iowa, for the first debate between bruce braley and republican joni ernst. this is courtesy of kci itb, the >> commitment 2014. the united states senate debate. presented by the des moines register. >> good evening, everyone. to a special event. tonight, the first debate between the two candidates for the u.s. senate it. democrat bruce braley and republican joni k. ernst. they are vying for the seat of

tom harkin. they have woken up to a whole that shows joni k. ernst leading with 44%. we will dig deeper into those poll numbers. a little bit of housekeeping. our format will change. toincludes a chance for you tweak us your questions to ask the candidates. iadebate.uld use # each candidate will get 90 seconds. our coin toss determined that bruce braley will go first. >> thank you for moderating tonight. i want to thank the des moines register and kcci-tv. i want to thank the viewing audience here. thank you, senators. i am bruce braley. i grew up in a working-class

home in a small farm town. my mom is a schoolteacher. elevatorn a grain before dying. for the des moines register. i got my first job in the third grade grade i worked a lot of different jobs to pay my way through law school. wife and we have been together for 30 years. senatenning for the because i am going to stand up for eyewitness, which is what i've been doing 30 years. i will work with anyone who has a good idea that is good for iweb. i am a bridge builder. this election is about a clear forward ort moving following a radical tea party agenda. on issue after issue, senator ani k. ernst has stood with

extreme agenda. bill and thefarm renewable deal standard. i'm here tonight to listen, learn, to share my views, and ask for your vote. thank you. .> thank you ver >> i would like to thank our hosts. i am joni k. ernst. i am a mother. i am a soldier. i'm someone who cares deeply. i believe washington is taking her country in the wrong direction. years, past eight congressman bruce braley has been their voting with nancy pelosi, higher taxes, bigger government, wall street bailout, obamacare. this is his record. he can't defend it so he is

running a negative campaign. washington has failed. i believe in the iowa way. iselieve that you know what best for iweb, more than politicians and washington, d.c.. our working-class families deserve better. i will plu fight hard. our generation has worked hard for our american dream. as your you next united states senator, i will fight washington to make sure more americans can achieve that dream. >> thank you for your opening remarks. we will move on to the questions. eachis particular section,

candidate will have one minute 15 seconds to ask -- answer questions. there will be a chance for a rebuttal. joni k. ernst receives a first question. >> lets talk about some of the negative things that have been raised in the that you mentioned. voters if report ask very's criticisms against the two of you were a big problem, a little problem, or not a from it all. problem tois a privatize social security as a option. what would you like to say to those voters? i will fight to protect social security and medicare for our seniors. promises thated have been made to those

receiving those benefits. we have to honor those promises. anyone that is on retirement, social security, medicare, and those nearing retirement, we have to keep those benefits. that promise has been made. we have to acknowledge that there is a problem with social security and medicare. within 20 years, the system will be broke. we have to address those problems. we need to look at many options out there. i have not endorsed one option over another, but we need to come together in a bipartisan manner to solve these issues. hasressman bruce braley been a for eight years, but we have not seen any resolution. every two years it comes up as a campaign talking point, and yet we are no further down the line. we need to protect our seniors. >> thank you. 66% of likely voters say it you havelem that

missed a large percentage of the congressional committee hearings. what is your response? >> if people want to know my true record, they can go to my website. it lays out all the things that i have done for veterans and eight years. one of the things that i have have helped i members of the iowa national guard. i also helped a young man in dubuque who was a wounded warrior not able to stay in his home and had applied for a benefit and was denied. i help them get that. his nameced a bill in so other wounded warriors can stay in her home. 400 iowa helped over veterans with disability claims. i have helped women in the ifitary get more protection

they are the victims of sexual assault and domestic abuse. if you look at my record, you will see that this is very personal to me. my father was a world war ii .ombat veteran he brought the wounds from that war home. i have been there for veterans. theve made 90% consent of votes at the v.a. hearings. i cry for them today great >> with move on to another question. social security. to agree that in 20 years, social security will no longer be able to pay the benefits. what can you say tonight that will protect social security, not only for those who are seniors are close to becoming eligible, but what about the people in their 30's or 40's or 50's who were needed after 2033 and beyond. what about some of the people in this audience here who are

