build a strong future for america and invest in those things. i would like to have the line-item veto for the president because i think that would be extraordinarily helpful. we need to reform so let's look at the records as well as the rhetoric. that is part of your mistrust. >> we have to make investments but also spending cuts. and what i've proposed is he is proposing a bunch ohe'sproposinw

spending but actually, i'm cutting more than i'm spending so that it will be a net spending cuts. the key is whether we have priorities that are working for you. saturday night at 8 p.m. eastern on c-span. watch any time on c-span.org and listen on the c-span radio app. candidates in the arkansas senate race held a debate on wednesday. between senator john bozeman seeking a second term, a former u.s. attorney and a libertarian frank gilbert, the former mayor of arkansas. the arkansas educational television network sponsored this debate. ♪

good evening everyone and welcome to the third and final night of debate week on the arkansas educational television network. we begin this evening with the race for the united states senate. our candidates in alphabetical order him and john bozeman rogers the incumbent and republican nominee, conor eldridge of fayetteville, the democratic nominee, and frank gilbert for the libertarian party. the candidates will be questioned by a panel of journalists. michael of public radio, leslie brown of talk business and politics and kelly of the associated press. each candidate will have two minutes for an opening statement. each will have two minutes to respond to a question while the

rebuttals are limited to one minute. and at the conclusion of tonight's appearance, each will have two minutes for a closing statement. the order of opening statements, questions, rebuttals, closing statement all determined prior to the broadcast by a drawing in which the candidates or their representatives dissipate. and our timekeeper tonight by the way is sandra sherman of aetn. the first opening statement tonight. >> thank you so much for having us. the set is fabulous. it's a lot better than being here rather than in the back of the pickup. so we are looking forward to a good debate tonight. also want to thank you for the work you do i think this programming is a great example of the variety that they bring to the state. now for those of you that are viewing it and are trying to find your favorite program, don't blame me. if i was tuning in trying to find the antiques roadshow i would be upset but it's not my

fault. as i go around the state and listen to all kinds of people, it doesn't matter where we are at. the two things on peoples minds that are so important our jobs, jobs, and the economy. if you don't have a job come if you can't take care of your family or you don't make a living wage, everything else is unimportant. and along with that, what i hear is regulation after regulation killing the economy. the uncertainty that we have as a result of that. so, we've got to deal with that and we've got to deal with the regulation that is coming out of the obama administration and also things like obamacare that are adding. i've got three grown daughters i would d give anything in the wod to protect them. i can to protect them from isis. governor hutchison is doing a great job in the state of arkansas. he can't do that either. the only one i can do that is a federal government and that should be their number one

priority and so again we need to do whatever it takes to build the defense and keep the nation safe as we move forward. sadly the middle east is in turmoil and we will be talking about these things because again, this is what is on the people of arkansas's mind at the present time. thank you. >> moderator: mr. eldridge. speedy 11 i'm running for the senate because i care deeply about arkansas and america and i want to make a difference. to get rid of the bickering and the blaming of the difference on a real problems that face regulars at their kitchen tabl tables. that's what i will do if i'm fortunate enough to serve in the senate. that's what i did go into communities across the state

working with police officers and community leaders to deal with violence and fraud and child abuse, horrible situations that shouldn't affect our kids that i care deeply about. there is a big distinction in this race. my opponent is a nice man but he's been in washington for 15 years. he has during that time not done a whole lot. herhealing and if you post offis and has been on foreign troops but i think we need to do something different in this race. when you do something different for arkansas that's when i will be the leader and i'm seeking to serve. the senator's campaign has reflected that. during his time over the past year he's either been silent or mentioned obama. he brings that obama because he doesn't want folks to focus on his record. the time when president obama

was ended the rhetoric that we are tired of. let me tell you why i'm in this race. i want to serve all people in arkansas and that includes the single mom working hard to raise three kids. in a house with one bathroom trying to balance a check that doesn't. you better believe i'm fortunate enough to serve you in the senate i will fight for regular folks in this state to stand neil just like my mom. thank you very much. >> moderator: mr. gilbert. >> gilbert: i would like to echo the sentiment of thanks. you've done a great job again, and i sincerely appreciate it. i've been involved in county, township and municipal government off and on for many years here in arkansas. i've enjoyed every one of those positions. i believe i did a good job in every case.

