Major funding for election 2022 Arkansas PBS debates is provided by AARP Arkansas, with additional funding provided by the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce.

From the campus of University of Central Arkansas in the studios of Arkansas.

PBS this election, 2022 Arkansas, PBS, U.S. House Representatives, District 3 debate.

54321 Upon Jim Acoustic Hello again everyone, and thanks very much for being with us.

Welcome to debate week here on Arkansas PBS.

At this hour, the candidates for Arkansas Congress from the third district.

The candidates, in alphabetical order, the Libertarian candidate candidate Michael Calaguas.

The Democratic candidate Lauren Mallet Hayes.

And the incumbent Republican nominee, Steve Womack.

The questions for the debates will be coming from Euna Lee of 4029 News, Fort Smith and Fayetteville, Christina Munoz of Arkansas, PBS and Natural State update.

And I'm Steve Barnes.

The rules for the debate have been agreed upon by all of the candidates, and they are.

Each nominee will have one minute to respond to questions.

Each will have 30 seconds to.

Rebut if they choose to use those 30 seconds, at the conclusion of questioning, each candidate will have one minute for a closing statement.

Now the order of candidate introductions appearances was determined prior to the broadcast, in the drawing that was overseen by the candidates or their representatives.

Our first question of the debate comes now from Miss Lee and it goes first to Congressman Womack.

Congressman Womack, Northwest Arkansas is seeing rapid growth.

We have very specific needs in our region.

We need more housing.

We need bigger roads.

How do we address this issue in Washington?

Well, it's a great question because everybody that lives pretty much in the third district but certainly in the extreme northwest part of our state understands that we have about 30 plus people today moving into the area and how do, how do you cope with that kind of growth?

You know I have a background as a mayor, I was the mayor of Rogers for 12 years as a lot of people know.

And so I was right in the middle of all of that growth projection and and it continues to this day.

What you have to have is you have to have a good strategy and I think the Northwest.

Arkansas Community has a pretty good strategy for how do we develop, where are these Rd networks going to be?

What are we going to be able to do and so far as funding a lot of these particular issues and you know fortunately the people of Northwest Arkansas and in Arkansas in general with issue one have taxed themselves to be able to provide for a lot of this infrastructure.

But you're still going to need a federal partner.

You're still going to have to be able to do things like build a bridge over the Arkansas River and finish 13 miles of I-49 and.

412 in Northwest Arkansas, still a lot of work to be done and we have to have the funding to do it in the federal partner is going to be necessary.

Thank you, Sir.

Miss Mallet Hayes, one minute.

So we know that the growth in Northwest Arkansas is projected to be 1,000,000 by 2046.

We continue to talk about infrastructure and the needs there and we have passed a bipartisan bill to bring money into the state for that development.

But one key piece that we're missing is public transportation in the form of commuter rail, I think connecting a Northwest Arkansas corridor to Fort Smith.

And then on down to Little Rock will be a significant improvement for our area.

As far as the rapid growth, we're going to see the when you look at the cost of living compared to other metropolitan areas that have a much better public transportation system comparatively the cost is the same and yet we don't have the same access.

So the the biggest, my biggest responsibility would be to help build and figure out how we get that public transportation into the Northwest Arkansas River Valley region.

Thank you, Mr Calaguas.

Yeah, I have seen.

Northwest Arkansas pretty much exploding growth and and it has been tough to keep up with that growth.

Most of that, as far as infrastructure goes and roads go, we can we can meet that with taxes that we're already paying.

So we do have fuel taxes that should be going strictly to roads.

And oftentimes it doesn't.

It goes to build airplane hangars at executive airports or it goes to, you know, build buildings somewhere instead of going into the actual infrastructure and the roads and bridges where it's needed.

So some of that we can clean up that way.

We will have to see as more and more electric cars get on the road, find a way that makes sure that they're also paying their fair share, however that goes.

And and I'm sure that could be debated in the halls of Congress on how we want to do that.

But Northwest Arkansas isn't the only place that's struggling with this so, and especially when it comes to housing.

Housing is getting tight everywhere.

So, and a lot of that is because the government keeps getting in the way.

We have so many different restrictions on who can build where and how much it has to, how big it has to be and what features it has to have and how many permits you have to get.

And you gotta call.

I have to call time here.

Excuse me, Congressman, you have 30 seconds.

Now, look, we spent a lot of time on the entire infrastructure debate talking about roads and bridges and normal traffic ability, but one thing we don't spend a lot of time talking about is kind of hidden out there.

And that is what to do with a real growth.

Inhibitor and that's how to deal with wastewater and that's an area that I have studied quite a bit.

And and frankly, how we treat point source pollution, nonpoint source pollution, how do we satisfy the EPA?

Because a lot of this effluent is draining into the river basins that that constitute our navigable waterways and our water supply.

So we have to spend a little time talking about that as well because that could cause us to have to stop growth completely.

Miss Mallard Hayes, you have another 30 seconds.

Mike had a good point.

When we're talking about affordable housing, that is.

Been one of the bigger issues when we're talking to constituents about how quickly the housing market has increased and we have got to figure out how do we improve affordable housing for people but still remain keep other people's property value from being devalued by multi housing multifamily housing units.

Alright and Mr colleagues, 30 seconds that a couple of things I know we talked about.

Public transportation and in in Northwest Arkansas, we already have that as far as bus routes go, and there's no demand for it.

So that's another one of those areas where we we shouldn't be wasting money on something that won't get used when it comes to wastewater.

Fort Smith had a huge problem with that.

They're paying a ton for that.

Now, I know Mr Womack was aware of that, but we didn't really do anything about it.

I suggested we follow an example like what they did in in Augusta, GA.

But they weren't interested in that.

It would have been a good idea.

It would have saved a lot of money.

So a lot of what we need to do is just make better decisions.

Well, thank you.

Next question, Miss Munoz, thank you very much.

Who did it go to go, it goes to Miss Malliotakis.

Thank you so much.

So we're gonna jump right into the economy.

