i disagreed with him last year on gun control, so much so that when i voted no on his legislation, mayor bloomberg of new york my philosophy is this. if you look at the rankings of the people that actually look at the senate and how we vote. -- actually look at how we vote, every year i've been in the senate, every year they've ranked me as one of the most independent senators in washington. that's because i listened to you. and you know when president barb was in office there were times i agreed with him, there were times i took heat for agreing with president bush. arkansas comes first and that's what i mean. >> mr. la france for rebuttal. >> thank you. it's pretty simple what i would like to do as in my first six year term. i would like to take the

arkansas senate seat that is up for election this year and give it back to you, the voters and citizens of arkansas. right now 100 seats out of the senate are controlled by interest groups. one thing that associates them all is big money, big donations to campaigns, big influence in washington, d.c. you are going to influence my decisions in washington. what is best for you, what is st for americans and america will guide my decisions. for all members of the united states congress, term length would help end this perpetual cycle of fundraising. i think we have to make big structural changes in washington and with your support, i will work to make it happen. >> next question for mr. goes first for mr. cotton. >> congressman cotton, for those

of you who have served in washington, you and senator pryor, which key pieces of legislation have you helped lead that you're most proud of, if you can name one and if you can also name one that you perhaps like to take back. and for those of you who haven't served, maybe what is your key priority, if elected. >> well, i haven't been in washington very long, less than a year. but i've been there long enough to know as calvin coolidge said that it's just as important to start bad law stop bad laws as it is to pass good laws. trying to reform obamacare by preventing you from having to pay a tax if you can't afford a plan from obamacare that you don't like. trying to stop businesses from having to pay a tax because they don't provide obamacare compliance employees. trying to stop obamacare from turning our country into a part-time economy.

unfortunately we have been stymied in that -- those efforts. they did -- look what's happening. 4,000 seniors just got cancellation notices that their medicare advantage plan here in arkansas. look at what happened in walmart last week. they announced 30,000 workers were going to lose their health insurance because of the cost it imposes on all workers at walmart, following other companies like target or home depot. look at what's happening at a company like u.p.s. --e met many u.p.s. coverage -- have had to cut -- it they know washington is causing them this kind of pain, stress and dislocation. yet we can't move forward

because the senate is in the hands of liberal democrats like mark pryor who is always going to protect barack obama's legacy and enforce for his policies. that's why a vote for mark pryor is a vote for obama. >> one of the things we haven't heard from tonight and that is a law passed dictating equal pay for equal work for the working women of america. and i also will support strongly the passage of the equal rights amendment, long overdue. i studied and found that there have been 135 pieces of legislation passed by state legislatures in recent years mostly dominated by republicans that provide negative restrictions on women's rights to make their own decisions about reproductive issues. this qualifies rightly as a war against women. and i think it needs to be

stopped. women have never been treated equally in this country and it is long past time that we remedy that. and equal pay for equal work job still would be on the top of my agenda. additionally to that, something i've already mentioned once and i'll mention again because it's very important. i think we need a tax on wall street. i think we need to restore revenue to the government. the government has been starved of revenue contributing to our national debt. you can't cut spending very much much more than it is already without hurting the nation. i want to see a tax on wall street and restoration of these by nues that have been -- the way, 1% of our country now owns 90% of all the wealth. it's a serious problem and i would work to reverse that to

whatever extent possible. >> mr. pryor. >> yeah, thank you. i would say that my probably largest single legislative accomplishment was the passage of the consumer product safety improvement act. that's the one that kept led out of toys and made toys safe. there is no doubt that that action saved lives. we worked with businesses. we worked with consumer groups. we also worked it through the process by the book exactly like you learned in eighth grade civics where we had conferences and full amendments on the floor and it worked just perfectly. it's a good example of how partisanship works and how we should do things. in addition to that, i passed about 70 pieces of legislation, almost all tv bipartisan. that's the way i worked. 13 of those bills were for our men and women in uniform and our veterans. i'm proud of that. 'm proud of the nonlegislative

accomplishment where i picked up onet and called the c.e.o. and kd them to bring their business to arkansas. you heard congressman cotton say he hasn't passed anything since he's been in the house. didn't know where the bathrooms were but now he think he's entitled to be in the senate. his approach my way or the highway leads to things like fiscal cliffs and shutting down the government. leadership in washington involves walking across the aisle. and congressman, you don't have the reputation, the ability or the desire to get things done in washington. >> mr. la france. >> thank you, sir. i can tell you that i feel no entitlement to this united states senate seat. but you are entitled to this senate seat. you, the voters, you the people

of arkansas, this is your seat and i want to help you take it back. my key item -- my key project will be to get washington out of our lives as much as possible. when this country was founded, they did not want a so site where every decision you make, every turn you take you have to think about what the federal restricting and regulations are here, what regulations are there. this is not a free society where we can own our own lives and our own future. now, freedom is hard work. it takes sacrifice. politicians in washington today, they try to make everything better for everybody, taking money from one person, giving it s. to the other, provide favor it's got to stop. we as individuals, as families, as communities are the owners of our own destiny. and if i go to washington for

you, i'm going to make sure that you have the opportunities to own your future. a couple of key other items real quick. as i mentioned, that goes along with my desire to get the influence of money in washington as limited as possible. i think term limits would be a big help as the days of the career politician are long gone and i think a significant reduction in federal spending will go a long way. right now we're spending $3 trillion, you know there are people that are trying to get access to that money. people rob convenience stores for $1 00. what are people doing for $3 trillion. i'm going to remove this as much as possible and bring the senate seat back to you. >> rebuttal, mr. cotton. >> i learned -- leadership requires toughness, requires

courage. senate pryor isn't -- if it wasn't for his vote, it wouldn't have become law. he can claim -- why didn't he make demand them then? he has the power to protect arkansas from all the harms of that law. senator pryor likes to talk about how he led on e.p.a. regulations. he can't get a vote on. he likes to talk about the keystone pop line. we passed legislation that would permit the keystone pipeline. he can't get a vote on it. why is that? because he likes to talk one way in arkansas but he votes like a liberal in washington. that's why a vote for mark pryor is a vote for barack obama. >> our next question from mr. thompson goes first to mr. swaney. >> mr. swaney, as recently as 2011, the president was willing to cut a deal. he was willing to raise the

eligibility age on medicare. he was willing to make changes of social security. to the frustration of much of his party's delegation in washington. but conservatives fought because of it included tax increases. he insisted on that. in hindsight, was conservative inflexibility on this matter a mistake? >> yes. yes, it was. social security is one of the most successful programs of legislation that's ever been enacted in the united states of america. and it's not really in trouble. they want you to think that it is, but it's not. it needs a little bit of help. probably all we really need to do is to remove the cap on payroll taxes, people that make more than $117,000 a year are not paying into the social

security system. i think that ought to be removed. that may do the job by itself. but if not, what would be left would be a very small percent increase in the payroll tax which according to the government's figures solve the problem for the united states government for 75 years. $5 trillion of the national debt is because federal government borrowed the money from the social security trust fund and the medicare trust fund. if we enact small taxes now that will be very easy to do, we could eliminate over that time period $5 trillion of the national debt and put the social security system back on a good foot and put the medicare system in a solid position. and so i do support tax increases to save the social security system, to replenish the social security trust fund and the medicare trust fund so

that that excellent benefit is available to all americans from now on. >> mr. pryor. >> thank you. i think your question was about sort of a global budget deal to try to get everything on the table, medicare, social security, taxes, entitlements, everything on the table to talk about it. i do support trying to go through that process and getting us through a budget deal to get through a budget deal. i do. don't kid yourself, folks. this is har. we don't run for these offices to get re-elected. we run for these offices to get things done. this is something i've been pushing for years. i haven't been successful yet but i haven't stopped trying. i want to do it responsible pli. for exam pe, in the last three years, i voted to cut $4 trillion out of spending. let me repeat that. in the last three years i voted to cut $4 trillion out of

spending. in fact, we've had these trillion dollar deficits, those are completely unsustainable. if there is good news this year when it comes to the budget trks would be that we're now somewhere down in the range of $400 billion a year. it's still too much. here's the key to really getting our budget back on track. we need to work together in a bipartisan way to get this done and everybody has to agree and hold hands and do it together like back in the old deds when tip oneal and president reag an if d out social security, we can get the economy rolling again, a lot of the budget problems tart to take care of themselves because the revenues come in. that's why i support the american made strong package of job legislation. we need to focus on the middle class, manufacturing jobs. one of the differences in congressman cotton and i, he

