guests are the democratic nominee, congressman for earl pomeroy and republican nominee, state rep rick berg of fargo. each candidate will have an opening statement and we will have a variety of issues selected by myself and our co- sponsored, aarp of north dakota. berg your first. >> i am excited to be here. i was drawn into this race because i watch washington and what i saw coming was a taxpayer funded bailout. it was a deficit hitting record levels that resulted in a massive new bill that my opponent voted for without holding one town hall debate. that is unacceptable. our country has problems. we are going down the wrong direction. it is time for people to step up. that is what i and in this race. i stepped up because i have the tools and the ability to help put america back on track. in north dakota, we have a strong economy. we are creating jobs. we have a balanced budget and we have a reserve for when times are tough. we did this for north dakota and we can do it for america. i want to talk about that tonight. >> congressman pomeroy? >> you do not waste any time getting to those wash

what are the issues that you think should be we peeled, rick berg?held dozens of dozen -- i held dozens and dozens of committees. people had all kinds of views. the facts are clear. we had 150,000 voters lose 10% of their income. with health-care costs going up and doing nothing to cover tens of thousands of additional north dakotans. there is a strong consensus that action needs to be done and this is from the front line of health care. north dakota doctors, nurses, hospitals. i am pleased that the north dakota medical association supported this bill clearly -- this bill. doctors support this bill in this election. we had problems that we need to address. we need to address them. >> there is no issue that defines this campaign more than the health care bill. york one to hear a lot of facts and twisted things. there are three things that concern me with this health care bill. first, over 7% of the people in north dakota did not -- 70% of the people in north dakota did not support this bill. second, the way we do things in north dakota, we have public

. >> a one minute close, rick berg. >> thank you. there is a responsibility for each generation of americans. that is to leave this country better off than we received it. today, too many americans believe that their sons and daughters are not better off and will not be better off in the future. we have taxpayer funded bailouts. we have record deficits. we have a health care bill that will take over and change -- and create a government run health care. these are debts to our children and it is a mountain of debt that is funded by other countries. it does not have to be this way. we need to get back to the core principle that made this country great. a free but turbulent market is better than a stagnant economy in a government run state. whether you are talking about health care or business, government needs to be tolerated with limited power. >> time is up. that gentleman, thank you for an extremely lively debate. good luck in the election. thank you for joining election 2010. ♪ >> c-span's local content the goals are traveling the