protect them at emory university and other specialized units. but most of all, the cdc has got to learn to admit when it doesn't know something. unknown.s from the >> thank you. >> thank you. i do support a 21 day quarantine but i do believe that this is very fearful for many people in america. i think a 21 day quarantine is a minimum that we should do for doctors and nurses and health care professionals that are going to these three countries and treating a bowl of patients. -- ebola patients. yes, it is an inconvenience, but i think it is necessary so this disease does not start breaking out in america. number two -- my opponent voted to cut cdc funding by $600 million. you can't criticize the cdc and then cut their budget and when

they fail to stand up criticize them. >> your response? >> the washington post has made it clear that the cdc budget has been cut. let's be honest with the american people. that is not true. it is a false narrative. >> the congressman has a little less time. i'm going to move on. >> these two folks in washington both voted for a continuing resolution that gave the president the ability to deploy 4000 americans into these ebola hot zones. they are willing military uniforms and they are going to

get infected. they need to start taking responsibility, both of them, and all of their colleagues, to what this president is doing and holding him in check to keep him from hurting the american people. >> thank you. all right. let's move on. next question. >> i am part of the first generation of americans who may not achieve the same standard of living as their parents. that is a very frightening concept will stop what is the role of government in ensuring economic prosperity for my generation and future generations? >> the first real gaffe of the night. >> first of all, that is a legitimate concern.

that is one of the things i will work hardest on, trying to lift the economic power of our country. as chair of the energy committee i am in a great position on behalf of the people of louisiana to help create millions of high-paying jobs that your generation can benefit. i am excited to be here, where we have science, technology, engineering, and math. two, i also think access to education is important. my opponent refuses to sign onto a bill to lower interest rates on student loans. he has refused to do that and he won't sign on a bill to double the opportunity for poor students who want to work but they come from families that simply can't afford the cost of education. >> i can tell you -- governm doesn'ten create permanent jobs

and if they don't want toh ave. -- to have. benefits. she said her first priority has become becoming chair -- has becoming chair of the energy committee. if she has done everything in her power it must mean she is not very powerful. the law is a damper on the economy. if you look at income earners you will find -- 400 custodial and food service workers had their hours reduced because they could not afford the obamacare law. >> the main thing he has been able to accomplish on energy is the push through obama up off anti-energy appointees and we don't need that kind of clout. what we need to do is pull of obamacare out by the roots. i have been in all 64 parishes and talked to small business owners all over. everyone of them gave me the same message -- sir, you have got to do away with obamacare,

we cannot afford the restrictions, we cannot afford the new fees, we cannot afford the taxes and we are not creating the jobs we could. that is hurting the economic spectrum, exactly what it was supposed to help. we need to unleash our energy sector in this state so we can lead america to energy independence. that is what we should be doing here in louisiana. drill, baby, drill. >> let me go back to this issue of clout. an $8 billion investment was

announced. there is a threat, it is thought, from the ozone rules that would threaten to damper this explosion of growth. what would you say to those who argue that whether your chairmanship is a good idea or not, the crowd you are hanging with, those who are more proenvironment, together with an administration that can be anti-energy and anti-fossil fuels, is it worth it? >> this is a senate. it is about voting. you can look at my record. i opposed the rule for air control. i support the keystone pipeline. i moved it out of my committee as quickly as i could after six years of stalling.

we are going to get a vote. we are going to continue to work on it. more importantly, i have already passed a bill that has 8.5 million acres, for drilling in the gulf of mexico. i have worked with three presidents and for majority leader's. i have worked with governors. i have been able to move an energy agenda forward regardless of who was there. >> to congress and cassidy -- you spoke to the louisiana chemical association and acknowledged that many of the

people in the room, including the head, are with your opponent. they must be with your opponent for some reason. they are not doing it just out of friendship. >> he told me that it was a personal relationship. it is not about a personal relationship, it is about the future of our country. the biggest threat is the obama appointee who can regulate it to death. she might be for a keystone pipeline, but her first vote will be for harry reid. harry reid will never allow a vote on the keystone xl pipeline. then he will play barbara boxer as head of the environment and public works committee to make sure that there is a stranglehold. she has clout which uses it from barack obama.

there is a picture of her holding hands with obama. she has clout but she uses it for barack obama. >> the follow-up questions are a little more open-ended. i want to make sure everybody gets their shot. colonel, they used to joke that republicans in louisiana -- why do you suppose that is if it doesn't involve jobs? >> they have the lowest unemployment rate down there. that is the way the entire state of louisiana ought to be. her clout is being used for things like funneling money to political candidates that fight against oil and gas companies

that should be helped here in louisiana. and of course boise bollinger is going to love her because she incorporates things like coast guard cutters they didn't ask for. those dollars should be around the state of louisiana for competition and free market because that is what government is about. that is the way government should be. >> now he has done a little too far. let me talk about the coast guard. the coast guard is one of the most popular federal agencies in the country. the coast guard showed up when our people were 14 feet underwater, colonel. i support the coast guard. they need those boats. they need to intercept drugs coming across the border. if you want to secure the border you should support the coast guard. i am very proud that we are building coast guard boats here in louisiana.

the more we can support these federal agencies you can count on me. you cannot count on the others. >> a quick final word. >> to even imply that i don't support the united states coast guard or any other military members or their families is absolutely silly and ridiculous. i do believe that we are almost $18 trillion in debt in this country and if the united states coast guard commandant only asks to build two cutters than that of the amounts they should be appropriated when the request comes to the u.s. senate. we are in a crisis in our debt. to people in louisiana deserve it so they can have long-term sustainability. >> thank you.

>> her first vote will be for harry reid. harry reid has turned the senate into a rubber stamp for barack obama. >> we are $17 trillion in debt. she would be shoving coast guard cutters down there for? >> i am the chair of the committee and the fact of the matter is the coast guard is desperate for these boats. the president of the united states undercut the coast guard budget and i restored the money on the condition of the president -- over the condition of the president because sometimes i don't agree with him. i have tried to represent louisiana plus interests 100% of the time. try to read the coast guard budget. they need to capitalize on the fleet that is an average of 50 years old. >> the next question -- it will be for congressman cassidy.

