Chaffetz/Spencer Blogger Breakfast Debate
I am probably the last to get my post on this morning's debate up...with good reason - life got in the way. However, this morning was the Jason Chaffetz - Bennion Spencer debate hosted by the fine folks at the Sutherland Institute (for my MN readers think along the lines of the MN Free Market Institute). The moderator was Lyall Swim from the Sutherland Institute. The forum started out with a 15 minute intro from each candidate, approximately 30 minutes of Q&A followed by a 5 minute closing statement.
Jason Chaffetz started us off talking about how honored he was to be with us and what an honor it was to be the Republican nominee for Congress. He mentioned how the Republicans needed to get back to it's core principles as it was what was best for the country and the party. He said that the party blew it when they had control and governed against their principles - being more concerned about putting the party before principles. He then went on to talk about how he set out to run a "different" campaign - eschewing paid political operatives and polling for volunteers and common sense. He said that he didn't do polling because he didn't need polls to tell him how to vote! (No Minnesota you can't have him!). He touched briefly on the fact that he was outspent 6-1 during the primary and that he refused to go into debt in order to get elected. He said that was part of the fiscal discipline that this country needed. On fiscal discipline he said that we needed to quit trying to be all things to all people. He also mentioned a website Expectmore.gov which lists out the programs that are performing and those that are not. He said that we needed to look at the under performing or ineffective programs and cut them where we can. He also spoke on energy and education calling energy security a "national security issue" and that NCLB needs to be repealed and the Federal government needed to get out of what is a local/state issue (education).
The fireworks of the event came when Chaffetz spoke about illegal immigration. He said that his comments on tents (we should take a look at what Maricopa County AZ is doing with lawbreakers) were taken grossly out of context. His detractors say that this is a racial comment and Chaffetz said both here (and on Nightside last night) that he didn't care what race - if they are here illegally and they broke other laws it does not matter what their race is they need to be punished. He demanded an apology from Mr. Spencer and his surrogates. That was the end of his first 15 minutes.
Ben Spencer got up and apologized right off the bat for having little voice (bad allergies - I can sooooo sympathize!) and said he was happy to be at the event. He agreed with Mr. Chaffetz that the Republicans "blew it" when they had control of all three houses, but went on to say that the problems we are facing today are not "Republican" or "Democrat" problems they are American problems. He said he was a firm believer in term limits and that he did not want to go to DC to "die" (I think Paul Wellstone did something similar and then when his self imposed term limits came up he ran again!). He said that he will draw on his experience as a journalist in DC (more on that later) - talking about the time he spent with then Governor George W. Bush while filming a documentary. He related a story about how they had Governor Bush for an unscheduled 45 minute flight back to Austin and how Governor Bush never talked policy - just talked sports. He said that was a smart move. He stated that energy was the number 1 issue today and that we needed to develop alternative fuels. He said that if drilling were expanded we needed a guarantee that the fuel would stay here to solve our needs and not go to China or Russia. He repeated the Democrats "we can't drill our way out of this" mantra. While I agree that "Drill Baby Drill" is a simplistic response to this crisis, so is the "we can't drill our way out" response but that is another post. He finished talking about foreign policy saying that if we had a foreign policy that supported Hashemi Rafsanjani (a pro US Moderate) when he ran against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad then we would not be in Iraq today!
Q&A and analysis in the following posts.
Jason Chaffetz started us off talking about how honored he was to be with us and what an honor it was to be the Republican nominee for Congress. He mentioned how the Republicans needed to get back to it's core principles as it was what was best for the country and the party. He said that the party blew it when they had control and governed against their principles - being more concerned about putting the party before principles. He then went on to talk about how he set out to run a "different" campaign - eschewing paid political operatives and polling for volunteers and common sense. He said that he didn't do polling because he didn't need polls to tell him how to vote! (No Minnesota you can't have him!). He touched briefly on the fact that he was outspent 6-1 during the primary and that he refused to go into debt in order to get elected. He said that was part of the fiscal discipline that this country needed. On fiscal discipline he said that we needed to quit trying to be all things to all people. He also mentioned a website Expectmore.gov which lists out the programs that are performing and those that are not. He said that we needed to look at the under performing or ineffective programs and cut them where we can. He also spoke on energy and education calling energy security a "national security issue" and that NCLB needs to be repealed and the Federal government needed to get out of what is a local/state issue (education).
The fireworks of the event came when Chaffetz spoke about illegal immigration. He said that his comments on tents (we should take a look at what Maricopa County AZ is doing with lawbreakers) were taken grossly out of context. His detractors say that this is a racial comment and Chaffetz said both here (and on Nightside last night) that he didn't care what race - if they are here illegally and they broke other laws it does not matter what their race is they need to be punished. He demanded an apology from Mr. Spencer and his surrogates. That was the end of his first 15 minutes.
Ben Spencer got up and apologized right off the bat for having little voice (bad allergies - I can sooooo sympathize!) and said he was happy to be at the event. He agreed with Mr. Chaffetz that the Republicans "blew it" when they had control of all three houses, but went on to say that the problems we are facing today are not "Republican" or "Democrat" problems they are American problems. He said he was a firm believer in term limits and that he did not want to go to DC to "die" (I think Paul Wellstone did something similar and then when his self imposed term limits came up he ran again!). He said that he will draw on his experience as a journalist in DC (more on that later) - talking about the time he spent with then Governor George W. Bush while filming a documentary. He related a story about how they had Governor Bush for an unscheduled 45 minute flight back to Austin and how Governor Bush never talked policy - just talked sports. He said that was a smart move. He stated that energy was the number 1 issue today and that we needed to develop alternative fuels. He said that if drilling were expanded we needed a guarantee that the fuel would stay here to solve our needs and not go to China or Russia. He repeated the Democrats "we can't drill our way out of this" mantra. While I agree that "Drill Baby Drill" is a simplistic response to this crisis, so is the "we can't drill our way out" response but that is another post. He finished talking about foreign policy saying that if we had a foreign policy that supported Hashemi Rafsanjani (a pro US Moderate) when he ran against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad then we would not be in Iraq today!
Q&A and analysis in the following posts.
Labels: Bennion Spencer, Jason Chaffetz
posted by The Lady Logician at
5:15 PM
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