as we go forward in this debate, and we talk about jobs and we talk about security and we talk about regulations, there is another issue that overrides it all. every part of this debate, everything that impacts these days is overshadowed by a 20 trillion-dollar debt. that's why i'm here today not as a meteor of an office holder but as a father and a grandfather most importantly because what we have done this transfer debt to future generations. we have done so in a massive fashion. there is no way that this generation, the next or the next will ever be able to dig their way out of deficits and debt

that straddles the american taxpayer now. our presidential candidate gary johnson said in his speeches wee may never agree about all of the little things, but we have to agree about the great things. the important things are debt, jobs, all the other smaller things but the overriding issue, the one that matters most is that debt hanging over my grandchildren said. the first question goes first to mr. bozeman. >> i think it suggests if he said about your wife or daughter you would punch him. but you haven't withdrawn your support, and i understand going along with your party's nominee

for policies and judicial appointments and the like but given everything that he has set during this campaign, do you think that he has the temperament to serve as commander-in-chief? >> boozman: in a situation we have two very flawed candidates, but it is the circumstances that we find ourselves in. these were nominated by their parties and as we go forward the things i had to look at is the total package. it's the supreme court as you mentioned and i have a granddaughter that is sitting out here now that is 4-years-o 4-years-old. we are talking about 25, 30 year terms this will affect her until she is 2029, 35-years-old, so it is important. donald trump has come forward and said that he would take him to dominate people and he's provided a list of people that will look at the constitution to try to interpret the law as the

writers of the constitution or the legislation intended and act appropriately. it's interesting the other night when hillary did her thing and they asked her about whom she would choose, she made references she wante wanted to e that got along with others and she never mentioned the constitution. she never mentioned the law. she wants to put people in that again will interpret things as they feel like they should be into disregarding the law. the other thing is hillary clinton is running on a third term of replacing president obama. she made no bones about that. i think most of the listeners that are out there listening understand that is simply unacceptable. the country cannot take another third term in all of the policies that he has put in place, so for those reasons, again i'm supporting mr. trump.

in the server situation if i were in that situation and anybody was listening if you had been in that situation we would all be indicted and have to pay a penalty for doing that and the list goes on and on. on. >> mr. gilbert, two minutes. >> gilbert: donald trump is an embarrassment for the republican party. he's an embarrassment to the american people to think that our allies across the world and our enemies as well see what he is saying and doing in this country that makes us look like a third world banana republic and i hate that. >> the senator is correct though they are both flawed candidates. hillary has baggage that is well-known in the state probably hear better than anywhere in the world in so a lot of us know she

isn't fit to be president either. we are fortunate that republican party has nominated two former governors, gary johnson, former new mexico governor serve as a republican and the democratic state of the legislature that was in the opposition to him. the two-term governor of massachusetts who again served in a very blue state and both of those gentlemen were reelected after serving their first term. they are men of good character and confidence in a steady nature that we need right now. i would encourage every american and every arkansan to consider gary johnson as a viable alternative to the two candidates to the old parties

have provided. >> eldridge: mr. trump doesn't serve. it comes back i heard on the white river in arkansas that said i voted for both parties from time to time. he said that i'm not going to vote for someone i can't trust with a foreign policy that my son in the military has to live by and i think that's where the rubber meets the road on this one for me. we shouldn't give donald trump and ope open open mics of amerin foreign policy or the nuclear codes. he has shown time and time again that that should not happen. im in this race because i want to put thwantedthe country overi would call on him to withdraw his support. he should do that, 16 other republican senators have done it.

