Spoke with reporters on his policy agenda. Good morning, everyone good morning, everybody good morning, everyone we have a mic. My name is neil, the executive director and i want to welcome to the nhlp. I know its a quiet season and many of you havent been here recently. Oh, thats the end of my jokes if youre not laughing. Neil here, you can use this one. Ill lend it to you. Glad were all participating in it but i do want to go ahead and get started. So i want to introduce republican president ial congressman Vivek Ramaswamy and ro khanna from california. We are asking the participants to solve middle east peace, give their guardrails for a. I. Or solve Social Security in 45 seconds or less. And if i may, we are also going to have a chance to be serious for once and flush out some issues. So honor their commitment to do Something Different and better, im going to make my own similar lar commitment as a moderator today. There will be no process questions. No political horse race questions. No got you questions and i will not make a single question or reference to donald trump. You may, thats fine, but i wont. I want to go quickly how this hour will proceed. Thighs these gentlemen have identified five topics they want to discuss. The economy, foreign affairs, political reform, Climate Change and the future of america. Were going to stay roughly 10 minutes with specific questions for me. At the beginning of thunderstorm watch segment, im going to ask one question to one person and theyre going give about a minute answer because i want to get to the back and forth. And then the same person gets the same question. And as to that, theres an issue, they can issue with what mr. Khanna said or back and forth. I will also ask an opening and closing question. During this procedure in the next hour, you may see a timekeeper, caroline. Shes going to try to keep us on track to get to as many issues as possible. So with that, you heard, were going to try to keep applause to a minimum during this debate. So for once, could we just give a round of applause for these two gentlemen for doing that . [applause] very good. Lets get that out of our system. All right. Opening question. Were going to go to you, mr. Congressman khanna. You guys want to go big. So im going to go as big as possible to start this off. What is the most important thing going on right now either in america or the world and why . First, james, let me just say why were here. You know, to recognize were going back and forth on twitter, exchange some barbs on identity, race, Foreign Policy, and i thought instead of just trying to score rhetorical scores online, why not have a civil discussion about the future of someone in america that we disagree with . And james, i appreciate you doing this. Youre one of the best political journalists. Its great to be here. I think i just set a new honest about one thing. I want to stop getting confused at airports for you. [laughter] and im hoping that will clear that up. James is it a different place . And i will give credit for him to come here where were doing our time as well. I appreciate that. In seriousness, heres my hope. Someone said what do you want out of it . I said why cant we do this in living rooms across america where you can have a civil conversation with someone you disagree with, you you can see where theyre coming from, where you can see their Common Ground to find a way forward. You say what is the Biggest Issue coming out of america . Its our inability to listen to each other. Its our inability to find Common Ground to move forward. I hope this type of conversation is a model for going forward. I would be remiss if i didnt say what i think is the biggest single miss but i dont think leaders in either Political Parties are talking about and should be. I am deeply concerned that we are in a serious conflict that we have become complacent about that that cant happen. Its slowly happening before our own eyes and we need a commanderinchief who is expressly committed to keeping us out of world war iii to avoid making some of the mistakes we made in the post9 11 era with iraq and afghanistan. James the first segment is on the economy. This question is for you. When we talk about when we talk about different ways of measure negative economy, there are a million different ways you can use. The unemployment rate, with the dollar stands, average income, inequalitily gaps, g. D. P. What is the single most important metric you use to figure out how the economys going . Rep. Ramaswamy well, ill make it very simple heres whats wrong with the economy. You get a lot of statistics from the white house that will try to teach you that were doing great in terms of the economy and bidenomics has been a success. Prices are going up. Interest rates that include Mortgage Rates to buy a new home or otherwise. Theyre going up and rages have remain flat. What do you do to address it . Its not that complicated. Increase the supply of everything thats worth producing in the United States. Increase the supply of energy, drills, fracks, nuke energy that brings costs down and drives economic growth. Bring housing costs down by increasing the supply of energy so people can build more new homes, bring the price of housing down. Same thing with respect to food. And the net result is going to be net result. Those regulations coming have constrained the production of energy, the production of food, thats driving prices up. Its constraining economic growth. We know how to do this. The climate agenda or elsewhere but the clear problem is high prices, high Interest Rates, stagnant wages. Get the regulatory state out of the way. Take the wet blanket off that economy. Stop paying people more money to stay at home instead go to work. And the ultimate depressing factor here against the structural issue is the 33 