In the race for Congress. There is *** lot on the line. California's fifth district covering areas including Modesto Placerville, Sonora and Yosemite. Tonight. The candidates answer questions that impact you. The cost of living, quality of life and health care, meet the candidates. Republican, Tom mcclintock and Democrat Mike Barkley. This is the KCR *** three debate for Congress district five. Now, moderator Brandy Cummings. Good evening to you and thanks so much for being with us tonight, we began with *** few ground rules. The candidates have agreed to, they will each have one minute to respond to the questions. If there is *** follow up question or *** rebuttal, they'll have 30 seconds when each candidates time is up, you'll hear and *** time like this. And once that time is complete, we'll ask the candidates to wrap their point. The candidates will also answer yes or no questions as well. And to both of you, thank you for being with us tonight. We did do *** coin toss to determine who answered the first question and Mr mcclintock will begin with you. Inflation has started to cool but the reality is costs for everyday items are still high. This is *** big concern for families. What specific action can Congress take to help reduce the cost of living? You have stop spending and printing money that we don't have. Inflation is *** monetary phenomenon. Too many dollars chasing too few goods. What happened at the outset of this administration? Uh They uh approved $3 trillion of additional spending that we didn't have against the advice of their own economists. And the result was the worst inflation in 40 years, the value of *** dollar has been robbed of 20% of its value uh since this administration took office and in *** very simple way, it's the spending. Uh and uh and that's what has to be brought under control. Mr Barkley, same question. Congress could reverse what Congress did to cause the homeless crisis and the high cost of housing. The tax reform of 1986 tax Reform Act of 1986 killed the rental residential uh tax shelter market. The um fair Cloth amendment of 1998 put *** lid on subsidized housing. And at the same time, Congress um cut subsidized housing funding. You can build more subsidized housing units, but for whatever everyone that you construct, you have to tear one down. And in 1998 the hue and cry against um subprime loans followed by the Dodd Frank Act. Um put *** lid on low income housing loans, especially those for people whose credit wasn't perfect. So we've lost thousands of units of apartment construction. We've lost subsidized housing. We've lost low income housing loans. Congress can reverse all that. But what Congress did was cause the uh problems that we have. So the question number two, Mr Barkley will also start with you here talking more about housing. Housing costs have spiked in the year since the pandemic. Nearly half of all renter households in the US paid more than 30% of their income to housing costs last year. What is your plan to make housing more affordable in California? Reverse what the tax reform Act did uh The 1986 tax reform Act did to the cost of um rental housing and especially when it killed subsidized. Um excuse me, when it killed um tax shelter housing, uh tax shelter apartments, communities like Mantega constructed thousands of apartments in the 25 years before that act. Since the act, there are only two major uh complexes developed. One was on the books at that time. If you don't build apartments, people can't find apartments that they can afford. We need to pull that off. We need to reverse those three things I mentioned before and bring the cost of housing down and make the house uh housing available. Mr MCL Talk. Same question. We'll get the government out of the way and allow builders to build to all levels of the housing market. We used to have that freedom and housing was *** fraction of the cost that it is today of. Uh thi this is entirely government created. If, if in in anything, uh something that's scarce is expensive when it's plentiful, it's cheap. When builders were allowed to build all levels of the market, there was affordable housing at all levels of the market. But increasing government restrictions of uh delays and permitting of uh limits on the number of units that could be built. Uh and all of the conditions such as uh uh mandatory solar panels on new housing uh that drives the cost out of reach for most Californians. Uh You want to uh compare California prices to the Midwest where builders still have the freedom to build, to meet demand. Uh You can get twice the house at half the price there. That's how free markets work and we need to restore that in California. Our next question, talks about reproductive rights. Mr mcclintock will start with you. California is one of 21 states where abortion remains protected under state law following the US. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe V. Wade. Mr mcclintock. Would you support *** national ban on abortion if so? Are there any exceptions or limits? No, I support the Dobbs decision, which very simply says abortion is not in the constitution and therefore it's reserved to the people and to the States. And I think that *** national consensus and certainly *** consensus in states does exist and I think will ultimately find its way into law. And that's this. I think most people agree that if someone is unconscious in *** hospital bed and they have *** pulse and *** brain wave, that person has *** right not to be killed in their sleep. If that's true at the end of life, then shouldn't it be true at the beginning of life as well? And that occurs in about 15 weeks, which is the Mississippi law that gave rise to Dobbs. Uh I think most people would agree uh that uh uh uh ***, *** perfectly healthy baby should not be aborted up to the moment of birth. And yet that's the radical position that we see from the Democrats today. And Mr Barkley, this question is for you, California is seeing an influx of women seeking reproductive health care in this state. What can Congress do to help California as it continues to allow the procedure? Not just for residents here, but for those coming from out of state. Dia's decision was wrongly decided there is no provision in the constitution that allows the Supreme Court to revoke *** recognized constitutional right. The minority justices, excuse me. The, the majority justices on the Supreme Court voted in violation of their oath of office to violate the constitution. They should be defunded for their office expenses until such time as they reverse that decision. Um California needs the help of every voter to vote against the party that will spread the effects of the dos dos decision to the entire country. That means do not vote for the Republican party which is pursuing um *** nationwide abortion ban. But just for some Clari clarity here, what can Congress do to help California as it does continue to allow the procedure, both for residents and those coming in out of state again, do not vote to extend the Dobbs decision. Uh California can handle the influx but because we are *** charitable and giving state, um but we need to keep being able to do that, Mr Barkley, we will continue with this question also related to health care. The Affordable Care Act made health insurance available to more people and it expanded the Medicaid program, but many Americans still can't afford the care they need. What is your plan for the future of health care? Uh I liked what Bernie Sanders had proposed in 2016. Uh If you look nation uh worldwide in Taiwan, you can get *** card which enables you to go anywhere and get health care services without any fees. We need something like that in this country. We need Medicare for all starting at birth. And Mr mcclintock, this question is for you. Do you believe the Affordable Care Act should be repealed? If so, what should replace it? Uh Yes, I do believe it should be repealed. The costs of health care uh have risen almost three times as fast. As inflation and population combined uh during the period of the last 10 years of, of. And there's *** reason for that because the Affordable Care Act severs the connection between the payer and the consumer in such *** system, the payer doesn't care about quality and the consumer doesn't care about price. So you end up with radically escalating prices while you have *** deteriorating level of satisfaction by consumers that needs to, that connection needs to be restored. Now, what happens when you do that? You've got two problems. Number one, there are some people who cannot afford *** basic plan. At that point, the government can underwrite the cost of that plan uh on *** sliding income scale. Uh And the other problem is pre existing conditions and we saw that years ago in the automobile market with the assigned risk pool, the same thing can be done. But in, in, in now we would have the connection between the consumer and the payer again. And I think you'd see lower prices as people compete uh uh for, for, for 100 or as insurance companies compete for hundreds and hundreds of uh of policies available to consumers. Mr mcclintock, we're going to continue with this question for you earlier this year, *** bipartisan deal to address issues at the southern border fell apart in Congress among many things, it would have given the president new power to close the border require detention and supervision of all migrants processed at the border and quickly add more border agents and personnel plus systems to deal with the judicial backlog. Would you support this if revived? And please explain your position. So what you left out was the most important provision and that is it would make the president absolutely powerless to secure the border until illegal border crossings uh exceeded 4000 *** day. Uh Donald Trump proved that the existing law is sufficient to secure our border when he left office. Uh The border was secure for the first time. Uh in, in our lifetimes of that bill would have made it impossible for Donald Trump to have done what he did and would require any future president uh to tolerate up to 4000 cro illegal crossings *** day before they could begin to take any action. It wouldn't require them to take action until those illegal border crossings reached 5000. You know, I chair the immigration subcomittee of the House Judiciary Committee. Uh We produced hr two, the strongest border security bill in *** century. Uh It uh restored the Trump era of uh uh policies that had secured our border uh and would require future presidents to follow them. And just for clarity here, would you support *** bill like this if revived? I support hr two, uh which again requires future presidents to implement the policies of the Trump administration that secured our, our borders and brought illegal border crossings to *** 40 year low. Uh, I do not support legislation that would leave the president powerless to secure our borders until uh, illegal crossings exceed 4000 *** day. That's insanity. Mr Barkley. Same question. Um, I would support the Senate bill as it was uh examined in the Senate. I was disappointed when President Trump interfered with the legislative process and killed it. Um, I would prefer to see the plans that Bernie Sanders had in his 2016 campaign, which was fair to everyone. But realistically, I doubt that we will see that still. What was in the Senate should be adopted and we'll continue now with you, Mr Barkley, turning to gun control. You have said that firearms should be *** privilege, not *** right. Are you saying that the US should repeal the second amendment? And if so, how would you convince *** current majority of Republicans in Congress to do that? The first part of your question, the answer is yes, I would. The second part of the question, I don't think they are able to be convinced of it. Um, so we will continue shooting and killing 30 to 40,000 people per year in this country. *** problem which no other civilized country has because we are just not able to grasp the the problem. Channel three has stories every night about shootings in Sacramento. Channel three should be broadcasting *** snippet of sound at the end of those saying, of course, this problem does not happen in other civilized countries. This is *** choice that we make in this country. Mr mcclintock, I want to ask you this question related to gun control. How do you believe the US can reduce gun violence without infringing on the constitutional right of responsible gun owners. We have 50 years of experience with gun control laws in this country and we found they are very effective at disarming law abiding citizens. They are completely ineffective at disarming criminals. And you end up with *** society where the criminals are as well uh uh uh armed as ever. Uh and citizens are defenseless. It's no uh coincidence uh that those cities with the strongest gun control laws generally have the highest crime rates. And I disagree with Mike on the, on the question of uh uh other countries experiences, Mexico has much stronger gun laws than we have and *** much higher uh crime rate. But the good news is we know how to reduce gun violence, prosecute criminals, execute murderers, put gun criminals in jail until they are too old and great to cause trouble. Stop admitting the most violent criminal cartels in the world into this country through our poorest southern border. These are measures that work and work well and we need to restore them. Unfortunately, those are the measures that the Democrats oppose. Gentlemen. We want to now turn to our, yes, no questions. The National Park Service is considering *** plan to restrict access to Yosemite National Park. Do you support the plan? Yes or no, Mr Barkley. We'll start with you. Yes, Mr mcclinton. Absolutely not. It's been *** disaster for the gateway communities and to visitation in, in the valley, regardless of the outcome of the presidential election results. Will you certify the vote? Mr mcclintock? Well, the answer is yes, but the vote is never certified. Uh, the states certify the vote, that vote is then counted in the presence of the congress. Uh, I voted, uh, in, in uh, uh 2021 to, to not to reject any of the electoral votes. That's critical of the Congress does not have the authority to disqualify electoral votes. Mr Mr Barkley. Same question. Will you vote to certify the vote? Yes. But this is kind of *** tricky question because Congress's role is actually *** rubber stamp. The word is certification in the, in the statute, but they're not really certifying anything. They're just putting *** stamp on it. We have to move on once again. Yes or no. Please. Do you support the US continuing to support Ukraine and its war against Russia? Mr Barkley, Mr mcclintock. Yes. Military support only. I don't care to finance their pension system. Yes or no only. Please. Do you support continuing to provide billions in military aid to Israel in its regional conflicts? Mr mcclintock. Absolutely. Yes, Mr Barkley for anti missile systems only. Yes or no, please should people without legal immigration status have access to health care or other government services. Mr Barkley. Yes, Mr mcclintock. Absolutely not. Yes or no. Please. Should there be term limits for the US Supreme Court, Mr mcclintock? No, no. Should there be term limits for members of congress? Mr Barkley? Mr M right there, there actually is *** term on, it's called the election. Yeah. All right. We are going to bring in one other question for you and let's talk now about the budget, the congressional budget. According to the congressional budget office, the federal government spent far more than it collected in revenue racking up *** budget deficit of $1.8 trillion for fiscal year 2024. To balance the budget. Congress would have to either raise taxes cut programs or both. Mr mcclintock. What's your specific plan to balance the budget? Well, I've outlined that in the RSC budget that I chaired *** few years back. You got more votes on the house floor than any of the other RC budgets brought to the floor. It would have balanced the budget in five years. I've introduced in every session, *** balanced budget amendment. The good news is there is *** great deal that we should be and can be cutting out of the federal budget. You know, let's start with all of these subsidies that distort the behavior of the marketplace and move capital from its highest and best use to whatever is politically appealing to the members voting for it. Let's get rid of grants that Rob ST Petersburg to pay ST Paul. If *** local project exclusively benefits *** local community, it ought to be paid for by that local community. They should not use our federal budget as *** grab bag local port projects that brings us to earmarks which ought to be abolished and I fought them very hard. Uh I can go into *** number of other areas, but I would simply note that the uh National Taxpayers Union and the citizens against government waste have rated me one of the two best votes in the Congress uh for my proposals on reducing spending and eliminating waste. Mr Barkley. Same question. I'm the only guy I know of who has *** balanced federal budget on his website. You can go look it up. Uh I stopped keeping that up when President Trump got elected and he put