160 republicans. i heard the other day the secretary of commerce who said i'm a republican. i can't do that. it's not the right thing for the country. i'm running to put the country first, to put the party outside. there are things i agree and disagree with both presidential candidates and whoever is elected, we need a strong u.s. senator to lead and represent our interests and whoever is in the white house, i will work with them or i will fight them if it is the right thing to do for this state and the country. i care about my kids in this, too and i think we can all agree that this is really for all of us a lot about our kids and i just can't abide by some of the things that he has said. but we've got to look at what we are running for here today and that is to be a strong leader to confront challenges to stand up for the future that my three

little boy is that the senator's kids and all of our kids have to live by. that's why i'm in this race and what i will do regardless of who's president. >> moderator: you have one minute for a rebuttal. >> boozman: listening to the attack on the counter for mr. trump on several occasions the problem is he's never addressed what is going on with hillary clinton. he knows if i was in the situation doing the things that she had done with classified material, we are talking about putting it in the private server and townhouse in the bathroom closet i would be in big trouble. there is no if, and or but. the other thing has to do with the benghazi getting a call at 3:00 in the morning and instead of caring about the people on the ground, according to the leaked information her first concern was covering her rear

end and not speaking concerned about those people. the foundation as an old prosecutor why haven't you called out and said in the course of doing business in the state department chose to give presidential treatments to the people that were giving money to the foundation that was essentially in the fund. >> moderator: next question comes from mr. brown and chris first to mr. gilbert. >> moderator: you have been criticized in both parties are putting their own interests abovofthe nation. what would you or your party do differently to bring back your trust to the american people and the political system? >> gilbert: the first thing the president needs to do is

prove to his constituents that he cares about them and that he has their interest in heart and isn't tied up to other interests that may override affairs and gentlemen, that is where we are in the congress now. we can look and see two eminent professors from th universities that a study comparing those that were taken in congress to the polls of the public's position on the same issues over a couple of decades and who titled that article the congress doesn't give a damn what you think. it's been proven over and over at ththat the folks that get mis of dollars to political candidates get the favors and those that are in the republican and the democratic party are weighted to those parties

through donations and other money and favors that the party directly can give to their candidates. the american people understand what has happened. they know that we have in our control congress. they are not looking for their interest it is abundantly evident. the solution to that is to elect someone from another party. a democrat is a democrat and a republican is a republican. libertarians are neither. the libertarian party in 50 50 years maybe it's as good as the democrats and republicans are money speaks to everybody. but right now the libertarian party is a viable alternative with viable candidates who will do what the american people really want. >> moderator: mr. eldridge, two minutes.

>> eldridge: both parties are to blame. the dialogue is to blame for that and i will go to washington and take on anybody to stand up for the public trust. i swore to uphold the trust as a prosecutor and you know what, this is the way that washington should work when we had become a no issue in a community in the state, we came together and we tackle that issue and dealt with it and needed the community safer and nobody asked what political party of the same. that's the kind of leadership we need. i'm not going to fall on anybody's mind or anybody's box and i think it is time that we get off of these washington rhetoric talking points. i would invite the senator to do that. i'm going to go to bat for the regular folks in the state every day. let me give you a few examples. one of the cases involved a county judge in watchdog county

and you have to be a democrat. they solicited a bribe in return for county business. you can't tolerate that at all and i promised i wouldn't have that and i would take on the corruption that's up there just as i did as a prosecutor. we really do have in some respects institutionalized wrongdoing because of the campaign-finance system. i will take that on. we need to overturn citizens united. we have a major problem with money and politics in the country. i want to take that on with all of these challenges just as i getheydid as a prosecutor and wd that god can overcome all of this distrust.

