Tom harkin. They have woken up to a whole that shows joni k. Ernst leading with 44 . We will dig deeper into those poll numbers. A little bit of housekeeping. Our format will change. Toincludes a chance for you tweak us your questions to ask the candidates. Iadebate. Uld use each candidate will get 90 seconds. Our coin toss determined that bruce braley will go first. Thank you for moderating tonight. I want to thank the Des Moines Register and kccitv. I want to thank the viewing audience here. Thank you, senators. I am bruce braley. I grew up in a workingclass home in a small farm town. My mom is a schoolteacher. Elevatorn a grain before dying. For the Des Moines Register. I got my first job in the third grade grade i worked a lot of different jobs to pay my way through law school. Wife and we have been together for 30 years. Senatenning for the because i am going to stand up for eyewitness, which is what ive been doing 30 years. I will work with anyone who has a good idea that is good for iweb. I am a bridge builder. This election is about a clear forward ort moving following a radical tea party agenda. On issue after issue, senator ani k. Ernst has stood with extreme agenda. Bill and thefarm renewable deal standard. Im here tonight to listen, learn, to share my views, and ask for your vote. Thank you. Thank you ver i would like to thank our hosts. I am joni k. Ernst. I am a mother. I am a soldier. Im someone who cares deeply. I believe washington is taking her country in the wrong direction. Years, past eight congressman bruce braley has been their voting with nancy pelosi, higher taxes, bigger government, wall street bailout, obamacare. This is his record. He cant defend it so he is running a negative campaign. Washington has failed. I believe in the iowa way. Iselieve that you know what best for iweb, more than politicians and washington, d. C. Our workingclass families deserve better. I will plu fight hard. Our generation has worked hard for our american dream. As your you next United States senator, i will fight washington to make sure more americans can achieve that dream. Thank you for your opening remarks. We will move on to the questions. Eachis particular section, candidate will have one minute 15 seconds to ask answer questions. There will be a chance for a rebuttal. Joni k. Ernst receives a first question. Lets talk about some of the negative things that have been raised in the that you mentioned. Voters if report ask verys criticisms against the two of you were a big problem, a little problem, or not a from it all. Problem tois a privatize Social Security as a option. What would you like to say to those voters . I will fight to protect Social Security and medicare for our seniors. Promises thated have been made to those receiving those benefits. We have to honor those promises. Anyone that is on retirement, Social Security, medicare, and those nearing retirement, we have to keep those benefits. That promise has been made. We have to acknowledge that there is a problem with Social Security and medicare. Within 20 years, the system will be broke. We have to address those problems. We need to look at many options out there. I have not endorsed one option over another, but we need to come together in a bipartisan manner to solve these issues. Hasressman bruce braley been a for eight years, but we have not seen any resolution. Every two years it comes up as a campaign talking point, and yet we are no further down the line. We need to protect our seniors. Thank you. 66 of likely voters say it you havelem that missed a large percentage of the Congressional Committee hearings. What is your response . If people want to know my true record, they can go to my website. It lays out all the things that i have done for veterans and eight years. One of the things that i have have helped i members of the Iowa National guard. I also helped a young man in dubuque who was a Wounded Warrior not able to stay in his home and had applied for a benefit and was denied. I help them get that. His nameced a bill in so other Wounded Warriors can stay in her home. 400 iowa helped over veterans with disability claims. I have helped women in the ifitary get more protection they are the victims of Sexual Assault and domestic abuse. If you look at my record, you will see that this is very personal to me. My father was a world war ii. Ombat veteran he brought the wounds from that war home. I have been there for veterans. Theve made 90 consent of votes at the v. A. Hearings. I cry for them today great with move on to another question. Social security. To agree that in 20 years, Social Security will no longer be able to pay the benefits. What can you say tonight that will protect Social Security, not only for those who are seniors are close to becoming eligible, but what about the people in their 30s or 40s or 50s who were needed after 2033 and beyond. What about some of the people in this audience here who are seniors in college, maybe twentysomethings. A Social Security is based on solemn promise. If you work hard and pay into it, it will be there for you when you need it. That is why i have a fourpoint plan to strengthen Social Security. It includes raising the minimum wage, giving 300,000 iowa citizens a pay raise. Also need to expand our economy by investing in infrastructure. Our manufacturing base, and get people off unemployment and pay into Social Security, which will be another great thing. Let me make this perfectly clear. He privatizing Social Security is not an option for me. Senator ernst has says that it is an option for her. Privatizing is that protecting Social Security and its not protecting people of iowa. Is a Retirement Plan for wall Street Investment bankers. Term sacredhe promise. And you have repeatedly said that you want to protect our seniors, but