>> keeping with the economic opportunity -- the median income for an african-american household in the united states is roughly 60% of the median for a white household. it is even worse in louisiana. what do you think is the cause of this disparity? is it something that needs to be addressed now? >> income inequality has increased over president -- under president obama. you have been hammered. we will start our website -- you can see that, because of obamacare, the lowest fifth of income earners have seen their salaries of tougher -- seen their salaries suffer because of obamacare. it is explicitly because of obamacare.

not just louisiana. philadelphia and atlanta this. it was known that this would happen. it was known that if you passed this mandate employers are going to lay people off and lower their hours. she said she would vote for obamacare again tomorrow. she is really saying that she doesn't care that they just took 400 lower paid workers and took them from full to part time. i care. i would repeal and replace obamacare. >> repeal, replace, bought out by the roots. it is un-american when you start to destroy jobs through a law that is supposed to be helping people. that is not the role of government. the role of government is to create the environment so jobs can be created and that is what we do when we unleash our energy sector. that is what we do when we get

out of the way of our commercial fisherman and let them do their jobs the way they know. we create jobs. that is the answer to poverty. we have a poverty rate of near 20% and that is only 50% less than what it was when we started the war on poverty back in the 1960's and we spent over $23 trillion on it. we are not doing the right thing, we are only doing the same thing. unemployment for young, black men in this state is three times the rate of anybody else. the answer to poverty is to get his this is to be able to thrive and create jobs, not destroy them. >> anyone here and any student of history would know that one of the answers to the question is racism. the african-american community

has been kept out, shuts down, cap back. that is part of what we try to do for communities that have been left out. women as a class sometimes couldn't even teach schools. not only do african-americans have a lower income but their average net worth is only $5,000. for hispanic families it is only $6,000. send me back to the senate and let me help create these energy jobs that can help lift a whole new generation in america and in louisiana up to a greater standard of living. >> i see the kernel shaking his head. >> under the obama economy there have been 78,000 more people in louisiana who have gone on to get new jobs. the economy discourages the use of america's natural resources.

one thing that can create prosperity is energy jobs. the senator may be for them personally but when she votes for harry reid and barack obama appointees those jobs will not occur the same as they would. >> colonel? >> it is unbelievable. let us get the facts right. of course we support equal pay for women. the facts are that the senator's office staff -- women are underpaid and those are the facts. let's get to the facts and really understand what is wrong and what is going on. the federal government is interfering with the state of louisiana and destroying jobs on the economic spectrum that they are trying to help. we need to turn that around. that is why i have sponsored acts like the redeemed act to help the unemployment and incarceration rates in the state so that we can forgive minor,

nonviolent offenses. >> the charged that he just made you has made every day and it is absolutely false. my first chief of staff was a female. my current chief of staff is the only african-american chief of staff in the senate. she is looking at statistics and -- he is looking at statistics and using them for his own purposes. he does not support equal pay laws on the books. they both voted against the lily ledbetter law. i was very proud to support that law so women can get an equal pension when they have been unjustly paid less. >> we have about a minute before we get to our final round of question. when you throw some yes or knows. higher federal minimum wage? >> i support it.

>> that kills 500,000 jobs. no. >> higher federal minimum wage is just another one-size-fits-all solution and i believe people should have the opportunity. >> marriage for same-sex couples could be a national issue. very quickly. >> my personal views have evolved quite a bit but i have said i will support the state constitutional ban. >> i am for traditional marriage. >> i believe it is a state issue and should be decided by the states, but i believe marriage be between one man dead and one woman. >> final question. >> we have a picket idea of where you guys stand on the issues. let me ask each of your personal question. what has been your greatest, the biggest setback in life, and

what you do to overcome it -- wha did you do to overcome it? >> i have to think about that. craig, at the risk of sounding trite, my dad didn't go to college. we moved to louisiana when i was eight months old. my dad was struggling. we had moved, trying to gain traction. we are living the american dream. i didn't come from royalty. i would say i came from two great parents. although he struggled and i was a child, my family and we overcame, in the sense that it wasn't an obstacle -- it was just life. but through incredible love of family and support for my parents, i am living the

american dream. that is my desire for everybody tonight. >> colonel? >> a great question. i have put it into categories. the personal 1 -- my greatest has been those times, i have had to give answers to my wife and children when i came up short and it hurt them. we have always learned to trust god and overcome those challenges and continue to build our family strong. professionally it is when i failed out of pilot training and i wanted to be the pilot of a supersonic large aircraft that could fly at the edge of space. i failed out of pilot training that i became a navigator. i flew a supersonic aircraft. i was honored to serve in the united states air force. >> in my personal life, it would be when i was here and wanted to be in the christian advocacy world. i went to a bible study and

submitted my application and was rejected. it was a very hard rejection. i went on to do other good things. in my professional life -- my biggest setback was when i flew over that levy that broke. i had just been there the day before. i thought they were still there -- it may be believe the president was trying to do the right thing. when i flew over that levy and there was nothing there, i thought, you better grow up and figure this out quickly. >> we are out of time. we believe that each candidate should have the opportunity to talk to you without a filter. one minute closing remarks. >> i again want to thank the moderators.

i have got great respect for the colonel. he would be one more voice for the tea party. i am glad he showed up to talk about his hurtful record. i want to go back to washington and represent the good people of the state, continue to work on an energy policy that gets jobs here at home. we can be energy self-sufficient. we have 200 years of natural gas. now is not the time to slow down, to change leadership, this is the time to move forward and create economic opportunity. i have worked across party lines, regardless of who has been president. i ask for your vote and thank you for tuning in tonight. >> thank you.

i believe that ronald reagan would have been a tea party member and i am proud to say that i am a lifelong ronald reagan republican. by the grace of god we have created the nation centered on the sacred nature of human life. that is where our ideas of liberty, you quality, and human dignity came from. as colonel nathan jessup famously said, we live in a world that has walls and those walls have to be protected. we built this ago walls to protect ourselves from worldly enemies. at home we have built walls of

faith, custom, and law. people ask me why i am running. i am driven by my deep faith. i am galvanized by god, who has taught me that while freedom is his gift, it is up to us to protect it. our government is failing us and abandoning our walls abroad and trampling them at home. here i am, volunteering to man the wall. i am asking for your vote in order to bring about a government that is once again worthy of the american people. >> in louisiana there is a woman who will not be able to go to sleep, not sure she can pay her bills. groceries and utilities have risen, but wages remain flat. she just got a health insurance premium that has risen by 20%.

we are told that obamacare has decreased premiums by $2500 per family. you could have kept your doctors. it was all false. when you go to vote, think of that woman. six more years of the same policy. if you think that will help, vote for senator andrew. if you want a senator who is going to stand up to barack obama, who passes -- >> we are out of time. >> we will repeal and replace obamacare. >> thank you so much. candidates, thank you for your participation. thank you so much for watching, and her member to vote. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> follow us on facebook and twitter to get previews and we're bringing you over 100 senate, house, and governor debates. instantly share your reactions to the candidates are saying.

the battle for control of congress. following us on twitter and liking us on facebook. this weekend on the c-span networks, friday night starting at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span, campaign 2014 coverage continues in prime time. at saturday night, the funeral for former washington post editor ben bradlee. then "lincoln and the power of the press." author chris tomlinson on the story of two families, one white and black, and the plantation that there's their name. at book tvs afterwards. presidentfederacies jefferson davis. our conversation with former .ditor and chief

friday 8:00 on american history tv on c-span 3, 1 of the first african-american labor unions. saturday night at 8:00 on lectures and history, propaganda and america's view during world war ii that. a 1936 filmamerica, on tuberculosis. find our television schedule at c-span.org. let us know about the programs you are watching. call us -- e-mail us. cspan. us a tweet on follow us on facebook, join us on twitter. >> republican senator susan collins is up against shenna bellows. senator collins is running for her fourth term. this hour-long debate is courtesy of the maine public broadcasting network.