seniors in college, maybe twentysomethings. a social security is based on solemn promise. if you work hard and pay into it, it will be there for you when you need it. that is why i have a four-point plan to strengthen social security. it includes raising the minimum wage, giving 300,000 iowa citizens a pay raise. also need to expand our economy by investing in infrastructure. our manufacturing base, and get people off unemployment and pay into social security, which will be another great thing. let me make this perfectly clear. he privatizing social security is not an option for me. senator ernst has says that it is an option for her. privatizing is that protecting social security and it's not protecting people of iowa. is a retirement plan for wall street investment bankers. term sacredhe

promise. and you have repeatedly said that you want to protect our seniors, but what about the twentysomethings and thirtysomethings. ? >> yes, you are correct. it is a sacred promise. one thing that i have stated when it comes to social security is that we should not raise the retirement age. people work very hard throughout their lifetimes and put into the social security fund, and they expect to have those dollars here for when they are retiring. for our younger workers, we need to make sure that they know that they are retiring at a certain age. we have to preserve and protect it. what the congressman is proposing, by raising the minimum wage, is not an answer. that is less than 1% of our annual social security spending. it is not shoring up the system in the long term. we have to come up with other options to put on the table.

we have to make sure we are working in a bipartisan manner so that these young people, after getting out of college and working their lives, know that social security will be there for them. >> is there rebuttal? >> retirement age is not an option. not only because it imposes a burden people like nurses and construction workers on their feet all day, but because it is not fair to put the burden of continuing these programs on those workers. , i only have i said that voted that way. in fact, in the last four years, not tovoted four times raise the retirement age on social security and medicare. >> thank you. again, raising the minimum wage is not the answer to shore up the system. we need to look at our our economy. what we have done here in iowa, by lowering taxes, balancing our

we have a growing economy with 150,000 new jobs. those are good paying jobs. those are workers that will contribute to our social security system. >> thank you. lets move on. >> what do you think is the greatest threat facing the united states today? what should we do about it? >> there are a number of threats. isil -- they must be stopped. served in thes military for 22 years, i am a combat veteran. my moods have been on the ground in iraq. i will stand with our troops and making sure that we think through our actions carefully. i do have a number of criteria put in place whenever i would

consider military action. the first is that we know there is a credible threat, actionable intelligence. second, do we have a clearly defined mission, and we have the resources necessary to support that mission. third, once that mission has been accomplished, what is the withdrawal land to bring our men and women home? are we going to support them when we bring them home? braley, when we were engaged in iraq and it in a stand -- and afghanistan, he funded -- voted twice to defund our troops. l is thegree that isi greatest threat? lastt me respond to that point. the people of iowa know that i made it clear and those votes that i was voting to make sure

that we were ending our in iraq,ng involvement not to penalize the men and women serving our country so bravely. i made that statement on the floor because it is important to me. i agree with senator ernst that the rise of terrorism is the greatest threat we face as a country. i also agree with those four criteria she laid out, because another important criterion that general: pal made as part of that risked assessment is making sure that the american people understand that importance and are supportive of why we are men and womenave all to work late i recently had the opportunity to vote to get the president -- give the president limited authority to begin strikes against those in syria and iraq. isis is a threat that must be stopped. anytime american citizens are attacked by a terrorist group, they need to be brought to

justice or to the grave. , andis what is happening that is what we will continue to do. allowld you have voted to that attack to go forward? what criteria would you put in place to decide whether to continue that beyond the limit? the criteria that i have laid out previously is what i would use as we move through the process to determine if further action is needed. i would use the same criteria. will support our men and women in uniform. unfortunately, congressman braley, when he had a present for was not 75% of congressional hearings. he could've done something. >> we will give you a few minutes to respond. she is referring

to, i was reading an honor flight. a 90 minute veterans affairs hearing that same day great i went to a classified raising because i care about what is happening to our men and women overseas. those are what you can learn if you go to my website. you will learn the true story about what i have done to fight for veterans. we need to make sure that every time we honor our veterans it is in a way that is honoring their service. >> we will move along. we will want to hear from you about affordable care. it is the law of the land, as you know. there have been some reports that show it has even reduced medical costs and some states that have expanded the medicaid eligibility. tell us what you like and dislike about obamacare? .

what can the government do to hold down health care costs? >> this is an issue where there is a clear difference. i think that the affordable health care act needs to be fixed and improved. would repeal it and continue to obstruct efforts to improve it. thate made it a clear there were problems with the rollout that needed to be fixed. i voted to allow people to continue to keep their policies during that. it when we are making the transition. there has been some significant, positive things that have happened in iowa. we can go back to where we were before. i was citizens were able to get health care because we expanded access. over 130,000 citizens now have access that they did not have before. seniors are seeing their prescription costs drop. we are closing the donut hole.

