>>> congressional gridlock, federal financing and presideetial politics are just a few of the electioo issuee we'll discuss tonight. i'm charles compton and this is new york 22, a league of women voters debate between republican candidatts in new york's 22nd
connreesional district. we're before a live audience in our studios. joining us on radio and tv.or good evening. allo with us, our gop candidates george phillips and steven wells, fellow republican claudia new york ssate assembly member
claudia tenney for the new york 22nd conggessional district has informed us she's unable to attend due to voting in albany. we regret she's not here. federal election commission and -pfederal communications commission regulations require for a federal level debate two
candidates must appear. mr. phillips and mr. wells are confirmed and are here. therefore, the criteria have been met and we will proceed with the debate. the league of women voters also requires conducting debates, two the league of women voters is a
non-partisan volunteer organization working to promote informed and responsible participation of citizens in government. toward that end they present debates in candidate forums as a service to the public. they neither support or oppose
any political party or candidate. that's the end of the statement. we are following their rules toniggt. 28th will decide which of these candidates will represent the gop in nnvember's general election.
this month's democrattc primary is uncontested, so there's no need for a debate there. the winner in november's gennral each candidate has two minutes for opening statements, a flip of the coin to decide who goes first. we're still taking questions
from the general public and candidates will take turns answering your questions. as moderator i reserve the privilege of asking a followup question if i feel the answer is unclear. no candidate has seen these questions.
they have two minutes to answer each question. closing statements are also one minute each. if the candidate exceeds the time limit, we have a league volunteer staffing a big horn. carl, give us a ham of that horn?
[ horn honking j. >> you'll hear that horn. we'll keep on it, just so you since we're monitoring twitter, pse #ny22 if you want to send comments or questions into wskg so we can pass them along to the candidates. you can also make remarks and
ask questtons on wskg facebook page. we'll ask our audience to reserve their applause until program ends. finally wskg and the league of women voters are committed to promoting civil discourse. i want to remind the candidates
of the saying often used by president ronald reagan, thou shall not speak ill of any republican candidate. mr. phillips, you're up first. >> thank you. i want to thank the votes and wskg for hosting, i want to thank my famill and high school
students for joining us. we start by remembering the tragedy in orlando, the greatest terrorist attack in the united states since september 11. we arry on with this race with them in mind and in our thoughts and in our prayers. grie up in this area duriig a
time of prosperity. during the 1990s when thh downturn hit i was workiig at the old ibm plant. my brother lost his job at the ge plant and moved to north carolina. every single one of us in this kmoonity here have family and
friends we wish could be here but can't because of the economic situation. i've been proud to serve as dean of students at seton catholic high school and adjunct at broome community colllge and to be raising my family here in this area that i ove.
in 2010 i ran for congress in hopes of making things better. i'm hankful for all the support we have from so many in the community. if you recall, we faced overwhelming odds. we were at the end the number two race in the country.
president bill clinton evenn campaigned against me. over the last few years in addition to my teaching duties, i've been working for the jack kkmp photographer, the buffalo bill football star who spearheaded the economic revival mentored me before his death.
i worked on economic policy i'm running on an upstate jobs plan. tax and regulatory relief on the federal level that the state has to match to create jobs and gee our economy going here. we have a lot of momentum in recent days.
i was endorred by the american conservative union, the oldest pnd most respected conservative organization in the country, and i was endorsed by steve forbes as well, the great economist and political figure. i'm looking forward to the debate tonight and looking to
win your endorsement and suppor& as ell. >> mr. wells, your turn. >> thank you very much. i'd like to thank the league of women voters for hosting us here this evening. it's a pleasure to be with you. i'm joined by my wife pamela,
we'll find out when we get home a little llter tonight. i've never run for public office befooe. i grew up here in upstate and i those are the two big issues of the day. those are the reasons i'm running for congress.