>> this is so important. after my first election he called me and said always remember there's the people of arkansas and you need to take care of them. i think if you look at my record in washington and visit with anybody in washington, you know that i work very hard. i give a good example. i was put on the environment and public works committee when i first came to congress. i was put on a green jobs committee and senator sanders was the chairman of the committee. we worked together very closely to find common ground and for us, that was hard. he is very different in his beliefs but he's a nice man and we worked hard and found a common ground and we wound up sponsoring a bill together that have to do with zoning for solar

energy so you can do that. i chose these committees because they are very bipartisan. i'm on the agriculture committee. again, we worked very hard in relation to agriculture making sure all of the sectors are included. a they worked to get a highway bill passed and the list goes on and on. the veterans affairs one of the last bills the president signed into law recently was taking it and placing it into a larger bill and made it such that it reauthorized veterans homeless initiative which was about to run out.

so that's how it is and you can get things done. >> i think that it is instructive that the republicans had nothing nice to say about the democrat and the democrat had nothing nice to say about the republican babe of criticized the other party's candidate. the truth of the matter is neither of these gentlemen can afford to criticize the nominee of the party or in the case of mr. boozman withdrawal support for that candidate. that is what is wrong with washington. they go there with the best intent. they are good and honest man that they get there and their job depends on two things. money. they have to get the money for the next influence and they need the parties help in gaining

influence through the chairmanships that the senator spoke of in default us against them and it's got to end. >> moderator: next question goes to mr. eldridge. >> moderator: you spent a large part of the campaign criticizing senator boozman for what might seem like his unconditional love for the gop nominee. at the same time, the polling shows that he will likely carry arkansas. is your criticism of the senator to criticizing your fellow kansans and when you consider them a basket of the portables if they vote for mr. trump. >> eldridge: senator boozman is right about one thing. she should be called out for that. that remark was from and the problem is people are not willing to call out both parties

and be honest. honest. ihonest. it is and how i am wired and if it isn't my record as a prosecutor including in the case that of a mention in the watchdg county bribery so i think that's term was horrific. she's made a lot of mistakes and we can go on and on. the problem is we are in disgrace for the senate to make a difference for the people in the state and i believe in the people of the state and the majority that i've met walking into the manufacturing facilities and restaurants and convenience stores building in all 75 counties which we have done in this campaign and i believe in, those i've met are frustrated with all politics in both parties with everybody in washington. and i'm running to be a strong new voice that will get past all of that and go to washington with an eye towards getting things done. that's what unites us in arkansas and the work i did as a

prosecutor is something i am so proud of because i worked with police officers across the state can and we never once talked about partisan politics and that is what is wrong. people in that town are caught up with fighting each other and blaming and all of this rhetoric and it should stop. when i'm a senator from the state it .-full-stop as far as i'm concerned. so i look forward to working with all, representing all. i understand people whoever they are voting for are frustrated with washington and politics. i am running for the first time in the senate with experience to be a strong new voice for the state. >> moderator: mr. boozman, two minutes. >> boozman: i guess the question is should he do this or not and can you say what you want me to respond to >> moderator: burst your unconditional love for the nominee or so it seems.

and the question for him, would he find arkansans among the basket of the portables if they were to vote for mr. trump. you can either take a chance to support mr. trump were respond to him. ..

i think this is news that connor is wishing to make a statement that he is critical of senator clinton and acknowledges she has as much problem as donald trump. mott said mr. gilbert you have one minute. gilbert: again if we look at -- >> moderator: excuse me mr. gilbert. gilbert: if we look at what the senator is saying about mrs. clinton and what connor is saying about mr. trump i can agree with everything opposed sides and add to both.