trillion National Debt. The Interest Rates on that National Debt are going become the single largest line item in just a few years. And in this case, we need to bring zero base budgeting. I dont know where you are on this. Start with not last years budget, start with zero as the baseline and then ask whats necessarily necessary. C. E. O. s like me, thats how we run our businesses. That gets us out of our economic malais and people tend to be proud of the country. James whats the biggest metric for you . Rep. Khanna the working class and the middle class doing better . But first, lets talk about the success of this president. Its subjective process. You have 13 million jobs created, which is the largest ever in any administration. Im glad they were recovered. Yes, 70 of those jobs were recovered within two and a half years and that was because of the American Rescue plan. But because were having a disagreement, identify areas where vivek and i disagree what i call economic patriotism. They have been hollowed out in north country, in manchester, we lost textile mills. We lost factories, we lost steel. Why did that happen . Its because other governments were willing to fight for those jobs. They were willing to say we are going to put money in with the private sector and labor to build industry thats how we built america, with hamilton, with lincoln, with f. D. R. Thats what were going the chip sec. Thats how were getting semiconductors back into ohio. For republicans, some of the views weve adopted, they see any problem and they say lets cut taxes lets deregulate. How is that put the steel plant up in johnstown, pennsylvania, by cutting taxes and deregulation . It hasnt happened in 40 years. The deficit was caused by three things. By reagans tax cuts, bushs tax cuts and trumps tax cuts. Take that back. Start investing in american industry and thats whats going to have broader economic growth. Thats what i call economic patriotism. I love patriotism. So were not going to have patriotism if we dont have a vision for economic empowerment. If we dont have a vision for people who dont have Health Care Get health care. Where people have a shot at the American Dream. Just saying lets study the founders, lets ophelia to rhetorics isnt going to give us a point. Rep. Ramaswamy i do think that for somebody and we have this in common who is opposed to term limit, it is regrettable to be carrying the water of joe biden when Everyday Americans know theyre suffering at the hands of policies that came from this administration. I know you said you opposed fracking. I dont think the constraints Everyday Americans. Its constraining our economy. That is whats driving inflation. The sector with the greatest growth in jobs is none other than government. So this is not actually driven by increases in productivity. Its taping over a bandaid and yes, i do agree. We need to stay out of foreign wars. 7 trillion of our National Debt are attributable just to iraq and afghanistan. That is a disaster and i for one because i dont come from partisan policy have no problem dashing my own party when theyre responsible for it. And we come around to supporting the same thing all over again and in afghanistan, 2. 0 in the middle east and were about to make those same mistakes again. Heres our economic malais, address it without those partisan felters and thats going to taking a c. E. O. To accomplish that. James we are running overtime for the first 10 minutes. I do want to do one more question though. Because you obviously both really disagree on this idea and i want to get into it. What are your proposals in the campaign. Ill ask you this, ro congressman khanna, is to cut the federal bureaucracy by 75 staff model. Rep. Khanna yes. James why . Rep. Khanna its a horrible idea because you need it to be able to build. Thats how were building the semiconductor industry. They said a couple vivek said if you want to reverse the deficit, reverse the bush tax cuts, reverse the reagan tax cuts the second point is on economic growth. The growth that were going to get is by investing in our people and investing in our working class. Its not by cutting the department of education you cut the department of education here and look at the impact on Public Schools in New Hampshire with already those relying so deeply on funding for the department of education. You cut the department of education and what are you going tell the kids who gets some funding for Public College or apprenticeship that already costs too much . Let me just finish this which ive never understood. Youre a thoughtful guy with great education. I never understood the obsession on fossil fuels and heres my point. It would be like someone saying i love the risk watch. Dont give me a wristwatch. Dont give me a smartwatch. I love the flip phone. Dont give me a smartphone. New hampshire pays 70 more on its electricity bill than any other new england state. You know why . The reason why you guys pay 70 more is because you get more of your energy from natural gas. And you dont sit on natural gas. You got to ship it all the way. If you had solar and wind, it would be cheaper. It would be saving New Hampshires money. Why not evaluate money on its impact. Use it. No ones saying dont use any fossil fuels. I grew up here. Rep. Ramaswamy i want to the Administrative State point. To the fundamental education, you have a point to decide. 