want to build it from the billionaires down. i want to build it from the middle class out. >> mr. la france. >> thank you. these entitlement issues don't have to be hard. it's not the 1930's or the 1940's anymore. we have an opportunity to save these programs out and return these tax dollars to the american people, have that money in their pockets and let them decide what to do with this. for social security my plan is pretty straightforward. for retirees, people near retirement, they're going to see their full benefits. for mid career workers, they're going to see partial benefits and a phase out of their social security tax. for younger workers, they're not going to have social security taxes -- benefits however the social security tax would be phased out in the coming years. these taxes, these regulations

are what is restraining our economy today. it is not -- our business can't cope with the regulation, can't cope with the tax burdens. i want to change that and i want to get our economy growing again. when it comes to programs like medicare and medicaid, these are programs that the government needs to be taking one out of one person's pocket and given to another. we can have charitable organizations to assist those that are truly in need get the medical services that they need. same thing with the welfare program and the food stamp program. government is inefficient. government is messy. government is often corrupted. they don't need to have control over this kind of money. it shouldn't be their decision where it goes. the american people are compassionate. we care for each other and we're capable of helping each other out in times of need. >> mr. cotton. >> the last thing our economy

need is tax increases and mark pryor has voted for every one of barack obama's tax increases. i was actually shaking hands as the overnight shift was coming off. it was dark, several hundred workers were stringing by. as i shook a woman's hand and asked for her vote, are you a democrat and/or a republican? here we go. motor vehicle of the state has been for a long time. i said well, ma'am, i'm a republican. and she said good because i can't work enough hours to pay all the taxes they are putting on me. she's right. working families in arkansas are suffering from higher taxes day in and day out. we don't have a taxing problem in this country. in fact last year the federal government had the highest tax collections that we've ever had in the history of our country. we still have deficits because we have a spending problem. mark pryor's solution is to keep

increasing taxes. he's voted to raise taxes on wages, off savings, on health care plans, on medical devices. he voted to raise prices on tan sal yoons. mark pryor has voted for every single penny of barack obama's trillion dollars in deficit on average time and time again. that's bad for our economy. it's bad for the next generation of america as well. it's not something that i'll stand for when i'm your next united states senator. we have to keep taxes low, simple and fair and we have to control spending to get our budget back to balance. that's what i'll do. mark pryor won't because he will rubber stamp m barack obama's policies. >> mr. swaney, rebuttal. >> i believe the subject of this question began with social security. i want to say i'm a strong

supporter of social security in its current form. i believe a small increase in tax now is am pli justified to put social security and medicare on a firm footing for 75 years. sometimes i wonder whether or not people think it's a good thing to have old people living under bridges, which is probably what would happen if we eliminated social security. so i'm a very strong proprone poneent of maintaining that program and i think that we do need a slight tax increase. perhaps it wouldn't even have to happen if we remove the cap on parol earning for the class earners. that might do the job all by itself. but if not what was left would be very small and easy to accommodate. i people that are worried about their social security. i'm only one of them. i want it. >> we want to thank our panel of journalists for their questions.

time now for closing statements. mr. la france goes first. sir, two minutes. >> thank you very much. i'm running for the united states senate for one simple reason, because i have six daughters of my own and doy not want them to inherent a country with less freedom and less opportunity than the country that we have been blessed with. we're messing it up right now in washington. our economy is stagnant. ur taxes are too high. -- ral control over deal -- our taxes are too high on local levels as well. whenever spending goes up, they just raise taxes again. i will not vote for tax increase of any kind. in fact, i will fight for tax cuts for every american during y term in the u.s. senate.

you know, all i can say as a closing is that this is your country. it's not mine, it's not tom cottons, mark swaney's or mark pryor's, it's your country. this senate seat is your seat. whoever you elect should be voting in your best interest, not in their own. career politicians, their days need to be numbered. i want term limits and i want to reduce the amount of influence that money has in washington and its corruptive influence on everything it's done there in town. i want to bring control of your life of your finances of your children's education back to you. the federal government doesn't need to be involved. the federal government can protect the country with a strong defensive military and do some other functions, interstate commerce, interstate highways,

that's fine, but they don't need to do wealth transfers. they don't need to take your money and my money and give it to whatever group they want. i'm going to bring real structural change to washington and that's something that none of the other three gentlemen up here can say. thank you very much. >> thank you. mr. swaney, you're next. >> i want to talk now about something to the audience out there in the world and today in the auditorium here. thank you for attending and being interested. we talk about voting. you know, we have the peculiar idea in america sometimes. sometimes people think you can vote against a candidate. this is really not true. the ballot doesn't have a category that says which candidate do i hate the most. you can only vote for candidates. and when you vote for a candidate you need to take some responsibility for that vote after you cast it. sometimes people will have you believe that you're responsible for candidates you didn't vote for, make you feel guilty.

well, you didn't vote this way so this other guy got in the office office. this is false logic. if you don't vote for a candidate, you're not responsible -- if you do vote for a candidate but you vote for him anyway because you think another guy is worse and that bad candidate gets elected, you have some personal responsibility for everything that bad candidate does. in this election you're lucky because you have a progressive choice in this race. if you don't want to throw your vote away, doing the same things you've been doing for decades and seeing the country go more and more and more conservative then i urge you to vote green. you won't be sorry about it and you won't have to feel guilty about it later. you have an excellent candidate for the green candidate for governor. his name is yosh drake. i urge you all to vote for him. we need to get 3% for josh so that the green party can

guarantee that you will have candidates to vote for in 20 16 -- 2016. i urge you to vote green and vote for your lives. thank you very much. >> mr. pryor. >> i want to thank you for moderating. i want to thank our three candidates i'm up here tonight with these fine candidates. i want to thank university of central arkansas for hosting tonight and the journalists. but most of all i want to thank you, the people of the state of arkansas. i have to go back for just a minute because congressman cotton just told a whopper when he said that i have voted for every single one of barack obama's taxes. it's not even close. in fact, i voted against every budget that president obama has offered. my real record on taxes is i voted to cut taxes by $5.5 trillion since i've been in the senate. cut taxes by $5.5 trillion and

i'm a big believer in tax reform. we need to simplify the tax code and lower the rates. this is more of this misinformation and this rhetoric that congressman cotton has gotten so good at doing over the course of this campaign. if you look at his real voting record which you see in his voting record is these people who are investing him and wants a big return on his investment, that's who he is listening to and that's exactly what he's going to do if he gets elected to the senate. listen, he's not listening to you. he's listen to those out of state billionaires who are writing those checks paying for his campaign. in my office i have a plaque on my desk and many of you all have been there, it says arkansas comes first. this is what i mean by that. i list tone the people of the state of arkansas. i work hard year after year. i'm ranked as the most

independent or one of the most independent senators in washington. i would very much appreciate your vote. early voting starts on october 20 and election day is november 4. let's go out and win this one and lets keep this seat for the people of arkansas. thank you. >> mr. cotton. >> i was very blessed to grow up on the cotton form. i'm very blessed now that ann and i are expecting our first child, a baby boy. we want our baby to have the same opportunities that we did. i want you and your families to have those same opportunities as well, have a chance for a better life. barack obama's policies are making that harder though. president obama's policies are on the ballot. in arkansas the name of those policies is mark prior. because he votes with barack obama 93% of the time. that's why a vote for mark pryor is a vote for president obama. it is costing jobs in arkansas and driving down wages. mark pryor cast a vote for obama

kear and it is driving up the cost of health insurance. mark pryor has voted for every single penny of new debt, a trillion dollars every year under barack obama's six combreers, even while cutting a trillion dollars for our military. mark pryor is a rubber stamp of barack obama's failed foreign policy. senator pryor won't even hold president obama accountable for not protecting our family for from ebola. there's a different way. let's put people back to work so we can have people achieving their dreams. let's repeal obamacare and start over on health care reform, trusting our patients, doctors, families. let's balance our budget, quit stealing from our kids, rebuild our military and keep your family state or secure, whether the threat is terrorism or disease. this is the choice you face. barack obama's said his policies

are on the ballot. they are. here in arkansas they go by the name of mark prior. if you want change, if you want a new direction for arkansas and for our country then i would appreciate your vote. >> we want to thank our four candidates for the united states senate for their appearance tonight. thank you, gentlemen, for being here. another thanks to our panelists. most of all, thanks to you, the audience, the voters. see you next time. >> campaign 2014 is bringing you more than 100 debates for the control of congress. ollow us on twitter and c-span .nd facebook.com/c-span in arkansas incumbent senator mark pryor will face republican challenger tom cotton for a second time in two days.