There's no doubt we are in an economic downturn.

Inflation is a huge concern.

What in your opinion is the best and fastest way to help not only the individual Arkansan, but Arkansas business owners as well?

Miss Mallette, I think any way that we can put money back into the pockets of our hard working citizens and reduce the cost for our businesses is going to be the most.

Effective way, I would like to introduce a bill called OT 40 which would allow for no taxation on overtime pay, Commission type paychecks and Social Security to allow for working citizens and retired citizens to be able to have more funds in their pocket to be able to meet the needs that they have, whether it's paying their bills, putting a roof over their head.

We can also look at the way that we are requiring the taxation of the the businesses and what that we could bring down for them to reduce their cost as well.

Mr Colleagues, you have one minute.

Yeah, the the best way to stimulate the economy is, is tax breaks.

So I can agree with they're there.

I think we need to cross the board tax breaks.

I I know my family, when I calculate it all up, we're paying about 50% of all of our income just goes to pay taxes by the time you have your income taxes, your payroll taxes, your property taxes, your sales taxes, the fees that go on vehicles, taxes on food.

It's just it's overwhelming how much money you have to give up from what you earn.

So, and we need to lower that tax burden not just in in income taxes, but across the board and in all taxes.

But the only way you can do that, the only way you can lower taxes is if you cut spending.

So if you lower taxes without cutting spending, all you've done is shift the burden somewhere else.

You haven't really lowered taxes.

You've put it out on a future generation.

You've shifted it to a different tax.

The way to fix it is one, you have to control your spending, cut the spending a lot.

And once you cut spending, then you can responsibly cut the taxes so that people can have the money that they earned and put that into the economy.

Mr Womack, we're talking about inflation.

And inflation is a simple problem.

It is too much money, chasing too few products.

And the first thing that we have to do in Congress is quit spending so much money.

I mean, we just spend and and that's the answer that a lot of my friends on the other side of the aisle.

Want to do they want to address every problem we have by throwing more money at it?

We just simply can't afford to continue to spend at the rate we're spending.

Inflation was at 8 point plus percent in in the last quarter.

The core inflation, which is a better predictor of future inflation is at 6 1/2% and that's excluding food and energy.

The other thing we have to do is we have to everything is influenced by how much we spend on energy and people are about to open their heating.

Bills this this cold winter, they're gonna find out the reality of that.

We need to unleash American resources, put American back into energy independence.

Because that's one of the ways that we can reduce the the input costs that go into everything that we do in this economy.

Thank you, Sir.

Miss Mallet Hayes, you have 30 seconds for follow up.

I think it's no surprise to anybody that we're kind of in this situation following one of the worst pandemics that we've seen, the only pandemic we've seen in my lifetime.

And so it's not surprising that we're seeing some of these problems.

To help our businesses, though, we need to fix the broken supply chains that have been affected and also reduce the price gouging that we're seeing by corporations that are increasing costs for no need at this point.

Mr Colleagues, yeah, I think I I have to agree with Mr Womack.

I'm part of that, that the the reason we have this inflation is because Congress keeps spending way too much money.

The problem is, is that while he recognizes what the problem is, he hasn't done anything to solve it while he's been there.

He's been in Congress for 12 years.

We've never had anything close to a balanced budget, even when he was the budget chairman.

So he's voted for every single debt limit increase that we've had since he's been in office.

So we need someone that not only recognizes the problems, we need someone that's actually got to do something about it as well.

Alright, Mr Womack, 30 seconds.

Yeah.

Well you know I was budget chairman and I'm I've got a front row seat to exactly what our challenges are and I talked about it with our spending.

But here's here's the other data point that I think a lot of people need to understand this for every 10 basis points of an increase in the interest rates that are a factor in this inflation struggle is $22 billion more in debt service.

So you know I would agree if we had a chance to balance the budget we should I have served under mainly Democrat.

Rule since I've been in Congress, either in the house or in the White House.

So look, both sides got to come together.

This is a this is not just a Republican issue or Democrat issue.

This is an American issue.

We've got to solve for the budget crisis and our balance sheet there, Sir, next question goes first to Mr colleagues.

We've all talked about inflation here.

It is in fact global, is it not the inflation rate in Europe, in the European countries?

I think I checked a moment.

You know, and it was something along the lines of 11 or 12%.

So is it more than just an American phenomenon?

Are the are the forces more global than they are purely domestic?

There are some global forces.

We exist in a global market.

They are the most dominant force in that market and so a lot of what we do, the rest of the world follows to a certain extent.

And you'll see other countries are doing a lot of the same things.

They're central banks dumped a lot of extra currency into their market and and dumping that currency in the market causes inflation and and we're paying for that now.

As far as the global crisis for inflation goes, that's not really the realm of Congress necessarily to take care of.

I can't fix what's going on in Europe.

So our Congress works for the United States of America.

We can fix what's going on here.

We can quit borrowing money from the Fed.

We can quit have deficit spending.

We can start paying back some of what we've borrowed so that we can control our inflation here.

And then if the rest of the world follows suit, that's great.

But that's up to the rest of the world.

That's not a job for our Congress.

Mr Womack.

One minute.

Yeah, well, it is a global problem.

Inflation rages around the world, but for different reasons.

I mean, in in America, I think we could begin the process of fixing inflation if we just had.

The opportunity to unleash American resources here from an energy perspective, everything that we do, our entire economic structure is has energy kind of baked into it.

So that's one thing we can do in America to lead and that is quit relying on the global supply because energy is kind of a global commodity, is a global commodity and be able to unleash those resources right here under our feet.

And I think we did a better job of that.

We would be leading our way out of this recession or at least begin the process of doing that.

The other thing is.

We got a big war raging in Ukraine.

We've got oppression in Iran and demonstrations going on there.

So there's a lot of upheaval.

This is not a very stable world we live in.

And all of those things, I think, go to contribute to the inflationary spirals that are affecting the entire country.

Miss Mallard Hayes.

