americans are getting food to eat and the people that grew that food are getting paid money to do that. i think that's unconscionable. i think it's wrong, and i do support the food stamp program and i support it being part of this farm bill. there's other aspects the remainder of the funding of the farm bill i have differences about. i think too much o of the remainder of the money in the farm bill does go to wealthy farmers and not enough to the less well-off farmers but i also think it does make the right priority choices for agribusiness in terms of the environmental choices that are agribusiness uses. i think there could be improvements in the farm bill but i do not wish to see if divorced from food stamps. >> moderator: thank you, sir. mr. pryor. pryor: the farm bill is a very important piece of legislation for arkansas.

in fact, i think you could argue that of any bill that congress passes in any given five year period, the farm bill is probably the most important to arkansas. it covers about 24% of arkansas' economy because about 25% of our economy is agricultural, acrylate. there's a clear difference in the two of us in this race because congressman cotton a vote against the farm bill. is the only member of the arkansas delegation to do that. every indicator that i ever received from anybody in arkansas was that we should support this legislation because it's good for arkansas. let me tell you something. this is not just about the farmers. so much of this legislation is about the world america. things like rural electricity, rural water, world broadband, all of those things are in the farm bill. we need the farm bill to pass to the rural arkansas stay

competitive and connected in the global economy. yes, specifically about -- you asked specifically about the food stamp program, and my opponent as we all know is talking about the food stamps and other president has hijacked the food stamp bill. i think that's why today "the wall street journal" or "the new york times" this week ran a little cartoon where they give out fake nobel prizes, and the when they get to congressman cotton with a political fiction but it was because of his ads like that that just don't connect to the real issues in arkansas. his rhetoric is very good. he talks a good game but the truth is, that does not help arkansas farmers but that doesn't the people in rural arkansas or rural america. >> moderator: to mr. lafrance. lafrance: thank you, sir. as for food stems being associated with the farm bill, i'd like to solve that problem by eliminating the farm bill. by eliminating the food stamp program. nowhere in the constitution and our founding fathers gave the

federal government the authority to take in, come to take wealth from today to earnings from one person or one group and give it to other people at their own discretion. that's not freedom and that's not an american quality. i believe issues such as helping of those struggling to meet ends meet and have food on the table, or helping people with housing, these kind of issues should be dealt with in the private sector by private charitable organizations. at the american people keep their tax money. let us decide what causes our best to get to, not politicians in washington.

they get doled out to supporters, people donate to their campaigns. it's wrong. the federal government and elected officials have no business and taking our money and deciding to give to other people at their own discretion. we the american people are smart enough, compassionate enough to make those decisions are so. we will give our money the best run journal or position to help the most people, most efficiently, rather having it confiscated by washington politicians and doled out to ever they please. that's wrong and if i'm elected i'm going to work to fix it therefore to mr. cotton. cotton: i think we need a real farm bill that focuses on farmers and the food stamp reform bill. i voted for those bills in congress. senator pryor and barack obama insist on doing things the old way, keeping them combined. that's the status quo. if you're happy with the status quo with $18 trillion in debt,

and that's probably the way you want it but i want to solve problems. i grew up on our parents small farming -- family farm. i think my mom was sick and tired of being my dads for fans i went out their early. smaller than a square to either kick into the back of a truck. i learned a lot of lessons from my parents on the phone to one is you can't keep spending more money and you take them. i learned enough to live within your means. you have to live below your means because you have to say for a rainy day. that's what we need to be doing in washington, d.c. we need a farm bill that is focused on the needs of farmers and i voted for one. we also need a food stamp bill that focus on giving people the help they need without the waste and abuse, with institutional fraud you see from a lot of liberal states like illinois or massachusetts that game the system so they can more people on food stamps. we don't have a problem in arkansas but guess what?

your tax payer dollars are paid for. the farm bill that ended up passing was a bad deal for arkansas farmers and taxpayers. it was almost a trillion dollars. the food stamp program has grown under barack obama by almost 70%. arkansas farmers can only expect to get one half of 1% of the benefit of that bill. almost 75% of cattlemen like my family, other livestock producers can expect to get nothing but i think that's a bad deal and that's why once again a vote for mark pryor is a vote for the failed barack obama policies. >> moderator: to mr. swaney, rebuttal. swaney: well, it's an interesting discussion. talking about the national debt and the cost of running the federal government. i often believe the republican party for one reason and one reason only and that is to ensure that rich people pay the lowest possible tax. they do that by starving the federal government of revenue, that's driving up our national

debt to they did that by reducing the capital gain tax. they did that by eliminating the inheritance tax. they did that by refusing to pass new tax. they did that with the tax cuts but they did that by allowing corporation to keep trillions offshore so that enough to attacks by bring it back to the united states. yet at the same people find it unhappy that they need to reduce spending by taking money from the women's infants and children's program. these are people who don't care if babies starve. they love their ideology more than they love human beings. >> moderator: next question from gwen moritz and it goes first to mr. pryor. >> if you are elected or in your case, reelected, what would you like to see happen to the affordable care act? please include in your answer exactly what affect your proposal would have on the 2000 arkansans were not injured by