we'll have live debate coverage tomorrow night here on c-span. on c-span 2 we will bring you the louisiana debate for u.s. senate. under louisiana's election system, if a single candidate fails to get more than 50% of the vote there will be a december runoff. live coverage from shreveport at 8:00 p.m. eastern. said ad of the c.d.c. medical personnel need to rethink how infectious diseases are handled in the us. this comes after a nurse contracted ebola while caring for a dying patient. republican senate leader mitch mcconnell is in a tight race for

re-election against alison undergan grimes. >> c-span's 2015 student cam competition is under way. this nationwide competition for middle and high school students will award prizes totally $150,000. reate a five to seven minute documentary on the three branches of the government. go to student cam.org for more information. grab a camera an get started today. >> on our next "washington journal," a conversation on women and the november elections. andl talk to the ilise hoge russell moore of the southern baptist convention joins us to

discuss the role that evangelicals are playing in the 2014 campaign. "wall street journal" is live each morning -- washington journal is live each morning at 7:a.m. you can also join the conversation on facebook and twitter. >> with the head of the c.d.c., dr. tom frieden -- following the news that a dallas health care worker tested positive for the virus. this news briefing is 40 minutes. >> good afternoon, everyone and thank you very much for joining us. stopping ebola is hard. we're working together to make it safer and easier. yesterday we confirmed the first case of ebola contracted in the united states in a health care worker who cared for what we refer to who we refer to as the

index patient in dallas texas. our thoughts are with this health care worker. she is now being cared for and we understand that she is clinically stable. please refer any questions on her care to the hospital where she's being cared for so that only information that she and her family want released is released. the existence of the first case of ebola spread within the u.s. changes some things and it doesn't change other things. it doesn't change the fact that we know how ebola spreads. it doesn't change the fact that it's possible to take care of ebola safely. but it does change substantially how we approach it. we have to rethink the way we address ebola infection control because even a single infection

is unacceptable. i'll get into some details of what we're thinking about with regard to how to make care even safer in a minute. but i want to just step back first and outline what we're doing and what the current status is. first, before the index patient in dallas was hospitalized and isolated, they -- there were 48 potential contacts, 10 known to have contact with him, 38 who may have had contact with him. all of those 48 contacts have been monitored daily. none of them have developed fever or other symptoms as of now. this is consistent with what we know about ebola. that people aren't sick when they don't have symptoms and the sicker they get, the more infectious they may become because the amount of virus in

heir body increases. second, for the health care worker who was diagnosed yesterday, we have been discussing with her our team lead in texas has spoken with her on multiple occasions. she's been extremely helpful and we have identified one and only one contact who had contact with her during the period when she was potentially, although likely not, infectious. because it was at the very onset of her symptoms. that individual is also being monitored and as of now has no symptoms suggestive of ebola and no fever. third, is to identify the health care workers who also cared for the index patient and ensure that they are actively monitored for development of symptoms for fever and if they develop either symptoms or fever that they're

immediately isolated, assessed and tested. that process is still under way. the team worked hard through the day yesterday into the night yesterday and are still actively working today to interview each one of the large number of health care workers who might potentially have had contact with the index patient when he was hospitalized. and the thinking here is straightforward, if this one individual was infected and we don't know how within the isolation unit, then it is possible that other individuals could have been infected as well. so we consider them to potentially be at risk and we're doing an in depth review and investigation. so these are the three categories of contacts, contacts with the index patient before he was hospitalized, contacts with the health care worker who was diagnosed yesterday, and contacts who may have also had

contact with the index patient after he was hospitalized. all of them will be actively monitored and that's how we break the chain of transmission. we prevent another generation of spread of ebola. in addition as i indicated yesterday, we are doing a detailed investigation to better understand what might have happened with the infection of the health care worker. we look at what happens before people go into isolation, what happens in isolation and what happens when they come out of isolation. and we're particularly concerned with that third process, taking off the isolation personal protective equipment because if it is contaminated, there is a possibility that a worker will contaminate themselves and become infected in that process. from day one, we've had a team on the ground in dallas working closely with the hospital, the state and the local health officials. when the additional patient was

diagnosed, we doubled down and sent an additional team in place. that team has been at the hospital just about continuously since. they've been working through the night. we're not just doing an investigation. we're immediately addressing anything that could potentially make it safer and easier to care for people who have or may have ebola. we're not going to wait for the final results of that investigation. and i can go in some detail later to what we are doing in the short run, but each time we identify a process or training for equipment or protocol that can be improved there, we are improving it right there on the site. i want to clarify something i said yesterday. i spoke about a breach in protocol and that's what we speak about in public health when we're talking about what

needs to happen and our focus is to say would this protocol would have prevented the infection, and we believe it would have. but? interpreted that as finding fault with the hospital or the health care worker. i'm sorry if that was the impression given. that was certainly not my intention. people on the frontlines are really protecting all of us. people on the frontlines are fighting ebola. the enemy here is a virus, ebola. it's not a person. it's not a country. it's not a place. it's not a hospital. it's a virus. it's a virus that's tough to fight. but together i'm confident that we will stop it. what we need to do is all take responsibility for improving the safety of those on the frontlines. i feel awful that a health care worker became infected in the care of an ebola patient. she was there trying to help the first patient survive, and now

she has become infected. all of us have to work together to do whatever is possible to other he risk that any health care worker becomes infected. when we think about hospitals where ebola care can be given, really there are two different steps. the first is diagnosis. and every hospital in this country need to think about the possibility of ebola in anyone with fever or other symptoms that might be consistent with ebola who's traveled to either liberia, sear air lee own or begin -- sierra leone or guinea. that's critical so that patients are rapidly diagnosed if additional patients become ill in this country. second is the issue of care of

ebola once the diagnosis has been made. i think what we recognize is that that care is complex and we're now working very closely with the hospital to make that care simpler and easier with hands on training, hands on oversight and monitoring, and that's something that we will do any time there is a case of ebola. now, i want to just end before i turn it over to commissioner lakey with thinking a bit about what comes next, what's going to be happening in the coming days and weeks. well first, is the safe and effective care of the health care worker in dallas, and we will do everything to make sure that those who are taking care of that individual are doing so while protecting themselves and that individual gets the best possible care.

second, as i said yesterday, we need to consider the possibility that there could be additional cases, particularly among the health care workers who cared for the index patient when he was so ill. that's when this health care worker became infected and we're concerned and would unfortunately not be surprised if we did see additional cases in health care workers who also provided care to the index patient. third, we will continue to track all contacts. all of the 4 from the initial patient -- all of the 48 from the initial patient's expose wrures before he was hospitalized, the one individual who was exposed to the health care worker who's hospitalized now, and awful the health care workers who may have been exposed to the initial care of the index patient. fourth, we'll work with hospitals throughout the country to think ebola in someone with

fever or other symptoms who has had travel -- who has traveled to niff of the three affected countries in the previous 21 days. and fifth, we will double down on training, outreach, education and assistance throughout the health care system to through professional associations, through hospitals, through group organizations and individuals reaching out to health departments of the state and county levels in cities and elsewhere so that we can increase the awareness of ebola and increase the ability to respond rapidly. >> we wish the individual had not been infected and we're concerned that there could be infection infections in the coming days. what we're doing now is implementing an immediate set of steps that would ensure the care

of that individual is safe and effective why we look longer term at what this implies for to -- and with that i'll turn to over to dr. david lakey who is commissioner of the texas department of state hept ervices. >> we new it was i possibility that one of the health care work workers become infected but it is still disappoint -- we want the family to know our thoughts and prayers are with them, with the health care worker and with the staff that are working hard on her care right now. there's many components to our response here in dallas. dr. frieden talked about in --

many of those components. our top priority now is the contact investigation. a lot of work has taken place. we pulled in additional staff from throughout the state of texas, complimenting the work of the c.d.c. and the dallas health department staff and so we're bringing in the resources to do the contact investigation from many different levels of government to identify those individuals and contact them as quickly as possible. dr. frieden talked about infectious control, obviously a critical component of this response. looking hard at the infectious control practices and making sure that they're even more stringent than what they are right now and have c.d.c. experts the best in the bill here in dallas working with us to make sure that we are as stringent as possible with infection control. the health care worker's apartment initial cleaning has been done.