Yes, this is definitely a global issue, and I'm glad Mr Womack identified that as such since he has been so dead set on blaming it on this current administration.

Yes, we are seeing this because of the pandemic.

Yes, because of the supply chain.

Interruption worldwide throughout the pandemic and economies are trying to get back on their feet.

However, if we're only focusing on our oil industry for our energy needs, we are missing the boat that is a non renewable resource.

We are not setting the precedent for our children in the future.

We have to come up with a cohesive solution that contains fossil fuel, green energy and other ways that we can sustain our energy grids going into the future because we are going to run out of the resources we currently have and if we do not put focus on that now, we're going to be.

Trying to play catch up, Mr Glacis 30 seconds to follow up it.

It always is good if you can develop your, your domestic resources.

For the most part, we already are producing everything that we need in this country.

Much of what we import into this country as far as energy or oil goes is so that we can export it back out as a refined product.

Oil is on a global market, it's priced on a global market, so.

Increasing domestic production isn't necessarily going to have that big of a change here, depending on what the rest of the global market is doing.

So we do need to concentrate on making sure that we have diverse domestic energy production.

So, but once again, we can't be.

The Savior for the rest of the world, a lot of the rest of the world, a lot of the global market is going to have to be taken care of by countries over there.

Mr Womack, 32nd.

You know, I there's there's not much more to add to it other than the fact that as I said it's an unstable world and national security is a big piece of it.

We have to continue to bolster national security so that we remain free and capable of doing the things that we do.

The like I say the energy issues that are facing this country right now are hitting everybody in the pocketbook from what they do by putting gas in their car to the foods that they put on their table.

It is A and it doesn't have to be this way.

We have the resources.

All we have to do is bring those back to bear in the United States of America.

And we can do it in a better and cleaner way than people around the globe.

And 30 seconds from Miss Mallet Hayes.

I think I'm good.

All right.

Our next question then comes from Miss Lee.

And he goes first to Miss Malliotakis.

Miss Mallet Hayes, one of the problems that we're seeing is in our Social Security benefits and Social Security system.

Last week, the government announced 8.7% bump in Social Security payments to adjust for inflation.

There are recent reports coming out saying that Social Security is going to be in big trouble by 2034, as early as 2034.

So how does the program sustain itself?

What do we do now to find a solution to Social Security benefits?

Well, I think you're going to hear us revert back to the whole spending.

I don't disagree with them that we need a balanced budget.

We need to ensure that Social Security and Medicare stay solvent, and we do that by putting a priority on things that matter the most to most Arkansans and as well as Americans.

I think we need to look at.

All of our systems and do a good run through and try to make them more efficient and see how we can save money there.

I know there's a lot of systems that have are still very clunky and inefficient and hard to use and if we can focus on making those more efficient we can save some labor costs there and and put that money towards the Social Security and Medicare funds that we need.

And Mr one minute yes Social Security we've known that's going to be in in in trouble for a while it's it's not really anything new it's kind of accelerating as far as how far we're going to get before it runs out of money.

But.

One of the things we're going to have to do is try and make it so that it's solvent for the future.

It it should have been set up to where it was a retirement account.

People feel like they paid into Social Security and they're entitled to that money and and they should feel that way.

But unfortunately what they paid in did not go into an account for them.

It just went to pay for current beneficiaries.

And so it's set up kind of like a Ponzi scheme, and those are designed to eventually fail.

So what we need to do is change that, change Social Security for future beneficiaries so that it becomes a defined contribution plan instead of a defined benefit plan.

That way people actually are paying into their own account.

The money will be there because they put it there.

So as far as people that are currently expecting to get Social Security that vested, they paid in all their lives and they want to see that money.

Right now it's not there.

Which means we're gonna have to find other places in the budget where we can cut so that we can pay the benefits promised to those that paid in their whole lives and now don't have another option to save for retirement.

Mr Womack, one minute.

Well, it's kind of hard to isolate Social Security over by itself because it's one piece and it's a large piece of what we call mandatory spending at the federal level.

The discretionary spending 50 years ago was about a third or was about 2/3 of of government spending.

Today it's about a third.

So 2/3 of government spending is tied up with Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the net interest on the debt, which is soaring right now.

So what we have to do is we have to look at the, the structure of our.

Entitlement program in in whole, it's just hard to separate one like Social Security out.

Medicare Trust Fund is going to run out in a couple of years.

Social Security still has about 8:00 or so years left before we start having to do some emergency planning on it.

But these are programs our people have paid into, these are programs our people rely on.

So structural changes that both sides can come to the table and agree on is what's going to be necessary if we're going to save these programs for future generations.

Alright, thank you Sir.

Miss Mallet Hayes, you have 30 seconds for a follow up.

We've known these we're going to be issues for the upcoming years for a while now, and yet we keep giving the same representatives the opportunity to make changes to these programs and to the the funding, and we haven't seen that happen.

Mr Womack's been in Congress for 12 years, and I haven't seen much of a any legislation that he's presented to to tackle these problems.

And while I can agree with what he's saying, I would like to see some action.

Thank you, ma'am.

Mr Calaguas, 30 seconds.

I'd I'd like to echo the same thing.

It it is long past time for action.

This isn't something that eight years from now we need to worry about emergency.

It's we know this is happening now.

We've known it's happened for a while.

We knew this was happening back in the 1980s when Ronald Reagan first raised the payroll taxes so that we could try and extend its life a little longer.

It's not something new.

It's something that should already have been addressed.

It's something that we need to address now because previous generations have just been kicking the can down the road.

Mr Womack, 30 seconds.

I don't think either of my opponents have been paying much attention.

I was a budget chair in 2018, led the Joint Select Committee on Budget Process reform, the last real budget that came out of the House Budget Committee.

I'm talking to true budget that balanced in the 10 year window was the budget I presented for FY19 and in that budget.

We called for an increase in the age of eligibility for Medicare.

It was small.

It was from 65 to 67.

But we couldn't get that budget put on the floor of the House of Representatives for a vote.