there is another alternative though and people and arkansas are in flux at this time because everybody in the world knows that we are going to vote for trump. the electoral votes will be cast for this donald no matter what your eye or anybody else does. the dye has been cast in it's over. what that allows us to do is to make a statement. i talk to people everyday who say i don't like donald trump but we can't have hillary clinton in charge of the military or the supreme court appointments. and then on the other side you talk to people who say i hate hillary. i know her too well but i've got to vote for her, otherwise that loudmouth egotistical and they go from there is going to become the president of the united states. your other alternative is to

cast their vote for gary johnson the libertarian candidate for president. he is qualified, he has more executive experience in government than anybody on either of the other two tickets and then we have a man for vice president who is just as qualified as he is. if you want to get washington's attention, if you want a president who ever does come january to say it may not work this way in the next election, we may not be able to triangulate the voters and force them into a best choice let them hear you. cast your vote not only for gary but for every libertarian on the ballot. >> moderator: rebuttal time mr. eldridge for one minute. eldridge: i know senator boozman has been absent a lot and has been silent a lot of his

campaign but you know when i've got that question i have answered it with what i believe and that is that both parties are wrong, both parties messed up and i have called out both candidates in this race and that is something senator boozman must have missed in his absence but the point is here we have to rise above all that and after the presidential election let's be clear senator boozman is supporting his party over the best interest of this country and i believe there's only one candidate that i would address. i told you all here we go again. obama, obama, obama. it's a tactic. it's a distraction and a political attack that we are tired of. i'm in this race to put country over party for the difference of our future in a way that does

everything to do with party. >> moderator: du quoin is -- a question first mr. brown. >> you mentioned in your opening statement regulation in washington d.c. in washington d.c. in particular you mentioned the affordable care act. you voted to repeal obamacare in a vote 52-47 i think that was the vote. let's say end of the new president who comes in and obamacare is repealed, what are we going to do about those 20 million or so people who now have health care or in arkansas is about 300,000. what are we going to do about them? how are you going to provide an alternative to obamacare? the republicans have not done a good job in explaining what they are going to do. boos -- boozman: if we had republican presence there would be signed into law and we would have

gotten rid of obamacare. the problem with health care when all of this came into play, and setting up obamacare affordability was not addressed so what you did is you take it and dump a whole bunch more people into it and as a result those people are paying the insurance for the ones who didn't have it. bill clinton summed it up best. democrats are working their hearts out in many of our viewers identify with this. their premiums have skyrocketed. their deductibles, most arkansans have five to 10,000-dollar deductibles and as a result that's not insurance, that's catastrophic insurance. we can fix this. we can use free-market principles. we don't have to take and screw everybody else's insurance up to fix those that aren't being

covered enough the situation we have. $700 billion coming out of medicare, that's why it's getting more and more difficult to provide a medicare provider so what you do as a number of things. you've got to put competition in the system. the geico commercial at night and i can shop around in a shop around anyplace they want for my car insurance. you can't do that outside of the state. a third of the counties county's america have one insurance provider. we need competition. we need tort reform. we need to get rid of the nuisance lawsuits. we need to allow my barber to contain the thousands of other barbers in a very simple way, to get together with the same deal that a major corporation makes. health savings accounts would be another thing. so yeah these are the principles that we need to use. if we do that we can control costs. >> moderator: mr. gilbert for two minutes. gilbert: thank you.

sarge remember when we discussed this that we are talking about health care. we talk about insurance rather than health care. the crisis isn't health care not insurance. i believe the senator is correct there are free-market alternatives competitive changes that would make it all better. but whatever we do, it has got to be better than what we are doing now. i don't think -- i think it's one of those things that we can't make worse. the affordable care act, obamacare is an abomination. to use someone else's iteration. i'm not calling for it but if we want to do with health care rather than insurance with cut out the insurance folks. let's cut out the politicians and let's not give them any control. you could for the amount of money we are spending on the affordable care act bill that

believes a free clinic in every county of arkansas. we could address the crisis in health care without even talking about insurance. that is a drastic approach especially for a libertarian to even think about let alone discuss it but i do that because libertarians are not green knight frogs. we are not monsters from outer space. we are just people who have a little different take on how to fix the problems that we have. we always look to government first. we don't always see a regulator could make things better. there are things we could do to address health care problems in arkansas without either violating the rights of the american people are ripping off their pocketbooks. >> moderator: mr. eldridge two minutes.

