by Jack Lee
Tonight’s debate was presented by the Chico League of Women Voters, these are the highlights:
Congressional candidates Heidi Hall-D and Doug LaMalfa-R squared off in the first and last debate before the election. Hall gave the first opening remarks. She said how pleased she was to finally meet with Congressman LaMalfa in a debate since he [allegedly] rejected 7 previous debate requests.
In general, Hall seemed much more at ease and confident than did the Congressman, but then being a polished orator was never his strong suit and I hope that won’t be what determines the winner in Nov.
The candidates were asked a series of questions that came from two reporters and the audience. One of the early questions was about California’s desperate water situation. Hall’s comments virtually mirrored those of candidate Jim Reed-D for Assembly, even down to the wacky part about how “we don’t need more dams, because our dams are near empty, instead what we need better water management.” And I’m paraphrasing throughout.
I was stunned by the sheer stupidity of this ridiculous answer. The dams are empty because we’ve been draining them of water during the draught…duh-uh! We’ve greatly increased our state’s population and AG industry without increasing our surface water storage and in draught years that’s lead to a lot of disasters. Neither candidate Heidi Hall-D or Assembly candidate Reed-D could figure this one out! That’s dense!
LaMalfa is a rice farmer, so he understands the need for sufficient reserves of water and why the dams run dry. He agrees we need better water management as in surface water storage so in draught times we have enough to keep going.
Hall hammered LaMalfa on GOP issues, like giving farmers $14B in subsidies while a GOP Congress made cuts to the food stamp program and blocked immigration reform. She had a good point, but she blew it when she said we would be better off providing an easy immigration process for the illegals already here, providing a comprehensive immigration reform to ease new immigration and funding for the Dream Act. LaMalfa felt we should start enforcing the immigration laws we already have. This would ease the burden on precession legal immigration, he said. He supported a secure border too for the same reason, but also said the immigration laws need to be improved.
On global warming Hall said almost the same as Jim Reed again, both were fanatics about global warming. She confidently declared that 97% of scientists now agree that man made global warming is damaging the earth. She said, the debate is over, we should be focusing now on ways to fix it. Congressman LaMalfa began by saying global warming is nothing new, it’s a cyclical thing and is part of the natural order of weather. This drew some low grumbling from the audience.
When it came to confronting the ISIS threat and having more military involvement in Iraq and Syria, Hall laid into the GOP dominated Congress, saying they should have not take a summer recess because there was so much consider about this new war front. She wanted them to stay in session and engage in debate. LaMalfa said ISIS needed to be killed because they were evil. He suggested the best way was for nations in the middle east, like Saudi Arabia, to train soldiers and fund the war against ISIS.
Regarding the use of the Nation’s forest lands and parks, LaMalfa felt they belong to us and we ought to be able to have more access, including some timber rights. Hall thought fire breaks for the urban interface was the way to go. This would prevent devastating forest fires, she said. Seriously, she said that. Neither candidate addressed the fact that we’ve let too much combustible wood accumulate on the forest floor and that logging dead and dying trees to thin the forest was good management and good for the economy. I know that LaMalfa believes this as did his predecessor Wally Herger.
On the Affordable Care Act, Hall said if Republicans had not blocked a few needed reforms the debate would be over. She claimed in some areas it is working very, very well, like accepting patients with pre-existing conditions. I suppose so, but we still have no idea how much is this plan is going to cost us. LaMalfa said the ACA has been a problem from the start and it’s filled with too many mistakes and unknowns to continue it. He said we would be better off looking to the private sector for the answers and suggested the GOP healthcare plan was better than the ACA.
Both candidates agreed that we need a simplified tax filing system, but Hall was against a flat tax. She said it would impact the poor more than the rich. LaMalfa suggested “a flatter tax” that is easier and more fair would be best. I found both answers a little disappointing.
The debate lasted about an hour and I think there were too few unanswered questions. The actual debate time was more like 45 minutes, so the audience really didn’t get to hear much from the candidates. To have a good debate it should have been set for two hours so most of the audiences questions could have been asked. There were some real zingers that never were asked and that’s a shame for such an important office.
I came away thinking Heidi Hall was a dynamic and skilled public speaker, but she was so incredibly wrong on so many important issues she would be dangerous if elected to Congress. LaMalfa demonstrated why he ducted previous debates, but then we didn’t elect him to debate, did we? We elected him for his conservative values, his common sense and honesty. With Doug LaMalfa what you see is what you get. That’s refreshing for Washington. Republicans in Congress need his vote on many important issues, like killing ACA, saving us from overrun by illegal immigration, and wasteful spending on do nothing feel-good projects like Solyndra. These are very important issues and we can be assured they have a smart vote with LaMalfa. That’s close enough for me to want him to get re-elected. Helping this along is the demographics that favor a republican in Congressional District 1. For Hall to win she would have to have a huge number of conservatives vote for her and that won’t happen with her ditzy stand on immigration, forestry, water, healthcare, and taxes.