>> welcome to "your vote 2014"" the united states senate debate. we are coming to you from the theater on the campus of husson university in bangor. the debate will feature broad discussions and a lightning round. the republican candidate is incumbent u.s. senator susan collins. democratic candidate is shenna bellows, the former executive

director of the american civil liberties union. she has not held elective office. welcome to you both. in the first segment, we are going to tackle broad topics. we are going to devote 4-5 minutes to each topic. we hope you will articulate your position as well as your differences with each other. shenna, the number one concern of our listeners and viewers is people are concerned about maine's economy and jobs. what will you do to improve the economy and jobs? >> thank you for hosting this. it is wonderful to be here in bangor. as i walked across maine, 350 miles, the number one issue that people said was jobs and the

economy. i walked three miles. a farmer talked about investment in infrastructure. he sells heirloom potatoes across the country, but it takes him 20 minutes to get online. he said if we had broadband access, people like him could grow their businesses. people could connect with the global economy. infrastructure is number one. also, a fair tax and regulatory environment. >> what will you do to create better paying jobs? >> i talked to employers all over the state. i find there are jobs available, but often there is a difficult

time finding the employees that have the skills and education needed for those jobs. nationwide, about a third of the unemployment rate is due to that gap in skills. i have been a strong supporter of a bill which got incorporated which would bring together employers, employees, educational institutions, local workforces to identify the jobs of today and tomorrow. and the skills and education needed to ensure our workers have the skills they need. that is something where the federal government can be very helpful. you can to go into a machinists

shop in the state and not find that they have vacancies. those are good jobs with benefits and pay. i have also found that businesses are hoping for certainty any tax code and regulatory policy. we have incentives on one year and off the next. that keeps small businesses from investing and hiring. we need transportation improvements in the state. i am fortunate to be the ranking republican on the transportation appropriations subcommittee. i have been able to secure some $9 million in grants to refurbish our railroads, roads, and ports. i also agree with my opponent that we do need to invest in broadband. that is important in terms of allowing businesses to locate in rural maine. one of the areas where i am most

proud is getting the trucks onto the interstates and out of downtown street and country roads. that has allowed businesses to ship products more efficiently. increase safety. lower energy use. it has ruc emiions. >> movinnt to businesses and homeowners, energy costs. maine is the most oil dependent state in the nation. it is very expensive or prohibitive for many people to heat their homes. this question goes to you, senator collins. what policies will you pursue to our state.

one of the policies i have pursued in washington is making sure we are increasing investment in energy efficiency programs and weatherization. i have been a supporter of the low income heating assistance program which has supported many families, help them stay warm in the winter. weatherization is a better investment because it prevents the heating dollars from going out. the uninsulated doors and walls. i believe we need to get more natural gas into the state. there is a real bottleneck with the pipelines we need to get natural gas from pennsylvania, where it is plentiful, into the state of maine to help

manufacturers as well as residents. that would make a big difference in our energy costs, particularly electricity. finally, we need to pursue alternative energy. i am interested in the deepwater offshore energy, the wind energy, that a consortium of private companies and the university have worked on. that holds great promise. it helps create thousands of good paying jobs. ultimately, we could be a net exporter of energy to the east coast. >> shenna bellows, what is your energy strategy to relieve the high cost burden? >> we need bold visionary investment in renewable energy to reduce long-term cost. to tackle climate change now, which is a real threat to our

state and country. we should be investing in solar, geothermal, title, wind, and biomass. solar, for example, germany is a world leader. there is less usable solar sunlight falling on germany. maine could be a world leader in renewable energy. that would reduce energy costs in the long run. >> president obama's affordable care been in place for about a year. we have seen the exchanges at work and a supreme court decision, affirming the legality. shenna bellows, do you support the act? >> i support universal health

care for all. we should strengthen and expand the affordable care act to cover more people. we can do that by gradually lowering the medicare eligibility age. by medicaid expansion, which susan has vetoed five times. when he to fix the provisions of the affordable care act that have created a burden for individuals and small businesses. we can move toward universal health care for all. a home health care nurse sees firsthand what happens -- we can do that with universal health care. >> you mentioned maine opting out of the expansion of medicaid, excuse me. as senator, would you push to

make that mandatory, that states expand? >> i would push for unicode parcel -- universal medicaid expansion. we save money in the long run if we expand primary health care access for all. >> susan collins, do you support changing the affordable care act? >> i do support changing the affordable care act. i think there was a real missed opportunity here. there are a lot of health care reforms that both republicans and democrats embrace. for example, both hearties are for prohibiting insurance companies from discriminating against individuals with pre-existing conditions. both parties are for tax credits for small businesses to make it easier for them to afford insurance. both parties are for letting young people, which comprise the

largest group of the uninsured, stay on their parents' policies until age 26. i think it is unfortunate that it devolved into such a person debate when there were some any issues we could have worked on together. there are some provisions i think are particularly problematic. in some cases, it has led to fewer choices. i have heard from families in maine who no longer are able to go to the physician may have used their whole lives because it is outside of the network of plans available under obamacare. there have been billions of dollars in additional fees and taxes imposed by the law, not to mention the money taken out of

the underfunded medicare to pay for it. i have introduced bipartisan bills to change the law. one has to do with the definition of a full-time worker. the definition of a full-time worker has always been 40 hours a week. under obamacare, it is 30 hours a week to read the result of that has been felt in bangor. the superintendent says she has to cap the number of hours a week that substitute teachers can teach because otherwise they are going to have to come into the system and be covered by obamacare. think about that. that means they are getting lower paychecks. the students are having a revolving door of substitutes. i don't that is good policy. is going to create confusion when it goes fully into effect. i have a bipartisan bill that

would change the definition back to 40 hours a week. even the president has indicated there have been problems in the area. the other problem is that there is a mandate that an employer with 50 or more employees have to comply with all the -- if they are at 48 or 49 employees, they are never going to hire that 50th employee. because they don't want to have to deal with all of the mandates and paperwork that come with obamacare. >> susan collins, do you support president obama's current policies to deal with isis and other groups? if not, what should u.s. policy be? >> i support some of the

president's policies. putting together a coalition including arab nations in the region to fight isis and other groups was a good approach. where i have some concerns about the president's policy, and i have talked to him directly about this, is whether he is going to be able to have a successful vetting of the so-called moderate syrian opposition. three years ago, we could identify who were the moderates in the syrian opposition to the assad regime. now, the opposition is infiltrated. i am worried some of the training equipment and arms will end up in the hands of isis. i think the president was too slow to come up with a policy to confront isis. isis is not the only threat we face.

al qaeda in the arabian peninsula is considered most likely to launch an attack on our homeland. that is very worrisome. that is where al qaeda's chief bomb maker is. we also have a group in egypt. we have seen a proliferation of terrorist groups. they are now operating in 20 countries. i think the president's reassurances to us that he has estimated core al qaeda have turned out unfortunately not to be the case. >> shenna bellows, do you support president obama's current policies? what do you support and not support about that? >> isis did not exist in its

current form prior to the invasion of iraq under president bush, which susan voted for. we are seeing the product of a misguided policy, a war that cost us over $1 trillion and sent troops in harms way. we are less safe today than we were a decade ago. she voted with the republicans. it was a bipartisan effort but it was wrong. unfortunately, we do see the dangerous and barbaric rights of isis. i don't think the right approach is arming the syrian rebels. groups whose goals we do not share. from abi opponents in five years or 10 -- who may be our opponents in five years or 10. 20 get was irresponsible for susan to vote to authorize arming the rebels and the airstrikes. it has strengthened the hand of the assad regime, which has not traditionally been an ally.