eldridge: i think a lot of young we have had a couple of these debates and senator boozman joined us for this one. you know i am opposed to repeal of obamacare because 300,000 people as you pointed out in your question have health insurance today but didn't have that before and i just don't think we should walk out and walk down the street and look people from arkansas in the eye and tell them they will lose their health insurance. we have a difference of opinion on this issue and i think there are serious problems for them. there are serious problems with the affordable care act. we need to fix those. we need to deal with those in all these press releases that are issued with the name obama and dump the talk about repeal i found it interesting that senator boozman gave basically the same answer he gave when he first ran for the senate so what should happen the past several years is that we should having

gauged and this is what i have said we should engage in a bipartisan way and tackle the real issues in our health care system and that real issue boils down to cost. we don't deal with that bike giving 300 dollars off arkansas's health insurance. i went to the county hospital. i have good friends who work there and they told me that if the affordable air -- care act were repeal them out lot of people would lose their health insurance in the hospital at not going to allow that to happen but what should happen is we should deal with the costs. there are a number of ways we can do that. we have got to expand pools, spread out risk, get innovative and hardened vents pinero spirit and get rid of regulations to deal with that problem. those are the approaches i would advocate with republican and democratic senators who are adjusted in doing the hard work of changing and making a difference on this serious cost proms or serious cost province to have our health care system.

>> moderator: mr. boozman 1-minute rebuttal. boos -- boozman: . again as i said you don't have to read everybody else's health insurance to do that. i have never said i have no qualms about taking 30,000 people off of the program. what i do have problems about is everybody else's health care and our visitors can identify with this, never to take care of him. we can do it in a much more efficient way as i outlined earlier. the answer to the administration's idea of reforming obamacare is more obamacare. they are talking about the government option, pushing, talking about pushing us into a single-payer system and i would disagree certainly about our community hospitals. the only way you can save money is to consolidate and what we

are seeing like this and what we have seen in canada, they don't have any hospitals. it's like the va system here. we have two great aa systems that we have only got two. what we will see is the loss of our community hospitals in the future. the problem is those are the best jobs in town. those are the things that people look at as they are going to settle in an area. you lose your community hospital and the loser community. >> mr. gilbert i'm going to ask about national education policies but first the context. practices such as common core and other standards that various states have adopted had made a possible for students who may be moves from state a to state b to be pretty much on the same plane with the school. if we were to do away with the u.s. department of education and not have a national policy who

would be the benefit of having thousands of autonomous school districts? gilbert: autonomous school districts are the antithesis of the opposition of the department of education in washington d.c.. that control that the department of education excerpt on local schools through the use of common core, through the money that they put into the school lunch programs, is frankly unbelievable. i would not have believed it if i hadn't seen it first-hand. i did 20 years in private business. never occurred to me to go to work for a government school but about 17 years ago i had the opportunity to do so and it's been instructive to me. the teachers are among the hardest working, the most dedicated and the most able

people i've ever met. the problem is they are putting all of those resources into trying to row a vote that is made of concrete. most of that concrete comes from little rock and washington d.c.. those two department of education sat in the public schools with regulations, rules, requirements, every teacher in every school districts spend more and more time every year filling out more people work for some government eurocrat. it may all be about accountability. i don't know. maybe about control. i think it might be but what i know is that the solution is to empower the people on the ground, the local teachers, the parents of the students and the students themselves. when those people call the shots things will get better and as

long as we have a trickle-down eerie in education they cannot succeed. >> moderator: mr. eldridge. eldridge: my perspective on education comes from two things. it comes from my mom who is here with me today. she was a fifth-grade teacher in arkansas and i mentioned her in my opening. she raised us in a house with one bathroom and worked hard and really invested in her kids. and the education issue including the questions you asked that comes up i always go back and i usually pick up the phone and call her but i also go back to the memory of how she invested in her kids. that's really what we have got to support, build up and do it every level at the local, state and federal levels. we have to support and empower the teachers in our schools. the other way i approach this question is do the eyes of my