i look forward to debate and talking about those issues in particular. so thanks for having me. >> let's start the questioning.& of course, the headlines and our concerns, our attentions focused on orlando this past eek. we had a celebrity shooting on
friday night and a mass killing early sunday morning last weekend. of course, i want to discuss gun control. it's cerrainly on the national agenda right now. mr. phillips, what kind of gun controls, if any, would you
support? what's your position on the public's ability to purchase, >> i'm an american history i believe fully in the second amendment right to bear arms. i have an na rating from the national rifle association. i am sad whenever a trageey llke
this occurs that the first reaction is always to try to infringe upon constitutional rights. we've hhd terrorists fly planes into buildings killing thousands of people. we've had terrorists set off bombs at the boston marathon
killing people. we've had school shootings. as an american history teacher i know the worst school tragedy in history was actually in the 1920s when a disgruntled man lost a local election and blew up a school building killing children.
we have to focus in this debate on the power of evil in tte world and evil acts. we have to focus on countering that. legislation would have prevented these heinous acts where guns were actually involled. people who are willing to come
in and murder 0 innocent people in a nightclub or with the intention of killing hundreds are certainly going to get a gun illegally or any type of weapon1 they can to murder and maim innocent human beings. so we have to focus on the threat.
i'm saddened these dayy mann of our public leaders haven't focused more on isis. this mmn who committed the tragedy would not have died for a failed ideology had ice sis 1 been defeated a long time ago like they should have. where is our resolve?
why after the paris attacks was france asking us what targgts to hit? why were we not hitting those targets ourselves? i'm calling for a nothing in, nothing out embargo of isis territory, to strangle the beast, to defeat them once and
for all, allow humanitarian supplies in. blakt market, trading looted e guns? we need to sfop and deeeat isii once and for ll. we need to recognize the power of evil and we have to respect our constitutional rights?
i took it away from her and then went back to the evil. why not take away the tool and then deal with the evil. >> the criminals seeking to perpetrate evil are going tt get these weapons and perpetrate evil no matter how they can. someone is not going to say, i'm
wanting to commit a massacre and kill hundreds of people, i was turned down by a background check, shucks, i'm not going to get a gun. they're going to get a weapon, a gun or bomb and do this. we have to focus on the power of evil here and the fact that evil
people are gging to commit these acts. the focus on this particular case is certainly isis here..3 1 many of the school shootings, the focus is mental health counseling. had they done that, perhaps this tragedy could have been
prevented. those determined to commit evil are going to gettguns or other means of destruction to kill innocent human beings. >> i want to go back and talk about how we deal with the evil. >> i can tell you from my experience as a prosecutor
firsthand having tried case after caseeof violent homicides including homicides that are committed and perpetrated by people using guus and also homicides committed by people perpetrating them using other manners and means, it's the pntent to iil that is at hand.
that is the issue. i've been a shooter, and i first got my first remington when i was 11 years old. there's nobody in this audience, here in broome county, tioga county has to worry about me handling a firearm or posing a danger to them.
the problem is not law-ab siding citizens. i can tell you firsthand having prosecuted these cases. if it's not gaun, people have there's no end to the ways someone can kill someone when they have the intent. >> i'm going to ask the same
question i asked mr. phillips. there's legislation pending in congress that would keep assault weapons out of the hands of people on terrorist lists, no >> why not? why haven't you readdit? >> i'll answer your question. i'm not in the congress for one
thing. part f the problem with members of congress, it seems like they're not reeding what's in front of them. the answee to your question more broadly, again, the issue is not the weapon, the issue is the intent.
we have to identify and find people who want to pose danger so you've got some deep seeded societal issues. but when it has to do with -- in this particular case we're talking about someone who was radicalized. that's another subject matter,
how to deal with americans traveling overssas and getting radicalized and coming back -- and this goesson. in this case i don't know that this person traveled, but he certainly was engaged -- i believe he did go to saudi araaia, certainly engaged on the
internet becoming radicalized. i believe on the no fly lists there may be up to 1.4 milllon people. this is big bureaucracy. we're not going to take rights away from citizens because of government failures. we need to sharpen our
intelligence. the fbi was certainly on to him. we need to look at the world's scene and isis, as i mentioned, defeating them, but in terms of radical islam, we need to engage think about the cold war. we promoted democracy. we promoted human rights.