i think we need a more targeted and strategic approach to foreign policy. president obama showed the way when he did what president bush failed to do. when he killed osama bin laden and significantly weakened al qaeda with a targeted and strategic special forces operation. that is the kind of foreign policy we need. i think we are in the wrong track. we are continuing down this path toward overseas wars we cannot afford that make our country less safe. >> would you like to respond? >> you guessed correctly i would like to respond. isis is just al qaeda in iraq by another name. it has grown in sophistication. just because it changed its name does not mean it did not exist.

this violent islamic extremist ideology was reflected in the attacks on the world trade center in 1993. in the bombings in africa of two of our embassies in tanzania. and in nairobi. and the horrendous terrorist attacks in 2001. which claim in nearly 3000 lives. all of those clearly preceded the iraq war. to say that this extremist ideology developed in the wake of the war in iraq is wrong. >> that is not what i said.

what i said, is that it was a mistake to arm islamic extremists in the middle east. we see chaos that is the product of the wrong foreign policy. susan has been in office 18 years and backed overseas military intervention again and again. it has cost taxpayers over $1 trillion that we could have invested here. >> people are very nervous about the ebola outbreak, whether it may spread in the u.s. and how horrible it can get in africa. is the obama administration doing enough to combat the spread of the disease both in the u.s. and africa? >> what we need to do is to stop the epidemic where it is in west africa with an increase in aid to countries in west africa.

what we do not need is a travel ban like my opponent suggested. experts say it would make us less safe by limiting the ability to get relief to west africa. by eliminating the ability to monitor travel back to this country. the lack of preparedness now that the main state nurses association and nurses across the country are talking about, that is a direct result of republican votes for sequestration. a bill that susan voted for has undermined funding for the cdc and nih. the director said they were not able to develop the ebola vaccine and the funding, they might have been able to develop

the vaccine. >> susan collins, what is your ideal response to the ebola outbreak? >> it has to be a comprehensive approach. we do need to increase preparedness at our hospitals. the president requested additional funding, which i strongly supported read which we voted on right before we adjourned. my opponent has said she would have opposed the bill that included that funding that was

essential to fight the ebola crisis. we also need to establish regional centers to treat people with ebola in this country. it is not feasible to expect each one of the 5000 hospitals in this country to have the resources, the expertise, the gear, the know-how to deal with this epidemic. i support a limited travel ban from the three african countries in western africa most affected with an exception for health-care workers and aid workers. we don't want to turn our back on africa, but my first priority is to protect americans. just yesterday, the obama administration announced travel restrictions, saying people with travel originating in those countries could only arrived at

five american airports where they would be carefully screened. i want to tell you what the president said about that. the president's press secretary said president obama changed his view on travel restrictions after hearing from scientists and other experts. the scientists and experts recommended to the president that he put these restrictions in place. i am glad he did. today, the administration went further and said individuals coming from these countries

should be monitored by the federal government for 21 days to make sure they do not have this highly contagious disease. until this epidemic is under control, i think the steps the president has taken make sense. >> i will let you respond. >> the american association of medical colleges wrote a letter a few weeks ago to senators. it says we need to get away from these short-term crises and invest in long-term public health. the bill that passed just before session was an emergency bill to army syrian rebels and engage in airstrikes. i said i'm concerned about arming syrian rebels. i think what we need instead is instead of republican obstructionism, which got us the sequester that underfunded the cdc, we need to be more

strategic and visionary. invest in the public health system, not just in a crisis but over time. >> would you like to respond? >> the bill we passed included $88 million to fight this crisis. she said very clearly on her website that she would have voted against it. in addition, the administration has said the funding the cdc had was adequate to deal with this crisis. there have not been huge cuts in the cdc. nor in the agency which was created in the wake of the anthrax attacks that occurred in 2001. both have been adequately funded, according to the administration's own experts. >> we will try to squeeze in one more question.

susan collins, congress is likely to tackle immigration reform soon. what are your views on whether the system needs to change? >> our immigration system is clearly broken. i support comprehensive immigration reform. right before the recess, we went to the southern border where we talked with teenagers and children coming across the border. more than 60,000 of them have arrived in this country from central america. that clearly shows we do not have good control of our border. so we need to have strong border control. we also need to have a plan to deal with the 12 million people who are here illegally.

it is not practical to somehow round them up and ship them back to their home countries. i think what we need to do is distinguish between those who stood in line and got here legally versus those who came here illegally. that is why i have supported the immigration reform bill that required them to be -- requires them to pay their taxes, pay a fine, learn english. a series of requirements before they would be allowed to stay and eventually work toward citizenship. >> my grandparents are immigrants. my grandpa came from france. he went to college and started his own business, became an entrepreneur. my grandmother came from scotland.

i think it is important, we are a nation of immigrants. we can agree the system is broken. we need comprehensive reform to create a path to citizenship for people who come here for a better life to make america what it represents. >> that end is the first section. we will be right back after a short break. welcome back to the debate between senate candidates susan collins and shenna bellows. the next section features you or questions. questions from members of the public who send them in by e-mail. the first will go to you, shenna. can you lay out which policy changes you would make to medicare and how you would propose making social security sullivan so my generation can have the same benefits our

parents do? >> this is such an important question. we need to strengthen and expand medicare and social security. i have proposed scrapping the cap on social security. people making more than $117,000 a year stop paying in. if we scrap the cap, we will have more revenue. it will strengthen social security for the future. lead to allow medicare to negotiate drug prices and lower costs. we need to lower the eligibility age to expand access for all. >> susan collins? how will you make social security solvent? >> this is one of the most important social programs. it has made the difference between poverty and an adequate standard of living for so many americans. the fact is, it is going broke.

the disability trust fund will be out of money in two years. by 2033, social security will only be able to pay about 75% of the benefits due. we have to take a comprehensive look at social security. i am not for increasing the tax rate, which is 6.2% for individuals. i think that would be very burdensome for working families and small businesses. i agree we should take a look at the tax cap. it used to be that the tax cap covered 83% of wages. it used to cover 93% of wages. and now covers 83% of wages. >> there has not been a

congressional budget for five years or so. these tell us what you plan to do about this failure to take care of business -- please tell us what you plan to do about this failure to take care of business. >> we finally did get a budget negotiated by democrats. the listener is right. it had been years since we had a budget. and that was one reason that the debt has climbed to $17 trillion. notink most people do imagine our operating without a budget because we are not setting priorities. i think that is a real problem. i would ring people together. we should have a budget by march 15 of every year. the would help to guide

appropriations process and that is the best way for us to set priorities and to make sure that we are keeping within the budget caps. >> will you bring parties together to work on a revision of the tax code? >> yes. budget and tax policies favor the wealthiest individuals at the expense of working families. in the last 18 years, the rich have gotten richer, the poor have gotten poorer and the middle class is disappearing. we can build a barred partisan coalition is decided when i was in the american civil liberties union. we can build a bipartisan coalition on common ground and common principles to create a tax code that is more fair to working families, to make sure that the wealthiest americans pay their fair share and also to create a budget that focuses priorities on investing and --

in local communities and jobs and health care and stop spending so much money on overseas wars, surveillance programs we cannot afford in a criminal justice system that is out of control. that is what i would do to bring priorities more in line with the needs of working families in our state. is fromhird question sandra. i would love to hear the candidates opinions on the millions of dollars being spent for the senate race and gubernatorial race especially when people in maine are going hungry or without medication or without jobs. >> a campaign-finance system is broken. we have a congress of millionaires and cleaners and people like the do not run for federal office very often. we need to overturn citizens united because corporations are not people. we need a public financing

system, a national clean election system like we have here in maine so that working people can run for office and lead in washington. we need stronger disclosure laws. right now, no one knows who is paying for them because of the flood of dark money into the system. susan voted against the disclose at twice. those are things we can do to reform the campaign-finance system and i will fight to reform the system because it is broken and in my campaign, i am anyd that we have not taken corporate tax money. susan has taken over $1.9 million. the majority of our contributions are from small value dollars -- donors. what about the millions being spent when people are having a tough time? >> there is too much mind -- money spent on campaigns. in sharp contrast, every single ad that i have run has been a positive ad.