So I I put my money where my mouth is.

I don't just talk a good game.

I actually advocate for those kinds of solutions.

Our next question from Miss Munoz, and it goes first to Mr colleagues.

OK, so before we got ready for a debate week, we offered the opportunity to our viewers to submit questions via social media.

So this next question comes from a viewer in Pope County.

Our Kansans, like most Americans, are increasingly impacted by climate change driven weather extremes like floods and drought.

This is expensive and dangerous.

What are your plans for reducing Arkansas emissions and boosting clean energy and conservation practices?

Mr Klages, to you first.

That has to be taken care of by the people themselves.

That a lot of this.

Is going on at levels that that federal involvement isn't helping at all.

When we have mandates to go to electric cars, we're just shifting where the pollution comes from instead of actually reducing pollution.

So we need to take take local actions, clean up things locally, carpool.

Plant trees.

Quit tending lawns and 10 gardens and grow trees instead.

Those are small things that we can do.

We already have pretty good legislation on making sure that our missions are pretty clean as far as our energy production goes.

So a lot of what we get in our pollution comes from overseas where we have no control.

So the best thing that we can do is is act local.

And again, stay diversified.

One thing I would like to see is replacing methane emissions from our trash by taking some of the coal plants that we're taking out of production and turn them into trash incinerators.

Methane is way worse than CO2 as far as the greenhouse gas goes.

That way we could get some free electricity from our trash, improve our environment, improve our energy situation.

It'd be a win.

Win for everybody's time there, Sir.

Mr Womack, one minute.

So I'm I'm not a climate denier, climate change denier at all.

I'm not a scientist.

I do recognize that there is a great discussion going on about climate change.

But the last thing we want to do, and I hate to keep coming back to energy, but it it is something that's very important to everyday Arkansans and and that is that we have the ability to produce energy right here, domestic energy, and we do it in a much cleaner, much more responsible way than places around the globe.

This administration, however, they're begging the Saudis not to cut production.

They want more production.

They're begging the Venezuelans to bring more production.

None of that helps the climate.

Look, if you're if you're going to change the paradigm on climate change from an energy perspective, I think Americans have the ability to do it best.

The last thing I would say is I'm a big proponent of nuclear energy.

We have a nuclear power plant right here in the 3rd that formerly was in 3rd, 3rd District of Arkansas over at London.

And and I think we need more of that kind of energy to reduce the carbon footprint and bring about a sustainable grid.

Miss Mallard Hayes, one minute.

Again, even though he's not denying climate change, he has not put his his energy into creating plans and solutions to be progressive.

I do not like to live in a world where we where we have to be regressive and try to play catch up with the the problems that we're seeing.

We know climate change is a problem.

It is here now.

We have got to take all of our eggs out of 1 basket and diversify our energy in ways of making solar energy more affordable and accessible to the average everyday person, making electric electric vehicles more accessible.

Improving our public transportation and our railway system so that we can decrease the amount of 18 Wheelers we're seeing on our roadways and still being able to move our goods throughout the United States, but while reducing our footprint.

Mr Glass, you have another 30 seconds, Sir.

A lot of people say that we need to move more to solar and wind and it's not really a thing.

So when we shut down some plants to replace them with solar and what we're really replacing them with is natural gas.

And so we've seen our natural gas you shoot up.

That has caused our electric bills to go up because our electric is now off natural gas and the price of natural gas is shot up.

So I'm my electric bill is doubled.

So that's not a good way to diversify.

All we're doing is we're shifting our pollution burden from one place to another.

So we do need more diversification.

Nuclear is one small part of that option.

But the more diversified we can get, then the more reliable our grid will be and the cleaner our energy will be.

Mr Womack, well, I'm sure my, my Democrat opponent kind of subscribes.

Probably, at least the way she talks to the California model, it says, what, by 2035, we're just not going to have any internal combustion engine cars running on fossil fuels.

So this notion that we're gonna take our eggs out all out of 1 by basket and diversify, look, their policy is pretty simple.

Ours is pretty simple as we're we're in all of the above energy solution party.

Theirs is an all but one look.

There's room for all of them.

We need to proceed.

Gotta call it Miss Mallet Hayes.

I disagree.

I'm very aware of the problems that the California system is seeing.

But that doesn't mean that we don't move forward with trying to improve what?

We're doing now.

We cannot continue to preach fossil fuel, fossil fuel, fossil fuel and do nothing to improve the systems that we can reduce our footprint in the future.

Next question goes first to Mr Womack.

Sir, we read that there is a movement underway in your call, your conference caucus, Republican conference.

To hold the budget hostage.

The debt ceiling hostage to cuts in entitlement programs, particularly Social Security and Medicare.

And if you don't get concessions, just let it crash, is that do you subscribe to that approach and is that responsible governance?

Well, we're gonna face it, but there's gonna be something else that will happen before we get there.

First of all, you have to understand that there we have an election, a midterm election that we have to get through to determine who the new majority will be and who will have the gavels and the ability to propose legislation in the next Congress.

And I hope, I hope we do.

The first thing we have to do is we have to finish our work from 2022.

We have the a funding bill for FY23 that is still pending.

We're funded through the middle part of December.

You gotta go back in the lame duck and figure out how to fund the government through the end of the fiscal year, and that will be the first thing.

Then, assuming that we flip in the midterms and the house is in Republican hands.

Then I think we have to use the debt ceiling as a means to get some leverage on budget process reform.

We can't continue to deal with CR's and omnibus packages and threats of a government shutdown.

What we need to do is pay our bills and then focus on a process that works for the American people and can do it on time.

Miss Mallard Hayes, that's actually the the first I've heard of that.

But I would highly hope that that is not the case.

It is not fair to hold the American people hostage when it is our elected officials that have not been able to get the.

Have done there in the United States Congress.

So if we're gonna hold anybody hostage, we need to be holding them hostage by reducing or eliminating their pay until they can get things funded.

Mr Colleagues, you have one minute.

Yeah, it hasn't really mattered whether the Republicans or Democrats have been in control.