80 billion of our taxpayer money is going a agency when federal education is we need to shut that down and return the 80 billion back to parents and states across this country. So every child and every parent is able to choose where they go to school. Now, i Favor School Choice on steroids. Heres the dirty little secret on education. How about this one. If youre switching from a poorer performing school to a better performing school, 90 of a time, that is to a school that spends less money per student. I think every kid and every parent should be able to take half the difference with them. That kid graduates from high school with a 250,000 graduation gift. Its not even close, which is a better head start then American Dream rather than feed the Teachers Union bureaucracy or feed the federal employees union in washington, d. C. So they should run the government not the bureaucrats. Were going to cut 75 . Rep. Khanna im a product of Public Education and 90 of kids go to Public Education. Theres only one thing i would ask people here to read. It is from jackson he did a study. It refuted the coleman report where he showed the more you fund Public Education, the more it increases test scores, the more it increases wages. Its so obvious that we want to fund Public Education. I was surprised someone had to study about it. But you do it and you do it in a way that is going to invest in our country. If we want to beat china and were not investing in education, we got an 800 billion james thank you for that. Foreign affairs is next. Ok. This question is for congressman khanna. Some doctrines, we can put on a bumper sticker. Obamas pivot to asia. America first. Didnt say his name. Rep. Ramaswamy George Washington would be his name. James fair enough. Ok. Congressman, you were to simplify your vision of American Foreign policy in a bumper sticker, what would it be . Rep. Khanna responsible engagement. And i will tell you where vivek and i differ. I started my political care running against the iraq war. I got crushed. I was the first antiiraq war primary. I opposed the extended stay in afghanistan. I opposed the strike to libya. I am not for overseas militarily that dont make sense in our strategic interest. And i love what bernie san, the effort on the war powers to stop the bobbling. Bombing. But that does not mean that we should not be involved. We need two involved need to be involved in that. James bumper sticker. Rep. Ramaswamy American Interest heres the answer. I have one a moral obligation as a father and to my two sons to my family. Have one a moral obligation as the next president and is to the citizens here in our homemade home planned period. We study history. World war i. Major conflict across the world that killed millions upon millions. So my view is that we agree on staying out of iraq or an extended stay in afghanistan but so many of the democrats and also republicans who may have agreed to that in the past are now marching us into those same conflicts just because russias bad does not mean that ukraine is good. Russian speaking regions that are occupied. Either you believe in democracy or you dont. In the middle east, i worry about another conflict with u. S. Presence. Our top enemy is communist china. So so much my Foreign Policy in a nutshell. What reagan said about the ussr. We win, they lose. That dilute ours focus on what actually threatens the american homeland. Avoid world war iii, declare independence from china and protect the homeland in the u. S. From border defenses to cyber to missile defenses. Thats what were missing and thats where my focus would be. Rep. Khanna i dont want to be like nikki haley and just put you down in some way. I want to engage you to try to understand convince my point of view. Americans interest requires American Leadership. I believe youre sincere about not wanting china to win. You know, i ask to meet with our c. I. A. Director. And i know you dont love the agency. Williamsburg is respected across the aisle. The biggest deterrent in china is whats happening in ukraine can. You want us to win and prevent china from saiding taiwan, we need to make sure that ukraine isnt gobbled up by putin. Now rep. Ramaswamy i did let you get away with that. Rep. Khanna i want you to respond because this is a deep difference and i want to engage instead of just saying someone doesnt know Foreign Policy. Here is the point on ukraine. If you allow putin to take some of ukraine, what are we going to do . Should we sarajevo ping take some of taiwan . Of course not. But you have to look at the condition that were there where nixon did that. The soviet union had 39 battalions on kinds border. They had a border war in rep. Ramaswamy i know history. Rep. Khanna there was a totally different concept. Right now, youve got putin saying that gigi ping ping, the idea is that chinas depending on putin for energy and the idea that appeasing putin by giving up ukraine is going to get him out of the China Alliance go to the United States is just not realistic. Rep. Ramaswamy so heres where i think it takes an outsider. Heres how were paving for china to go after taiwan. Put yourself in pings shoes. Russia and china are in a military alliance with one another. Russia has greater nuke capabilities nuclear capabilities. Let me finish. This is an issue i know a lot about. A 2001 treaty of cooperation. They have a no limits partnership running joint exercises today. Back to the point. Pings bet right now is that the u. S. Wont want to go to war with two allied nucleared superpower at the same time. And ping will have to think twice before he goes after taiwan. So my view is that we can use the end of the ukraine war as a chance to do what we should have done long ago, pull russia apart from china, say that n. C. State will never nato will never admit ukraine to nato. Nato would not extend one inch past east germany. Require in return that russia and china split up their kinks in their armor. Not allowing china to fash railroad. There are kinks in that armor. But its not going to come from somebody in the establishment of either party. Its going to taken a outsider to get that deal done. James we got to move on a little bit quicker. I do think rep. Khanna weve been very quick. James to both parties. Rep. Ramasw