That density is contained in a relatively small area. The seventh district is on the east side of the pink area, and it includes lakewood, aurora and the changing not per september tibble on the map but the people represent thread were previously in district two. Democratic congressmen Ed Perlmutter has held the seat for six years and is a lifelong resident of Jefferson County and an attorney. This year, business man joe coors is the republican challenger. He retired of coors tech. Every race this year its about the economy. Lets talk first about the fiscal cliff, a combination of tax hikes and huge across the board spending cuts which will take effect in january unless some kind of compromise is reached. The Tax Implications are stark. A family with indianapolis the 110 to 140,000 range will see an increase in their tax bill of about 6,000. Mr. Kouz, even if you would win you would not be in place before any deals that might be made by the end of the year, but if you will, please, talk about the specific compromises you would be willing to make and youd like to see made to avoid the fiscal cliff. Thank you, sin thea. First to start off with, as i walk around the district and talk to Small Businesses, theyre absolutely scared to death of whats going to happen on jap 1st january 1st if something isnt done. If the kurt rates are ahowed to expire, one million Small Business owners will be faced with an incredible tax increase. And its statemented by ernst and young and by the National Federation of independent businesses, that up to 700,000 to a million and a half jobs would be lost as a result of this, because who is going to pay for the extra taxes that fall upon the one million voters. One million owners. So my idea of a compromise would be to extend the current tax rates. Nobody gets hurt in a deal like that. And everybody wins. To me its a winwin deal, and id be willing to compromise back to five years, if that would be necessary, and i think, even given five years, that Congress Might be able to do something. Part of the robe congress put this in place, this cliff, was to because there is certainly feeling the bush tax cuts should not be continued. You are going to be involved in the fray on this, congressman. What do you see . Is it possible to leave things just as they are . I think we got to understand how we got here, and so at the end of the clinton administration, we had a surplus, revenues exceeded expenses. And then under george bush we had two major tax cuts. That cost the country 2 trillion. We had two wars that we didnt pay for. Theyre on a credit card. Thats a couple trillion dollars and then a deregulated wall street that ran amok and has cost the country, but three and a half trillion dollars. So half of the nations debt comes from those three things. It doesnt come from nih grants or education, doesnt come from transportation, and it doesnt come from pbs or big bird and sesame street. But what we face is a major debt that we have to figure out how to pay. And im part of a bipartisan group, democrats democrats and republicans, had have come up with a simpsonbowles legislation, that says for businesses and families and in the nation you have to have revenue and expense. So you need to have revenue and manage expenses in this particular instance, so that we can in a businesslike way, over a tenyear period, reduce the nations debt, and so i believe, and i hope that after this election, there will be in the lame duck period a bipartisan group, both in the senate and the house, that will get together and come up with Something Like simpsonbowles, which doesnt take us off a fiscal cliff on january 1st january 1st but provides us with a bipartisan tenyear Business Plan that reduces the nations deficit by 4 trillion. I think that group youre referring to that youre part of now is 38 people. It would have to grow. Yeah. Were called the brave 38, by u. S. A. Today, and the post we have to do this in a bipartisan fashion. If we dent Work Together, democrats and republicans, woe went get to this done. And theres a lot at stake and you mentioned nat your opening. The simpsonbowles commission was the commission on the deficit which had ban ban people running it and bipartisan support but never came before the congress. Are you in fav of simpsonbowles, the thing is it calls for to settle this problem . No. None of it . Theres some things. I would like to point out that simple sole bowls was not adopted by even the float United States, was not deposit by the senate, and they brave 38 were left holding the bag. The biggest reason im not in favor of simpsonbowles is because it embraces obamacare. I think obamacare is a horrible disaster financially to this country. Id like to respond. I think one of the the main reason that joe doesnt embrace simpsonbowles is because it recognizes we need additional revenue in this country, not just cutting different programs, whether its big bird and sesame street or some transportation projects or those kinds of things. You have to have both sides of the ledger. You have to look at both things. The revenue and the expense. If we want to make a dent in our debt. And its just Wishful Thinking on his part to say, lets just keep these tax cuts that generally benefit the wealthiest people in the country, without and just keep those going forever and let just start cutting things. Thats not we need the services that we have, whether its fire grants or education, building schools, transportation, those kindses of things improve think we need a businesslike plan that takes us out ten years that really takes us away from the fiscal cliff and does this in a moderated sort of way, where nothing is sacred. Everything is on the table. Both on the revenue side as well as the expense side. Is there a formula in your mind for much three dollars in spending cuts and one dollar in revenue, Something Like