additional evaluation and cleaning will be accomplished today. we're doing this with local leaders but also with other state agencies to make sure that we do that in accordance with the best guidance that's out there. one issue related to the final cleaning is the health care worker has a dog and we want to make sure that we respond appropriately and so we're working hard to find a location to care for the dog and a location where we can have the proper monitoring of the dog. finally, the work that we're doing is planning. we know the possibilities that can occur and we want to be prepared. and so a lot of work is taking place right now with a variety of health care providers, emergency managers, e.m.s. to make sure we are ready for whatever needs to take place. and at the same time following the folks that we know have been contacted and the 48 individuals

that we've been monitoring so far and the additional individuals that dr. frieden has discussed today, making sure that all of them know what needs to happen if any of them start having symptoms. and so again, a lot of work is taking place here in dallas and we continue to be grateful for the support from the c.d.c. and our many other partners many this response. and with that, dr. frieden, i'll hand the line back over to you. thanks. >> thank you very much, dr. lakey. and thank you to the team there in texas. we value the relationship greatly. before turning to questions i'll just comment that the situation is fluid and we will continue to update you as we get more information. >> doctor, you spoke about the possibility of further infections, is that because there is a known safety procedure and protocol that perhaps that was not followed? and my follow up question to that is if you cannot pinpoint

the breach in protocol, how do you move forward with education in >> if we knew that there was a specific incident, such as a needle stick, that would indicate that we could narrow it down the to health care workers at risk to those who had that specific exposure. since we don't know what the exposure was but we know there was an exposure then we have to cast the net more widely and see in terms of monitoring, monitor a larger portion of the health care workers and in terms of infection control protocols or procedures, improve every aspect of those procedures every time we see something that could be improved. so for example, our staff there now are watching as patients put on and take off all of their protective gash -- garb. they're retraining staff in how to do that safely. they're looking at the types of personal protective equipment that are used to see if there are some times types that might

be easier to put on or take off and thereby reduce the risk that someone would unintentionally contaminate themselves. we're looking at what we do when someone comes out of the isolation unit and possibly spraying them down with a product that would kill the virus if there is contamination. that was already in our guidelines for gloves, but we're looking at that more broadly. we're also looking at things that can be done within the isolation facility to reduce the risk that individuals' personal protective equipment could become contaminated with the ebola virus. so there are a sear rizz of things that are already implemented in the past 24 hours and we will continue to look at that in terms of how we can we make care easier and safer. >> hi. it's mary from cnn. you've been telling us what needs to be done, how prepared we are for months.

you've been telling us for a long time about the risks and all the things that can be done. but you just stead you're working at making care simpler and you're providing hands on training. it seems like there's a gap in what you may have thought was happening in the nation's hospitals and what actually is happening. have you thought about bringing withoutody like doctors borders which have been successfully treating patients for years? the second question i have is regarding the travel. you have said multiple times that travel ban is not helpful for many reasons but many people still think why not keep those people who maybe sick from coming into this country. can you better explain why you don't think a travel ban is a good idea. >> sorry, your first question again. >> the training -- >> training, thank you. we've worked very closely with doctors without borders. in fact, we've replicated their

training course and we have dozens and hundreds of u.s. doctors and other health care workers who are going to africa to fight the outbreak at the source, going through a c.d.c. run training program that replicates the training that m.s.f. training has done. the same are training physicians throughout the u.s. we will be looking over the coming days in how we can increase training and materials and availability most urgently for the health care workers caring for the patient in dallas, but also more generally throughout our health care system. it is worth highlighting that the single most important thing for every other hospital in the country to know is the importance of taking a history of travel. that if someone has fever or other symptoms that could be ebola, ask where they have been in the previous 21 days, and if 's to liberia, sierra leone,

or guinea then immediately place them in isolation, consult with us and we'll go from there. but that's what the health care system in general needs to really focus on. in terms of travel, we're looking at multiple levels of protection. the first is screening of people on departure from the three countries. all are screand screened with a questionnaire. all have their temperature taken. 77 people in the last two months were not allowed to board, not allowed to enter the airport even because they had fever or other symptoms. none of those were diagnosed with ebola. many of them had malaria. in addition, starting yesterday at j.f.k. international airport in new york city, we began screening people who came from these countries, also with a detailed questionnaire and temperature check. since that was implemented, 91

such individuals were identified. none of them had fever. five of them were referred for additional evaluation by c.d.c. none were determined to have expose wrure to ebola. .o this is in place at j.f.k. thursday of this week we anticipate having it in place at four additional airports and we'll learn from that scompeer yen. also making sure doctors diagnose ebola promptly is very important. on the issue of banning travel, i understand that there are calls to do this. i really try to focus on the bottom line here. the bottom line here is reducing risk to americans. the way we're going to reduce risk to americans is do the steps i just went through and stop it at the source in africa. today, c.d.c. has 150 of our top disease detectivives throughout

e three countries and -- within the three countries helping to turn the outbreak around working with the world health organization, with the department of defense and many other governments which are surging in to help stop it at the source. if we do things that unintentionally make it harder to get supplies in, that make it harder for those governments to manage to get everything from economic activity to travel going, it's going to become much harder to stop the outbreak at the source. if that were to happen, it would spread for more months and potentially to other countries and that would increase rather than decrease the risk to americans. above all, do no harm and that's why we want to focus on stopping the outbreak at the source. and protecting americans wherever ebola may arise, even though we know that that could e challenging.

>> mystery from cbs news. texas presbyterian say relatively large hospital and still had a breach like this. do you still feel confident the smaller hospitals can handle and isolate a patient with ebola sis toms? >> we're going to look carefully at the issue of what's the optimal way to safely effectively care for people with ebola. but i would reiterate that whatever we do on that issue, it's very important that every hospital be prepared to diagnose someone with ebola. remember, there may be americans who have deployed or traveled to the area who come back, so whatever we do, we're not going to eliminate travel from these countries. >> thank you, dr. frieden. i'm michele with hospital employee health newsletter. you mentioned doing everything possible to protect health care workers and i was wondering if you feel that you could be

certain that in the presence of a patient with projectile vomitting and coughing that there could not be inhalation and whether or not you're considering changing the c.d.c. recommendations to include respiratory protection which i understand is what doctors without borders uses in west africa. >> actually the hospitals that have treated patients with ebola in this country have all used what are called palpers. that is a form of respiratory protection. that is clearly not how the individual in texas became infected. so i don't think we have concerns about the potential route of transmission, but our if lines already say that there's any concern for aerosol generating procedure such as intubation of a patient or suctioning then absolutely we

recommend ress tore wri protection. other side of the room. >> hi, aerial with the atlanta journal and constitution. two questions. first of all, can you clarify about the breach in protocol. are you deducing that a breach in protocol must have happened because of the result or have you identified any particular breach in protocol? and second of all, back in august the c.d.c. held a nference and your folks were pressed again and again by the clinicians about negative air pressure rooms and about what kind of garb is used. they seem to think should there be? kind of -- and again the c.d.c. folks came back with up to hospital policy, stuff like as for head coverings we do not specifically call this out. do you still stand by that guidance or has anything changed? >> again your first question was? >> the first question was about

the breach in protocol. >> we have not identified a specific problem that led led to this infection. we have identified a series of things where we can make the care safer and easier for the health care workers who are providing it. one of the things that's very important is that we have practical solutions that are workable. when you're taking care of a patient with ebola, you need to good in and come out multiple times, doing that in a way that works for you is very important. we're looking at what are the ways to do this most safely and most easily. one of the things that we found that sometimes health care workers may think that more is better, so they put on additional sets of gloves or additional coverings and that may actually end up making things less rather than more safe because it may be so difficult to remove those levels or layers that it inadvertently

increases risk. we don't know that that happened here but that's one of the things that we've been addressing. even before the individual's infection, we had improved some of the infection control practices at the hospital. over the past 24 hours, we've undertaken a series of improvements and we will continue to look at as we investigate every possible way to increase safety for health care workers. >> elizabeth it a tore cbs 46. my question is regarding the screenings that you mentioned are going to start thursday at heartsfield jackson. do those work? if someone is nonsymptomatic when he gets here, how are we going to stop him and we're kind of relying on everyone being honest to say that they ran into someone or they didn't. >> the airport screenings will identify people with fever. detailed ndergo a

questionnaire about contact and if there's any possible contact secondary or tertiary screening by the c.d.c. public health officers at the airports. but we recognize until we stop the outbreak in west africa, there's no way to get the risk in the u.s. to zero. what we can do is stop its spread within the u.s. and minimize the possibility that we have other cases here. and that's exactly what we're doing. we'll go to the phones. the first question. >> again if you would like to ask a question on the phones, please press star one and record your name when prompted. please limit your question to one question. our first questions comes from evan of fox news radio. go ahead, sir. your line is open. >> good afternoon and thank you for doing this. is there any type of either federal standard or state level standards for hospital employees

to work in an isolation unit? we do have those folks and even some laypeople that get certified for things like c.p.r. and whatnot and they do that through -- they take special training and they have to take exams to do that. do they do that for isolation ward care and would that be one of the things going forward that might be helpful? >> i'll begin and turn it over to dr. lakey for further comment. there are a series of critical care nursing,th carefd many specialties in which infection control is an integral part, but in terms of specific qualifications or certifications for isolation and treatment, there is nothing there. however, but we will be doing in the coming days and weeks is doubling down on the amount of

education, training, outreach and support we provide, not just for this hospital but for other hospitals in other health care settings that are concerned are concerned appropriately about the possibility of detecting ebola and safely caring for it. add don't have much to besides what you just discussed. as far as the hospitals, they have looked at the rooms, the negative pressure rooms to make sure they are up to standard. there is general education that takes place with infection control practitioners, and a lot of education that takes place in the hospital itself. we do not have a specific regulatory certification for individuals that work in these types of environments. a lot of that education takes place at the hospital, and did those hospitals -- and those hospitals have licensure that they can perform to state guidelines.