radical islam and jihadists are a small number. we have so many people killed from gun violence. this past summer i was at that time mccormick secure center near ithaca, maximum security youthhdetention facility for young men.
some committed murder and rape, many were certainly guu-related crimes. some are serving life sentencee. i would come back to the point of evil, of thh culture. the economy certainly has a role here, but therr's some things the government can't do.
the government has tried to do too much. if you look at the anti poverty programs, we're on the 50th anniversary of the war on poverty, lyndon johnson's war on poverty. we have as many people living in >> mr. wells?
>> in a free society, you can't possibly have enough police officers on the streets to they've studied and they believe there's eight steps along the way before someone makes the decision to do that. so similarly we need to understand why people are making
such horrible decisions that are willing to take so many lives? why are they doing that and where can weeintervene along those different steps so that we might actually revent what you're referring to, domestic terrorism. that's what we need to do.
>> there are limits on government and government's ability to protect us, mr. phillips? teacher. the prime function of the federal government is national defense and security, immigration law which we're
doing a terrible job t. there are limits when evil is out there. if we talk about religion and faith and those who have faith, the gio christian faith system says god created us free. withhthaa freedom, americans and people all around the world have
done amazing things wiih freedom. people have done horrible things as well. so we continue to promote what's good. we have this amazing experiment and democracy oing on for over 200 years noww
it started in america. we have so many things to offer the world..3 c1 the power of evil is there. people re still going to commit evil acts. >> mr. wells, any final point? >> to answer your question, the reason i'm running for congress
is because of the national security, the way it's been handled. we're terribly off course, and the fact of the matter is, if we don't get ourselves back on course, we're going to have more incidences, far more problems. and if anyone wants to take a
lesson, and i'm sure ggorge will agree with me on this, all you've got to do is look anywhere around the world and you'll see place after place. we can talk about europe. we don't even need to talk about the middle east. we can talk about the south
china sea, north korea. this is a far more dangerous world. that's why we ave a federal government, to protect us. we've got to do a far better job. >> welcome to new york 22 sponsored by wskg and the league
of women voters of broome and tioga counties. i'm charles compton. thankk for joining us. if you're looking for more information, we urge you to visit a speciil website created by the league. vote 411.org.
with us george phillips and steve wells. fellow republiian claudia tenney was invited but is in albany and unable to attend. you tweet us #ny22 or visii wskg's facebook page. during this next segment, i'd like to start off by talking
about donald trump. do you endorse mr. trump for president? >> my answer the same it's been since i've been asked this question, god, three months ago i guess. my view is, whether he was your first choicc or your 17th
choice, he is a far better alternative to hillary clinton or bernie sanders. i don't need to lecture peoplee here in broome and tioga ccunties, in the southern tier about our job situation and the job erosion we've had in new york state for over 30 years.
destruction. the surest path to if anybody wants to challenge that, all they've got to do is look south to venezuela where in -p17 years a country has been utterly destroyed. they have more oil wealth down there than saudi arabia. in 17 years under chavez and his
successor, you can't go out and get a package of toilet paper or a package of light bulbs. they've destroyed that country. this country was founded on the free market and free enterprise system. it's not because we haven't had enough.
we've had too much overregulation and too much -ptaxation that has made us -- can tell you firsthand as a businessman -- this has made our state and our country uncompetitive. this is why jobs are leaving and they will continue to leave
until we become competttive. >> if i went to my wife nd said you're better than the alternative, i would be single right now. that was not an endorsement. is that good enough? the fact of the matter is, he's a businessperson who has been
successful and i understand -pat least he's not a politicia. i believe he can be a voice of ccange in washington. that's what i hear over and over again with the folks i find on the campaign trail. certainly i agree with them in the sense that we need change in
washington. mr. phillips, do you ndorse mr. trump? >> three points on mr. trump. what has madd hii an absolute disaster in washington. people have had enoogh with the mess in washington and that's led to the rise in donald trump
and other outsiders. point two, i don't support some offthe commmnts he's made. he's been very, very offensive. what would be even more harmful for the nation is to continue on the policies we've had in the last eight years wwth president obama.