9-year-old who is in third grade in public school right now. when i dropped him off at school the other day he took off running and i hope he runs into the schoolhouse door every day as long as they can. i know it's going to change some day but it's a beautiful thing to see and that's what i want for all kids. that's why we talk about education policy. that's why we make sure we we give local teachers like my mom the control they need in their classrooms to educate the kids that come before them but we have got to also make sure that everett challenge in arkansas, every challenge in america has that opportunity to succeed. i'm proud to work with public schools and law enforcement to start a program in arkansas. this program make sure kids who have police and their home -- domestic violence that there principal and console be notified the next morning. that's life-changing to get that troubled kid the help they need to really have a chance.

as a senator my focus would be in making sure the government really pays attention to the serious problems that we face and doesn't create more bureaucracy. >> moderator: mr. boozman for two minutes. boozman: i was on the school board in rogers for seven years. i have three daughters and they were almost system. i wanted to get involved that i wanted to be helpful. i'm in optometrists and i doctor by training and saw lots of young people in the course of doing that but wanted to lend my expertise again and just being helpful. we don't need a national school boards. there is no it's, answer buts and that's the direction we were going. no child left behind was passed many years ago. there were a lot of good things in the bill in the sense that it helps us identify young people at a much earlier age that are struggling and having problems but it really did have all kinds of national control. i would say the greatest argument in the sense of data

work or not completely asked the schoolteachers that are having to deal with all the things coming out of washington. you need a local control at the school board level and you needed at the state level. and that way people like me when i was in church somebody could say john what you doing it? you need to do this or that. we refined the no child left behind law repealed and replaced it with another law. some say it's the greatest turnback empower the last 25 years in the federal agency. it's good. we will look and see how it does. right now they're implementing it. we are going to watch very closely to make sure the implementation is as we reflect. we would be in situations, we go into the school them with an award pat them on the back and tell them how wonderfully they are doing it two weeks later they would be put on an

improvement list for some other thing. again we need local control, state control. one size doesn't fit all throughout our nation. >> moderator: mr. gilbert the rebuttal is yours, one minute. gilbert: thank you. the senator is correct, no child left behind did not work and it was challenge. it was a republican program. the one that replaced it was a democrat program and the only difference i can see is who the administrators are at the federal level. the democrats appoint administrators who do basically the same thing as the republicans have done before them. i can tell the senator now that if they get an honest accounting of what the current changes doing it will be that it is failing miserably because the senate may act with the best of intent but the department of education is they are constantly sending out provisos and

interpretations that the educators on the ground facing the students then have to decide do we follow the law or do we follow this program that the department of education tells us is what the law says? it is creating problems. competition will help. >> moderator: thank you sir and we have reached the portion in this evening's proceedings for closing statements which were as we stated at the top of the broadcast decided earlier this evening prior to this program by a drawing. mr. boozman you are first. boozman: thank you very much. it's been a pleasure to get to talk about as i said earlier in my opening statement the things that are good for country. i'm blessed i'm a product of the american dream. might doubt start working when he was nine years old growth during the depression and decided to join the national guard when he was 17. little did he know that they

immediately almost called him up to get ready for world war ii. he wound up as a b-17. he got through that and came home and me -- he and my mother did a tremendous job of trying to get us in a situation -- my dad retired as a master sergeant after 27 years. he wanted my brother and sister and i to have the opportunity that he didn't have. he never felt like he had a childhood in again didn't have the educational opportunities so i went to school at the university of arkansas played for the razorbacks their and learned the value working as a common goal in getting things accomplished today went to optometry school and became an optometrist. my brother and i started a clinic and it became a big clinic. you can do about every -- anything and be successful. we were blessed. the sad thing now and again ran