And I know Mr Womack was saying we have to wait until we know who's going to have power.

And the parties aren't supposed to have power in Congress.

The people are supposed to have power in Congress.

This is this is a country of we the people, not we the parties.

So we shouldn't be waiting to see who's going to have power.

We should be giving the people the power.

The people that have paid into Social Security deserve to be paid.

We need to do whatever we can to the rest of the budget to make sure that they're paid what they were owed because they paid into it.

That's going to mean a lot of cuts somewhere.

That means someone's going to have to stand up and lead the charge on that, not say while the party did this or my party did that or it's the other party's fault.

So we need people to start taking blame on themselves and taking credit for themselves for the work that they do themselves.

Mr Womack isn't the representative of the Republican Party.

He's a representative of the people of the third district.

I'm running to be a representative for the people of Third District.

So those are the people that need us working for them, not the parties.

I think that's if we can fix that focus, we'd have a much easier time fixing the rest of these issues, Mr Womack.

So default is an option.

Let me let me just say it again.

We need to pay our bills.

I think most of the people that I represented the third district of Arkansas, do not believe in creating a sovereign debt crisis.

So but at the same time we can't.

That's that's the definition of insanity.

Continue to raise the debt ceiling, continue to spend you know, like drunken sailors and then turn around and have to do it all over again.

We need something in return for elevating the debt ceiling of the United States so that we can pay our bills and that would be some kind of process reform budgetary.

Forms that can bring us back closer to a balanced budget, Miss Malliotakis.

Well, most of our congressional leaders have been there 10 to 20 years, so I think at this point we need new leadership that brings new innovative ideas for that to happen.

Yes.

Yeah, I.

He talks about we need to.

We need to do these things, but when he's been in office, he's done the exact opposite.

He's voted for every single debt limit increase.

So if we're gonna stop spending increased amounts of debt, then we need to not increase the debt limit ceiling.

We need to start spending responsibly inside of our limits, which is something that he admits and he tells us that's what we need to do.

But he's never done.

He's done the exact opposite while he's been in office.

We need servants in Congress, not leaders.

We need servants that are going to do the people's work.

Miss Lee has the next question, and it goes first to Mr Gallagher.

Mr Calaguas, let's move overseas now to Ukraine and Russia.

How is a US handling the current conflict?

In Ukraine, between Ukraine and Russia, and when it comes to our involvement with the war and with aid.

So let let me first say that all the fighting is going on in Ukraine.

This isn't an argument over who's responsible.

This, this is the fault of Russia invading Ukraine.

The problem is, is that we don't have the money to help.

So we're $31 trillion in debt.

We we can't afford to try and help fix that.

So we're sending a lot of money.

We're sending a lot of equipment using money we don't have, which is causing our own nation harm.

So that's part of the problem when you run up $31 trillion in debt is that you don't have the money to do the things that you want to do.

So the other thing is, is it?

It's not really our business.

We can't afford to be the world's policeman.

It's kind of what caused the Soviet Union to collapse in the 1st place.

The Soviet Union collapse because they couldn't afford to do all of the foreign stuff that they were doing.

All the interference they had overseas bankrupted their nation.

We can't afford to let the same thing happen here.

What we need to do is get some responsible government so that then when something comes up where we do need to spend money, we have it to spend.

In the meanwhile, we do have people.

I'm sorry, I'm afraid, Sir.

Mr Womack, you have one minute, Sir.

I'm not real sure I understand his answer, because on one hand we don't need to be involved, but on the other hand, the collapse of the Soviet Union was because we're not involved.

Fortunately, he was not in charge back in the 1930s and 1940s when World War Two was raging on in two different fronts.

Look, we cannot afford for Eastern Europe.

To be overrun by an unchecked Vladimir Putin.

And he's trying to reclaim exactly what was dissolved in the late 80s, early 90s.

So, you know, I support the United States of America, help helping our allies so that we never have to trigger an article five response in NATO.

And I promise you, if he's unchecked, if he's able to take Ukraine, he's going to take Georgia, he's going to take the rest of those former Soviet bloc countries, and he's going to run roughshod over the rest of Europe.

And that's something that our country, the rest of the world, just simply cannot afford.

So I support our role.

In helping our friends in Ukraine defend themselves against this brutal dictator.

Miss Mallet Hayes, one minute.

This is actually something I do agree with Mr Womack on.

We have got to keep our relationship strong.

We have to ensure that the eastern part of the globe does not crumble under Putin.

He has got to be held responsible.

And if we do nothing, he will continue to overtake as much of the the continent as he can without our help.

That's what we're going to see.

And we're going to be in a much worse crisis than we're in right now.

Following the pandemic.

So I also support what Congress has done.

I hope that we're able to help them meet a a more formidable outcome without having to escalate any further.

But there is always that that fear of we don't know what Mr Putin's going to do and we have to be ready for everything.

You have 30 seconds, Sir.

Yeah.

I would just like to remind everybody that, you know, our country was attacked in World War Two.

We were justified in going to war.

Then Putin hasn't attacked us.

So at a certain point, Europe is gonna have to be able to solve their own problems because, like I said, we can't afford to be the world's policeman.

So it would be nice, but we can't.

I would encourage every American to voluntarily contribute as much as they want.

But we can't force Americans to contribute.

We can't go into debt further.

In order to do this, or we'll be doing more more harm to ourselves than we ever were to Russia.

30 seconds Mr Woman the geopolitical issues facing the world with an unchecked Putin are just not something that we can live with.

And, and I mean there are lots of you see it just like I see it in our our staff is even handled constituent service issues involving our friends in Ukraine.

We just simply cannot allow this guy to continue to run roughshod over his former Soviet bloc neighbors.

This is a sovereign nation that has been attacked.

And as I said we've got to.

Responsibility to NATO.

It's danger close to our NATO countries.

I'd never want to see us have to respond in an Article 5 way to an attack on the rest of the needle block.