that, that will put is on the right path . Well, for me, its, lets see how the deals develop, but i think its probably i think simpsonbowles was, for every dollar in revenue, it was two and a half to three dollars in expense cuts. And looking at all kinds of things from defense to health care to interior department. So everything is on the table. I think thats how we have to look at this. Even though most of those things didnt create this major debt that the country has incurred over the last ten years, we are where we are and just have to get busy and get on it. Do you disagree about the fact that more revenue is going to be necessary to straighten this out . The source of the revenue. The United States is the strongest economic power in the world because of Small Business and the backbone of this country is Small Business, operating in a Free Enterprise environment if we can get the government out of the way. Put certainty back in the taxes, well accomplish that hasnt been accomplished for the last four years that gives the Small Business sector of the United States, from growing ahead ammunition to really ignite this countrys economy. Why do you think Small Business has not performed in terms of job creation for the past four years . Is it strictly the recession . Well, yeah. We had a major recession, something we hadnt faced since the 30s. And so those companies are beginning to grow now. Beginning to see unemployment drop today. We heard recently we heard that unemployment has dropped to 7. 8 , and so we are making inroads and Small Businesseses are starting up see. In colorado construction is up. Home prices are coming back up. So were on the right track and Small Businesses will start forming and continue to form and will really put a lot of people back to work, and thats my goal, too. I think we both share that same bowl, but at the same time, we need we dont want to go off this fiscal cliff, and we need to have a reasonable Business Plan that understands that its both revenue and expense. You cant just cut your way out of this situation. Since you brought up obamacare, last week in the first president ial debate, mitt romney talked about obamacare as well. There are certainly plenty of parts of it that he seems to embrace. Is it necessary to repeal the whole thing . Dont you lose a lot you have to put back in place . Ill start with obamacare in its entirety. Its going to add 1. 7 trillion to the cost of government over the next ten years. It creates 158 new agencies and programs. Creates independent Advisory Board which is going tell wharf they can do and what kind of services they can get and those things are wrong. Now, the part i would extend my whole platform would be i call it tip. We need tort reform because malpractice insurance is some of the biggest costses for private practice, Health Care Private practice. We need to interstate competition. We need portability. You got be able to take one plan with you. And we need to protect the preexisting conditions. Congressman, let me ask you to react. The two points he just brought up are already in obamacare. Theres a Pilot Project on tort reform. The opportunity to take things across interstate lines, but really, the purpose and the main reason i support the Affordable Care act, or obamacare, is i it does away with discrimination of people who have prior illnesses or prior Health Conditions from injuries or the like, and thats huge so that insurance an Insurance Company cant deny you because you have been sick before. And thats a huge step forward in terms of civil rights for this country. Seldly, secondly, it allows young people to stay on their parents policy since 26 and thats important for lots and lots of families. A couple million families. It helps close the doughnut hole that george bush created in his medicare approach. So it helps close that doughnut hole. And one of the most important things is it expand Womens Health choices. And so i think id like to see obamacare maintained. There are always ways to refine and improve anything. Can you give me one example . Whats something you would change or refine . One of the things we already worked on there was a Additional Charge to Small Businesses over 600, and we modified that early on so that the whole bill would be improved. I think the we want to take a look at some of the delivery services, because what this is all about is the cost of health care generally. And so a part of what we want to do is make sure that administrative costs are reasonable across the board and we want to continue to do that through the Affordable Care act. Can i add one more thing . Sure. That is that the obamacare takes 716 billion out of medicare, puts it into obamacare, leaving seniors with less than theyve been promised, and we need to protect a figure everyone knows is out there. We need to set the record straight on that one. The 716 billion of savings is over a tenyear period, and that savings is placed back into the medicare system so that the medicare system is prolonged. And so there arent any benefits cut. Theres nothing like that. And so when joe says that, its just in error. I know we could go on and on with that in terms of what president obama and mitt romney have said about it as well. Let me switch to something that we arent seeing talked about everywhere in congressional races and that is gun violence. Our own experience in july with the aurora theater shootings, and then several subsequent Mass Shootings in wisconsin and minnesota and elsewhere. There really is a cry out there on the part of some people saying, congress should do more than offer condolences. It should be making some actual changes in how and what people can access in this country. What is it that you would get behind in that way . Well, july 20th was a very sad day for our country and certainly for our city, and the metropolitan area. Aurora