they have been a disaster. we are 62% workforce participation rate. that's one of the owest levels since the 1970s. americans are working hhrder for less. we have problems all around the world because we've pulled back
so much due to the policies of this administration, not recognizing the power of evil in the world. we are freedom's innispensable nation. when the u.s. holds back as it has the last few years, the world becomes less free.
i would look at the fact that i'm an american history teacher that teaches the constitttion. the founding fathers said the post powerful brrnchhof government is not the president but congress. we need to get back to that. the presiddnt can only sign or
peto. i plan to be a leader in this new congress..3 c1 i'm elected to serve people of this district. we need to lead on tax and representing ory reform. that's part of my upstate jobs we have thh highest effective
carpet tax rate. it's sending jobs out of our community, out of our country. we need lower rates across the board. mr. trump has certainly talked about that. we needless regulation. there's 178,000 pages of
regulation in the u.s. code costing the economy $1.9 trillion a year. we need to secure the border. mr. trump has talked about this, not just from illegal immigrants but also heroin. i have a plan to defeat heroin at its source.
let's destroy the crop in mexico before it gets in our streets here and kills more young people in our community. >> to folllw up, is there anything about mr. trump that really excites you? >> his policies in general are a direction we need to go.
less taxes, less regulation, repeal obamacare. we're not as a party articulating what we should do with health care. health care was broken before obama kae. obamacare has madd things worse. less choices, higher costs
because of obamacare. i want more choices for all americans. overall mr. trump's platform on the issues, on policiess i believe are the direction we need to go. we need congress to step up and lead, and i want to be a leader
on some of these policies from day one in the congress. i think he's been more road stroke on issues. we need to talk more about nuts and bolts. that's what i got into in my platform here in terms of specifics, where we should take
the country. i believe each individual member of congress should step up on these important issues that are criticallfor our community here. we''e all affected by job losses. we all i think know someone who died from a heroin overdose or
dealing with a difficult medical situation right now. >> if i'm hearing you correctly, you hope mr. drum would be a weak president and congress would be the most powerful branch of government as you say it was designed to be and that's how yyu would manage mr. trump,
keeping him in a box? >> i say one, let's realize the reality. the president is around tv all the time. at the end of the day they connell sign or veto what the congress sends them. -pi think this new congress hasn
opportunity to lead on a very strong agenda. i want to be part of it, part of a bold plan for america, to get this country going again. ronald reagan style tax cuts and reforms, to lift up this economy like we did in the '80s and win the cold war and spread this
economic growth ann prosperity to the whole world. if we do that, the world would be more stable and more safe. so again, if you look at the constitution, the power is in the congress. but if you also look to the reality of hat's going on right
now, yoo can only sign or veto what the coogress gives them. this president, obama has engaged in an assault on the constitution. illegal executive orders on immigrants, trying to give am necessity without congress. health care.
we need to stand up. that's what i'll do. >> mr. wells, as a congress member you would have o manage mr. trump. how would you manage him? hoo would you accomplish such initiatives? >> look, the presidency and the
executive branch is out of what we've seen is a flood of overregulation, particularly in the last eight years. it is killing jobs. you wonder why jobs fled the southern tier here. i can tell you as a business person whooserves all these
businesses here in this area, thh reason we're losing is we're not competitive. we needless federal government, less overregulation. we only need regulation where we truly provide the safety is that is absolutely necessary. we need to start with our
national defense. what we don't need, 'll tell 1 you -- i'm running out of time. i'll give you example afterr example i found traveling around first, i want to talk about fracking with mr. phillips. what's your opinion on fracking and do you agree with governor
cuomo's decision here to ban it? >> like a lot of people in the i toured national gas drilling rigs in pennsylvania. i saw the safeguards in place and the tremendous prosperity it brought to poor communities down there. tuwanda, pennsylvania, if you
drive hrough, it looks more like cooperstown than a poor community it once was. we hadda $15 billion ecooomic study over ten years for natural gas. we have boomed in pennsylvania, ohio, north dakota and other -pstates that have allowed safe
natuual gas drilling. i think it really was tragic ffr our community here, abouu what governor cuomo did, not respecting the rights of landowners, not respecting the rights of law abiding citizens who wanted to use their land for prosperity.