Miss Maladies, I understand Mr Caglia's concern about US spending money that we don't choose to spend to, to help Ukraine.

But that can be said for a lot of our taxes being spent on things that a lot of us don't necessarily agree with.

But at the same time, the purpose right now is to prevent any escalation in the current situation that could potentially not only affect the United States but globally.

And I think that's something that we need to continue to be a part of the the solution.

Ohh, we're gonna pause our questioning for just a moment to let you know that the candidates can participate in a press conference immediately following the debate.

And you can participate as well as observers anyway.

Scan the QR code on your screen with your mobile device.

Get your phones ready so you'll see that QR code periodically through the balance of our debate and our next question from Miss Munoz and it goes first to Mr Womack to Mr Womack.

This is another viewer question from Garland County and this viewer says we are one of four states that does not allow online voter registration.

Should Arkansas have online voter registration?

Mr Womack?

Well, you know, I I guess we we should have online voter registration if there is a way to ensure.

That it's as as many people have said, easy to vote, hard to cheat and and that, I think, is where the rub is.

I don't.

I don't question anything about Arkansas election law at all there.

You know the the elections in Arkansas in the last election I thought were were executed perfectly were there a few hiccups in some places I guess they're always are.

The real question is in the details of what I think what most people want is.

I think they want to make sure that the people who are voting in our elections are qualified to vote in our elections and that those votes are properly counted and as long as we have.

System in place that provides for that level of confidence and I like exactly what we do in Arkansas and wish maybe and likely that the rest of the country would follow our lead.

Miss Mallard Hayes.

We are in the 21st century and we should absolutely be able to online register.

It is a shame that people have to go through so many steps to be able to get their vote to count.

Here in the state of Arkansas.

There is a system in place like Mr Womack was Speaking of because we had to use it to get out or or to prevent us from receiving the child tax credit.

You had to go in, put all this information.

You had a system that you had to take your picture.

That system is in place.

We can easily transfer that into the state of Arkansas.

We could transfer that into all the states to make sure that our our.

Elections are safe and that there is no questioning.

I don't, I don't question at all that our elections were safe, but I definitely do not want to see another 2020 in the future elections.

And if we can do that by creating easier to use systems that we can provide identification for people, that I'm all for it.

Just colleagues.

In order to register, you have to show ID that you are you say you are.

You have to show proof of residency like you've got a an electric bill.

You gotta fill out a form.

You can do that online just as easy as you can in person.

You can scan an ID, you can scan an electric bill.

You can fill out a form online.

There's absolutely no reason why we shouldn't have online voter registration.

30 seconds for follow up Mr Womack.

If it's a fail safe program, I support it.

Miss Maladies, I think we've hit it off.

And Mr Gallegos, you have another.

That one's pretty easy.

OK. Our next question I believe is from me and it goes to Miss Mallat Hayes.

There apparently is some, well, there is legislation now pending, started over on the Senate side to make a nationwide a ban on abortion.

This is of course.

Following the reversal of Roe, your position.

Honestly, I looked into this one a little bit.

Being in a state right now where we have one of the most restrictive laws, I was kind of very intrigued to see if it would open up the access for women in the state of Arkansas, and unfortunately it doesn't.

So no, I would not support that legislation.

We are setting a terrible precedent by not following the experts opinions on what's best for females and women in their healthcare, and we're also telling half of the American population that we don't believe that they're capable of making an informed decision for themselves.

On top of that, most of the legislators.

They're making these laws for us have no idea the mental, emotional or physical toll that a pregnancy can take on a person.

There's colleagues.

I firmly believe that at the point of conception a unique new individual life is formed and and that unique person is entitled to all of the rights and all of the protections is every other person.

So personally, I don't have any children.

My only child died six weeks after conception.

And that is the most incredibly painful thing that I've ever endured, and that I still endure.

And I cannot imagine someone going up to someone who has lost a child like that and say it was just a mass of cells.

You've got nothing to grieve.

So our courts have already ruled that we can use DNA to identify individual people.

And at the point of conception, we have human DNA unique to an individual individual.

It's not the mother, it's not the father.

I think our our laws need to reflect that.

Are there times when someone is authorized to use deadly force against somebody?

Yes, there are, and our courts can determine that.

We can determine that at trial.

But at the point of conception, you have a unique human life that life deserves just as much protection as everyone else's.

Mr Womack.

Statutory ban.

Well, look, the Dobbs decision push it back to the States and of course in Arkansas has already been discussed.

We have a trigger law here, a trigger bill, trigger law that that goes into effect pursuant to the Dobbs decision.

I I believe that on issues like this that are so close and so emotional and so emotionally charged that the best place for those issues to be decided is where the people closest to the people, that's the way our Constitution was formed.

But that said, you know, I support a federal ban on abortions with certain exemptions, you know, certain exceptions.

And I've been very clear about that.

My pro-life record speaks for itself.

So, but again.

The closest we can get these decisions to the people that should decide them I think is best for all concerned and we will see how this plays out in the in the coming weeks and months.

Follow up, Miss Mallardi's abortion has become this very politicized thing.

But when we look at the root of what abortion actually is, it is a medical procedure that is warranted at times.

And there is nobody that needs to make that decision besides a female and her medical providers.

As a mother of two children that will be of childbearing age soon, I hope and I pray that they will always have the ability to make the best decision for them without interference from our our government.

Stir colleges?

Yeah, I think a lot of times we're having the wrong argument.

This shouldn't be an argument over what medical procedures should or shouldn't be allowed.

This is, this is a rights argument.

So should all people get equal protection of the law or not?

So I believe everyone should get equal protection of the law that includes our children.

Mr Womack, 30 seconds.

Nothing else to add other than what I've already said.

It's a it's a tough issue.

It's going to continue to be debated across our country, and we'll see what the next Congress does and so far is proposing abortion bans and where they play out.

And our next question comes from Miss Lee, and he goes first to the congressman, Congressman Womack, we have been talking a lot about debt, $31 trillion in debt as of today, keeps sticking up.

So to you, what is wasteful spending?