the arkansas private auction and those who have employer-sponsored plans. pryor: thank you for the question but i do want to talk about the specifics in just a moment, but please remember that before the affordable care act past, people in arkansas could be and were routinely denied health insurance if they had a preexisting condition. in fact, they were one bad diagnosis, one medical emergency away from bankruptcy. back then the insurance companies had all the power. we needed to put patients back in charge of their health care. i do support changes to the law. i do, but i don't want to go back to those days. mike kohn, congressman cotton, has already voted to go back to those days. is only voted to allow interest companies to deny people with pre-existing conditions to be denied coverage for health insurance companies. this is important to me. a few weeks ago i was intergenic i came up to me and gave me a

big hug and he said thank you for voting for the affordable care act. he said, i'm a diabetic. i have not had private health insurance in 15 years, but now i do. congressman cotton wants to take that away from him. i don't. some of the things specific about the private option i think we need to keep the private option. i want to give a lot of credit to the republican legislature and the democratic governor who worked together to get that worked out. i hope you keep the private option. right now we have well over 200,000 arkansans on the private option and about 40,000 or so on the exchange. that is about 250,000 arkansans that have private insurance today that didn't have a year ago. is. >> moderator: after part, thank you. mr. lafrance. lafrance: thank you. persistently, the affordable care act needs to be repealed in its entirety. it has been a disaster for the united states. health costs are skyrocketing

the patient care is plummeting. i've talked to doctors throughout arkansas and throughout the united states and they made one thing clear. they are focus on their computer screens when are talking to patients making sure they put in the right keywords, write code to a cousin of the mandates of the affordable care act. their focus has gone from patient care to giving with the affordable care act and federal government regulations on health care. and that's wrong. so the first up is to repeal obamacare. the second step is to get government out of the health care industry. a long time ago a just be affordable for americans and it was an insurance product. today, it's not affordable for a lot of people there cost go up tremendously every year, and a system that is just out of control. a big part of that was because of the founding of medicare and medicaid and then the enormous expansion we've seen over the decades have driven up prices,

reduce quality of care for all of us. health insurance in this country isn't really insurance anymore. and buy your auto insurance. if you took obamacare and the construction of health insurance and applied it to your car, your insurance would pay for your feeling about the gas station, would pay for your next oil change. that's not what insurance is about. insurance is to protect us against catastrophic losses, catastrophic illnesses in our family so that we can survive and continue to thrive. right now it's simply a transfer of wealth from healthy people to kill people but it's gotten worse under obamacare. we need to repeal it and then restructure the entire system. >> moderator: to mr. cotton. cotton: obamacare has been a disaster for arkansas, for our entire country. mark pryor cast the decisive vote for obamacare and is responsible for the law and its negative consequences today. i think of all the people i've met across the state of arkansas, intel so many stories. one is of a dentist governed the

dental office. they lost their health insurance because their health insurance wasn't obamacare compliant. it didn't have all the benefits that they wanted. for example, it didn't have pediatric care or neonatal care. there's some couples need and want those provisions. we are expecting our first child need those provision and our health insurance the we choose them. this couple is in her late '50s. they have grandkids. they don't have kids. yet they lost their health insurance because barack obama and mark pryor thinks the government run health insurance that dictates those choices do is better than you and your family making those choices. look at all the hard obamacare has imposed on us. 2.5 million jobs lost. we are facing up to 50,000 plans canceled in arkansas. $700 billion in cuts to medicare to pay for obamacare. arkansas seniors just over 4000 cancellation notices of the medicare advantage plans despite mark pryor and rock obama's

promise if you like your plan you can keep open. billions wasted on a broken website. we can do better. we can repeal obamacare and trust you as patients and families and doctors. let's shop across state lines. but small businesses pool the resources together so they can negotiate better rates for their employees, just like big businesses do. it's not just obamacare. we can take a program like medicare is too much red tape and return to the states and let states make decisions for all their population. mark pryor says he wants it is on obamacare but he never proposes in because barack obama will not propose any. >> moderator: mr. swaney. swaney: the affordable care act is better than nothing. i have friends of mine, family members who have been unable to visit a doctor for serious illness for years, who have now been able to go to the doctor.

so i don't wa to say that i think the affordable care act is a bad thing. it's a step, but only a step in the right direction. for those who have very low incomes, it is the affordable for the first time to see a doctor this is a good thing. but there are many people who have a moderate income and are far from wealthy they can't afford the premiums for this affordable care act. not only that, the affordable care act does nothing about the cost of medicine. and without some price discipline you can expect that medical costs will continue to increase. therefore, we will continue to put more and more burden on citizens and also on the government. therefore because of these reasons the green party continue to support and call for national health insurance and to take the insurance industry out of medicine and rm