the natural gas revolution and the energy revolution is propelling thhs country tt new heights. our economic situation as a nation would be much worse if we didn't have the energy revolution we've had in the last we need to open up our exports.-
we could bury adversaries in the middle east ann russia and venezuela with more exports of natural gas and petroleum. it was a huge lost opportunity for this community. we have workers on natural gas rigs making $100,000 a year, electricians and others.
what a lost opportunity here. and i will continue to speak up for safe, natural gas drilling. we won't do it in new york state unless it's safe. i think the state made a very, very, very poor decision. i was proud to work with the landowners in the middle oo this
debate to respect hem. i thank them for all the good they did foo the community. i hope we can have an opportunity for safe natuual gas drilling in the southern tear.. >> mr. wells, your opinion on frack? >> the reason i'm running for
congress is because of our economic ann national security headed in the wrong direction. this issue of energy independence touches on both of those issues. there's no question about it. we have the opportunity o be energy indepeedent.
think of how better off the country would be if we were think of all the involvement we've had in the middle east and around the world and the lives lost of americcns that would not have been necessary if we were energy independent. i will tell you even the epa --
i'll give you example after example of overregulation by the epa killing our farmers in upstate new york and right here in broome county and just to the north of us. but even the epa provides that fracking is acceptable. as you know it's occurring in
state after state around can country other than new york. i live on a well. i get well wart. mr. wells, i'll stay with you. >> i, aa a person person -- what i want is the lowest taxation rate across the board that would make it competitive with other
countries and regulation that gets the federal government out of our way. that's the plan. that's what we need to do to have safe -- to increass prosperity in the southern tier. that's what we need. >> what about the subsidies to
fossil fuel? should congress be spending money -- >> to answer your question, i don't think the congress should be picking or the president this is a free market economy. it's supposed to be that we were part of the free market, free
enterprise system. i don't believe in the government picking winners or losers of companies or industries. i don't think that's the way we that's what we need. that's what's created the engine of wealth that's created more
prosperity here in the united states than any country in the wwrld. >> i'm going to ask you now, mr. phillips, should we enn these & federal subsidies to companies that develop fossil fuels? >> i'm reminded of one of my favorite stories from president
reagan. it says the way big governmenn operates is, if something is moving, you tax it. if it's moving too much, you regulate it. if it stops moving, you subsidize it. we need to get away from crony
capitaliss and subsidies. my favorite quote in my mentor jeff kemp was there's no limit to what free men, free women and free markets can accomplish. we need tt get back to freedom. we need to get away from boondoggless like what president obama did with sill lynn draw,
giving crony businessmen and his friends hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars for solar projects that were fraudulent and did not pan out. we need to get back to the free market. i support alternatives here. i don't want to keep passing the
buck to the american taxpayer so the cronies of big government can benefit from this. >> what about climate change,,is that a serious problem? i'll say it to you mr. phillips? teacher and i tell my students and the viewers right now, it's very interesting if you look at
the american revolution. the british army walked from manhattan island to staten island over a frozen harbor. that was var cold period in history. that doesn't happen today. all oo a sudden things got warmer as we got to the 1800s.
why? it wasn't because of co2 emissions. look t the great defregs and the dust bowl in oklahoma in the 1930s. why were the 1930s suchha hot decade? we didn't have tremendous co2'
mixes like we have now. if you get into the 1970s and the creation of the epa, there's harmful pollutants in our atmosphere. the countries causing tremendous harm include china, india, many of these countries that pollute pnd do everything they want with
the enviionment sign on these international protocols and don't abide by them. i'm very skeptical, skeptical becauue of the un manipulation of data here, and i know the stories in history. i know some other things about science.
