Yarmuth and Lally debate at AJ

Congressman John Yarmuth and challenger Todd Lally attended a forum at AJ this afternoon.

The two candidates spent much of their allotted time outlining their positions and, in Yarmuth's case, defending his record, and they shied away from taking potshots at one another.

Lally, a United Parcel Service pilot and Kentucky Air National Guard officer, said the country is headed in the wrong direction with debt and unemployment that are way too high.

“We have to make a change. … It's time to do better,” he said.

Yarmuth, seeking his third term, said he was proud he had supported House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and his Democratic colleagues in raising the minimum wage, shoring up Medicare, improving benefits for veterans, making prescription drugs more affordable for seniors and lowering the interest rate on student loans.

On the passage of the health care reform bill, for which Yarmuth voted, Lally said the measure is unconstitutional, is detested by a large majority of Americans and is out of financial reach of many individuals and the country as a whole. But Yarmuth said the old health care system was facing bankruptcy, had left 50 million people without insurance and was “clearly unsustainable.”[...]

Yarmuth, however, who voted for the economic stimulus package, said President Barack Obama inherited a huge debt from the previous administration of Republican George W. Bush and the stimulus bill was a last resort to halt a sinking economy. He contended that, without stimulus spending, unemployment nationally would be around 16.5 percent.

“We brought the country back from the brink,” he said, adding that the stimulus program had created about 1,800 jobs in Jefferson County alone.

I was planning to attend the forum this afternoon but an unforseen scheduling conflict came up and I was unable to do so.