the peoplet is what of this state deserve, not negative ads that distort my record. there is a certain irony here and that is that she has brought up the constitutional amendment that i posed and it is strongly opposed i her former boss, the american civilian -- civil liberties union because they warned that it would open the door toward government regulation of free speech and it would have many unintended consequences. similarly, the aclu while she was working for the aclu and i , alsot hear her defend opposed the disclose at the visit was not fair. it exempted some organizations altogether. that is not fair. i was a strong supporter of the mccain-feingold bill.

over 100 weekly farmers markets we can i fresh food from those who grow it. when is the last time you shopped at one and what was one thing that you bought western mark >> the last time i shopped at one was in early september. that is the farmers market and .hat is in downtown bangor it isn't set up every sunday. it has wonderful, fresh produce and one of the things that i bought was multicolored carrots. i had never seen anything other than orange carrots before. it was great fun to buy those as well as fresh beans and fresh lettuce. it was a lot of fun. i have a real appreciation for our family farmers. i also bought some fresh

made aries which i [indiscernible] with. i joke that i ate my way across maine when i walked 350 miles from colton to kittery. we walked through farmers markets in waterville and walked through farms and we had farmers and i love berries. i also love cherry tomatoes. this my favorite purchases at farmers markets. my husband and i shopped regularly at farmers markets and also the apple orchard in manchester where we live now. my husband was at the farmers market last week. >> we have a new section. this is the chance for you to ask each other questions. we will try to control this, each of you has 20 seconds for question, one may for the answer and there will be a chance for a

short rebuttal. we will begin with you. you have a chance to ask susan collins a question. cosponsored the obama repeal act? >> i voted against obamacare and i have explained why. i think there were many other ways that we could have gotten to health-care reform. at this point now that the law has been in place, i believe that we should try to fix the most egregious flaws. i do not think that the appeal would go anywhere because obviously the president would veto it. so rather than sending the president a bill that would surely be vetoed, i believe that we should try to fix the numerous problems with obamacare. contrary to what you have been saying, i have never been for just repealing obamacare.

i have always said that it should be replaced by a better approach. .> a chance for short rebuttal >> i read the actin it says the obamacare shall be repealed. name andremoved her the last -- your name in the last week? >> let me explain. for smallnd credits businesses, the bills that i have mentioned [inaudible] on the employer mandate. you have to look at the whole record. and i would be happy to provide you with more information.

my fourgo back and read statement i made in 2008 when the obamacare bill passed. >> you have a chance to ask the question. >> i would be glad to. you have endured the increased spending in at least 15 programs that already at a to trillions of dollars in spending over the next five years. he proposed major expansions. we heard it again tonight. and the medicare program despite the fact that program has severe financial problems. you have also proposed increases in programs like nafta which you said are a priority. you seem to be telling the people of maine that your approach would be to ask the as ther to foot the bill

federal government tries to spend its way out of most problems. we are settling the next generation with an enormous debt of $17 trillion. we are on our way to having half $1 trillion in debt for this fiscal year. how are you going to pay for all of this? >> in 18 years it is this congress with the war in iraq costing over $1 trillion. that has left us with this debt. it has mortgaged our young people's future. i have proposed a 200 plus billion dollar investment in universal broadband that we could pay for if we cut defense spending and cut surveillance systems that spy on ordinary onricans and reduce spending incarceration. i have proposed scrapping the cap so the wealthiest americans

pay their fair share so we can increase social security benefits for seniors at home right now. we pay for it with a financial transaction tax for people who are currently making money on wall street and not paying anything in taxes. everything i have proposed i have also suggested how we pay for it. we need a different approach. do not say that this congress or your leadership has been fiscally responsible. >> first of all, if you confiscated all the income that everyone who makes $1 million or more in this country has, it would amount to $930 billion. if you took every penny, not just increased the tax but took every penny. that does not begin to cover the increased spending that you are proposing. cuts in military spending at a

time when the obama administration has cut spending by $800 billion in this dangerous world would be foolhardy. >> you have said that you voted against raising the minimum wage because $21,000 a year is too much. proposed $18,000 year. how would you feed a family on $18,000 a year? >> clearly that is not a livable wage. i am curious what you think a livable wage would be if you think a minimum wage should produce a livable wage. it would have to be higher than $10.10 an our. i support increasing the minimum wage. because the independent congressional budget office said if we go with a 40% increase, it would cost error economy -- cost the economy 500,000 jobs.

those are largely jobs held by low income people. i don't think that is the answer. shenna mentioned 13 states increased their minimum wage. not one has gone to $10. rhode island increased it -- >> would you like to rebut? >> 13 states raised the minimum wage this year and saw jobs grow. more than states that did not raise the minimum wage. to scare tactics -- the scare tactics are simply not borne out by the evidence. there is something deeply wrong when members of congress make $174,000 a year and think $10.10 an hour is too much. i have talked to small businesses. they say they pay their employees more than the minimum wage.

>> thank you. susan collins, you can ask shenna bellows a question. >> let me say that two thirds of the individuals making the minimum wage get an increase within that year. 25% of those who make the minimum wage are teenagers. i'm going to turn to your support for a government run single-payer health care system like canada and great britain have. here we see canadians coming to maine for cancer treatments because in canada, you have to wait on average two months for an mri. the whole month for a cat scan. months for necessary treatment after you have been referred to a specialist.

non-mainz -- nine months to get a joint replacement. canada ranks higher for mortality due to cancer than the u.s. my question is why you support a single-payer government to run washington system when we see people from canada coming here for treatment? >> i support universal health care for all because i believe health care is a human right. if we invest in health care and prevention, in primary care, we will see better long-term outcomes. less disease and less mortality. countries like canada and europe do have better health care outcomes. they are spending less money. the inflation of health care costs in this country and the level of medical bankruptcies is out of control.

how many medical bankruptcies in canada? zero. that is because there is basic health care for all to read we have a government run system called. medicare it is working quite well. >> go ahead, susan collins. >> there is a difference between universal access to health care, which is a goal we all embrace, and having a government run single-payer system. there is a reason that in great britain, an individual diagnosed with prostate cancer has only a 50-50 chance of surviving beyond five years. in our country, it is 91%. >> we had to take a break we will be back.

welcome back to the debate between the candidates for u.s. senate. the next round is the lightning round. these are questions meant to be answered with one or two words. yes or no. maybe a whole sentence but no more three do you support the anti-bearbaiting referendum? >> i have never taken positions on state referendums. >> shenna bellows? >> no. >> would you support allowing tar sands oil to pass through a pipeline in maine? >> yes. i want to make sure i understand. are you talking about the main montreal? i believe there needs to be a full environmental study to answer that question. >> shenna bellows? >> know, and i also oppose the

keystone pipeline. >> you support federal funding for amtrak? >> yes. >> yes. >> do you agree with a woman's right to choose? >> yes. >> yes. >> should local law enforcement agencies be allowed to use surveillance drones? >> again, i think that is a local and state issue. what i can to you i have done at the federal level is require justifications from the administration at the use of drones for surveillance at the federal level. >> i led the effort to place checks and balances on the use of drones to prevent them for surveillance.