we've had volcanos explode in the pacific ocean that have put as much co2 in the atmosphere as man made co2. don't take science as a fact. don't believe something just because the liberal media says it to you or college professor. in my class i try to present
both sides of the debbte and i 1 think the debate is open. -pwe need to embrace merica's j revolution right now. cleaner source to do that. &- it has less co2 emiisions than 1 petroleum. so it's a great way to go. >> so science has noo proven to1
you that climate change exists, we already have too many regulations as i mentioned in the u.s. code, 178,000 of them costing the economy $2 trillion a year already. i do not support the programs the president is putting up. he's putting workers in the coal
industry out of work because of regulations. he's doing this by executive order without the congress. this is against the constitution of the united states. it needs to stop..3 c1 we need to rein the executive branch in and stand up for the
rights of everyday americans in businesses from a gooernment overreach. >> mr. wells, does climate change exist and is it caused by humans? >> well, as i mentioned earlier, of course i'm concerned about the environment, the air we
breathe and the water that we drink. but again, the reason i'm running for congress is because of our economic security and our national security. and the issue is that, look, the united ssates cannot ooerate in a vacuum.
pe are a global economy now and competing against companies from all over theecountry that have an atrocious record on environmental pollution. the problem is right now, for example, i woull give you this example right here in our area, in this district and actually in
this county. the epa has come in. for example, a local farm, judy whitacre's farm, they took a 100-year-old farm and made her move for $650,000 a silo she had been permitted. there was nothing wrong with the silo.
because they had the authority to do it, not because it was leaching wwttr, not because it was doing harm to the environment, but there's an incredibll amount of government overregulation, killing our up state farms, killing our companies, making them less
competitive. if you want jobs in the southern tier, we need you to unwind the -poverregulation coming out of e federal government. >> just so i'm clear, do you -pbelieve in climate change? i'm not exactly sure. >> i agree with what george
said. you can look at the history. are we going to have jobs or are we not going to have jobs for our folks here in the southern tier? i think that's the issue. i support nuclear power, no carbon.
i'm an advocate of nuclear power. i don't believe the government ought to be picking winners and losers in a free market economy. we have to compete globally. theemore we can have theefree market do its magic, the more this country and the southern
tier will prosper when we built this great countryy >> you're listening and watching ny22 on wskg television and wsqx radio. it's a co-production with league of women voters. on primary election night, if you want to follow local
returns, wskg created wskgvotes.org will have esults in the new york counties we serve. tonight's guests are gop candidates george phillips and fellow republican claudia tenney was invited to participate but she's in albany and is unable to
attend. we hope to stage another debate in the fall just before the general election. let's switch baak from mr. phillips and talk other economic pnitiativee. mr. phillips, what should we do to improve the economy?
>> my upstate jobs plan would be models after something jack kemp called for, enterpriss zones in cities. i'm running for federal office, for united states congress. so many people have said, george, that's great, but our problems are on the state level.
the state keeps driving jobs out of thii area. we've gone from 41 members of congress down to 27 since the 1970s because of population looses. our job growth since early 1990s in new york state is only 10%. that includes growth in wall
street. the national average is 24%. we would do that by saying if you invest in an empowerment region, you won't be taxed on capital gains you make from this is krit kachlt we have to embrace the good work binghamton university is doing and try to
keep more of these fine young men and women we're training and get this economy going again. my upstate jobs plan is critical to this. >> mr. wells, your plan? >> well, i can tell you firsthand, as someone who does business here in the southern
tier and has created over a thousand jobs, i can tell you firsthand what needs to be done. it's pretty simple. what we don't need ii more politicians coming up with more plans because the plans don't work. the bottom line, we need
government overregulation out of the way and a tax structure that makes us competitive. until we do those two things, you can mark my words on it. now what's happening there is what's happening across the united states. i'll tell you as a
businessperson who has created over a thousand jobs right here, we've got to do those two things. forget all the fancy plans that government comes up with. if we on't do those two ttin we'll have continued job erooion.