And where can we cut first?

Well, depends on who you ask.

I'm an appropriator, so every day in my office I have people that come and lobby me for money for something, and some of these are really heartwarming issues and others you know or maybe down the list a little bit.

But to me, we just have to have a national conversation, and a budget would help to be able to get both sides together.

Do a budget resolution that demonstrates these are what these are the needs, these are the resources with which to meet those needs and be able to scale those down to size so that we can at least get to a balanced budget and not be contributing to a $31 trillion debt.

The challenge we have right now is that we are in excess of a trillion dollars in deficit every year.

The.

And the discretionary budget of the US government by itself is just a trillion 5.

So if you try to cut a trillion in the deficit, you you can't do it without getting into the entitlement program.

So I think a national conversation and agreement that we need to get a strategy in place is of the utmost importance.

Miss Mallard Hayes.

So without having the access like Congressman Womack does to everything and everything, the breakout of what we're spending money on my priorities would definitely be.

The programs that give the most benefit to the most Arkansans and Americans.

However, as he's talking about that that 1.5 million, I would like to remind everybody that we added 1.7 trillion by the 2017 tax cuts that we gave to the wealthy.

Obviously, that in hindsight was not a good for our deficit and we are going to have to make that up on top of the new spending that we've been doing to keep people with roofs over their roofs over their houses and food on their table.

Mr calaguas.

We're hearing people we need to cut, but every time we bring up a spending measure, everyone says we well, we can't cut that.

So and we we've heard what we need to get both sides to agree on something.

Well we've we've had side splitting power, we've had the sides having power to themselves and there hasn't been any agreement on that.

There's not going to be any agreement on that unless we start doing something different.

If we're gonna do something different, we have to start voting different.

So get it to where there's not both sides.

So if we can get it to where no party has power in Congress, and you'll need three at least to do that.

Then we can get it to where people actually have to make those decisions, they can't just go on party lines.

So that's what I'm offering, I'm offering a chance at change because saying, well, we need to do this and we'll have to find in a way to agree.

It's not gonna happen.

It hasn't happened.

They've been saying that for 20 years.

So he's been in office for 12 years.

It hasn't happened.

It's not going to happen unless we do something different.

Thank you, Sir.

Mr Womack, you have another 30 seconds.

I'm one of 435 people in the House of Representatives.

That does not wield just a tremendous amount of power, I would admit.

And and it's by the way, it's trillion, not million.

And the and the 1.7 trillion you referenced in the tax cuts and JOBS Act.

Let me just remind everybody watching this program tonight.

In 2022, we collected more money than in the history, the history of this country.

So we don't have a revenue problem.

We have a spending problem.

She wants to tax and spend more.

I think we need less government, less spending, and more of an approach toward balancing the books of the federal government.

Thank you, Sir.

Miss Mallard Hayes, you have another 30 seconds.

None of the solutions I've offered or anything I've talked about has talked about increasing taxes on everyday American citizens.

I will revert back to we need an overhaul of all the systems to figure out how we can cut spending on inefficient processes that are clunky and not easy to use.

Mr Gladys, you have 30 seconds, Sir.

I part of the problem we have to fix is that we do have this automatic spending, this non discretionary spending, where you don't get to say Congress did that on their own.

Congress is the one that decided, well we're not going to give ourselves a say.

Congress can fix that and say we're going to give ourselves a say so.

I'm sorry, go ahead.

He has admitted that we need to cut spending.

We do have a spending problem and that is true.

We do have a spending problem.

The problem is, is that he hasn't done anything to address the spending problem.

We keep spending more and more and more.

Running, no matter who's in power, when he had the presidency as Republicans, when Congress was Republicans, they still trillion dollar deficits.

Record amounts of revenue?

Alright, Miss Munoz has another question, and this one goes first to Mr Womack.

Mr Womack, sorry, sorry, I'm sorry.

Miss Mallard Hayes.

Yes, that's OK.

So let's talk about the health care industry.

They have taken quite a hit.

They are continuing to struggle throughout the pandemic as we're still on the heels of it.

What would be some of your solutions to help all the hospitals and clinics in Arkansas and specifically within your district?

Miss Mallahan, as a healthcare worker, I see first hand daily the struggles we have due to the shortages post pandemic, the overworked, underpaid.

Employees that we have, I know my opponent was part of a group of legislators that sent a letter to the pandemic.

Head of the Pandemic Response Team and one of them to look into travel nursing and unfortunately there were so many hospitals that needed travel nursing because we are not paying our nurses what they're worth.

So how do we create ways that our healthcare providers are able to pay our nurses so that they can retain their staff?

That is a huge problem our healthcare industry is facing right now.

We also have to make sure that in in those shortages that we're not losing healthcare opportunities in our rural communities.

We know that they're the first ones to see their services.

Decline when we have a healthcare shortage and a a funding issue.

So we have to make sure that they're at the forefront of our thoughts while we're making plans.

Mr Colleagues, you have one minute Sir, we were having healthcare issues long before the pandemic started.

The biggest issue is there.

There simply aren't enough healthcare professionals.

There aren't enough doctors, there aren't enough nurses.

So you're going to have money chasing too few people, which has got to inflate the cost.

So there is a lot of travel nurses where people are traveling because they get paid more money that way and more power to them that they are gonna get paid for their skills.

So.

Yes, that is going to leave places that don't have enough people.

It's because there weren't enough people.

The reason you have travel nurses is because they're traveling to a place that didn't have enough people.

So some of that that's that's gonna take a while to fix.

It takes a while to train a doctor, it takes a while to train a nurse, and we're gonna have to fix a lot of our broken down education system to fix that.

So there there is no easy answer for that one.

The second issue is funding.

We spend federal funding on health care, about 1 1/2 trillion a year.

And half of that goes to administrative costs.

It goes to administering the healthcare programs, not in the actual healthcare itself.

So that's another area where we need to get the government out of the way so that we can actually make a good use of the money that we have so that it's going to actually solve the problems and not just create more bureaucracy.