>> go ahead. your line is open. >> i have a question for either dr. lakey or dr. frieden or both of you. late last night the louisiana attorney general said he would seek a temporary restraining order so that the incinerated waste from the apartment where mr. duncan stayed at could be disposed of in a louisiana landfill. i wonder if there is a scientific basis, and how you think, dr. frieden, that might impact the care of other patients with ebola around the country. >> we know how to inactivate and destroy the ebola virus. it is readily destroyed by incineration and environmental means. it is not a particularly hearty virus environmental-wise. dr. lakey? >> i don't have much more to comment.

we feel with the procedure, with incineration, with total inactivation of any virus and believe that the ash would pose absolutely no risk. that's where we are right now. >> in the room? >> you mentioned there were several other staff members that you guys were interviewing that had contact with the index patient. do you have a number of those people? and exactly what are you talking to them about? >> the teams on the ground are going into great detail about what type of contact people had and which kind of care they gave on different days so we can have a map of what kind of potential expose shures there were. we do not have a number of potentially exposed health care workers.

it is a relatively large number, we think. in the end, what proportion of them have actually had contact, we don't know. we cast a wide net and narrow that down. we hope that by tomorrow we are able to provide that number to you. in the room? >> miriam falco, cnn. you talked about how more training needs to be happening. there are a lot of hospitals in this country. we thought -- at least the hospital thought in dallas that they had prepared well. they had a training session the week before mr. duncan was admitted. is there a way to choose certain hospitals as ebola-designated hospitals so you know that hospital has improved or up to par training until all hospitals have that possibility? >> we are certainly looking at all the possibilities. we want to make sure that when patients are cared for, they are cared for safely. i think the event in dallas this

week shows how hard it is to do that. care for a patient with ebola requires meticulous attention to detail, and we are looking at how to make that safer and easier. one more question in the room, and then we will be done. >> my next question comes from the associated press. good afternoon. your line is open. >> could you please tell the steps that the health care workers in texas were taking to decontaminate? how did it work? you mentioned something about starting a buddy system. if you could mention what's been done up to this point. >> what we're doing is looking at every aspect of prevention of infection in the dallas hospital. that includes what is done when people put on their personal protective equipment. that may mean looking at the

different equipment that's used and seeing if there is equipment that's easier to put on or more protective. what they do when they are in the isolation facility, what they do to reduce the risk so that virus wouldn't get on their protective equipment, and what would they do when they come out on the equipment. that's where we are most concerned. because that's when you may have virus on your equipment. you need to make sure there is a buddy watching how you do it, that there is a monitor providing oversight, looking for ways to decontaminate any potential contamination. it is an ongoing process. we work through the night with the staffer there. we are implementing new procedures to make it safer and easier, and we will make it easier to do that in the coming days. thank you. >> you mentioned you are going to rethink patient care possibly. could one way to do that be the end of life care such as

intubation or other things that are sort of more invasive for health care workers? >> we will look at all aspects. we want to make sure patients that have ebola are cared for both safely and effectively. it is important for them, and it is important for all of us. when ebola patients are cared for safely, it is more likely people will come in for care. it is more likely health care workers will have the confidence that in the -- what we hope will be the extremely unlikely event they are infected, they will get the best possible care. that's where our focus is. dr. lakey, is there anything you would like to say in concluding? >> thank you, dr. frieden. we appreciate the support from the c.d.c. and our many other partners as we do everything we can to stop the spread of ebola here in dallas. i feel confident we are going to do that. we are bringing in the staff we need to do, to do the contact tracing.

we are working with, as you noted many times, to make sure that the infection control is as stringent -- stringent as possible and making sure we have a coordinated response. so again, we appreciate the work of the c.d.c. and our many other partners as we do this. and again, we are right now concentrating on the care of this individual and making sure no other texans are exposed. >> thank you very much, dr. lakey. the bottom line here is that the care of ebola is hard. we are working to make it safer and easier. the control of ebola is something we know how to do. already we have seen that the contact of the index patient so far have not had illness. we have had one case, and we hope we have no additional cases among health care workers who cared for him. but that one case does tell us that there were risks to that

individual and potentially to others, so we are intensively monitoring that so we can break the chain of transmission there. and we are assessing what more we can do, what more we all can do, to improve the care of people with ebola so that we cannot only stop it at the source but also risk the -- reduce the risk to any health care workers going forward. thank you very much. [inaudible question] >> let's go back. the question is, should the country be confident with stopping this. we are working to break the chain. we are making sure people with symptoms are rapidly isolated and cared for. we want to point out -- we want to ensure the care of patients is safe and effective. right now we have to make sure

that care is done safely and effectively everywhere, particularly in dallas where there is a patient today. we have already cared for other patients with ebola in this country without infections. doctors without borders and others, including ourselves, have cared for patients for decades without infections. so we know how to stop ebola. for the general public the key message here is, if you are a health care worker, see what you can do to help stop it by detecting it sooner or helping out, if you volunteer to do so. for the individuals who are potentially exposed to either of the two patients in dallas, you need to monitor intensively for that 21-day period. for everyone else, there is no risk of exposure to ebola unless you go to west africa. that's why we are going to west africa, to stop that risk there. we need to do everything we can, and we are doing everything we can to both protect americans,

and protect americans effectyly by stopping it at the source, as well as stopping it here. thank you. >> a house panel will investigate the use and possibility of government issued credit cards. we will hear from inspectors general from numerous federal agencies. live coverage begins at 1 p.m. eastern here on c-span. on c-span two, a discussion about some of the technology challenges of self driving cars. that's live from the cato institute. republican senate leader mitch mcconnell is in senate race reelection against democrat allison grimes. we will have those debates and a moments. here are some of the political ads that are airing in the state.

>> after 30 years, who is doing better? mitch has voted himself six pay raises, enjoy over 200,000 dollars worth of special perks. here at home, incomes are down 9%. kentucky has fallen 44th in jobs and lost over 42,000 manufacturing jobs. washingtonmitch has working for him, and not us. mcconnell, and i approve this message. >> allison grimes says election is not about her support for barack obama and his failed policies. but i'm not barack obama. >> but obama himself said a vote for allison is a vote for his policies. >> i'm not on the ballot this fall, but make no mistakes, these policies are on the ballot. every single one of them. , andama needs grimes

kentucky needs mitch mcconnell. >> i approve this message. mitchst we learn mcconnell skipped hundreds of committee meetings. oncouldn't show up to vote troop funding, the farm bill, and the v.a.. he skipped a meeting on rule jobs.- rural the rest of the time, he created gridlock. 30 years is long enough. her ads falseall and misleading, but allison grimes keeps attacking. must not understand that as a senate leader, mitch doesn't just serve on committees, he can appoint commission members, making sure kentucky's voice is heard. it's a power grimes won't have. of his attendance. allison grimes?

no experience. false and misleading attacks. >> now the first and only scheduled debate between senator mitch mcconnell of kentucky and his opponent, allison grimes. esther o'connell was first elected to the senate in 1984. he curly serves as minority leader. his democratic challenger is kentucky's secretary of state. this is courtesy of kentucky educational television. ♪ >> welcome to kentucky tonight. good evening, i'm bill goodman. tonight will discuss issues in kentucky's u.s. senate race. secretaryr kentucky of state, allison grimes of the democratic party, and u.s.

senator mitch mcconnell of the republican party. please include your first and last name, town or county on all messages. to the both of you, thanks very much for being here tonight. secretary grimes, you have aseled senator mcconnell -- senator gridlock. years of brinksmanship and partisan games in gridlock in washington dc. senator mcconnell, in turn you said of ms. grimes that she is an inexperienced obama liberal with a gun. youetary grimes, what can say that would convince kentucky

voters that you would be the independent voice in washington and would not support the president's agenda for the next two years question mark >> kentuckians know my record, and i want to thank you, bill and the viewers all across the commonwealth who are joining in tonight. they know the record i have as secretary of state, in contrast to senator mcconnell is one of acts we putting the people of kentucky first. i have my disagreements with the president. his energy philosophy, wrongly ruling by executive order. the president is not on the ballot this year. it's myself and senator mcconnell. he doesn't want to take responsibility for all that is wrong in washington dc washington isn't working for kentucky and it's due to the , the partisanship that he championed. it has severe consequences for kentucky from infrastructure to education to agriculture to manufacturing. ableack of ability to be to make those investments.

