001[Music] good evening my name is sous Marek and I'm a member of the League of Women Voters of the Ann Arbor area I welcome you to tonight's forum featuring candidates from the United States House of Representatives 12th congressional district these candidates will be on the ballot in the new Tuesday November 6th election we are broadcasting this evening from CTN of Ann Arbor the League of Women Voters is pleased to be sponsoring these forums the league as a non partisan civic organization that encourages informed and active participation of all citizens in government the league works to increase understanding of major public policy issues and seek seeks to strengthen and broaden knowledge about our form of government and democracy while the league does not endorse parties nor candidates we do take stands on issues we have studied
002one of the league's most important goals is to assist voters in making informed choices at the polls and thus we bring you tonight's forum volunteers from the league are facilitating tonight's forum our moderator this evening is just Merrick who will explain the process from here Jeff thank you sue and thank you for joining us your good citizens and now it's my honor to introduce the four candidates for the United States House of Representatives 12th congressional district Niles Nemeth Debbie Dingell Gary waka witch and Jeff Jones Thank You candidates the forum tonight will have this format each candidate will have an opening statement of up to one minute each candidate will have a closing statement of up to 90 seconds in between the moderator will ask the questions which came from the Ann Arbor community each
003candidate will have 90 seconds to respond to a question at appropriate times the timer's will hold up their paddles with the amount of time remaining and then finally a stop sign and candidates please stop when indicated so that all have an equal opportunity to participate the order of speaking tonight was determined by a drawing before we begin first with an opening statement will be Niles Nemeth followed by Debbie Dingell Gary waka witch and Jeff Jones after the questions the closing statements will proceed in the same order our timers tonight our league members Betty Bishop and Jill Cohen and now may we have your opening statement mr. Nemeth thank you Jeff millions of workers are opposed to social inequality war the persecution of immigrants and the scourge of dictatorship there is immense hatred of both big
004business parties capitalism has failed for the vast majority of the population it means low wage jobs massive student loan debts unending war it has produced the Trump administration a government of the extreme right with fistic tendencies the democrats however are no alternative they are a party of wall street and the military many are asking the question what is socialism and how can it be achieved genuine socialism means equality and end to the domination of the few over the many it means an end to war which the ruling class seeks to control the world it means real democracy by placing the giant corporations under the control of the working class it means a society based on social need not private profit the socialist equality party is organizing the working class and a revolutionary movement to put
005an end to capitalism this is the only way that the rights of the working-class can be secured and the future of humanity preserved Thank You mr. Nemeth now ms dingle your opening statement please good evening I'm Debbie Dingell from Dearborn and the Democratic candidate for this congressional seat I first want to thank the League of Women Voters in CTN for sponsoring this forum this evening and I want to thank my fellow candidates for being here together and allowing this opportunity for us to have a discussion of the many issues I hope tonight is going to be a civil and respectful which I think it was because I know my my fellow candidates I'm deeply concerned about what is happening in this country right now and that people are trying to divide us with fear and
006hatred there are many issues that people are concerned about I hope that we will be talking about all of them ranging from the economy the fact that I believe that every Americans got a right to quality affordable health care that they've got a right for to breathe clean air and drink water and I hope we have a broad conversation about these many issues deceive me thank you thank you Miss Dingell and now mr. Wolcott which your opening statement Jeff my name is Gary walk which I live in Detroit I'm a longtime auto worker at Ford Motor Company and my time of Ford I've been elected multiple times as a UAW representative in my plant by mad co-workers my time as a UAW and as a line worker I've organized against the speed-up and the unfair
007working condition we face in the workplaces and I've organized against wage concessions against benefit concessions I've organized against two-tier wages which I believe we're bringing down the standard of living of working people everywhere in 2016 I helped organize a petition campaign to get the working class party on the ballot in Michigan because I believe that both major parties stand with and for the wealthy I believe that the working class needs its own party and that's why I'm running as a candidate this year for Congress for the working class party thank you thank you mr. Walker which and now mr. Jones your opening statement that could run my entire campaign on two topics maybe they're a little bit outdated but maybe it's taken 2,000 years to seep into our souls there's the love your neighbors yourself
008and the love of money is the root of all evil those two things together make interesting politics but I am the father of 11 children 14 grandchildren I've been a pastor for almost 30 years I've been in the ministry for about 35 years I've served an executive upper-management for just about the same amount of time little over 30 years and I my appetites to help people and I just have a desire to get engaged 24/7 I live it so Thank You mr. Johnson Thank You candidates and now two of the questions our first question goes to you mr. Namath it involves hyper-partisanship historians are saying that our current politics in Congress may have become as partisan as they have ever been since the Civil War how can Congress become less hyper partisan and work together
009well that's I think I think this you know this the question of hyper partisanship I think it's it's a false way of looking at the issue I mean what are the really the options that that people have to represent them in Congress is there a party that represents the working class I don't think there is I don't think the Democrats or the Republicans speak for the working class they may have you know these superficial divisions and and fights over certain issues but they agree on the fundamental issues they agree on the defense of capitalism they agree on the defense of social inequality and they and they agree on the exploitation of the working class so really I think it's it's a question of who's being represented in Congress and it's not the working class it's
010the capitalists Thank You mr. Nemeth ms Dingell also too you shared that concern that many do about the partisan bickering that we are seeing in this country I think that the last election which certainly concerned me was a reflection of people being tired of partisan bickering and wanting to see people get things done I think all of us share many of the same values though we may have different perspectives and may have different approaches I do believe in the free market system but I have always made it an effort to work across the aisle to listen God gave us two ears in one mouth for a reason to listen to each other to learn and to respect each other to try to find the common ground compromise as far as I'm concerned is not a
011dirty word I don't know at all I don't think any of us know at all at this table but I think that we've got a lot of problems facing this country and I think that we've got to figure out in by the way that we are going to work together I'm very proud of the fact that on gun control that I worked with my Republican colleague fred Upton and drafted and introduced a red flag bill that would help keep it would give law enforcement a tool to help in social workers to keep guns out of the hands of those that should not have guns I'm working with them right now on PFS there are a number of issues and I think we're never going to get medicare-for-all if we don't try to find a way
012to work with everybody so I think my record speaks for itself I reach across the aisle but I know what my values are and I know what I stand for thank you miss Dingell and now mr. walk which your answer please yes I also would say don't believe either of the two major political parties represent ordinary people in the society and I don't think either I'm offer answers both of them have been in power at different points in time the problems not only are not being solved but it getting worse we say have live in a society where the standard of living is going down infrastructure is falling apart a chilling can't get a good education and I think and among the population there's an anger at the fact that things are getting worse for
013Denari working people and so I think that the partisanship you see in Washington is really not reflective how people feel isn't there is the anger that Bey feels against their situation and I don't think either party offers an answer and I believe that the working class needs its own voice in this election because we have not be represented in the past and I think it only the working class could present solutions that would improve its situation thank you mr. Walker which and now mr. Jones also to you well yeah I think we need to return the voice back to our community lobbyists dollars are really debt and that debt gets paid back through will say favors or or concerns that deal in Washington so if we could return our congressmen to our communities and I
014think we have the technology today to do that through zoom or Skype or something like that we could be here more than there because when they're in Washington they get influenced in a different direction so if they were in our community I believe our voice would be recognized a lot better and that would resolve the issues Thank You mr. Jones and you actually have the the first of the next question the White House in the federal Environmental Protection Agency have weakened or eliminated regulations for the protection of our environment at the same time Michigan is experiencing historic threats to our environment there are many examples the Flint water crisis the Gellman 1 4 dioxane plume in Ann Arbor the contamination of the Kalamazoo River contaminated water in the Detroit schools the pee fast pee fast
015contamination of our groundwater the risk of a massive oil spill into Lake Michigan and Lake Huron from the deteriorated lying 5 we're running under the Mackinac Bridge what are your priorities and stress for protect against waters again these problems are real they're everywhere they're not limited to pockets they're through just part of our construction things with using lead pipe through through early days but certainly some of that information could have been controlled and we need to be a lot more concerned about the people that are serving in those committees that could could could affect those those issues I am working with a company called QC I out of Ann Arbor that actually can resolve the dioxane problem unfortunately it gets fought politically not to not to resolve some of these issues and I've also also
016with some of the contamination what they've come up with is a microwave system for MSW as well as the ground of round districting and and water can actually be run run through the system as well which completely purifies everything 100% you can actually take Hospital waste and make it into productive Oh biomass that's completely free and organic and these are some of the things that are out there but DTE and the Levin brothers who would love to keep their their landfills going and and those sort of things happening those are part of our contamination problems they could actually be changed and affected very easily with it with this new new technology thank you very much and to mr. mr. Namath same question to you sir well capitalism is producing an environment environmental disaster that threatens
017the future of life on Earth and we're seeing in here in southeastern Michigan with the issues that you raised whether it's the the lead poisoning in Flint which by the way when they they'll don't have a reliable source of water water system hasn't been fully replaced the contamination of pee fast it seems that everywhere they look they find this carcinogenic chemical and a solution to these problems and including the problem of global warming is blocked by the subordination of production to private profit and the division of the world into nation-states a rational approach to sustainable energy that allows for a vast increase in production to meet social needs requires scientific planning and so too does the issue of contaminated water and and all the other environmental problems that we face here including air pollution it
018requires scientific planning but that's blocked by the profit motive that motivates all of the industries that operate in southeastern Michigan and operate all over the world I think there needs to be a trillion dollar Public Works program run democratically by the working class to rebuild this country's infrastructure and to to make sure that everyone has the right to clean water everyone has the right to clean air and everyone has the right to to healthcare mr. nemeth and ms Dingell I think that we've got some very serious problems on the Environment and this administration is taking us backwards not forwards every budget that President Trump has submitted since he's been president has eliminated funding for the Great Lakes restoration the Republicans and Democrats together have not only restored all of those dollars but have increased spending
019in that way we should never have left the Paris Accord one we need to be part of a global approach to solving our environmental issues I agree with I think everybody here would agree that we have a very broken infrastructure in infrastructure is not just roads and bridges but is fixing a very broken water delivery system now we've got crises and school systems were not only here in the state but throughout the country in terms of old lead pipes that children are drinking led with water PFS is the most recent issue we still do not have one national standard for PFS we have to have this administration stration and Republican members of Congress stop blocking efforts to try to establish these things I believe every American has a right and should be able to breathe
020clean air and drink safe water and we all have a responsibility to work together to make sure we continue to clean up the environment don't go back and roll back regulations mr. Singhal mr. Walker which to you sir the threat of not just enough water in Michigan it's a threat to the whole planet global warming is real it's putting us all at risk corporations are allowed to lift and make polluters like co2 and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere as they wish they pollute the water and air especially near working-class communities they put their own profits ahead of the interests of humanity these corporate bosses and the politicians who work for them are threatening our lives decisions on global warming and water and air pollution must be decided by the whole population and not by
021those few who enrich themselves our expense mr. Jones to you sir oh you answered before excuse me then you the next question goes to mr. Walker which it relates to health care Congress has repeatedly attempted to repeal the Affordable Care Act yet has been unable to stabilize the health care system what do you think are the best approaches for improving access and affordability to health care the u.s. spends more money in health care than any country in the world but yet life expectancy infant and maternal mortality and other health care outcomes in the u.s. ranked below many other countries the problem is that much of the money spent on health care in this country does not go to health care much of the money that spent on health care ends up in the pockets of
022drug companies insurance companies and hospital corporations for their profit health care should not be about profits health care is a human right the means exist to provide good affordable universal health care for all people in society and we must have it thank you mr. hua quits and mr. Jones to you sir well again I think part problem is misappropriations it started with social security has been misappropriating we've have enough money to prevaricate free healthcare if we want it's just about how it gets appropriate the problem is is that group insurance is designed to bear the cost of the sick so it always goes up it has always goes up it's the design of group health insurance and so the ACA is a group health insurance policy that that that concentrates on covering those expenses which
023is great it's needed but we can do so also on an individual basis and that's what we had prior to it and that was the but the problem was in Michigan we are what's called a accept reject state so as an accept reject state and that was that was done by the lobbyists of Blue Cross and Blue Shield that said we are either gonna accept you with all your problems or reject you with all the promises the rest of the country doesn't have those problems but Michigan was one of those one of those states that was caught up in that and so you you can actually either kind of acknowledge what those things that that that are too expensive and put them into a catastrophic pool and we could do some other things in regards
024to rewarding those that are trying to stay healthy and those are some of the things that we could do to help effect the class involved there's more to it but that's a great good one and a half minutes of it thank you mr. Johnson to you mr. Nemeth as a socialist I advocate for universal health care there's more than enough money which is created by the labor of the working class and which is hoarded by the billionaires to pay for a universal health care system a bill was just passed in Congress giving seven hundred billion dollars to fight war every single Democrat I believe voted for it and they can so they can find money for war but they can't find money for universal health care I think we need to limit will eliminate the