what about the twentysomethings and thirtysomethings. . Yes, you are correct. It is a sacred promise. One thing that i have stated when it comes to Social Security is that we should not raise the retirement age. People work very hard throughout their lifetimes and put into the Social Security fund, and they expect to have those dollars here for when they are retiring. For our younger workers, we need to make sure that they know that they are retiring at a certain age. We have to preserve and protect it. What the congressman is proposing, by raising the minimum wage, is not an answer. That is less than 1 of our annual Social Security spending. It is not shoring up the system in the long term. We have to come up with other options to put on the table. We have to make sure we are working in a bipartisan manner so that these young people, after getting out of college and working their lives, know that Social Security will be there for them. Is there rebuttal . Retirement age is not an option. Not only because it imposes a burden people like nurses and construction workers on their feet all day, but because it is not fair to put the burden of continuing these programs on those workers. , i only have i said that voted that way. In fact, in the last four years, not tovoted four times raise the retirement age on Social Security and medicare. Thank you. Again, raising the minimum wage is not the answer to shore up the system. We need to look at our our economy. What we have done here in iowa, by lowering taxes, balancing our we have a growing economy with 150,000 new jobs. Those are good paying jobs. Those are workers that will contribute to our Social Security system. Thank you. Lets move on. What do you think is the greatest threat facing the United States today . What should we do about it . There are a number of threats. Isil they must be stopped. Served in thes military for 22 years, i am a combat veteran. My moods have been on the ground in iraq. I will stand with our troops and making sure that we think through our actions carefully. I do have a number of criteria put in place whenever i would consider military action. The first is that we know there is a credible threat, actionable intelligence. Second, do we have a clearly defined mission, and we have the resources necessary to support that mission. Third, once that mission has been accomplished, what is the withdrawal land to bring our men and women home . Are we going to support them when we bring them home . Braley, when we were engaged in iraq and it in a stand and afghanistan, he funded voted twice to defund our troops. L is thegree that isi greatest threat . Lastt me respond to that point. The people of iowa know that i made it clear and those votes that i was voting to make sure that we were ending our in iraq,ng involvement not to penalize the men and women serving our country so bravely. I made that statement on the floor because it is important to me. I agree with senator ernst that the rise of terrorism is the greatest threat we face as a country. I also agree with those four criteria she laid out, because another important criterion that general pal made as part of that risked assessment is making sure that the American People understand that importance and are supportive of why we are men and womenave all to work late i recently had the opportunity to vote to get the president give the president limited authority to begin strikes against those in syria and iraq. Isis is a threat that must be stopped. Anytime american citizens are attacked by a terrorist group, they need to be brought to justice or to the grave. , andis what is happening that is what we will continue to do. Allowld you have voted to that attack to go forward . What criteria would you put in place to decide whether to continue that beyond the limit . The criteria that i have laid out previously is what i would use as we move through the process to determine if further action is needed. I would use the same criteria. Will support our men and women in uniform. Unfortunately, congressman braley, when he had a present for was not 75 of congressional hearings. He couldve done something. We will give you a few minutes to respond. She is referring to, i was reading an honor flight. A 90 minute Veterans Affairs hearing that same day great i went to a classified raising because i care about what is happening to our men and women overseas. Those are what you can learn if you go to my website. You will learn the true story about what i have done to fight for veterans. We need to make sure that every time we honor our veterans it is in a way that is honoring their service. We will move along. We will want to hear from you about Affordable Care. It is the law of the land, as you know. There have been some reports that show it has even reduced medical costs and some states that have expanded the medicaid eligibility. Tell us what you like and dislike about obamacare . What can the government do to hold down Health Care Costs . This is an issue where there is a clear difference. I think that the Affordable Health care act needs to be fixed and improved. Would repeal it and continue to obstruct efforts to improve it. Thate made it a clear there were problems with the rollout that needed to be fixed. I voted to allow people to continue to keep their policies during that. It when we are making the transition. There has been some significant, positive things that have happened in iowa. We can go back to where we were before. I was citizens were able to get health care because we expanded access. Over 130,000 citizens now have access that they did not have before. Seniors are seeing their prescription costs drop. We are closing the donut hole. I have a nephew who was diagnosed with liver cancer, and he would not have been able to get coverage because it was a preexisting condition. Now his parents do not have to worry about that. Eliminated and prevented discrimination for women in healthcare coverage. We need to continue to fix what is wrong and improve the affordable air act. We cannot go backwards. Every iowa citizen deserves access. Obamacare is not the answer. Is, it has done in iowa first, we are seeing that it costs jobs. Off fromons were laid a hospital. Layoffs continue. On then increased tax people of iowa and americans great 1. 