it is hurting kentucky. i'm in this race to hopefully help give hard-working kentuckians fighting chance of actually earning a good wage and having a good quality of life, making sure that we grow the middle class, something that hasn't been a priority for senator mcconnell, whether you call him senator gridlock, senator no-show, our center shut down. >> we will talk about those issues tonight. willor mcconnell, what convince kentucky burgers that you will not side with washington over kentucky issues, and that this race is not about blocking then to obama agenda, but you have kentucky issues first? opponent just say my has been most for time trying to deceive everywhere -- everybody about her own views. she has been a delegate to the 2008 and 2012 democratic conventions when some democrats

chose not to go. congressman chandler didn't go to the convention in 2012. senator manchin didn't go. senator mccaskill didn't go. made major efforts to try to deceive the people of kentucky about her own views and where she is likely to go if she were to get there. with regard to my own record, there have been three major bipartisan agreements during the obama years between republicans and democrats. the vice president and i have negotiated every one of them. thetwo-year extension of bush tax cuts, the fiscal cliff deal on new year's a -- new year's eve of 2012, which made cutsf the bush tax permanent and also got a $5 million per person estate tax exemption which is really significant for family farms and small businesses here in kentucky. 99% of them will not have to be sold in order to get them down

to the next generation. so i am prepared to negotiate with the other side when we can find areas of agreement, but i don't share the president's agenda. it's an agenda that i think has been demonstrably bad for america and for kentucky. >> how would your agenda be different? >> as i've said, i have been prepared to negotiate with the democrats will again find areas of agreement. the three major deals i've just mentioned are the only major deals during these obama years. all of them would either reduce spending or keep taxes low. those were areas that we agreed on. i was perfectly willing to negotiate, and those were good agreements that ended up being passed by very large majority. >> going forward you would work with the president and senator reid? >> the president said we ought to do comprehensive tax reform. we now have the highest corporate tax rate among

industrialized countries. its great way to export jobs, exactly the opposite thing we ought to be doing. i group the president on that. unlike my opponent, who said she is opposed to trade agreements, apparently. president said we ought to be negotiating trade agreements. thinkmost of my members there are areas of agreement. i've demonstrated that in the past and will demonstrate it again in the future. >> let me actually address that. >> i want to ask about endorsing are working on the democratic agenda. >> first, let me say that what you just heard senator mcconnell say is a complete departure from what he said to his family out in california. you went there and asked him to help buy his way back to washington dc, he told them that if a gave him another six years on top the 30 he's already had, he would have nothing to do with giving debate level and a vote to actually increasing the minimum wage or extending unemployment insurance benefits

are helping our students go to sense,, all common bipartisan proposals that the majority of kentuckians need and deserve. of said you've had enough those gosh darn proposals. you have yet to hear anything that you will actually work on. senator mcconnell's 30 year record is gridlock. it's a distraction, it's extreme partisanship that has cost this nation a 16 day government shutdown. we can't afford to go in that direction. my record speaks for itself. i'm an independent anchor that does what is right for the people of kentucky, not partisan politics. i'm not bought and paid for by the coat rudders or anybody else. >> speaking of -- by the koch brothers. >> my pond, secretary grimes, said she was going to go to a fundraiser that harry reid boxer for her in washington and tell him how important it was to the meeting coal --

was recorded by someone who was there and subsequently released. it never mentioned word about cold to harry reid. this is the harry reid that she will vote for to make majority leader of the senate if she goes there. that will be her first vote. makeshe guy who said coal you sick. she will enable him to be the leader and agenda setter in the senate which will guarantee that we have no vote on coal. >> let me address this. senator mcconnell, you and your henchmen and the coke rather's thers mislead kentuckians with your negative, nasty ads. i did have strong words for senator reid regarding an energy philosophy that i believe he is misguided on as well as president. the lights on here in kentucky. my record is consistent. senator mcconnell fought against

the coal-fired plants as a county judge. a list of hundreds of thousand offers his family has. it's on his watch we've lost hundreds of thousands of coal jobs. let me say this. when it comes to trade him a my record is again consistent. i am for free and open and fair trade, especially for our workers. it's needed for going to have a strong economy. we cannot maintain the current line i senator mcconnell has. -- the current blind eye. >> we will talk about collator the program. do you want to respond -- we will talk about coal later in the program. >> i haven't said anything in any private meeting i haven't said publicly. i have been entirely consistent both rightly and publicly. secretary grimes whole campaign has been designed to deceive people into thinking she is something she isn't. it's pretty obvious, given where

her support comes from, all the anti-coal activists in the country, that she's going to do their bidding. issue -- outrageous issue that somehow my wife and i have activists is coal the ultimate deception. that's pretty hard to get, for pinocchio is. the only one who i can think of is the president who said you have your policy and you like it, you can keep it. >> this webster a message to both of you from jason in floyd county. he says the winner of this election will be in office until 2020. if you are elected by 2020, what will be your signature accomplishment in office, and why will it matter? >> jason, thank you very much for that question. i'm in this race because i believe we have to have a senator that actually wants to help put hard-working kentuckians back to work.

i believe it is a senator's number one priority, to bring jobs back here to kentucky. and i hope that we will have worked full force across the aisle with not just democrats but republicans and independents. senator, that's how you get things done, not just in frankfurt, but in washington. that's what has been missing. we haven't had someone who's reached out across the aisle to enact a jobs plan. i'm the only candidate in this race with a jobs plan. that's how we put kentucky back to work thomas and it begins by closing the loopholes and ending ourtax breaks that send good kentucky jobs overseas, and continues with strengthening the middle class. we do that by increasing the minimum wage, in contrast to the 17 vote senator mcconnell has said saying no to increasing the minimum wage. putting hard-working kentuckians back to work and >> it's a good question to readers race is

about the next six years and who can do the most for kentucky. there's a great likelihood i will be the leader of the majority in the senate next year. the majority leader gets to set the agenda not only for the country but to look out for kentucky's interest. one of the basic questions here is who can do the most for kentucky over the next six years? anti-jobs agenda during this administration. virtually everything the president has tried to do has been a job destroyer. the spending, the borrowing, the taxing, the over regulating. if we had a chance to have a new agenda in the senate to begin to take america in a different direction, we would be voting on things like approving the keystone pipeline, which would enable about 20,000 people to go to work very quickly. we would be voting on things like pushing back against the environmental protection agency and the war on coal. this cost us 7000 coal mining jobs during the obama years. for every coal mining job you

lose three more. depression in eastern kentucky entirely caused by the obama administration. creating jobs, trying to get america going again in a different direction. >> there have been a number of media reports on voting and who voted for which president and what year it happened to be in. secretary grimes, you made news across the state and the nation about that question. the first question to you is why are you reluctant to give an answer on whether or not you voted for president obama? >> there is no reluctance. this is a matter of principle. our constitution grants the right to privacy at the ballot box for a secret ballot. you have that right, every kentucky has that right. as secretary of state, the chief election official, i'm tasked with overseeing in making sure

we are enforcing all of our election laws. i have worked very closely am especially with the members of our military, to ensure the privacy of the ballot box. those that lay their life on the line. >> so your reluctance is standing on principle rather than answering the question. >> i'm not going to compromise a constitutional right provided herein kentucky in order to curry favor on one or another side or for members of the media. i will protect that right with everything i have. you have that right, senator mcconnell has that right. every kentuckian has the right for privacy at the ballot box. stand up for that right, who in kentucky will? >> during the campaign you said you were a clinton democrat. i'm curious about what in your mind separates a clinton democrat rum and obama democrat. kentuckyy work here in

and in this campaign, it is one that is based on growing the middle class. as with all under president clinton's tenure, especially when you increase the minimum wage, you help expand the middle class. we solve some of the largest growth under president clinton's -- tenure than ever before. we have not seen that. congress has a role. your united states senator plays a huge role, and you get to hear from senator mcconnell tonight how it is he would actually help kentucky get more jobs. he doesn't even think it is an issue to bring jobs here. that was his words to voters in lee county kentucky. the difference growing middle-class the right way, by making sure rebuilding from the foundation up. >> can i respond? >> there's no difference. the clinton support what the epa is doing in the war on coal. there's not a dime's worth of