>> should the u.s. reduce the number of military bases? >> no. >> no. >> do you support grants for higher education? >> yes. >> absolutely. >> should the federal government legalize medical marijuana for medicinal purposes? >> yes. >> from medicinal purposes only. >> should they require the labeling of medicinal purposes? >> probably. >> yes. susan was wrong when she voted against -- >> you support the proposal that would allow internet access

based on the ability to pay? we are talking about net neutrality. >> no. we need to maintain the ability to access the internet. >> we should not be allowing internet providers to favor some content over others. >> i know the audience loves the lightning round but we are out of time. closing statements. each candidate will have one minute. susan collins, you will go first. >> for a state of just over one million people, maine has elected remarkable senators. they represented different parties but they had a commitment to debate. bipartisan compromise. and a better life for the people of the state.

i have worked hard to each and every day since i was elected to uphold this proud tradition. when government shutdown last year, i put together a coalition of seven republicans, six democrats, and we hammered out a compromise that led to the reopening of government. that is how government can and should work. that is the approach i want to continue to take. i ask for your vote on november 4. >> shenna bellows? >> this race is more than just policy differences between susan and me, although those are significant. this is about two different visions for the future. my sister is putting her three

kids to bed while their father serves overseas in kuwait. i think about the dangers might brother-in-law faces overseas -- my brother-in-law faces overseas. what kind of world are we leaving for my nieces and nephews? we cannot afford republican gridlock or to pretend things are ok. things are not ok when thousands of workers are without jobs. things are not ok when student debt exceeds $1 trillion. things are not ok when climate change is hurting farms and fisheries. a vote for susan is a vote for republican control in washington. if you share my concerns and hopes we can do better, that we must do better, than i ask for your vote on november 4. >> thank you very much to both candidates for appearing in taking part in the debate. and thank you for the partners in this production, the new england school of communication.

thank you for joining us. all the debates will be rebroadcast several times between now and election day. and of course, join us for full election night coverage november 4 and the following day. we hope you will take the time to vote. thank you for joining us. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] ♪

>> on the next washington journal, a look at the role president obama has played in the midterm elections. then, the state of manufacturing in the u.s.. we will talk with scott paul. washington journal begins live at 7:00 a.m. eastern. >> with the 2014 midterm election next week, the campaign debate coverage continues. on thursday night, the governor's debate for illinois. at 9:00, the new york governor's debate. and then at 10:00, the new hampshire senate debate.

at 8:00 p.m. eastern, on c-span2, the new hampshire governors debate. at 9:00, the oregon governor's debate. and at 10:00, the south dakota senate debate between four candidates. and in c-span campaign 2014. more than 100 debates for the control of congress. >> now to the texas senate in race where encumber it -- and incumbent john cornyn faces in and a challenge. in an the candidates met in a in a dallas. and a this is courtesy of univision. >> good evening, ladies and gentlemen. welcome to -- it is prohibited to applaud.

the only exception is in this moment when i ask you to welcome the candidates -- the only exception is now, when i ask you to welcome the candidates. [applause] for the rest of the night, it is prohibited to applaud or make noise. the questions for the candidates will be asked by our panelists. pedro rojas, national correspondent for univision.

the rules are the following. each candidate has two minutes for an opening statement. and more for a closing statement. each answer and rebuttal will have a maximum duration of one minute. if a candidate surpasses this time, the bell will ring. i hope i do not have to use it. we will start. with the introductory message. >> thank you for being here tonight. thank you to mountain view for hosting us and univision for this discussion of the issues confronting our state and nation.

thank you for the privilege of representing the 26 million people for the state. texas has become a model for governance and the policies that promote strong job growth, a booming economy, and people seeking their dreams. we know by way of background, for those of you who do not know me well, i was born in houston. my father served 31 years in the air force. i grew up in san antonio, and went to school in san antonio, and then ran for and was elected as a district judge in san antonio. i served on the texas supreme court, where we dug with many issues like public education and access to quality education. i served as attorney general for four years where we dealt with many important issues.

what we need is new leadership in a new direction. we don't need people who'll go to washington and support the status quo. the obstruction of the majority leader and the policies of the president. the president has made this very clear, what this election is about.

i started my career in gas stations and worked as a former group. my wife and i struggled many years to make ends meet. i used my g.i. bill after serving in the army to go to college. we have been able to achieve the american dream because the education i received was practically free and our economy was the envy of the world, but today that american dream is out of reach for most american families because wall street has taken over washington by spending billions of dollars a year to buy the whole republican party and a group called wall street democrats and over the last 35 years they shipped all of our manufacturing jobs overseas and put trillions of our dollars into safe havens and nearly destroyed the middle class. john cornyn is one of the leaders of that establishment. his policies have left our country broke and without jobs.

he is turning our country into a minimum wage nation, and we say enough is enough. we want to send john cornyn to an early retirement and see how he survives on minimum wage. friends, i know how to build business and create jobs. i know the value of hard work and educational opportunities. i know how the move our country forward and i will be honored to serve as your next u.s. senator. >> we're going to move forward with the first question and angel pedrero will ask that question. >> thank you, wendy. good evening, dr. alameel and senator cornyn. the first question is to senator corning. officials released some -- to immigrants who have faced charges such as kidnapping, sexual assault, drugs, trafficking and homicide.