more of what we've had the last 30 years. that's the unfortunate truth of the matter. & as i've been traveling around the district, i hear from people in all kinds of industries about governmental overregulation costing them money in every
single industry. this is such an important part of our economy and it's an issue of national security. i gave you the example of the epa overregulating judy whitacre's arm, a 100-year-old dairy farm. our dairr farmers are on the
verge of going out of business. 20% of the nation's food supply comes from ouu of the country. we're losing our pstate farms and there's no reason for it. it's overregulation with the epa and waters of usa act here they're coming in and saying -- costing $650,000 ---ive ae heard
this not just from judy but from farmer after farmer, the overregulation by the epa is killing them. that's the one that breaks my & heart the worst because it strikes home. we need a safe and domestic food supply.
personally, if you want another one, i can go on all day. >> don't have timee >> i'll tell you about obama kaefrmt this is another example, >> mr. phillips, maybe you have some examples. >> i wanted to come back to the specific ofs my plan from a
personal story. i'll never forget the day when my bropgter lost his job and left at the airport. my parents were there at the airport. when we went to visit him in north carolina, half the people were from upstate new york.
phere's something wrong with our state here. my plan will work because it puts pressure on the state. the plan that ronald reagan put forward, it's supply side economics, ronald reagan, ttat's whattour plan is based on. it will get our economy going
and show we can bring upstate new york back and our plan are spread to the rest of the country and make america strong again. i do want to be very clear that our plan is innstark contrast to the absolute disaster of governor cuomo's plan, startup 1
new york. it was tax relief only for new startups coming in from other states and it was only going through a stiff regulatory ppocess around universities. if you look at his plan, very few jobs actually came in. tens of millions were spent on &
advertising.& we need to do something for the business owners that are here, that have fought, that have stayed, that continue to create -pjobs. they're more likely to grow knew jobs than a new startup coming in.
our plan is in stark contrast to if you look, if ww can get america going again, we'll see the spread throughout the world. companies opening up markets are doing better. we can't let it happen here. we've got to stay achb fight. >> mr. phillips, can congress,
should congressman date a living wage? -p>> i think you're referring t the minimum wwge. >> i'm referring to a liiing wage which is a lot higher. >> generally speaking the minimum wage debate has come in here, and we're talking about
living wages. i don't bblieve in more government regulations here. too many government regulations have hurt the poor. i alluded to the fact that we're on the 50th anniversary of the failed war on poverty. there's dignity in work.
i've come up with a plaa that says let's ssrike welfare from the u.s. code and replace it with work empowerment. if ou're out of work for a period of time, you can get benefits. but after a very short period of time you have to do some work to
get benefits. we need drug testing for those on welfare. look at our community here. i have friends teaching in binghamton, johnson city, uuion endicott districts. one said the year starts with 25 students but quickly goes down
to 16, 17. we have families coming to new york city for a better life. the better life is shopping around benefits an abusing the we need to get america worring the minimum wage increases by governor cuomo are hurting poor more obs are going to be lost.
more companies are going to leave new york state. we need to lift up this economy. we need to lift up entrepreneurs and small business owners and controls.these forced price i have students in this room, and any of my students work part-time jobs.
they don't needed 15 annhour. when they take a job like that, that means another student will lose their job. that means someone who can graduate from minimum wage or mid level management or making a better waae will lose thht opportunity.
tooomuch big government is prushing this economy. new york state is going -pbackward. we have to stand. we have to fight. my plan takes on albany as well. >> mr. wells, same queetion. should government mandate a
living wwge? >> i can tell you as a business person who is not a poliiician, who has never run for any office but has created over a thousand jobs, that the issue with our 30-plus years of job erosion here in new york state and in the southern tier where it's
beee most acute is beeause we are not competitive. when you ask a question like that, you have to ask yourself, is a policy like that going to make us more competitive or less competitive? i think the answer is quite obvious.