i have a nephew who was diagnosed with liver cancer, and he would not have been able to get coverage because it was a pre-existing condition. now his parents do not have to worry about that. eliminated and prevented discrimination for women in health-care coverage. we need to continue to fix what is wrong and improve the affordable air act. we cannot go backwards. every iowa citizen deserves access. obamacare is not the answer. is, it has done in iowa first, we are seeing that it costs jobs. off fromons were laid a hospital. layoffs continue. on then increased tax people of iowa and americans great $1.2 trillion.

it is taking the personal health care decision out of our hands and placing them in the hands of bureaucrats. $716 billionut from medicare that are seniors rely on. i don't agree. this is something we will continue to disagree on. i believe that we need to have patience -- patient-centered care. we do that by allowing insurance agencies to sell products across state lines, allowing tax credits. there are a number of ways that we can provide good insurance. saidst in terms of what he , he said there were elements that needed to be fixed. what needs to be fixed? what is broken? >> one of the things we did is addressed a problem that was creating hardships for small businesses. we eliminate that hardship by

mason -- making it easier to deal with the paperwork. one of the things that senator ernst mention is that the people not receive a cut because of the affordable care act. we cut wasteful spending out of the system. there is a big difference. the cedar rapids gazette looked at that claim and declared that it was false. notfits to seniors have changed. in fact, because of the affordable health care act, medical solvency has been extended or a number of years. terms of the lowest number of people who don't have access to health insurance. that is something we should be proud of. that resulted because of a bipartisan effort to get a waiver to expand access. >> you have something to say? >> when it comes to the medicare

costs, the congressman has stated that he did every page of that bill. that he would not change a thing with that bill. however, we do see there are a number of changes that have been made or delays that he has supported. $716it comes to that billion in medicare costs, that was a number that comes from the congressional budget office. maybe you just need to walk down the hall and visited with them to see if that is accurate or not. >> lets move on. >> turning to the economy. the two things we hear most is that it benefits businesses and high income americans that the expectation that they will create more and better jobs, yet middle income americans spend more and stimulate the economy. which one of these works better?

>> when it comes the economy, i have my own way. it is exactly what we have done here and i were. the iowa way is working. that i havees implemented -- the first is by lowering taxes on all iowans. we have the largest tax cut in iowa history, 4.4 billion dollars to i would taxpayers. we have balanced the budget. because of these great policies that we have put into place, the iowa economy is booming. we have been able to create 150,000 new jobs in iowa. unemployment is down from over 6% to 4.5% in iowa. that means more of our neighbors

and friends are going to work in providing for their families every day. if you look at the congressman's failed he is supporting policies, higher taxes, more job killing growth regulation, and that is why unemployment has gone up. >> which of the purchase do you think works best -- of the approaches you think works best? job forost important the next senator is to fight for working-class families. if 300,000 islands would get a pay raise by simply increasing the minimum wage to $10 and $.10 an hour that tells me a lot of iowans are missing out on this booming economy. she not only wants to not support raising the minimum wage , she wants to repeal the federal minimum wage, and she does not want to raise the statement among wage. that means that these iowans

will continue to be left out by -- of this recovery. i think it is important to focus on job creation that will benefit iowans and not wall street investment bankers. the land she has laid out consistently does that. ,rivatizing social security talking about an investment strategy that is not going to create the types of jobs we need. we need to invest in our infrastructure. we need to invest in our manufacturing base, because that is what is going to create jobs in iowa and condiment our economy. every dollar we invest in infrastructure increases the national gdp by $1.60. >> thank you. i expect you want to respond. >> yes. i grew up working minimum-wage jobs. i understand and believe that we need a minimum wage.

i believe that can support that. however, i believe that needs to be set by the state, because what is good for iowa is not necessarily what is right for california or new york. i do believe that the states need to set that. to respond to that? >> 60% of iowans who would get a pay raise by raising the minimum them are over the age of 30, many of them have children and are depending on the jobs. that is why my promise is to go to washington, raise the minimum wage. senator ernst is not think that minimum wages or problem. my promise is that it is your priority. >> thank you. , lets talk wages taxes. everyone can agree that something needs to be done to simple by the tax code.