if you will be reelected what will be your priority getting -- immigration reform or finding additional funding to capture and send back to the countries the criminals that were released? >> i am a strong supporter of immigration reform because i believe there is no one, regardless of their position on this sometimes contentious issue who believes that our immigration system is working the way it should. i support an immigration system that reflects our values and also protects our interests as a nation. right now, our system is one of chaos. largely controlled by the criminal organizations that get rich off of ferrying people in and out of our country. these are the same people who traffic in drugs and traffic in human beings and basically their business is misery, human

misery. we need to restore our immigration system to a legal one, because we are the most generous country in the world. we naturalize almost 1 million people a year. we need to shut down cartels of human misery and restore -- order to chaos. >> the question is for you actually. now that those releases by customs and immigration are known, immigrants who have some criminal background, if you elected as a senator, what would you do to event this type of error from happening again? >> of course although i am a very supporter of immigration and reform, it is for people who

are hard working and law-abiding. people who commit crimes should be deported immediately and sent back to their country. and i don't believe that we should tolerate any criminal activity or any people who commit a criminal act. but most of the latinos here who are undocumented are people who have been here for many, many years. people who are very hard working. god fearing. pro family. these people, some who have been here many, many years, are married and have children and grandchildren and i believe they deserve a path to citizenship and i believe that they deserve the same path to the american dream as every other community and i will fight with tooth and nail to let them have that. >> and now next question is from ms. hernandez. >> this question goes for both. the immigration and nationality

act allows for the united states to allow 175,000 visas each year. do you believe increasing the amount of visas each year will benefit the country and if so, how many visas would you be willing to approve for this program? >> as was decided on the coin toss, mr. cornyn will answer first. >> we shouldn't set a hard cap on the number of visas. it depends frankly on how well our economy is doing. if it is doing well and we have full employment for american citizens then we could look at a more flexible cap that would reflect the demand for legal workforce here in the united states. but we do have, as i said earlier, an immigration system, that does not protect our national interests. we educate at colleges like mountain view college and other colleges across the country,

people who have skills and talents that we need in the united states. about half of our engineering students are foreign born and it makes no sense whatsoever given the demand we have in our country for these highly skilled individuals to send them back to their country of origin because we put some sort of artificial cap on that. >> of course we need to increase -- but that will never take care of our latino community. we have 11 million undocumented workers who have been here more many, many years. immigration reform should give them permanency. we need that now. cornyn would take us 100 years to give us the relief our latinos deserve.

>> this question goes to senator cornyn. according to the "new york times," about 200,000 parents of children who are american citizens were deported between 2010 and 2012. and children are in foster care because their mother or father were deported. what would you do if you were one of them? >> we know that the people come to the united states for opportunities and for the american dream that we already spoke about before. what i've always said is we need a -- nobody supports the status quo of our immigration system. i don't think anybody is happy with it. the issue is how do we find some consensus? the way we do that is to find a way to break this down into smaller pieces, because frankly

there is so much distrust in washington, d.c. these days, it is hard to pass a comprehensive bill that does everything. as we have seen the delay, i think makes my point. if we had been able to do it, we would have already done it. i introduced a comprehensive immigration reform bill in 2005 with senator jon kyl of arizona but like all of the other comprehensive bills, they have not gone anywhere. let's find parts of it that we agree on. the children who came with their parents. >> your time is up, sir. if mr. alameel doesn't want a rebuttal we're moving on to the next question. >> i do. it is inhuman to separate kids from their parents. that's why immigration reform is

needed as of yesterday. as of last year. as of 10 years ago. the only way to solve this problem is to stop deportation and keep these families together until we figure out exactly what immigration reform is going to look like. >> next question, pedro rojas. >> dr. alameel, as a veteran of the u.s. army, are you in favor of the deployment of the texas national guard to the texas/mexico border and if so, why? >> i think it is a joke. we need to secure our border for many reasons, but it is not the national guard who should take care of our border. it is the federal government. texans should not have the cost of securing our border. it will not take very long they start figures out our southern border is wide open for terrorists to come in.

i believe it needs to be secured. what rick perry did is just a political ploy. it is not going to work. they don't have any authority to arrest anybody. they don't have authority to do anything. i think it is time for our federal government to take care of our border. >> given the fact that the president refused to visit the rio grande valley during this crisis, my visits down there showed that the patrol officials were overwhelmed by the flood of unaccompanied children, 62,000 since just 2,000 alone. one man we asked and he was being detained at the border in squalid conditions. i asked him how old he was, he said he was 13. i asked him where his parents were. he said they are dead.

that young man could qualify for an immigration vis nay the united states if he was able to -- visa in the united states if he was able to appear before a judge and make that claim. i work for a democrat in texas to try to offer a bipartisan citizen for this little piece of this broken immigration system. we could not get a vote from the majority leader senator reid in the united states senate. that is not a way to solve the problem. >> senator cornyn, you have supported -- student loan reform. do your future education policies include advocating for the federal aid for low income students that have benefited from the dream act?

>> well, i believe that education is the key is the way out. i have indicated earlier that for children who came with their parents and into the country and did not comply with our immigration laws, they are guilty of nothing other than coming with their family and we ought to provide them an opportunity, not only to go to school but to eventually serve in the military or complete a college education and earn an american citizenship. i believe that. and i believe in the process, they should be treated just the same as we would any other student based on need. it makes so much for sense for us to have these young people here in texas and here in america as productive citizens. it makes absolutely no sense to condemn them to minimum wage jobs for the rest of their lives when they could produce so much more and they could be so much more and we will -- they would benefit. their families would benefit and our nation would benefit. >> our federal reserve has given $1.32 trillion in the past five years at 1 quarter of 1%.

yet our children have the burden of student loans and they are playing anywhere from 5% to 7%. when elizabeth warren introduced the bill to reduce the interest payment on our students john cornyn voted against it. if he really cares about education, he should tell the country that our education should be practically free and our students should not have to have loans, much less pay 7%. at least they should pay only .25% just like wall street corporations do. >> next question is from angel pedrero. >> thank you, wendy. this question is for dr. alameel. according to the dallas morning news, about 10 years ago you gave money to the senator cornyn campaign. what did senator cornyn have at that time that you say he no longer has? >> he was only two years into his office and had no record.

and of all the things that i have to live with in my life, and i stand by all of my mistakes. this is one terrible mistake i have to live with. >> well, i would say dr. alameel, he was an enthusiastic supporter of mine and governor perry's. he decided for reasons i'm sure he can explain and switched parties. spent $4.5 million of his own money. he decided to self-finance this race. i enjoy the support of 17,000 texans who have contributed to my campaign. dr. alameel's primary campaign contributor is dr. alameel. so he has that right and i'm glad he is here tonight making

his case for election to the american people, but i would say people can judge for themselves whether he is being consistent or inconsistent. his actions match his words. i would suggest they do not. >> next question is from pedro rojas. >> this question is for both. senator cornyn and dr. alameel, what would you do to secure the border and avoid a human crisis like the one we saw in the summer? how can we prevent a massive amount of children coming in? >> i already stated exactly how i would like to secure our border. it is a federal government job. i would fight for that as your senator. these people are coming because they have strife in their countries. they are killing their parents. one of the things we have to do is when we give them financial aid, we have to put conditions

on them. we can't allow the leaders of that country to go and squander the financial aid that we give them. we do business with them. we can put pressure on them to stop the killing with the cartel in their country and to stop the abuse and the corruption in their government to provide a better life for their country. as far as the vote is concerned, it has nothing to do with crisis on the border. it has to do with our national security. >> mr. cornyn. you have one minute. >> we know how the do this. we just haven't had the political will to do it. actually this is one of the problems with a so-called comprehensive approach. that it is viewed as everything is connected to everything else. when you insist on everything your way or nothing, most of the time you get nothing. and so what we need to do is to make the commitment in terms of federal resources. i'm talking about people, technology, but mainly it is a matter of national will.

we know how the do this, but we also need to separate the people who are the cartels and the drug running and the human trafficking from the legitimate traffic and trade. we benefit into the tune of 6 million jobs in america from trade with mexico but we haven't funded our ports of interest and staffed them in a way to separate the legal and beneficial from the illegal and the harmful. once we decide what sort of legal guess work or program -- >> your time is up, sir. excuse me. >> this question is for both. if elected as a texas senator, what concrete action will you take to make your office more accessible to student population and to motivate those students to get involved and express their needs?

