Kagen still leading gard in Oct. 4th Poll

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081008/GPG0101/810080735

Hope this doesn't end up going the wrong way.

Will disappear after this election. He tied himself so closely with B*sh & Cheney in 06 that he has no chance in today's environment.

10/22/2008

By Greg Bump
WisPolitics Staff

GREEN BAY – Republican John Gard accused Dem U.S. Rep. Steve Kagen Tuesday night of being part of a lax Congress that looked the other way while Fannie Mae rang up bad mortgages, leading to the current economic crisis.

Kagen countered the policies of President Bush and his failure to regulate were to blame.

“We got here because of the policies that John endorsed in the Bush administration,” Kagen said. “These policies are called borrow and spend and borrow and spend and failure to regulate.”

Gard insisted Kagen was not solely to blame for the economic crisis, noting Bush signed bills that the Dem incumbent voted for to deregulate Fannie Mae. "A number of Republicans screwed this up too," Gard said.

But he said the problem blossomed with Kagen’s support.

“He needs to be held accountable just like everyone else on Wall Street,” Gard said.

The two exchanged a series of jabs Tuesday night in their first full debate of the campaign, a rematch of their 2006 race. Kagen showed up late for a debate earlier this month and left early to meet another commitment. This time, the two went toe-to-toe about the economy, the minimum wage and drilling for oil, among other issues.

The debate at UW-Green Bay was sponsored by Project VOTE of Brown County, WisPolitics.com, and the UW-Green Bay College Democrats, College Republicans and Student Government Association.

Gard repeatedly slammed Kagen over his votes to deregulate Fannie Mae. He also knocked him for being part of a Congress that had done little to change the direction of Washington, D.C., in the two years that Democrats have been in charge.

“We can do better, and we deserve better,” Gard said.

Kagen, in turn, tried to tie Gard to President Bush, several times saying that Gard had run the Republican’s state campaign and supported him on things like the war in Iraq.

“There’s no daylight between my opponent and President Bush,” Kagen said.

The two also exchanged blows over Kagen’s charge that Gard supports privatizing Social Security.

Challenged by Gard about the claim, Kagen pointed to an Assembly Joint Resolution that Gard, the former speaker of the chamber, voted against that opposed any effort to divert Social Security funds into private accounts.

Kagen said doing so would turn Social Security over to Wall Street speculators who could blow it in the stock market and he would oppose “any attempt that threatens to put out parents in the poor house rather their house. Let’s lay it on the line. Social Security is a sacred contract. John is in favor of privatizing Social Security. I am not.”

Gard said Kagen was just “making things up” and pointed to his answers to an AARP survey that he would oppose privatizing Social Security. He also pointed to the obligation he has to his own parents and grandmother as evidence that he would never threaten Social Security.

“You know we’re going to win this race when he’s gotten so desperate as a sitting member of Congress he is now completely inventing things, he’s making things up,” Gard said. “I just trust people to know better.”

Gard countered that Kagen voted to "raid" the Social Security Trust Fund, which Gard said he would not do.

"I believe Social Security is the greatest social contract we've had in this country," he said.

Gard also accused Kagen of misleading on his stance on domestic oil drilling. Gard said Kagen repeatedly voted against it, while Kagen said oil companies have 68 million acres in the United States that could be opened for drilling.

"I am in favor of drilling and anyone who tells you I am not is just telling you something that's not true," Kagen said.

Kagen said the nation should open its strategic oil reserves, which he said would bring more immediate relief in gasoline prices. Gard said drilling should be opened in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, but Kagen said that would not provide enough to make a serious difference in the country's long-term energy needs.

"It didn't take long to back off his commitment to drill," Gard said.

On health care, Gard said his plan includes a series of "patient-centered" reforms, and criticized a proposal from Republican presidential nominee John McCain.

"I think John McCain makes a mistake by saying we should tax health care benefits as income," he said.

Gard bashed Kagen for not following through on his promise in the '06 campaign to introduce a "No Patient Left Behind" legislative package. Kagen said he had introduced bills, but they were blocked by the president, something he vowed would not happen with a Democratic president and a Democratic Congress.

Gard said the fundamental difference between the two on health care is whether "government takes things over or not."

http://www.wispolitics.com/index.iml?Article=139566

Watch the debate: http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/article/20081021/GPG0101/810210602/1978

to be the more thoughtful choice. And that health care thing. It has been said if we can afford a war, a bail out, we can afford health care. It is just a matter of priorities.

I just contributed to Kagen and I don't even live in his district. I just like him and I really detest Gard.

I am going to a Kagen/Breske/Holperin/Grysinski (sp?) house party in little Eland on Sunday afternoon. PM me if you'd like more info.