what do you say should be done? what deductions should be eliminated? what simplification's could be implement it? -- implemented? should the taxi flat or flatter? do you think the tax burdens should be shifted? >> i brought in a nonpartisan group called the concorde coalition to have townhall meetings so that we could talk about how the federal government raises money and spends money. if you ask everybody in the room , how many of you thinks the tax code needs to be simplified, every hand goes up. and you start talking about specifics. how many of you would like to give up your charitable contributions to church? hands go down. how many of you want to give up your home mortgage? hands go down. we need to have a meaningful conversation where we put all of this on the table and talk about the trade-offs.

making things simpler. the i do not support is proposal that the party -- tea party, a national sales tax. why? the people who will be hardest hit are the working class iowans who will be paying 23% national sales tax, 6% state sales tax, and it will get them most severely. that is why that type of misguided proposal is not the solution to simplifying our tax problems. the solution is that republican and democrats need to come together and solve the problem. >> i have not endorsed any tax plan. i want to make that clear. iowansdo believe is that need to keep more of their paychecks in their own pockets.

my family worked very hard. i know many families work very hard. lets allow them to make decisions on how their spending their paychecks. that we need to lower taxes immediately on our hard-working families. fairer, flatter, or simpler, i am ready to have that discussion. this is where you will see a clear contrast between the congressman and myself. i have voted for one of the largest tax decreases in iowa history. as i stated before, we are saving i would tax payers $4.4 billion over the next 10 years. the congressman has voted for one of the largest tax increases in the united states history. that hurts all of us. we need to lower taxes immediately, but work in a long-term manner to fix the tax

code. -- whatshould be done the dutch and should be eliminated? can you tell me some specifics? >> part of the challenge is when you get people in the room and start saying, lets eliminate this trade you have to look at how much revenue that is going to eliminate and what you're going to do to replace it with. >> what are some of your feelings about this? we want to know what you think? >> i think we need to start by eliminating corporate tax loopholes that reward companies for shipping jobs overseas. that is something that should have been done it long time ago. we need to do it now. one of the other things we should have done, we should have given the government the ability to negotiate lower drug prices when that prescription drug or was passed, because that would

put billions of dollars of revenue into the treasury, and then we can start eliminating some of these other things are talking about very -- talking about. >> you talk about lowering taxes, i just want to follow-up on that, how you lower taxes? >> you start by working in a bipartisan manner. we knew need to sit down and talk about these issues. i am a member of the minority party in the state senate. yet, we were able to sit down and work through this and lower taxes on hard-working iowans. yes, we need to close loopholes. i don't think anybody disagrees with that. flatter, fair, and simpler. we need to cut spending in the federal government to. growing, ouromy text from will be fixed.

>> thank you. we talked about the difficulty in coming together on taxes. another difficult issue facing all of america is immigration. you believe that undocumented immigrants are a drain on law-enforcement? source of needed labor and entrepreneurship that helps the economy? how will you act on that? >> thank you. america is the greatest nation in the world, which is why so many families want to come to america and do better. when i was young woman, i participated in an exchange program with the soviet union. the families i stayed with did not talk to me about prices. they talk to me about what it was like to be un-american for they so badly wanted our freedom.

i understand why people want to immigrate to the united states, but we are a nation of immigrants, but we are also a nation of laws. i believe we need to enforce those laws. first, we need to secure the border. second, we need to enforce the laws. over the long term, we need to modernize our legal immigration system. we do have a need for workers here in the united states. i disagree with the congressman when it comes to issues of immigration. i don't support amnesty. i certainly don't support executive action to grant and the state. -- grant amnesty. >> is it a law enforcement problem? >> this is another great example obstructionism

is keeping us from getting this problem solved. the senate passed an overwhelming reform, 14 republican senators voted for it , to address the long-standing problems. it increased border security. it increased the ability for people who are living here to find a pathway to citizenship, not through amnesty, but by admitting they broke the law, paying a fine, going to the back of the line and solving this problem. i talked to dairy farmers and i withdrew depend on immigrant labor when they used to have a fired man who grew up in the united states. i talk to the corn companies. 30% are immigrant labor. high-tech companies are in desperate need. we educate them, and they get sent back home. senator, will you join john

rubio to callator on john boehner to pass this bill? of laws. a nation we have wonderful immigrants here. i don't support amnesty. i do support bringing a lot of these illegal immigrants, a 11.5 forward, butem, not granting them amnesty. we have 5 million people waiting in line right now to receive united states citizenship. we need to honor that commitment. >> the response? and senatorubio mccain did not vote for amnesty. amnesty as when you break the law and there are no consequences. that is why they voted for this bill. it has tough consequences. it includes an and mission that you broke the law.

>> one more question before you move on. what does any's legislation pursue, support, or sponsor at the federal level that deals with abortion, abortion funding, or drugs connected to abortion, or contraception? >> what i won't do is support the type of legislation that senator ernst introduced in iowa that would ban all forms of abortion, that would have prevented certain forms of contraception from being available to hire women, that would have prevented in vitro fertilization and prosecuted doctors for performing legal procedures. i don't think it is the role of government to get in between women and their physicians in making decisions related to their health care. that is what i won't support. >> very good. >> i support life. i believe in life. that is a discussion that we need to have. the amendments that are being

referenced either congressman would not do any of the things that you stated they would do. that amendment is simply a statement that i support life. my faith has shaped me on this issue. it is a very personal issue. i think that it is something that we will continue to disagree on. i will support life. the congressman believes and partial birth abortion. these are the things that will continue to disagree on. we can disagree on them severally. senator ernst, i respect your faith. i have my own faith that is very deep and personal to me. lets be clear, the cedar rapids gazette did a fact check on the amendment you introduced and said it would do all the things that i said it would. it would ban forms of contraception. it would prevent people from getting in vitro fertilization.

you personally said that doctors who perform those procedures, under your bill, should be prosecuted. that is the reality. that is what the cedar rapids gazette said. legislationnly if was passed. this amendment was a statement of life. my favorite shaped me on that. when it does come to a woman's access to contraception, i will always stand with women on affordable access to contraception. again, that is something that congressman braley would mislead our women voters on. i do believe in a women's right to contraception. >> we want to thank you for those answers. we are going to begin the next part of our debate with questions from viewers and readers, plus questions from twitter submitted during this broadcast. to say that aike 1adebate. he is the #

>> my name is jake. i am a junior. said you would like to eliminate that apartment of education. what implications does this have for students who received pell grants and student loans? >> that is a great question. anything to those who received programs and student loans. those are programs that are necessary for our college students. -- when it comes to the department of education, 94% of those employed at the department of education at the federal level were deemed by the department as nonessential. i would rather see the dollars that go to those nonessential employees go directly to the

state, so they can be utilized by our teachers, administrators and making sure that our iowa students receive a great education. >> j, thank you for that question. your question? >> i am a junior here. i have majors in religion in spanish. my question is for you congressman. terroristf new threats, what specific advice would you give president obama? >> the most important advice is to make sure that you do everything you can to engage our partners in the middle east and our allies around the world in dealing with his global terrorist threat. i thought it was very encouraging that last week an uslim fighter pilot was fighting. we need to engage that we are doing this not as the world's

police force, but as a community of nations bringing to bear the full feet of world opinion on these horrific acts that we keep seeing. that is one of the most important things a president can do in addition to keeping congress engage. only congress can declare work a >> thank you for those answers. >> we move on now to some other questions from viewers and readers that have been submitted. we received dozens of them. candidates will get 45 seconds to answer these questions. a chance for rebuttal, if needed. the first question goes to congressman braley. opposed to tort reform for people suing for damage is a medical malpractice cases? >> i think we need to be doing more to protect iowa consumers and families, and not taking

away their rights under the constitution. one of the things that we need to be talking about is when people are making radical proposals to take away your rights, you need to be thinking about what that is going to mean when something happens to me. i think that something that is important to iowans. iowans havece -- always known that they need to hold people accountable. that is why i don't support those proposals. that you not believe defensive medicines and -- madison is a significant part? >> there are a host of different factors that contribute to the madisomedicine.--

we are seeing significant growth in medical cost to level off and not be as high. that is in part due to some of the measures we put in place with the affordable care act to cut wasteful spending. we know there are certain parts of the country where there is a lot of spending. >> thank you. received a number of e-mails about client may change -- climate change. what you believe about climate change? what would you do about it? drinking well water on a farm. my dad is a conservationist. most iowa farmers are phenomenal conservationist. i do believe protecting our environment for our generation and are children. i drive a hybrid carpet my family recycles everything.

the science behind climate change but i cannot say one way or another whether it is man-made or not. i have heard arguments on both sides. i do believe in protecting our regulations without coming out of the epa. >> you do accept that climate change does exist? >> i do believe our climate is changing. again, i'm not sure what the impact of man is on that climate change. look, there is a significant difference between us on this issue. senator ernst was to abolish the epa and clean water act. i think that is a misguided decision. we know i was farmers do a great job in trying to preserve the land they farm. stewardship is a big part of farming. wanteality is that iowans

a strong, robust agricultural economy and clean air, clean water. they want to be able to hunt, fish, hunt, and bike. if you don't accept that this is a real problem, which it sounds like senator ernst doesn't, many iowa companies believe it strongly and think that if we don't do something, it will harm our economy. >> a chance to respond to >> thank you. again, iowans know what our natural resources are and how best to protect those natural resources. braley, congressman stood with the epa in voting against the rule that would have protected our farmers from epa federal government overreach. voters. to mislead iowa

>> i have to respond to that. i voted against the epa having the power to regulate. what i did not vote for was throwing everything out and going back to square one. i will farmers have been waiting for guidance under the clean water act, and that is what that bill would have done. >> lets move on to another reader question. eliminate or reduce the national debt without raising taxes are cutting entitlements? about theto be approach. that is the whole focus of these debt reduction workshops where iowans came down and sat down with their neighbors and talk through the same types of decisions we have to deal with in congress. those are the hard choices that

need to be made. it has to be a balanced approach. when iowans face financial problems, they tighten their belts, but often times they go often look for a part-time job to help supplement their income. what we have to do is bring that balance approach and find those wasteful programs. we should be reviewing every federal program for potential fraud and waste, and getting rid of those bad programs, and we also need to look at increasing -- to reduce that. in the eight years that congressman braley has been in washington he has voted eight times to raise our debt ceiling. in the time doubled that he has been in washington, d.c. we need to take a good, hard look at the way our federal government is funded. we need to eliminate waste, even

within the department of defense. we can find examples there of contracting where we could cut back to save dollars. next, if we look at medicare. justin 2013, $60 billion of waste that was identified. maybe last, we should cut congressional dollars if we don't get a budget approved. >> if it's ok, i would like to move on before run out of time. this one from an eye with your. job killing regulations crushing small businesses -- a topic you mentioned earlier. can you tell it's some specific regulations that are hurting i went employers today? >> cap and trade would be one example. not only is it an increase tax to iowans, but it would also cost iowans an additional

thousand dollars in utility costs every year. this is something that was supported by congressman braley. , asr areas would be the epa it applies to the clean water epa and the overreach the has. the role that allows the federal government to come in and regulate water on farmers lands, they would have to go to the federal government and ask permission. each of these items that senator ernst just mentioned are not law. she talked about cap and trade. she talked about the proposed rule on clean water. it is a proposed rule. i have been working to make sure that it is a balance rule and is to farmers and

agriculture. that is not become a real yet. you mentioned rules and regulations. these are things that the congressman has supported which would kill jobs in iowa. we need to do what is best for iowans and stand up to those rules and regulations. braley, where do you stand today on the keystone pipeline? i am opposed to the keystone xl pipeline. when the pipeline was first brought before congress and was being discussed, in terms of the benefits it would provide, there were a lot of promises made. that is why i voted for in committee. when it came for vote on a floor, i look at those promises and they did not live up to what was supposed to happen to the was no assurance that the oil

was going to be sold here in the united states. there was no guarantee that it was going to create a significant number of jobs that would benefit iowans. for me, on energy costs, and you need to look at whether it will be reducing our dependence on foreign oil, promoting renewable energy, 75,000 renewable energy jobs and i were, it did not pass a test. philosophically -- you support the renewable fuel standard. how long would you make an exception for the renewable fuel standard? >> i think we are on equal footing. if you look at all the subsidies that are going out to oil and many other sectors in the energy we need to be on equal footing. i am someone who will continue to support -- i grew up on a southwest iowa

farm and my father is a farmer. by in six jobs are created the iowa farmer, and that is why i am proud to have the endorsement of them. --ill continues to port that support that and will do that is your next united states senator wor. >> i'm not sure that is what senator ernst told the koch brothers when she went to their secret meetings. in a perfect world, it would not exist. my support of the renewable fuel standard has been clear, strong, and unequivocal. in my first term, i voted to tripoli. i stood up to big oil. -- i voted to triple it. >> i would like to respond. you are notbraley running against these other people. you are running against me. soldier, and an

independent leader. you are being funded by tom stier, a california billionaire and environmentalists. please, you're running against me, not against any of these other groups. you're running a grants me. >> i realize that. president obama's name is not on the ballot. i am echoing to go president obama anything on election day could you will oh the koch brothers everything. >> please continue. [laughter] >> i vote nobody anything except the iowan people. i will stand up and do what is right for iowans, not california extremist. not harry reid. not president obama. the iowa people. i am someone that has stood up for my community, my state, and my nation. i have not left my rule roots,

the congressman has left those behind in the beltway. >> 15 seconds to wrap it up. >> i have never forgotten where i came from. that is why i voted to pass a five-year farm bill. every major farm group and i was supported it. that is why the eye with corn growers are supporting me in this election. i have not forgotten my rule values. >> may i respond? >> am going to ask you one more question. a questionke to turn submitted life during the broadcast from twitter. for joni k.estion ernst . your against a national minimum wage. what should i was minimum wage be?

>> that is something that is to be set by the state, because our cost of living is low. currently, it is seven dollars ratifies and's an hour. -- $7.25 an hour. do better for our iowa families. we can grow i was economy and make sure that we have good paying jobs to go out to. making sure our college graduates are finding jobs. with the policies that have been supported by congressman braley, in 2013, 11% of our college graduates could not find employment. oureed to make sure that hard-working iowan families financially get up in the morning, go out to a great thing job, and provide for their family. itsenator ernst has made clear that she is opposed to a federal minimum wage. she would not vote to raise it. she would vote to repeal it. she would not raise the state minimum wage. if you're that

working a full-time job on minimum wage, you will be making $15,000 a year. i think that is wrong. she has called the federal minimum wage ridiculous. you know what i think is ridiculous? that families working full-time making $15,000 a year. >> lets continue on with one more twitter question good we are almost out of time. think you and the democratic party are better qualified to make decisions for me and other i once, such as health care. builder, not ae bridge burner. i have a proven track record of working with republicans. the very first bill i entered his greater the job training at in biofuel through the iowan community colleges. i got that passed by working with a republican from alabama. i work with republicans are minnesota, because it benefits the iowa national guard that was being denied them by the pentagon did i worked with a republican from georgia to keep

i would manufacturing jobs here, instead of having them go overseas. i have a proven history of working across the aisle with republicans in the house and senate, because that is what iowans deserve from a senator. senator ernst would have voted to shut down the federal government with ted cruz phrygia's call president obama a dictator, and things it did you should be on the table. >> i would like to respond. congressman, you threaten to sue a neighbor over chickens that came onto your property. believe thatect to you will work across the aisle when you can't work across your yard? >> 10 seconds. >> that is not true. i never threaten to sue anyone. it is not true. >> we have 30 seconds left. quinn questions. -- clint questions. >> if you're elected to the

senate on who would you call? what chuck bradley. >> is this country receiving aid that you would cut off -- is there a country receiving a that you would cut off? >> i would have to look at that. the presidential candidates do you identify with? >> chuck bradley. the field is not shaped up yet. i don't know her you can identify the candidates. we want to canada to bring us together. >> thank you to the candidates. thank you to the people here. we appreciate it. thank you. [applause] >> c-span's campaign 20 debate coverage continues.

televised and final debate between the candidates running for texas governor. wendy davis and gregg abbott. that will be live tuesday, 9:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. on thursday, we will bring you the oklahoma governor's debate between the republican commented in -- and comment and the challenger. >> ease bans 2015 student can competition is underway. this nationwide competition for middle and high school students will award one to 50 price, totaling $1000. created -- create a five-minute to seven minute documentary on the topic. by januarysubmitted 20, 2015. go to student can.org for more information. grab a camera and get started

today. c-span, newsmakers is next. by republicaned senator pat roberts. at 8:00, our conversation with a journalist, sally quinn, on q&a. newsmakers isowes the >> thanks to both of you. i want to begin with a peace that your boss wrote about income and equality saying that this is a driving issue in this campaign. as we track the races, the ads and the debates, except for a couple of exceptions it has not been a leading issue. why? >> well, first of all, that's a

good question. i think that what we were trying to say in the essay is -- essay is the facts of equality that is driving, not the idea of income equality. that the driving issue in this election should be the economic well-being for working people and the stagnation that most people are facing in their wages and their difficulty in making ends meet is a very real issue. and it sometimes gets talk about . it's not really the abstract idea. it's the fact that you have the economy improving, but not for working people, but for the wealthy and c.e.o.'s and corporations. >> so are the