Debate features clear differences between candidates on health care, regulations and other small business issues.
Rep. Todd Young and former Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh faced off yesterday in a debate that largely avoided personal attacks and focused on important small business issues, such as the federal Estate Tax, the Affordable Care Act and the EPA’s takeover of local land use decisions involving properties with water.
“It was clear last night why Congressman Young is the voice of Main Street Hoosiers,” said Indiana State Director Barbara Underwood. “From his positions on everything from Obamacare to the Waters of the U.S. rule, Congressman Young did what so few politicians have done during the 2016 election cycle: talk about issues that actually matter to small business owners.”
Obamacare
Young and Bayh differed sharply over whether the controversial Affordable Care Act, for which Bayh voted and which he continues to support, has been good for Indiana small businesses.
“Hoosiers pleaded with (Bayh) to vote against this law,” said Young, who called the ACA “the biggest tax increase in history.”
Despite the law’s deep flaws, which include shrinking markets, higher premiums and collapsing exchanges, Bayh defended his decision to cast the deciding vote in favor of Obamacare.
“We need to fix that parts of the law… but Congressman Young wants to take us back to the days where insurance companies can charge women more for their healthcare because they’re women,” Bayh said. “He wants to deny healthcare coverage for 302,000 citizens. He also wants to go back to the days where insurance companies can cancel your policy because he got sick. I don’t think that’s a step in the right direction.”
Global Warming
One question from a voter asked whether climate change was real. Bayh said he believes the theory and that Indiana and the nation should focus on renewable energy sources. He opposed President Obama’s so-called cap-and-trade program, however, as well as the EPA’s Clean Power Plan for Existing Power Plants.
“I think that would be harmful to our consumers,” said Bayh.
Young agreed.
“This is a global issue,” he said. “It’s not a Hoosier problem. We don’t want to wreck our economy trying to deal with it. Evan Bayh has supported an energy tax in the past. [That] would lead to an increase of $1,700 for American households. It would hurt manufacturers. It also hurts our farmers.”
Waters of the U.S. Rule
Young opposed the Waters of the U.S. Rule, which drastically expands the federal Clean Water Act to include local bodies, such as lakes, streams and farmers’ ponds. NFIB strongly opposes the massive regulation. It is the lead plaintiff in a federal lawsuit to stop the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers from taking over local land use decisions.
Bayh seemed to agree with Young, but he failed specify which regulations he would repeal except for the Clean Power Plan and cap and trade.
Taxes
Young and Bayh agreed in their opposition to Secretary Hillary Clinton’s proposal to raise the Estate Tax, which is a serious threat to family-owned businesses and farms. In fact, both candidates expressed support for repealing the so-called “death tax.”
“Death should not be a taxable event,” said Young.
Rep. Young said also that he would focus on broader tax reform to help small businesses so “they are not disadvantaged to our large corporations to bear so much influence to Washington D.C., so to file on the side of a postcard with a lower small business rate.”
NFIB strongly supports a low, single business tax rate for companies of all sizes.