>> this time mr. corn listen begin. you have one minute. >> one reason i'm happy to be here at mountain view college tonight is because i think a lot of students who haven't been as involved in the political process get a chance to see first hand what it is like and hopefully this will be the beginning of their active engagement over the course of their lives. we have a unique form of government and because the government is us. we are the ones who decide who gets elected what happened the policies will be based on how we vote and if we vote. so i think students have a vested interest. unfortunately your generation has not been treated very well by the current office holders. there is plenty of blame to go around. but right now there is absolutely no discussion about the $17 trillion in debt that is going to have to be paid back and the unsustainable social security and medicare systems that we know how the fix and how to keep those commitments to our seniors and future generations,

but there seems to be absolutely no commitment under the current leadership to fix them. >> i would like to make a question to both of you. this time mr. alameel will answer first. we have been hearing a lot about ebola. what would you do differently at the legislation to deal with the ebola crisis? would you favor legislation to stop stricken nations to come to the u.s.? >> it is a problem that he said there is no political will in washington to fix. retirement, education and everything else that we need. he doesn't have an open door policy. he didn't answer that question. the reason ebola is a big problem is they keep cutting funding that every agency that we need. c.d.c. was not ready to handle an epidemic. our hospitals were not ready to handle an epidemic and we totally bungled that whole

incident and we have doctors and nurses and patients going around with fluids infected and they are allowing them to fly and to sit in rooms. yes, we have to restrict the flow in and out of that epidemic area. start to fund our emergency healthcare response is more important than anything else and making the screening more strict at airports will help that. >> your time is up. mr. cornyn, what would you do? >> i know we all celebrate with the family of nina pham, her good diagnosis, being cured of the disease. she was with the president this afternoon in the oval office. i call for a travel ban n those west african nations as we pursue a vaccine from wonderful world class medical facilities that we have.

unfortunately dallas was not prepared primarily because they were looking for guidance from the federal government and the center for disease control was giving inconsistent or inadequate incomplete advice on the protocol to use to protect themselves. thankfully the people who came in casual contact were not infected. the people we thought were at the lowest risk were because there was no leadership from the white house and the federal government. >> this question is for both. children in texas use -- to get better. their parents get a -- would you support the legalization for medicinal marijuana in texas?

>> we see experimentation taking place all across our country where n places like colorado where it is being openly sold as a recreational drug with no real knowledge of what the results of this experiment will be in terms of public safety and public health. as we know now, under aged individuals, children, get access to alcohol, even though we know it is not legal for them to do so. so i don't think it would take a great speculation to say this will, if approved for adults, will make its way to children, who its impact on their growing and forming brains and their productivity is really unknown. so i do not support the legalization of marijuana.

>> mr. alameel? >> well, of course, many christians thought alcohol was satan. they had the same argument in the prohibition era. i think medical marijuana should be available to patients who need it. second, i think most of the people who have been arrested and going to prison are african-american and latino kids even though anglo population are using it much more. i believe it is time to have those kids go back to their family and it is time to decriminalize marijuana and i think that will go a long way to allow the african-american community and the latino community to unite. i'm sure as well to deal with our young people the way we do with alcohol but having prohibition like we did before did not work.

i think marijuana should be decriminalized so people either pay a fine or do a community service. >> your time is up, sir. pedro rojas, do you want a rebuttal? >> no. >> this question is for both senator cornyn and mr. alameel. this ebola crisis -- at the texas presbyterian hospital here in dallas. if any of you get elected as senators of the state of texas, would you promote any changes in the senate to make hospital management more accountable to their patients, their employees and the public? >> mr. alameel, you will answer first.

>> of course our hospitals, like everything else in our healthcare system is for profit. sometimes people go too far with profit. they start cutting corners. the dallas hospital that had this outbreak did not have proper equipment. even after our -- their patient went to be treated, they still did not have the gear necessary to take care of them and they tried to muzzle -- from complaining. i think everything has to do with us having a plan. we have four centers in the country to handle ebola and the total number in the country is nine beds. if we have an epidemic, the first nine patients will be taken care of the 100,000 will die. >> mr. cornyn, please? >> i visited with judge jenkins and mayor rawlings about this. what struck me is that they were waiting for guide france the white house, from the federal government and it took president three weeks before he appointed a liaison officer, sometimes

called a czar, but we don't need any more czars. what we need is somebody to coordinate the care between federal government, state and local government to make sure that the emergency resources we had were available and they were acting on the best possible information. so texas presbyterian hospital and the county did the best they could but they were handicapped by a lack of help and useful guidance from the federal government. the center for disease control has world class epidemiologists and doctors but they are not the kinds of boots on the ground needed to guide and direct people trying to save the life of people like mr. duncan, who are real heroes. >> we have to move forward to the next question. >> senator cornyn, according to the center of disease control, 27% of young adults did not have health insurance in 2012.

part of your effort has been to put an end to obama care. what would you do to increase the percentage of young americans without insurance? >> it is true that the affordable care act or obama care was supported by its advocates as a solution to our broken healthcare system. there were many people like me who were skeptical that the federal government had the competence or the ability to change the law, especially using the tools they did, that would actually cover more people. in fact, there are still today 42 million people who lack healthcare insurance even now four years into obama care's passage. and we found that all of the promises that were made, if you like your doctor, you can keep them. that has proved not to be true because what the federal government did is made health insurance more expensive.

not less expensive and more affordable. so i have a plan to put in place an alternative that would let you choose your healthcare and would bring down prices by increasing competition and making it more transparent. >> well, of course, obama care is no different than romney care which john cornyn didn't have a problem with. it is a good step in the right direction. it has helped five million people get insurance. it also changed our healthcare. for the first time in history, an insurance company cannot drop a patient when he gets sick. if they have pre-existing conditions, they have to cover him. for the first time they allow kids to remain on their parent'' policy. it is not perfect but it is a step in the right direction. it is the law of the land and

republicans need to stop saying no and how to help fix it. >> the next question. >> thank you. dr. alameel, you say increasing the minimum federal wage to $10.10 is a good proposal. would you be willing to apply that increase in your business before it becomes law? >> well, minimum wage in my company that i sold in 2009 was $10 an hour. pay latina and latino out of high school, $10 an hour, for my business. they became good consumers for my neighbors' business. became very loyal employees, people who stayed there and we didn't have to

train other people. the more employees make, the more consumer make. the more consumer make, the more will profit.s and i think it's a silly argument that minimum wage hurt business. question. >> senator cornyn, would you support, changing gears here, would you support the deployment of us troops to the ground in fight isil, and if so how many soldiers should be deployed? >> i'm waiting for the president to tell us what his strategy is to degrade and defeat the state.t he recognizes, i think we all ave to recognize that it is threat not only to the peace in the middle east, but as we on september 11, 2001, what happens over there can have a very direct impact on our security here. but i don't believe the ofsident's current tactics air strikes alone are adequate. don't take my word for it.