difference tween a clinton democrat and obama democrat. there's also no sacred right to not announce how we vote. , voted for mitt romney proudly. i voted for john mccain. and by the way, and 2012, 116 out of 120 downey's in kentucky agree with my judgment that we might be in better shape now had mitt romney been elected. with regards to minimum wage, the congressional budget office, run by former clinton staffer who my opponent so greatly admires said that raising the minimum wage right now will cost between a half-million and a million jobs in our country. independent studies indicate it will cost 17,000 jobs here in kentucky and an economist i just read sunday said the city of louisville is thinking about -- it would cost 1400 jobs in the city of louisville. 50% of the jobs come from young people who are having a heck of

a time finding work. i can't think of a worse time to be killing jobs for young people than right now. let me just finish, there are times when a minimum wage increase would be appropriate, but not in a jobless recovery like this. >> i have not heard yet, is the senator for or against increasing the minimum wage? when he went to california he was against it. you are consistently against helping people here in kentucky actually earned a living wage. let me respond to the false allegations regarding the studies that have been done. 90% of those that are on a minimum wage are older than 20 years old. spencere allow bethany to ask a question, do you think the minimum wage is a livable wage? minimum wage is largely an entry-level wage. 50% of the people who earn the minimum wage are young people who are beginning a career. they don't stay at that rate

very long. but if you engage in this kind of minimum wage increase right stafferhis is a liberal who used to work for bill clinton who runs the congressional budget office. you're going to destroy a half-million jobs, 50% of them for young people. the reason things like this are being contemplated is because of this slow recovery we've had after the recession of 2008. everything this administration has done has made the recovery worse, the borrowing, spending, taxing and over regulating. that's why these issues come up. the last thing we ought to be doing is destroying jobs for young people. >> how do you counter that argument? that is bethany spencer. do you think the minimum wage is a living wage? >> bethany, thank you for that great question. i do believe we must work to increase the minimum wage so it is a living wage.

$7.25 our does not allow a family of four rise above the poverty level. the studies that have been done here in kentucky, and perhaps that is what senator mcconnell has lost sight of. being in washington for 30 years can do that. the studies that have been done here in kentucky show that if you increase the minimum wage, you would help increase incomes for 30% of kentuckians. create thousands of good paying jobs. the cbo reports -- >> would it not be a job killer? >> it's what he never tells you about his record, the full story. the full story of the cbo report is it would help lift over a million americans out of poverty. the way we actually grow the putle class and hard-working kentuckians back to work is by giving them a living wage.

that's what america's about. he has gotten rich while consistently voting to keep kentucky poor, and we can't have a senator like that anymore. >> i can let that stand. she should be given for pinocchio's for that. >> is he not a multimillionaire? >> she knows that's the result of an inheritance that my wife got when her mother passed away, and she has consistently gone around all over the state and suggested that i've somehow enriched myself at public expense. let me tell you, her family has made more money off the government in the last 10 years than i've been paid in salary and all my time in the senate. that is an outrageous suggestion. she knows it's wrong. >> the votes speak for themselves. voting against increasing the minimum wage. you heard him here tonight. he's not forgiving kentuckians a minimum wage. woman he gets up at 6

a.m. to work two jobs because not only does she have a senator that doesn't think she deserves equal pay for equal work, but she's not earning a living wage. we have to change that, not just for the women of kentucky, but the workers in kentucky and across the nation. >> let me remind everyone if you're just tuning in, you are watching kentucky tonight with secretary grimes and senator mcconnell. let's return to voting just for a moment. you have no hesitation about who you voted for. in the kentucky u.s. senate republican primary in 2010, who did you vote for? >> trey grayson. >> i ask you the difference in a clinton democrat and at obama democrat. what's the difference between a tea party republican and established republican? washe tea party movement spawned by kind of a popular uprising against the spending, borrowing, and taxing of the obama administration.

it produced a lot of energy and enthusiasm for our party, which i think led to a lot of success in 2010. we have had some spirited primaries around the country since then. thus like the democrats have had in kentucky forever. a stronger party in the general election. i had a primary myself this year. own theearn -- i don't seat i have to earn it. i think it produced no bad outcome, any more than having democratic primaries have produced bad outcomes for them over the years. >> i'm going to assume that most people who are following the u.s. senate race in kentucky have heard you both speak a lot about issues and they have seen an ad or two on television and heard on the radio. i don't know if they've heard a lot about what you believe in how it contributes to what you think might be the philosophy or role of government that you

have. talk to me about the fundamental roles, the proper role of the government in people's lives, secretary grimes. >> i do believe that government has a place to help make the lives of kentuckians better. we are a superpower in the world and we have two objectives, to advance our economic interests and protect our u.s. homeland. that doesn't mean we have to be the world's police. we have work that we have to do with battles right here on our home front. here in kentucky, they include helping to put thousands of kentuckians back to work who under senator o'connells many years in washington have found themselves in dire circumstances, unable to put food on the table and gas in the car. thatgins by making sure the women of kentucky get equal pay for equal work, something

senator mcconnell has been against. that they have a senator who strengthens and protects medicare and social security. >> you see that as the role of government in people's lives? >> i believe the government has a place to help make the lives of kentuckians better, and we have to have a senator that knows kentucky through and through, not one that is out of theh, but one that knows people of kentucky are struggling. >> equal pay for equal work has been the law since the civil rights act of 1964 and 1965. the job of the senator, in my view, is to protect to the maximum extent possible this great country and its framework. and the framework involves making sure that people have an opportunity to realize their ambitions. which means that too much

government can frequently be a deterrent to opportunity. that is something we have to watch, to protect against, when you have an explosion of and taxes andebt regulation like we've had over the last few years. what it does is depressed the economy, make it less likely our young people can find work and begin to dig their way out of all this. in the senate there's an off duty to save and protect jobs almost every day. in paducah, for example, the cleanup, the new conversion there,hat is being built all advocated and supported by the guy you are looking at. over here in richmond, the chemical weapons cleanup is employing hundreds and hundreds of high skilled people, stepping in down at lake cumberland this a little they decided

by raising danger the water level, oddly enough, solving that problem so to get tourism up and running this your. it is accommodation of protecting the opportunities that people have to better their lives and to create jobs, virtually on a weekly basis, by preventing things that kill jobs and actually appropriating funds to create job opportunities. quick secretary grimes, could you give me one specific from the federalan where government would enhance people's lives in kentucky? say the first, let me senator has admitted there's opportunities to save and protect jobs every day in the senate. but what we've seen here in kentucky is that our unemployment is above the national average. we are running a 90,000 jobs deficit under his watch. middle-class kentuckians are continuing to struggle in each

of the areas he just mentioned. those jobs are still lost, not recovered. my jobs plan calls for making sure we actually grow the middle class the right way. we could help kentuckians lives improved by making sure that we fight for early childhood education. we fight to give businesses a tax incentive to actually provide child care services. we fight for our veterans to receive the proper treatment when they come back from serving this country and the benefits they are due. elected, the federal government would participate in those ideals your spelling out? >> we would fight for the vital infrastructure projects that kentucky needs and deserves. i-66 and 69, these are vital infrastructure projects that kentucky senators should be fighting for. instead we've had a senator that

has just been fighting for himself. >> of course none of that is factually accurate. the biggest problem we've got in the country that affects kentucky in a dramatic way is this job killing obama administration which my opponent supports. they have crushed the economy. this is the slowest recovery after a deep recession since world war ii. normally when you have a deep recession you have a quick bounce back. it didn't happen this time. the reason it didn't happen is because of all the government excess that we've experienced in the obama years. it's been particularly acute here in our state with the war on coal. the congress back in a few years of the obama administration, when it was entirely controlled by the president's party, they passed a stimulus, obama care, dodd-frank and all the rest. we could not get cap and trade through the congress. now he's trying to do it through the epa. this is an administration

created to pressure -- created depression in eastern kentucky. giving barack obama another wrote in the senate, continuing this democratic majority in the senate, is not going to do anything to improve america's economy and certainly not kentucky's economy. but we will address: and the economy before we leave tonight. and thell address coal economy. one in four kentucky children live in poverty. why? >> because we haven't had the kind of growth and opportunity -- i keep saying the same thing over and over again, but the economy is very sick. even though unemployment appears to go down, the number of people looking for work is the same number of people you had in the carter administration. it's call the labor participation rate. it tells you that a lot of people have given up and dropped out. we need to live people up and the only way to do that is through a vibrant private sector.

this administration has been a disaster and getting our economy going. it has been doubly acute here in kentucky and the statistics you indicate underscore that because of the assault on the coal industry. >> we do hear reports from economist that there are strong job gains nationally. in 2014 him on pace to be the best job growth since the 1990's. the unemployment rate is below'. the unemployment rate is below 6% for the first time since 2008. over 55lion jobs straight months. doesn't this speak that things are on the uptick? >> not by much. it's a very tepid recovery. lift.ot providing enough you add on to that this devastating assault on the coal industry by epa, and explains why kentucky is lacking, even in this slow economy.

