36 members of the u. S. House has said they are not seeking reelection, nine democrats, 26 republicans and one libertarian. Representative susan brooks of indianas congressional announced plans to retire, a debate between the candidates buying to fill the seats, democrat christina and republican victoria sparks the Fifth District congressional town hall is made possible through the support of Central Indiana community foundation, and aarp indiana good evening and welcome, this is a congressional town hall meeting featuring candidates for the United States house of representatives in the Fifth District of indiana, they are democrat Christina Hale and republican victoria sparks, this town hall is presented with t te help of w fyi by indiana town hall, nonpartisan, Nonprofit Organization, please check out our website at indiana town halls. Org. We begin with an Opening Statement from Christina Hale. Jim, victoria its good to be here with you tonight, indiana town hall, thank you for having this and thank you for everyone watching and listening, im Christina Hale, im running for congress because i believe we need problem solvers in washington and we need people who will reach across the aisle and get things done, that is what i did as a youngle single mom, i learned the hard way putting myself through Purdue University and work in the job that i needed to to pay our bills and put my son to school as well. Thats what i learned that the Top Executive as a global ecdedicated Public Health into childrens issues, headquartered right here in our district, and the international, thats what i learned at the state legislator where every single bill i passed, i passed as a democrat with a republican partner helping me by my side. I believe that we need to go to washington, reach across the aisle and get things done and i am that person. Thank you. An Opening Statement from republican victoria sparks. Hello my fellow hoosiers, thank you for being with us tonight, thank you jim and think you christina, i hope we have one more debate, joe biden has two so we can do three. I know there are a lot of things happen the ho in our country, at of debates, a lot of discussions, we can disagree on a lot but whether you are republican, democrat or independent, we can agree on one thing, or government is broken, it is full of career politicians, servant specials interest in empty promises. I was not chosen by the Party Establishment with a candidate that is very accomplished and a business woman and assure them by the people, i have enormous appreciation for everything in this country that has given to willing to fight for you to deliver real results, im not looking for a job to do a job for you, im looking for a solid debate and discussion. Thank you and now questions in the wake of the death of Supreme Court justice ruthst bar ginsburg, there is a movement to expand the Supreme Court from nine to 11 justices, do you support that idea, why or why not. As Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away a few days ago, i think we should certainly honor her legacy for women as americans and as a jurist her legacy to the United States of america, i have heard some of this talking speculation it seems there is a candidate in the pipeline that will be confirmed by the senate soon and i heard speculation about the potential changes to grow the Supreme Court, i believe the last time it happened in the late 1800s and certainly i will take my time and pick a very considered decision as we begin to think through this, lets get our next member approved and have a whole court first and then we can discuss the rest. Christina hale. Do you support expanding the u. S. Supreme court. Im sorry christina sparks. I have enormous appreciation for any woman that wants to be a Public Service and Justice Ginsburg was a strong woman and a woman who promoted women and has two daughters, i think its important to respect peoples legacies but senators have to do their job and i think people have actions and elected to do their jobs and i think senate should debate and go through the process to deliver results, i think people expect results and consequences. I think its an important issue that the senate will have to address. 375 registered voters compartment a survey conducted by indiana town hall with the help of a Nonprofit Organization in california called informing to empower, most of the rest of our questions will come from that list, heres a question that one of the greatest imports from voters, when you vote to remove or amend the Affordable Care act, and if so what should replace it, this goes for victoria spartz, i promise not to get your name wrong again. That is okay. This is a very important question, as a business owner, a Small Business owner and who do not have insurance and had to struggle to find affordable insurance i understand healthcare is becoming very, very more important issue but unfortunately what is happening Affordable Care act with a quarter of a trillion to special Interest Groups is actually over 400,000 for each additional person that god in short is unacceptable and it would double the insurance premium, this would serve in special interest nor the people, legislator i want to run who pushes for the real reform so we the people the transparency with no surprise billing and special interest in delivering the result and that is the difference and we support great public option in the state of indiana and they voted against it but i think they could do better and i support state to do a better job because they will deliver better quality, most centralized special interest of control congress right now. Victoria spartz seems to be misleading the voters, been very clear through my primary and up this point in victorias primary she talked about her fight against the Affordable Care act, i would fight to keep it and improvend it, if you private Health Insurance all fight to keep it and make it more affordable, during this pandemic of the responsible thing to do is to ensure the 329,000 people that we have in our district who currently have preexisting conditions that they can maintain their coverage, and victoria spartz had her way, that would be repealed, that is dangerous in a responsible, there are things that we must ds to improve the Affordable Care act but through this pandemic we must have a public option for those who have no Health Insurance and this is a difference between my opponentes and myself. Let me followup, Christina Hill how would you seek to approve the Affordable Care act. There are a few ways, think we have to make peoples prescriptions more affordable, we have to make sure that everybody can go to the doctor, pay for that visit and pay for the medicine in the therapy that they need to do well and have it not break the bank. Victoria spartz what would you replace the Affordable Care act with. First of all we need to stop funneling billions to special Interest Groups to obamacare and let states provide good flexibility with good public options for the people which over 400,000 people with the state of indiana with the 2. 