By Catherine Cuellar, KERA 90.1 reporter
Dallas, TX –
Catherine Cuellar, KERA 90.1 reporter: The debate was civil and low-key, which is what citizens recruited by KERA wanted. Co-moderator Krys Villasenor outlined the group's expectations at the beginning of the hour.
Krys Villasenor, KERA 13 Co-Moderator: Congressmen, they have asked that you answer their questions as candidly and conversationally as you possibly can. The citizens wanted to thank you in advance for avoiding personal attacks, spin and any statements that might have been lifted directly from campaign speeches.
Cuellar: The candidates didn't always follow those rules as they clashed over economic issues including taxes, jobs, and health care. Asked about their spending priorities, both put the war on terror and military funding high on their list. When asked what federal programs they would reduce or eliminate to pay for the war in Iraq, Sessions cited a solution he would come back to often: tax cuts.
Pete Sessions, Incumbent: U.S. Congressional District 32: Tax cuts spur the economy. When you vote against them or for tax increases, you slow job growth or kill jobs. You make sure people don't buy more equipment, and people don't get pay raises, they get laid off.
Cuellar: Frost repeatedly came back to the deficit created in part by tax cuts and said a tax hike might be required to help balance the budget.
Martin Frost, Candidate, U.S. Congressional District 32: I'm prepared to do what we did in 1993 and try and come up with a comprehensive plan of budget cuts and perhaps even some tax increases, if necessary.
Sessions: He wants to raise taxes once again. That's how you kill the economy of not only North Texas, but you make sure that we cannot fund the things we need to do because we lose.
Sam Baker, KERA 90.1 Co-Moderator: Time's up.
Sessions: Jobs.
Frost: No one wants their taxes to go up. No one wants that. The question is, what do we need to do for the good of the country? How do we have a balanced package so we can reduce the deficit that you're concerned about?
Cuellar: Frost also criticized Sessions' proposal for tax reform.
Frost: Pete has endorsed a 30% national sales tax to replace the income tax. I don't think that's right. I think that would be very harmful to business in this country. This would be a 30% national retail tax on top of the 8.25% state sales tax.
Session: The national sales tax does have several good components and I'm for doing things that will reform the tax system and what it does is it eliminates the current system that we have today, and we would start all over.
Cuellar: Panelists also asked about the so-called offshoring of jobs. Sessions said Democrats created the conditions that forced businesses overseas.
Sessions: They were forced offshore because of too many rules, too many regulations, too much taxation. I have the right plan and that is, we need to give tax cuts to encourage us to hire more people, buy more equipment, give pay raises.
Cuellar: Frost wants to legally discourage global outsourcing.
Frost: We can't order them to keep those jobs here in the United States, but we certainly can be creative through the tax code to provide incentives for them to create those jobs here and to take tax breaks away from them if they choose to move jobs outside the United States.
Cuellar: Both candidates said it was important to find health care for Texans who aren't covered. Frost favors expanding the public Children's Health Insurance Program, and supports government-sponsored negotiation with drug companies on behalf of the elderly. Sessions opposes a government-run single payer plan, preferring the existing Medicare drug discount cards and tax-free health savings accounts. While the candidates offered starkly different prescriptions for the health of the economy, they met the expectations of the diverse group of citizens, including homemaker Debbie Georgatos of Dallas.
Debbie Georgatos, Full-Time Homemaker, Former Trial Attorney, Dallas: There's always more detail you'd like to get but you can't get it in one hour when you're trying to cover so many issues. So I was satisfied.
Cuellar: For KERA 90.1, I'm Catherine Cuellar.
90.1's Bill Zeeble contributed to this report.
Email Catherine Cuellar about this story.