we are slower than the rest because of the assault from this administration on our state. let me ask you to address the poverty question. >> in our jobs plan, it's a statistic that is glaring. to actuallyenter address it, not just one that says after 30 years there's just not been enough growth and opportunity. that's what kentucky's u.s. senator should be fighting for. our jobs plan is an action oriented jobs plan that's about advocating for our families and our veterans, cultivating what is unique here to kentucky, training our workers not just for today but for tomorrow, making sure we are invigorating appalachia and offering better wages and negotiating a better deal for business. we do this by not only fighting to strengthen and protect our good coal jobs, but making sure we diversify our economies in eastern and western kentucky

thomas something our jobs plan that was developed with kentuckians from both east and western kentucky acknowledge has been a failure under senator mcconnell. we have to have someone who wants to make sure to invest in the infrastructure projects we need here in kentucky. the science, technology and math programs. we have to have someone who wants to actually bring eastern and western kentucky online, not a senator that votes against omnibus bills that would actually provide that very needed infrastructure. notice she did mention a single program except the minimum wage. the minimum wage increase that she advocates is going to cost us a lot of jobs for young people. a much better way to target low income people that you're talking about is the earned income tax credit. thatay to deal with underemployment problem, the

problem those who are employed and not making enough, much better way to do it without killing any jobs at all is the earned income tax credit, which is already part of the tax law and ought to be grown and expanded. but let me stop here, that's amazing to hear the senator say that the earned income tax credit is something you think should be grown because he supported budgets that actually slashed that as well as the child care tax credit. these are vital tax credits that help our veterans, 100 40,000 military families, 300,000 children stay out of poverty. his record is against the earned income tax credit. been a longtime supporter of? itc and the childcare care credit. >> he supported budgets that slashed that funding. >> with all due respect, and a large budget vote, there are probably things in there that you can pluck out that anyone of us might not have preferred.

but when you put together a budget, and secretary grimes has not had this experience yet, but when you put together a whole budget, you're not going to approve of absolutely everything in there. what the budget is designed to do is put in overall cap on what were going to spend. you can't serve in a legislative body and not occasionally cast a vote for something that you're not crazy about because there are other things in the measure that you like. >> let's talk about the affordable care act and we will repeal it is a phrase we have all become familiar with. secretary grimes, you have said you would like to see streamlined and fixed. i believe that is a quote. that me begin by asking this question, has obama care and connect been a boon or bane for ?he majority of kentuckians

websitecky connect is a it was paid for by grants from the federal government. the website can continue, but in my view, the best interest of the country would be achieved by pulling out a bomb a care root and branch, let me tell you why. in order to try to provide subsidies for the uninsured, there are roughly 40 million of them -- put another way, 85% of americans had health insurance. obamacare took $700 billion out of medicare programs for the elderly and used it as a piggy bank. in order to provide a subsidy for people who are not old and not poor. number that was mistake one. mistake number two, the medical device tax, mistake number three, the health insurance premium tax. providers of health care a trillion dollar hit over the next 10 years. over on the consumer side, we

estimatesjobs, cbo 2.5 million jobs will be lost, higher premiums, higher deductibles, higher copayments. a lot of catastrophic impact on the nation's health care system, which could have been avoided by not passing this 2700 page bill that essentially put the government in charge of america's health care. i think that was a big mistake. with regard to connect, it is a state exchange, they can continue it if they would like to. they will have to pay for it because the grant will be over. and with regard to the medicaid expansion, that is a state decision. states can decide whether or not to expand medicaid or not. in our state, the government decided to expand medicaid. >> you would support the continuation of connect? x it is a state decision. that is fine. i think it is fine to have a website. ensured 521,000 --

>> those people in all likelihood now have -- are paying more for less. insurance now have but the copayments and deductibles are so high they still cannot pay. they have insurance that doesn't meet their needs. the federal government is now telling the health insurance companies what they can sell. points,on a couple of and secretary grimes, we will ask you to respond to this in just a minute. on the $716 billion, that is spread out over 10 years. and $400 billion, according to the research that i read, is fee-for-service payments to hospitals and other facilities like home health. shift,e not cuts or a they are a value-based reference

in payment to medicare. grace that is washington talk for a cut. i have had 70 hospital town hall meetings over the last two years. our hospitals are being rim racked bodies hospital reductions. these are people who take care of the elderly and they are being rim racked by the obamacare medicare reimbursement reduction. i was in a couple meetings with a home health care organization just in the last couple of weeks. they are not going to be able to provide as many services because of these cuts. let's make sure what we are talking about here. $750 billion raid on medicare to provide subsidies for people who are not old and not poor enough to be on medicaid and that bill is a huge mistake. >> didn't the cbo report say the number of full-time people were declined and others working fewer hours, is that in the way some have interpreted and you

said a job loss? >> let's put it simply. 2.5 million fewer people will be working. i do not think that is a good idea for the country to have more joblessness particularly as a result of this bill, which is a huge step in the wrong direction. i think it is the worst peas of legislation passed and the past half-century. >> it is substantiated by fact that premiums are going up all across the country. >> the deductibles are going up and copayments are going go up. just the other day, it was announced 14,000 people were losing their policies here in kentucky. i'm sure there are some people getting insurance we do not have it before and most of the people who signed up our medicaid and that is medicaid eligible people

but the private insurance market -- >> that is 85,000 people. >> they got insurance after having policies canceled and the new ones are not as good as the old ones. >> let me ask you, how would you vote on a bill to repeal the affordable care at? >> i said it is a matter of standing up for 500,000 kentuckians. it does not show the statistics here in the state. we have over half a million kentuckians for the first time ever are filling prescriptions and going to the doctor and getting checkups. i will not be a senator that reps their insurance. >> would you give me one

specific area where you would either streamline or fix the affordable care act? >> extending the grandfathering clause. when politicians make promises, if you like your doctor, should be able to keep it, we should mean that. >> would you replace or change connect? >> i think governor beshear has demonstrated great courage and kentuckians' lives are better because of the expansion of medicaid. there is work we have to do but we have to have a senator that wants to work in conjunction especially with the state of kentucky. >> we appreciate you being here on ket. let's move to a topic that has garnered quite a bit of interest during the campaign.

there are plenty of coal miners in its kentucky who have been out of work for 2 years or more and i bet some are watching. how will you help them after this election? >> here is the problem. we've talked about it at some length. it is the biggest problem we have. the administration has issued 2 regulations through the epa. pursuing a goal that cannot pass when they totally controlled the congress. one would guarantee there is another -- and there's not another coal fire plant created. they are after this industry. they want to shut it down. if you look at the rest and we know what it is, global carbon emissions. no industrialized country in the world is going to do this.

germany, for example, which used to be the greenest country in europe is now importing coal. the indians have called greenpeace a threat to their economy. the chinese are building a coal fire plant. the australians just repealed their carbon tax which was their version of what president obama trying to do here in the united states. even if he felt and it was a costs pursuant and it will have zero impact and what we need to do in congress and will not been able to get any votes because harry reid would not let a single vote on coal of occur, not a one. again, restrict the funding of the environmental protection agency so they cannot go down this path. >> is this a place, should the united states be a leader?

>> nobody is interested in tying their hands behind their backs and creating more problems for their people in pursuit of a goal. >> and you are not looking for the united states to be the first one? >> my job is to look out for kentucky's coal miners. this administration has engaged in an assault. we have lost 7000 jobs and it is a disaster. they need to be stopped. that is one thing, if the american people changing the makeup of the senate and give me a chance to second the agenda for the country and for kentucky, we will at least be voted on efforts to rein in epa. i believe the reason harry reid will not allow votes is he is afraid it was actually passed.

i will guarantee we will be voting on those types of issues. >> how will you help coal miners if you are elected? >> i am helping on trying to push our current senator to support commonsense measures like the legislation proposed by jay rockefeller and senator manchin and by pushing to make sure that the health care coal protection benefit act is actually supported by kentucky senator was to all things that have not happened yet. i am proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with the thousands of united coal miners as they have endorsed me because they are ready for a senator that will have their back and will fight to make sure they get the benefits that are due and deserve. and not have to fight what they are doing to get the black lung benefits they deserve. the protection that helps to make it easier for miners, the

widows, to get thoseenefits. senator mcconnell has told you he wants to repeal to make sure we realize we have to rein in the epa but we also have to work across the aisle in a coalition, the effort to make sure that senator reid or whoever the majority leader is, listen to those here in kentucky to make sure that coal has a rifle place and youport. you and you yo and and yo hed yo