0 she voted against and talks about public option but she did not before, we need to have more transparency and more affordability and price and people need to know the price of healthcare and people need to have a choice, choice of doctoring the choice of insurance and more value driven not just healthcare, right now the control in healthcare and bankrupting our country it is notth acceptable. What is your opinion of the black lives matter protest. I think its someone who grew up in the country where peaceful products were not allowed, you actually would be in jail, i have enormous appreciation for this life of people. But there is a difference with peaceful protest in stealing peoples prompt enter property, that cannot be accepted in civil society, we need to always remember that, as someone in the statehouse has to support Public Safety and make sure we have a good criminal Justice Reform, if support to have this initiative and christina voted against the initiative and against 80 million a Public Safety, i think its important to remember that. Christina hale. To i think we will have victoria spartz destroying my record in misleading voters, black lives matter is an incredibly important and poignant time inte american history, we certainly have a legacy of systemic racism and you need to go to her Indiana State Museum to see the proof and you can see our governor, half our state legislature, just 100 years ago routed for being members of the kkk and today our young people are africanamerican adults and neighbors and friends are seen on cell phone videos, people who have suffered horrific deaths such as george floyd, this is something that we have to Pay Attention to and we have to honor and its a shame to politicize this, people have a right to peaceful protest and i will stand up forp that right, writing is never okay but people have a right to their constitutional right to protest and that is so important as americans. What should be done to reform policing in america Christina Hale. This is an area where we can do several simple things right now that i believe will bring a lot of relief to all americans who know the police should be there to protect and serve everybody, first as they voted in the general assembly, we need to ensure our Law Enforcement officers have body cameras and that they are using them, i appreciate governor making that move for state troopers in indiana but we also have to end chokehold, that is clear and made clear by George Floyds death, thirdly we need to and no knock entry for drug offenses, we can see time and again, the resulting violence in the preventable violence that these caused and those are three areas where i would begin. Victoria spartz. I think we have to always remember the police is very important, if we have a country where we dont have people Second Amendment rights, they will get rid of police and all the criminals on mobs are going to run t the country, but we ned to make sure we have cameras for police officers, we need to have a good criminal Justice System where it allows people to have Second Chances, i actually work on juvenile justicean prevention programs including marion county, christina voted against Second Chances against additional Public Safety she said she supports but when you look at her record she voted against it when she was legislator which hurt her district. She talks about stuff but thats not what her record is, when i say i do, i do care about black lives in this community and for every child to pursue happiness and whichever way that theyev want. Next question from our voter survey, is there racism in america, if so what policies would you support to reduce it. As i mentioned earlier, we have equal rights and dopportunity and we need to provide opportunities for minority communities, we dont have a systematic issue otherwise we have some people that are terrible, you always have bad apples and everything, we need to make sure but intercountry we decide this andr make sure that we dont let the people get away with their own things and get rid of that policy, we need to remember that the president obama would not be a president , it would be a racist country, a lot of people talk about the immigrants but i would not have been in this position to run, this office and people would not support immigrants and females, i sat on real juvenile Justice Reform for the choice to actually be able to pursue their dreams, have good education, Good Opportunity in life and good jobs and provide more tools to do that the every child in america has opportunities to pursue happiness. Christina hale. One of the major time looking for to ensure that people of color, africans americans in particular are able to accumulate wealth and pass it along generationally, we have to be very intentional and strategic about how we address this and there are so many statistics we can look at with incarceration for black males, rates of High School Diploma achievements where we can see, there is so much work to be done, we need the support from the beginning, all people of color to be successful, that will include investments in prek in programs like the individual Development Accounts where people can save money, havent matched and use the funds to open a business or earner credential that will make them be more employable, this is a tremendous problem in the United States that we can no longer kick the can down the road, it is time that this generation takes charge and takes action. Next question what is the greatest threat facing our country today Christina Hale. Certainly during this pandemic, it is healthcare and the economic crisis that is a part of that, i will tell you weve been talking about healthcare a great deal and i had a child at a young age and i worked a whole lot of jobs to put myself through school but i cannot always afford Health Insurance and i remember a day i will had a sore throat and i went to the Doctors Office in the worlds meanes reception wae and she is outing me for not having Health Insurance, remember that moment trying to do the mental math of how immigrant to write this check and if i skip two car payments and maybe i dont buy my book i think this check wont bounce. I just got back out to my car and i cried, what is more scary today is that we had a half a millionha people in just under five weeks during the pandemic lose their jobs or get furloughed and we only added to the number since that time, i think this pandemic has taught everybody that Public Health is in your personal interest in family seem toc be healthy in e economy needs Healthy Families this is a crisis over time and the federal government needs to step up in Congress Needs to dos its job and thats exactly what i plan to work on in washington. Victoria spartz with the greatest threat facing us today. I found a great example coming here, being in a position to run for congress, we are concrete in the American Dream and i think less and less people believe that American Dreams can exist, its hard work and our constitution and thats all you need to be successful in life and we are to recruit politicians but politicians dont deliver results, im not looking for a job, i have a lot of jobs, i look to serve the people if we dont have a healthy debate or discussion is solution, we need to engage, the public needs to engage in the politicians need to step up and deliver real results in Real Solutions because we have a lot of people hurting and i think that is unacceptable to everyone is catering right now to a lot of big special interest for whole of washington to see but the solution needs to be on the ground with the people like to. Expressed supports for immigration what your opinionn border wall. I found someone who is illegal immigrant that took me six years to get my citizenship, i understand the immigration system needs a reform and i also understand and as Milton Freedman said, you cannot have open borders in a welfare state, you have to understand we need to protect the borders, we need to have good integration system that provides ways for people to immigrate legally but secure our borders, National Security issues, and we are going to help people around the world with their freedom to be successful but there will have to beng some country, we will have to protect her people and i think thats a tiry important issue, National Democrats want to serve people from other countries that haveot come here legally but we have issues and need to help our people and then promote this democracy around the world, i think we have to remember that. Christina hale what is your position on immigration and border wall. We need strong borders, my grandmother came hear from cuba as a very little girl with nothing in your pocket either and ive seen how this country helps her to achieve the American Dream and ill tell you we have a number of issuessu including the wall, lets not forget that most people overstay their visas after flying intercountry most of the drugs coming intercountry, from the miles and miles