The two major party candidates seeking Vermont’s only seat in the U.S. House debated Tuesday.
The debate hosted by Vermont Public brought together Democrat Becca Balint, the pro-tem of the Vermont Senate, and Republican Liam Madden, a Marine Corps veteran and anti-war advocate who calls the current political system deeply dysfunctional and characterizes himself as an independent.
Moderator Connor Cyrus began with questions on inflation. Balint says it’s not an easy issue to address but federal leaders can take action.
"First and foremost we need to look at price gouging that’s happening and I would support a bill like Elizabeth Warren’s in the Senate on really going after companies that are using this opportunity to price gouge on goods and services that we all rely on," Balint said. "I would also look at a windfall profits tax on fossil fuel companies. And in a broader, long-term sense we really need to be investing more in making sure we’re building more products here in the United States.”
Madden said the first and simplest thing to do is acknowledge that low-income people are most affected by inflation.
“Those people need to have their benefits adjusted to the price of inflation so that they’re hit less hard. I would agree with Becca on taxing windfall profits," Madden said. "Inflation is about having too much currency in the economy and in order to extract some of that you need to extract it from the sources where it is most equitably extracted and so those are the companies doing the best, fossil fuels and pharmaceuticals come to mind. We need to acknowledge that the source of inflation is often not just that there’s too much currency but also that there’s restriction in supply and clearly this bout of inflation was kicked off through energy shortages as well as other things but primarily through energy.”
The U.S. Supreme Court will review a case – Moore vs. Harper - that would give state legislatures authority to set rules for federal elections without oversight by state courts or constitutions. Madden was asked if that happens how voting rights can be preserved.
“I think voting itself is the only check and balance that the citizenry has against the government," Madden said. "It’s every two to four years and it’s often for the choice of the lesser of two evils. So we need more than just voting. We need a renaissance of citizen engagement and civic engagement. That’s really the only way that we can have a healthy democracy.”
“Senator Balint, how do we preserve the integrity of our court while also preserving our democracy?" asked Moderator Connor Cyrus.
“If in fact this case overturns norms, that’s what we’re talking about, we’re talking about overturning norms for free and fair elections," Balint responded. "It brings us one step closer to authoritarianism. We need to look at court reform. Absolutely we have to look at term limits for federal justices both on the court and on the federal branch of judges. We have to look at restraining the number of cases that are used through the Shadow Docket or the emergency docket. And you know this is very serious. This is not something that we can take lightly and we need to pass H.R. 1 which is essentially another voting rights act.”
The candidates were allowed to ask each other questions and Madden asked Balint about climate change policies.
“What is your approach to those problems of never-ending growth and energy resources?" asked Madden.
“We have to move towards an economy that is not dependent on fossil fuels," responded Balint. "It’s not a choice of whether we can do that or not. We have to do it. We have to invest more in solar. We have to invest more in the grid. We have to make sure that Vermonters have the money in their pockets to be able to transition.”
“You didn’t mention that solar energy can’t provide all of our needs unless we use an obscene amount of land and that it can’t provide that power at night," said Madden.
“This crisis is going to require all kinds of solutions from wind to solar to reduction of use to weatherization of our homes," answered Balint. "And that’s something that we’ve done here in Vermont is really trying to attack it on all fronts and that’s what we need to do at the federal level as well.”
Also running are Libertarian Ericka Redic and Independents Matt Druzba, Adam Ortiz and Luke Talbot.
The seat is open because Democratic Congressman Peter Welch is running in hopes of succeeding retiring Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy.