Thank you, Sir.

Mr Womack, you have one minute.

Well, I have a record on healthcare.

I'm the only person up here because of my position.

I've had an opportunity to actually.

Address the accessibility of healthcare.

We we put lots of money in appropriations bill language, which is the committee I serve on and for graduate medical education because we do have a provider shortage.

Everybody knows that.

And I have personally asked for money and appropriation bills over the last two years to provide better nursing assistance at Arkansas Tech University, Russellville Campus, Ozark campus and then asked Jim Rollins up at the Northwest Technical Institute.

He's got a bold plan up there to deal with some of the shortages in our nursing programs and an expansion of the campus at NTID and we've advocated for money for that program.

We recognize that we have a shortage and and it's only.

Satisfying that shortage, that is going to stop us from people going around the country gouging people because there is a shortage of nurses and the traveling nurses can go out there and charge exorbitant rates for the services that they provide, which is the primary person purpose of what that letter was about.

To prevent the very price gouging she talked about earlier in this conversation.

Thank you, Sir.

Mr Miss Mallet Hayes, you have 30 seconds while the funding that Mr Womack has secured has been great for the training.

Purposes of health care providers, the biggest problem is retention.

And we're not going to retain them with the cost of education that they're having to face on top of the interest rates that they're seeing with student loan debts.

And we're also not going to retain them if we cannot pay them a livable wage, they're not going to stay in this area and they're going to find where they can make a livable wage to support their families.

Mr Calaguas, 30 seconds.

Yeah, once again.

God bless the people that are that are leaving to get enough money to pay them for what they're worth.

Calling them evil and saying they're gouging people because they're going to get the money that they deserve, that's that's not an answer to the to the problem.

An answer to the problem is in fact training more people that are capable of doing the job.

And it's not just expanding someplace at a Community College or at a different college, it's.

K to 12 we need to improve the quality of education so that there are people that are capable of going to those schools and coming out as quality professionals.

Mr Womack, 30 seconds.

Yeah, some some of these issues are going to be solved with a better approach to how we educate our kids, and we're doing a better job of that in the third district, the Peak Innovation Center at Fort Smith, AR, some of the other expanded facilities around the third district that are helping educate young kids coming through high school as to what the other, shall we say, programs?

Far out there that they could enter into, even perhaps without a college degree, just get that training locally so that they can go right into the workforce and not incur a lot of student loan debt and instead start making a livable wage right off the bat.

Well, the clock is talking to us, to our candidates, and to we panelists, and we're captive to it.

And the clock is telling us that we are out of time for any of our five debate.

And now we are going to closing statements, Mr College, as you go first.

To sum up.

Most of the problems that we've been talking about are not new.

We've been talking about these same problems for a decade or longer.

So we haven't seen any solutions come from Congress.

We've seen the problem get worse.

We need to do something different so you cannot keep doing the same things and expect different results.

That that is insanity and that's what we've been doing.

We alternate whether we vote for Democrats or whether we vote for Republicans, and we keep getting the same results because there's not much of a difference between the two when it comes down to what they actually vote for and what they actually do.

So we need to change that.

We need to change by voting for independence, by voting for third parties.

And I realized that that's tough for some people, that's that's something different.

But different is exactly what we need.

That's the problem is that we haven't had that difference.

We need to take that chance, go out and vote for something different so that we can actually see something different happen in DC.

Miss Mallard Hayes, you have one minute to close.

I am running to be the next Congresswoman of District 3 because I believe in Community.

I grew up in a small rural community in northwest Arkansas where I say your neighbors became your friends and then they became your family.

That's the type of community I want my children and all our Kansans to know.

Our current representative touts that he knows what the third Congressional District needs.

Yet he's been in office for 12 years and has only had one bill passed into law for a commemorative coin.

He doesn't care about the people who are struggling to put food on the table.

The roof over their head.

He doesn't care about the food insecure neighbors that we have all throughout our district.

He doesn't care about the shortages we're seeing in education, labor, and service worker labor.

He doesn't care about the burnout that our healthcare workers are seeing or that parents really are concerned about their children getting the best education no matter where they live in the district.

If he cared about all of those things, he would have been working on legislation over the last 12 years that addressed all Arkansans.

I don't have to tell you how bad of a job he's done because his track record will do that for me, but I can tell you as your next congresswoman.

I will fight tirelessly to rebuild our communities and bring a voice back to the third Congressional District.

Mr Womack, to you now for a close one minute, Sir.

Well, let me just take my remaining time to thank Arkansas PBS for this forum.

This is a great opportunity for us to have a robust debate, talk about the issues that are important not only to our state, but certainly to our district and the nation.

I want to thank these two people up here.

I want to I want to thank my my opponent on the Democrat side, Miss Mallard Hayes and Mr Colleges for their willingness to put their name on the ballot and run a public run for public office and to be a representative of the people.

I want, I wanna thank my staff.

I want to thank my constituent service team.

We we talked a lot about issues up here.

We didn't say anything about how a congresswoman or a congressman deals with the constituents across the myriad of issues facing them at the federal bureaucracy level.

And I've got a team of just superb people that work every day tirelessly for their benefit.

So I do care about the people that I represent.

So thank you to everyone.

This has been an honor and a privilege to serve for the last 12 years.

Gonna look forward to Election Day and an opportunity to do it again.

Do all three of you, we thank you one more time and of course our audience as well.

You can watch this one and all the other Arkansas PBS debates on demand at the Arkansas PBS YouTube channel, on the PBS Video app and on our website.

The candidates have, as we mentioned, the option to participate in a press conference that's directly following the debate which will air on our YouTube as part of our live stream.

Scan the QR code on your screen and start watching YouTube right now.

Thanks again to our candidates, as always to you for watching, and to all of those who've hosted us here at the Reynolds Performance Hall at UCLA Election Day, November 8th.

Thank you.

Major funding for election 2022 Arkansas PBS debates is provided by AARP Arkansas, with additional funding provided by the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce.