The 7th Congressional District candidates offered biting attacks on jobs in one of their final debates. Meeting in Wausau Tuesday night, Democrat Julie Lassa accused Republican Sean Duffy of supporting tax loopholes that ship jobs overseas. “I think that it’s absolutely crazy to ask American workers to work as hard as they do every day, and pay their taxes, just for the federal government to turn around and give their taxes dollars to a corporation who then moves their jobs to China, India, Mexico or some other country.”
But Duffy said Lassa is to blame – pointing to jobs lost under her chairmanship of the Senate economic development committee as an example. “There’s a lot of jobs in Wisconsin that are being exported to other states because the policies that Senator Lass has advocated for has made it more difficult for those companies to operate here in Wisconsin,” Duffy said.
The candidates, vying to succeed the retiring Dave Obey, agreed on eliminating mandates for health insurance coverage. But Duffy and Lassa disagreed on whether to repeal the health care law. “We need to have a piece of legislation that’s going to reduce costs and increase access,” said Duffy. “This bill doesn’t do that. But Lassa said repeal is not a viable option for most Wisconsin families. “I just can’t see going back and repealing this health care reform law, and putting people back in that same position where they don’t know how they’re going to pay their health bills,” said Lassa.
Duffy denied Tuesday night that he supports privatizing Social Security. He said during the debate that he likes Representative Paul Ryan’s plan as a starting point because it supports means testing. But Democrat Julie Lassa said even means testing is not the way to go. Lassa, a state Senator from Stevens Point, and Duffy, who resigned as district attorney of Ashland County to campaign for the House seat, will meet Wednesday night for their final debate in Superior.
Matt Lehman, WSAU