will never be the same after that mass killing, and ive had a chance to meet with the families of some of the some of those who were killed. Ive met with others who have been wounded. I met with the medical teams and law enforcement. For me this is very personal issue, and so on one side of the district you have columbine, where you had a terrible tragedy 13 or so years ago, and then a couple months ago, three months ago in aurora. So, for me, the subject of crowd control, public health, coming from these Mass Shootings, is something that we just have to deal with, and the most commonsense approaches that can be taken to avoid some of these mass killings, and banning assault weapons . Well, you look at the old assault weapons act that expired a couple years ago. That needs to be reviewed. Two, that im part of now, one is to require so right now if you want to buy a firearm, you have to buy it from a licensed firearm dealer, facetoface, but you can buy ammunition over the internet or through mail order. So one bill im cosponsoring requires you have to buy ammunition from a licensed firearm dealer. You have to do it facetoface. And another is the weapons this guy holmes had, had extend magazines, 100 round drum on his assault rifle. Extended magazines on hand guns, and so another bill is to reduce and not have these extended magazines because it allows it to become like a submachine gun, and rammedly get off lots of rounds of ammunition. So somebody who wants to defend their person or wants to hunt doesnt need these 100 round magazines. And so that is exactly what i was about to say to you, that certainly in these mass shooting cases they may be individual cases but without the kind of ammunition and certain weapons that were available, they might not have happened. You support, if i understand correctly, no changes . No changes. We need to enforce the laws already on the books better. I go back to i cant imagine the grief of the people, all the people affect by this incredible, heinous act by a mad man. I also believe that you cant do anything to ban enough to create enough laws to keep criminals from getting the weapons to carry out these heinous deeds. Does it make sense to not be able to purchase something online without a facetofairs contact . Could you get hip that . That you have to buy your weapon and ammunitions from a licensed dealer . I support what the governor said. There are not enough laws to keep people from doing things they do. If they want to get them illegally, they will get them illegally. Joe mentioned the Mental Health aspects and thats something i think we need to continue to investigate to make sure that people who do have weapons, really are of sound mind, and so i think thats a place where there would be some common ground. Is that part of certainly are looking at different kinds of Mental Health approaches to who has weapons and the like. So, make sure that if somebody has Mental Health insures, that information is available to dealers so why know who is buying weapons or ammunition from them. I want to get a comment from each of you on the ad youre running, and each of you have called the others ad dishonest or baseless. Im going to start with you, mr. Coors, could you quickly describe the ad you have which tries to connect congressman perlmutter to solyndra . Well, solyndra, as you know, has been a horrible example of government picking winners and losers at the expense of taxpayers. But well start at the beginning. Congressman perlmutter, did go to washington, dc. This thenwife was a lobbiest for solyndra who got paid 145,000. But at that time she was no longer married to congressman perlmatter. Congressman made a clear promise he would not allow his wife, or to allow either his office or the u. S. House of representatives, and within three months that promise was broken. Will you give us your reaction to that criticism . Yes, i will. Do you have one that came in the newspaper . Right. What i have here is the editorial response by the denver post to joes ads. And its a shame our families have known each other for a long time, but this ad was over the top in the denver post describes it as despicable, deceitful, and desperate. And its a shame that theyre running that ad, and as the post said, he should be embarrassed. The coors campaign is attacking the one youre running in which you imply there was outsourcing of jobs from coorss and theres a korean man who is a star in the ad who is actually a longtime employee here in district seven. What are you trying to accomplish there . Well, what occurred is coors tech outshoressed jobs to korea, to south korea, and also to mexico, and i believe we want to be making things here in americanot outsourcing jobs. We want to employ folks here in our country and not elsewhere, and so the picture is one that came from the coors tech web site about their facility in south korea, and there has been i know that joe has complained about it, but just from their own investor statements, our facility in korea, quote, allows us to manufacture lowcost product in asia for our u. S. Customers and in order to enhance profits the company is transferring certain labor intensative, high volume component manufacturing to sore sew know a, mexico, and finallily his brother said were pleased with our record third quarter, were benefiting from the outsourcing trend. So these are statements being made to his investors, and i believe if we make things here in america, we should be encouraging things like the production tax credit, the wind, Energy Production tax credit, which then brings manufacturers to america and to our area. Short answer. Tell me why you object to these statements that are made . There . Congressman doesnt understand what it takes to run a business globally. I can sit here and tell you facetoface that absolutely no jobs were lost in america because of our de