025profit motive in health care eliminate the insurance companies and guarantee everyone the right to health care Obamacare was an entire it's a scam it's not providing anyone with health care all it does is can compel workers to buy their own health insurance and it's very subpar and just on the question of Medicare for all Medicare for all is not a universal health care program any one who's on Medicare can tell you that it's a very limited program and that it can be very expensive for them I am not advocating for Medicare for all I'm advocating for universal health care Thank You mr. Nemeth and miss Dingell - you in I actually agreed that we need universal health care I believe that every Americans got a right to quality affordable health care period and that we
026the affordable care act was not a perfect bill but it was a beginning to try to ensure that everybody would have access it I the Republicans have tried to repeal this program when that bill passed it addressed people who have pre-existing conditions people forget that when that bill passed the fact of the matter is that the cost of health care was more in an automobile than steel was that young people couldn't stay on their parent's insurance when they were in college and they didn't know how I was going to pay for it women being a woman was a pre-existing condition I think that we've got to get to the point in this country that we do have universal health care and that every person can go to the doctor when they are sick and not
027be concerned about whether they can afford their medicine if they have a mammogram and they have a lump whether they can get treated if it's cancer we need to do something about drug costs in this country the price of insulin has been escalating but this is not a saying the fact of the matter is that seniors are either not taking their medicine or having to choose between medicine and food or I've had seniors tell me they're cutting their insulin in half we have got to do something about the cost of drugs in this country we've got to bring it down and we've got to figure out how we're gonna do it and we've got to do it now thank you miss Dingell and the next of the next questions goes to you all so it
028relates to income inequality since the 2008 2009 recession the economy has improved in unemployment headlined however the overwhelming portion of the recovery has gone to Michigan citizens who owned tradable assets especially stocks most Michigan citizens who depend on savings or depend on income from a weekly paycheck have yet to see any significant recovery what strategies are necessary to bring the economic recovery to all citizens of Michigan I agree with that statement the fact of the matter is the 2008 2009 and what happened to this auto industry stays in everybody's hearts and souls people thought if they went to work for the auto industry they played by the rules that they would be safe and that's not the case and it is the billionaires who have recovered and working men and women are still struggling scared
029we passed a tax bill that I opposed that the Republicans supported that gave billionaires tax increases but we haven't people are saying that workers have benefited from it but here's a reality you saw some thousand dollar bonuses passed out to people but it didn't go into the base salaries of working men and women we need to address in equitable trade deals NAFTA was a bad deal that hurt the people of Michigan we need to look at our trade policy it's why I oppose TPP but we need a consistent trade policy that isn't all over the world that isn't the art of the deal but as the fact of the matter is going to help the working men and women not increase costs but increase their their income and guarantee their jobs we need tax bills
030that aren't going to reward jobs being shifted overseas but are going to be incentive to create jobs and to pay people more in this country we do have a country working men and women are struggling in this country we have people living that are working two jobs that are still living at the poverty line we need to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour we have many things that we've got to do that low unemployment rate doesn't mean everybody's benefiting Thank You mr. mr. Walker which to you sir you know the working class does all the work as a society we should benefit by it but the problem is we're having a society as you rightfully noted that the inequality is growing the 1% is getting richer and I think the working class has
031to right for the benefits of what they do we get there and a ways to do that okay two-tier wages should be outlawed everybody's work for full pay the the jobs in the plants right now they're being eliminated not so much by trade deals they're being limited by speed up okay have people work at a normal pace spread to work around put more people to work the infrastructure this country's falling apart the money is there to fix it but yet the money is being spent given to the corporation's in terms of tax breaks and text giveaways okay use the money that we paint our taxes to put people to work okay to rebuild the bridges and and the roads to build new hospitals new schools we need to use that money for what we put
032pay taxes for okay put people to work like please everybody decent weights and money's there do that that's what's going to let me income inequality in this country but I'm going to say this I don't believe it's gonna be changed by legislation history has shown that changes like that only happen through struggle in a fight by the working class and that's what it's going to take to eliminate income inequality in this country Thank You mr. Walter rich and mr. Jones to you sir well again if I understand the question correctly it's about income inequality and I believe that equality is an opportunity and income as an effort if we return ethical values to another generation I think we can create that equality and create that income there's a very simple math that is taught about