for the school board, went to congress and in the senate. the sad thing now in the polling more people for the first time ever know that the american dream is not going to be there for their children and grandchildren. this is something that we have to restore confidence in our institutions. we have to restore confidence in government. as i said earlier the way that you do that is you truly do work together. i've done that throughout my entire career weather was on the school board or now being in the united states senate. that's a gift things done. also the admonition they're not democrats and they're not republicans, they're just the people of arkansas many to take care of them. >> moderator: senator thank you. mr. eldridge. eldridge: i appreciate everybody's effort tonight. this election is about vision and the future.

it should be a rejection of the status quo and the time in washington over the past 15 years that has not made a difference. i'm in this race to make in difference on issue after issue by taking the same no-nonsense commonsense approach i used to work with police officers and community leaders across the state. senator want to tell you if you are nice man and i think nothing but good things of you personally. i think it's time we do something different and that's why i got in this race program in this race to turn the page, to turn the page on both political parties on all the gamesmanship and rhetoric in washington and go to washington and tried to to get writing done on issue after issue. that can be done. we have to believe it can be. that's why i'm in this race. i want to ask that they put aside all of this washington talking points rhetoric. i've got tim kaine with me here tonight and every time there's

an attempt to disparage the service of prosecutors and law enforcement it shows along senator boozman has been washington and that way of speaking and fighting has just permeated. kim lost her daughter and i was proud to get to work on a case, horrible case. we put the man who was responsible for that in prison for life. those are serious issues. our country faces serious issues. they demand leadership. i'm in this race to provide that leadership. senator we didn't get to talk about a lot of issues. i would advise to debate again. we would love to do that. i also think all of us on this stage should agree we are going to visit all 75 counties every year we are in the senate. we are guys going to win. i promise you i will do that because i'm committed to be a strong voice showing up in every note and cranny in the state in serving the people of this state by putting america and arkansas over party and rhetoric and all

that's wrong in washington. thank you very much. >> moderator: mr. objects thank you very much. mr. gilbert. gilbert matt -- gilbert: thank you very much aetn. the dog and pony show was over and you are left with one question i believe. do you feel like the united states of america is in great shape that we can march forward to a quieter future, and maybe a few tweaks here and there just to make it even better? if you do then you can vote for either one of these gentlemen and a one night a bit of difference with when you vote for, nothing will change. reelecting a republican senator from a republicans state won't mean anything in the senate control. now sending a junior senator from arkansas who is a democrat will get some talk out of the democrats and they make it

control the senate with that. if you want to have a real impact, if you want to give the republicans and democrats working together on something then gilbert a libertarian of the senate. they will come together quickly because they cannot afford to have an outsider somebody who is not part of the game who has not been bought and paid for in advance who isn't part of everything that is gone on most of my life. i will make a difference. hope you will remember what gary johnson are presidential candidates said, we may never agree about the little things but we have to get the big things right and the big things start with a national debt that is out of control. somebody needs to remind the senator's and congressman that if you are in a hole and you want to get out the first thing you do is quit digging.

we need to quit digging our deficits so our debts won't kill our grandchildren. >> moderator: mr. gilbert thank you. mr. boozman mr. eldridge and mr. gilbert we thank you for participating in our senatorial debate. very much appreciate your coming in. as always thanks to our panel of journalists with the questions tonight and thanks to you for watching. we will be back in a moment with the candidates from the second congressional district.

tuition and fees are less than half and sometimes 30% of the total cost attending college. the real hangups that students have or they need to pay their rent, to pay. two of these, to buy food and they can't do those things in the same way when they are in college because they need to spend time in the classroom. so it's those kinds of things that we stop tripping them up over time. republicans senator richard burr is up for re-election this year in north carolina. tonight he debated his democratic opponent darryl tina former state -- topics include the presidential race, health care, immigration and isis. this is an hour. >> this is the north carolina u.s. senate candidateb