Brandt-Rohrabacher Debate Continued

Question #2: Immigration

Rohrabacher- He claimed that the biggest problem we are facing today are the 20 million (this is his claim) "illegal immigrants" in the US. He said that we need to make sure that “we don’t provide jobs”, and added that “we should not provide social security to illegal immigrants” (I never knew we did). Dana also claimed that these immigrants are sucking up our "limited money for healthcare and education". Ultimtely, Dana said that “we need a commitment to end all benefits”, and hold employers and immigrants accountable.

Brandt- Now according to Jim, a major problem that we are facing is that baby boomers leaving the workforce, and in turn we don’t have enough workers to fill many positions. As he put it, “I try to see it as a business issue." Also, he cited national security concerns, and that these 12-13 million workers need background checks. Of course, he also cited economic concerns, especially that employers paying below prevailing wage. Basically, his solution to the immigration issue is to hire 120,000 federal prosecutors to go after immigrants with overstayed visas, as well as go after employers who are not following federal employment law. As Jim put it, “We don’t have enough people to do the work… If we had the employers paying the prevailing wage, and the prosecutors to hold them accountable, we wouldn’t have this tax problem.”

Question #3: Healthcare

Brandt- He stated that in his corporate work, numerous clients “can’t compete with Canada and Europe because of healthcare… Those countries have universal healthcare.” He also spoke about the painful reality of families that are "one accident away from financial disaster." Basically, Jim proposed a single-payer universal healthcare system for catastrophic injuries, but everything else can be a choice for private plans.

Rohrabacher- He blamed healthcare problems on immigration. He claimed that the "illegal immigrants eat up those limited health dollars”, and he also blamed "frivilous" malpractice suits and big government. Dana also mentioned that he's been working on healthcare by joining with other Republicans in support of health savings accounts... And he broke with his party to support medical marijuana.