through that uh uh billionaires uh tax cut because I could no longer trust the numbers from his office of Management and budget. But still I can do that. Anybody can do that. We can balance the budget if we want to. Thank you, gentlemen. We are going to take *** quick break right now when we return, you'll hear the candidates final statements. Welcome back. We do have time for one more question before we get to our final statements. And so Mr Barkley will begin with you the threat of wildfires is *** real concern for people living in district five, the 1400 square miles and National Forest is in your district. There are currently fire restrictions in place there through the end of the year. But what more should be done to prevent wildfires? I heard from *** lot of people over the last few years about this. Uh, the forest roads need to be widened and the shoulders need to be, uh have debris, have um flammable uh material removed. We need to strengthen the California uh casualty insurance market with *** reinsurance program uh and whatever else it takes, um We need more reservoirs in the mountains for dipping for helicopters and beyond that. Um I'm open to suggestions, Mr mcclintock. Same question. We need to start managing our forests again. You know, all of that excess timber is going to come out of the forest and only one of two ways uh either we're going to carry it out or nature is going to burn it out. We formed the forest service 100 years ago in order to send foresters out into the forest every year, they would mark off surplus timber before it could choke the uh the forest to death. Uh And the result was uh uh we had healthy uh uh uh vibrant fire resistant forests because that uh that uh timber was then removed by loggers who paid us uh to remove it. Uh 25% of the revenues from federal, uh, timber auctions went directly to local governments. The other 75% went back into the forest service. We need to restore that system. The good news is we got such legislation was my legislation was included in the Win Act in 2016 for the Tahoe Basin. Uh It has reduced the, um, uh, uh uh processing time for, uh, for uh, uh environmental reviews from 4.5 years down to four months. It's increased the uh treated acreage uh by *** three fold and it's what saved the city of South Lake Tahoe from the Kaldor fire. We need to do that for the rest of the forest system. Now, we want to give you an opportunity for your final statements and Mr Barkley will begin with you. You have one minute. My name is Mike Barkley. I'm running for Congress in congressional district five. District five is all *** part of eight counties that runs from north of Placerville down to Fresno includes, uh, the mother in law that's in between plus three large population centers. Western El Dorado County, eastern Stanislaus County and north of Fresno. I'm *** lawyer. I'm an inactive CPA, *** computer programmer. I own *** small business that I operate, which I've built from scratch. Um I have *** share of *** ranch in Western Glen and Tehama County, which is inherited. Um, I am running to do for you folks in district five. What you want and need. If you value social security and Medicare, you should vote for me. If you value the rights of women and especially reproductive rights, you should vote for me. If you value the right to vote without it being interfered with, with artificial barriers, you should vote for me. And I see I have an orange light. So that's, there's *** lot more on my website, Mike Barkley for congress.com. Mr mcclinton Talk. You have one minute. Well, I think the entire history of human civilization could be summed up in four words, freedom works, socialism sucks. This is not *** theoretical discussion. We've had two administrations back to back the Republican policies of lower taxes and regulatory relief uh produced uh uh one of the greatest economic expansions in, in our nation's history, uh when this admin and, and that includes uh uh 50% or the, the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years, uh the lowest poverty rate in 60 years and the fastest wage growth in 40 years, the day that Donald Trump left office, our nation's borders were secure, the world was at peace. Uh And we were energy independent for the first time. Uh in our lifetimes. Uh, gasoline was averaging $2.39 *** gallon. Inflation was 1.4%. Uh And you could get *** 30 year mortgage for 1.9 percent on their first day in office. The Democrats reversed all of those policies and take us down *** very different road. And the question before everyone in this election is, are you better off today than you were four years ago? Thank you both for being with us today. We have *** little extra time so we want to lighten things up *** little bit and let our voters and viewers get to know you. So please tell us Mr Barkley one thing about yourself that people don't know that you want them to know you have 15 seconds. I care about them. And Mr mcclintock, same question. Well, boy, that's ***, that's *** candy store question. I'm not sure where to start. Uh, uh, you know, one thing I don't think *** lot of people know about me is when, when I was young, I was lost in the High Sierra for two days. Uh, I did *** lot of camping and hiking throughout the Sierra Nevada with my boy scout troop and, uh, it was, uh, the Tulare County sheriff who, uh, who came to get me. We thank you both again for being with us today. Of course, your willingness to be here to answer questions and to ultimately make your positions clear is very important and much appreciated. Of course, for our viewers, for those of you who do want more information about all of our election coverage, go to KCR a.com for our voter guide. Thanks so much for being with us tonight. Have *** good night.