2 trillion. It is taking the personal Health Care Decision out of our hands and placing them in the hands of bureaucrats. 716 billionut from medicare that are seniors rely on. I dont agree. This is something we will continue to disagree on. I believe that we need to have patience patientcentered care. We do that by allowing insurance agencies to sell products across state lines, allowing tax credits. There are a number of ways that we can provide good insurance. Saidst in terms of what he , he said there were elements that needed to be fixed. What needs to be fixed . What is broken . One of the things we did is addressed a problem that was creating hardships for Small Businesses. We eliminate that hardship by mason making it easier to deal with the paperwork. One of the things that senator ernst mention is that the people not receive a cut because of the Affordable Care act. We cut wasteful spending out of the system. There is a big difference. The Cedar Rapids Gazette looked at that claim and declared that it was false. Notfits to seniors have changed. In fact, because of the Affordable Health care act, medical solvency has been extended or a number of years. Terms of the lowest number of people who dont have access to health insurance. That is something we should be proud of. That resulted because of a bipartisan effort to get a waiver to expand access. You have something to say . When it comes to the medicare costs, the congressman has stated that he did every page of that bill. That he would not change a thing with that bill. However, we do see there are a number of changes that have been made or delays that he has supported. 716it comes to that billion in medicare costs, that was a number that comes from the congressional budget office. Maybe you just need to walk down the hall and visited with them to see if that is accurate or not. Lets move on. Turning to the economy. The two things we hear most is that it benefits businesses and high income americans that the expectation that they will create more and better jobs, yet middle income americans spend more and stimulate the economy. Which one of these works better . When it comes the economy, i have my own way. It is exactly what we have done here and i were. The iowa way is working. That i havees implemented the first is by lowering taxes on all iowans. We have the largest tax cut in iowa history, 4. 4 billion dollars to i would taxpayers. We have balanced the budget. Because of these great policies that we have put into place, the iowa economy is booming. We have been able to create 150,000 new jobs in iowa. Unemployment is down from over 6 to 4. 5 in iowa. That means more of our neighbors and friends are going to work in providing for their families every day. If you look at the congressmans failed he is supporting policies, higher taxes, more job killing growth regulation, and that is why unemployment has gone up. Which of the purchase do you think works best of the approaches you think works best . Job forost important the next senator is to fight for workingclass families. If 300,000 islands would get a pay raise by simply increasing the minimum wage to 10 and . 10 an hour that tells me a lot of iowans are missing out on this booming economy. She not only wants to not support raising the minimum wage , she wants to repeal the federal minimum wage, and she does not want to raise the statement among wage. That means that these iowans will continue to be left out by of this recovery. I think it is important to focus on job creation that will benefit iowans and not wall Street Investment bankers. The land she has laid out consistently does that. ,rivatizing Social Security talking about an Investment Strategy that is not going to create the types of jobs we need. We need to invest in our infrastructure. We need to invest in our manufacturing base, because that is what is going to create jobs in iowa and condiment our economy. Every dollar we invest in infrastructure increases the national gdp by 1. 60. Thank you. I expect you want to respond. Yes. I grew up working minimumwage jobs. I understand and believe that we need a minimum wage. I believe that can support that. However, i believe that needs to be set by the state, because what is good for iowa is not necessarily what is right for california or new york. I do believe that the states need to set that. To respond to that . 60 of iowans who would get a pay raise by raising the minimum them are over the age of 30, many of them have children and are depending on the jobs. That is why my promise is to go to washington, raise the minimum wage. Senator ernst is not think that minimum wages or problem. My promise is that it is your priority. Thank you. , lets talk wages taxes. Everyone can agree that something needs to be done to simple by the tax code. What do you say should be done . What deductions should be eliminated . What simplifications could be implement it . Implemented . Should the taxi flat or flatter . Do you think the tax burdens should be shifted . I brought in a Nonpartisan Group called the concorde coalition to have townhall meetings so that we could talk about how the federal government raises money and spends money. If you ask everybody in the room , how many of you thinks the tax code needs to be simplified, every hand