LaMalfa remains the odds on favorite in this race.
Doug will get my vote again because, when I’ve contacted him about issues and concerns he’s always responded and explained his vote and provided a greater understanding and clarification.
Two of my concerns were our border security and our involvement in Syria, and how these issues would be paid for.
Doug will get my vote again. We do not need another Democrat digging our debt hole deeper and one future generations will never be able to climb out of.
Welcome to politics
Doug is not what you see is what you get
The farm bill that lines his own pockets tells all
Again I will vote the lessor of 2 evils and it is not Doug
Doug is on the path to shut down the Gov if they take control. Enough of games!
Doug did not admit Congress is suppose to be in Session right now! A man who is here campaigning while Congress is suppose to be in session looses my vote.
Why do we pay these guys to campaign when there are many issues that Congress needs to address…..Wasteful spending
We will have 2 more of the same corporate Presidential candidates as well.
But I vote and my ballot will be here soon.
Bomb tosser strikes again.
Doug LaMalfa did not make a secret backroom deal with anyone get a farm subsidy. The laws were written by legislators that the people sent to Congress.
Be against the subsidy if you think it best but stop blaming the guy who happens to benefit.
Our government has written all kinds of laws with subsidies and benefits in them. When we do our taxes each year the deductions we take to arrive at our effective tax are a kind of subsidy. Nobody says, “No I won’t take that”…you’d be insane!
OBMAMACARE has a big one that the CBO says will increase eight fold in ten years. (See chart):
I don’t pretend to know the amount Mr. LaMalfa pays in taxes to the state or the federal government but I imagine its substantial. I also know that at least before the drought ruined farming in California, with the help of warming zealots, farming was a multi-billion dollar industry. That brings a lot of revenue to our state!
Could it be the subsidies were started to help farmers, the folks that feed the world, get through periods of bad drought…or crop damaging freeze…or hail that takes the blossoms off the trees? Hmmmmmmmmmm?
This is the moment when a liberal might say, “Great Spirit, grant that I may not criticize my neighbor until I have walked a mile in his moccasins.”
LaMalfa will get my vote and my family members votes!
Doug LaMalfa did not make a secret backroom deal with anyone get a farm subsidy. The laws were written by legislators that the people sent to Congress. –
OMG TINA English ? and they do not write all the laws! You know better
LOL LA Malfa grows Japanese rice. He is on Gov welfare. Time to teach these farmers how to get off welfare.
La Malfa is a member of the Agricultural committee and his purpose to run seems to be for his own benefit.
http://agriculture.house.gov/about/membership
La Malfa is a nice guy but does not belong in Congress, no intelligence for that line of work he went for his own gain.
ALEC drafts most republican bills then they go to congress and get amended for all their personal and donor earmarks.
http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed
Good news we are pressuring companies out of corrupt ALEC
People like the Koch’s think tanks write the laws for their profit and politicians take their money. It is not for citizens it is all for profit.
You whine and complain about hungry people but support the richest people to get gov welfare. That is why Majority of Americans do not like Tea Party.
La Malfa was very involved with farm bill it is on record. What the Fox say is not of any relevance to truth.
Very very few honest congress people. But a handful.
http://articles.latimes.com/2013/sep/20/business/la-fi-mo-lamalfa-20130920
Reps. Stephen Fincher (R-Tenn.) and Doug LaMalfa (R-Calif.) both cited the Bible last week to argue that while individual Christians have a responsibility to feed the poor, the federal government does not.
“We’re all here on this committee making decisions about other people’s money,” Fincher said.
LaMalfa said that while it’s nice for politicians to boast about how they’ve helped their constituents, “That’s all someone else’s money.”
Yet both men’s farms have received millions in federal assistance, according to the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit that advocates for more conservation and fewer subsidies. LaMalfa’s family rice farm has received more than $5 million in commodity subsidies since 1995, according to the group’s analysis of data from the U.S. Agriculture Department. Fincher’s farm has received more than $3 million in that time.
Last year alone, Fincher’s farm received $70,574 and LaMalfa’s got $188,570.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/23/food-stamp-cuts_n_3324418.html
http://yubanet.com/regional/McClintock-LaMalfa-Vote-AGAINST-VAWA.php
Bottom line you should just support your position. You support cutting snap and politicians getting farm subsidies.
here is how La Malfa spends “Other peoples Money”
http://farm.ewg.org/persondetail.php?custnumber=A09247988
He also split his farm into multiple farms for more subsidies and is proud of it. That lost my vote and gained yours!
So be it ………………..OWN IT!
Just OWN IT and defend it
Here is a take from someone you know
Americans pay for the rice program three times over—as taxpayers, as consumers, and as workers. Direct taxpayer subsidies to the rice sector have averaged $1 billion a year since 1998 and are projected to average $700 million a year through 2015. Tariffs on imported rice drive up prices for consumers, and the rice program imposes a drag on the U.S. economy generally through a misallocation of resources. Rice payments tend to be concentrated among a small number of large producers.
Globally, U.S. policy drives down prices for rice by 4 to 6 percent. Those lower prices, in turn, perpetuate poverty and hardship for millions of rice farmers in developing countries, undermining our broader interests and our standing in the world. The U S. program also leaves the United States vulnerable to challenges in the World Trade Organization.
For our own national interest, the U.S. Congress and the president should work together to adopt a more market-oriented rice program in the upcoming 2007 farm bill, including repeal of tariffs and a rapid phaseout of subsidies.
– See more at: http://www.norcalblogs.com/postscripts/2014/02/19/subsidize-rice-farmers/#sthash.5wKiwdL0.dpuf
Dewey, finally you had an excellent response!!! You made your very specific claims and you supported them with links, way to go. We may or may not agree with all the positions you’ve taken, but at least you made a good faith effort and we appreciate that! Next, I’ll take a look at your links and see what they say. ; ) -Jack
Wikipedia
What I meant Dewey is that this is just another program that has been in place for decades and the laws were written by representatives a long time ago.
LaMalfa is on the Ag committee because that is where his experience can be best utilized.
I don’t have a problem with cuts to subsidies to farmers.
I have a problem with placing the blame for policy on a man who is a farmer and participates in programs our government has put in place. ANYONE WOULD, INCLUDING YOU DEWEY, WERE YOU A FARMER!!!!
In terms of the budget it is also important to remember that the biggest expense attributed to farm subsidy is actually food stamps and other related distribution programs:
Typically the left rails about giving subsidies to farmers and cite the budget numbers. Deceitfully they fail to tell you that most of that budgeted money is spent on food stamps! The percentage is even higher now…that article was from 2009 before the Obama non-recovery pushed so many Americans into poverty.
“La Malfa is a nice guy but does not belong in Congress, no intelligence for that line of work he went for his own gain.”
Dewey you are free to have this opinion but frankly it doesn’t make a lot of sense. He is going to benefit from the subsidy whether or not he serves in Congress.
We have the right as American citizens to assemble and to work with others to influence our lawmakers. this becomes more and more important as our government gets more powerful because the decisions they make can greatly affect our lives. An example would be the huge environmentalist groups that pressure our legislators to eliminate perfectly good light bulbs in favor of dim bulbs that are filled with mercury and require HAZMAT clean up if broken! Other groups like ACORN had tremendous influence in getting laws enacted that helped bring about the financial meltdown!
People in corporations have the same right to assemble and petition as any other citizen or groups of citizens and efforts to demonize groups because they happen to represent more conservative views is just another leftist ploy to control the narrative and suppress opposing views. ALEC is no more dangerous than the many left wing organizations that attempt to RULE, in fact, they may be a friend to individual citizens if the principles they stand for are freedom and smaller government. It was/is stupid government regulation that created the bubbles and crash…that has limited job growth in the past five years…that encourage business to move overseas.
“according to the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit that advocates for more conservation and fewer subsidies. ”
This group supports green business. They have a right to do that but make no mistake they will support subsidies to alternative energy and organic farming. It would not surprise me if this group was willing to demonize farmers like LaMalfa as a way of promoting farmers they prefer. Why not let the people decide through their purchases? Why do groups refuse to compete for the support and agreement of the consumer without spreading lies about the intent or purpose of a farmer? Organic is expensive even with subsidies. Not everyone wants or can afford organic farm goods. Rice is a basic staple for much of the worlds population. What exactly is the purpose in demonizing someone in America that grows a crop that feeds the much of the world, including the world’s poor?
“He also split his farm into multiple farms for more subsidies and is proud of it.”
What evidence do you have that this is what motivated the decision? Were there other factors, factors that might affect any family that has grown a business? You sure seem to think your an expert on the private decisions this family made.
Dewey it seems like you just resent rich or successful people. You blame them for things that our government has put in place. You don;t seem to be consistent, however, since you don’t take the same position if a lefty is getting the advantage or assembling with like minded folks.
Dewey let me reiterate. I would not be against ending farm subsidies. I take issue with blaming the farmer instead of government, many of whom who love all of the big government giveaway programs are Democrats. Republicans have introduced more legislation to reduce the size of government. the only thing Democrats ever want to cut is the military and in doing that they have several times managed to put us in a dangerous position with the need to ramp up again…costly.
Back later guys…have fun and play nice!