if you enact additional regulations like that, all you're going to do is make us less competitive. that's the bottom line. if you want to lose your job, that's a great way to go. my plan that's announced is to freeze regulations in the next
congress. that's what congress should do, stop regulating, step back and look at regulations that the executive branch has taken over the last eight-plus years and look at those regulations and analyze, have they really -- is the benefit outweighiig the
cost? that's what we need to be doing right now in the congress, not >> a lot of businesses impacted by the new u.s. labor department ruling? this is from a iewer. it will go nto effect this december.
it provides for over time pay for workers who in the past were ineligible or exempt for over time pay. do you support this rule? would you try to have it reversed. i'll start with mr. wells. >> i'm sorry.
somebody was aking. >> i'll repeat it. a new u.s. labor department ruling going into effeet this december provides for over time paament to workers who in the past were inel zwribl and exempt. i also urge -- please stay quiet
for the candidates to hear me? it's rarely a problem, people you can analyze every one of these questions about whether or not it makes us more competitive orrless competitive. p think the answer once again is pretty obvious. pt doesn't make us more
if we're not gging to be more competitive, we're going to continue to lose jobs in broome county, tioga county, the southern tier, new york state and the united states. >> same question to you, mr. ppillips. should we reverse the rule that
that makes people more eligible for over time pay? >> yes, we should. i support efforts to stop new regulations from coming into place. we have to look at existing ones. part of my plannwould call for
the following. we need to go through every one of the 1788000 regulations that are on the books that are killinn jobs and go through them and say are they helping the economy? are they hurting the economy? are they absolutely necessary?
another thing that's hurting the economy is out-of-control spending. we're at a $19 trillion national debb. all that government spending is great for washington, maayland and virginia suburbs. those are doing well.
taking our hard-earned taxpayer money away from upstaae new york and giving it to upstate bureaucrats and lobbyists in waahington. -pit want to take another page he had the grace commission, business leaders came in and scoured the government for waste
answer to one minute whachlt do you consider the southerr tier's most processing issue? what action would you take to fix snit. >> we discussed it here with we need to do something and do something now and it's urgent. think about our community now.
my first job was being a paper boy at the ibm plant. my dad sitting here put over 25 years in. think about re when retired ibmers start to retire, we'll be >> there's no question the issue is economic security and i can't think of a customer.
i have hundreds of customers here in broome county and i of my head that has more jobs - now than they had when i started our business 20 years ago. you name them. ibm, lockheed martin that became -pbritish aerospace. i can go on and on and on.
big businesses, small businesses, an utter erosion, and the reason why, we're not that's why they're leaving. if we don't get competitive, they will continue to leave. >> time closing statements. mr. wells, you get to go first. i appreciate you all coming here
this evening and the league of women voters hosting this evening, having me here. the reason i'm running for congress as a business person who has nevvr run for office before is because what we need to do is get our country back on track.
we are off track. our economic security ann the wrong direction.e going in - the ootom line is i've got the experience, having started a business with nothing and creating over a thousand jobs. i've got the businesses experience.
this is what's goo to happen. -pif we don't, we'll continue t lose jobs here in upstate new york. >> mr. phillips, closing statements. >> we've been through a lot in this community the llst few years together.
i was honored to have support of so many of you wwen i ran in that race in 2010. i'mmasking for your support. again, i've led on bold ideas. we can get our community going again and our country. i've led on a bold, clear, upstate jobs plan.
i've led with a plan to defeat heroin at its source so it stops killing people in our community. i've led with a dynamic market of choice on health care, to improve our health are system. there's more choices for all amerrcans. i've talked about a ronald
reagan-style grace commission to save taxpayers billions..3 c1 i've talked about reigning in the fed and i've talked bout getting welfaae an end and turning it into a work empowerment program because we know there's diggity in new york.
i've talked about defeating isis. we need a bold plan for aaerica. i want to be a bold leader for this area in the united states i'm asking for your vote again on june 28th. i'm sking you to encouraae friends and family to get out
and vote for me as well. >> we're out of time..3 c1 thanks to our candidates. we also want to thank our partners, the league of women voters of broome and toga counties. you can get more information by going to the wskg news website.
thanks for joining us. i'm charles compton for wskg news.
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