033fifth grade level called the rule of 72 and the rule of 72 is really simply to understand exactly how our economy works it talks about inflation it's very just division and multiplication and we can resolve a lot of issues by teaching that and training the next generation to not be dependent on Social Security to not be dependent on Medicare to not be dependent on the government for the opportunities that they could earn we enslave a generation by the things that we've done over the last 50 years and I believe we need to empower them and empowerment comes through an educational process that I believe that we are very capable of of instilling into public education thank you mr. Jones and mr. Nemeth to you sir social inequality is the defining feature of American and global
034society it infects every institution it corrupts every political body from the White House to Congress to the Supreme Court and there's not a single social program or social problem that can be addressed without a frontal assault on the wealth and Praga dose of the rich there needs to be a fight back by the working class but the working class needs a political program to leave that fight and that's socialism we believe that there shouldn't be billionaires we should cut we should confiscate their wealth and it should be used to the benefit of the working class I mean you just think about the wealth that a few individuals have Jeff Bezos it's worth 160 billion dollars he made 60 or 50 billion dollars in the first six months of this year that was enough to pay
035every single one of his employees a hundred thousand dollar bonus just you know three people owned as much as the bottom 150 million people in this country and the and and these characteristics totally skew everything from the political system and talk about the corruption of money in politics well it's certainly true you know billions of dollars are spent every year to buy the best politicians that they can and we think that that that that is wrong in that that needs to change and that's going to be through a fight by the working class for socialism Thank You mr. Nemeth and then first of the next question goes to you also it relates to education in the United States educational achievement has lagged behind other countries particularly at the K through 12 level in addition there
036are vast disparities among our school systems at the same time college education is ever more costly and inaccessible what are your solutions for improving the quality of education in the United States and particularly here in Michigan well education is a social right everyone has the right to a high-quality education obviously that's not happening now there's been a relentless assault on public education in this country over the last several decades through the implementation of charter schools to privatizations there's been an effort to take the money that's been invested in public education and use it to make profit and this has been detrimental to school transition school school children in Michigan and throughout the country you just think about the despicable state of schools in Detroit you know I was at I was at a hearing about
037the lead in the water and they announced they said that it would cost five hundred million dollars to repair all the infrastructure problems in Detroit Public Schools but they said they had no idea where they were going to find the money they couldn't come with 500 million dollars but on the other hand billionaire Dan Gilbert just got 650 million dollars from the state legislature to build four buildings in downtown Detroit so when it comes to giving money to the billionaires to build their buildings they have no problem finding the money when it comes to putting the money into schools they're not going to do it they don't want the population to be educated they don't want people to know what their rights are they don't want people to stand up and fight back and they
038don't want the working class to fight and to wage a fight for so for socialism for their rights Thank You mr. Nemeth Intimus Dingell to you also we have a crisis in this country and in this state Michigan used to be known for being an education state we've stopped investing in our young children investing in public education is absolutely critical it is something that's done at the local level and different communities have different tax bases and that's a crisis we need to figure out how we're going to invest the 0 to 5 we've already know now that the most important time in a child's life is from birth to when they're 5 years old we need to ensure in that that what when we talk about we have to stop demonizing our teachers but instead
039reward them teachers now have become social workers they don't have enough money do we we don't pay them enough we demonize them for what they are doing we don't value them enough and then they have to pay for their own supplies then we should what we need to talk about higher education where we need to up not every student needs to go and get a degree from a fourth you need to invest in skilled trades again the fact of the matter is can you imagine this world without a carpenter or an electrician who can make six-figure incomes we need to invest in many different ways and we need to have a real conversation about education and investing where it matters is Dingell Mr Walker which to you sir you know we live in the richest
040country in the world but the state of education is country is criminal especially in working-class communities the the the lack of resources that schools that are falling apart can't provide clean and water to our students they can't paying teachers won't pay teachers enough to even get enough teachers to want to teach anymore if you're from a working-class family you want to go to college your choices get to go in debt for the rest of your life to get a college degree it's it's really a 3d criminal and there's no reason for that the resource and the money exists in society in order to have a good education system what would it take to do that stop bailing out the banks okay stop giving money away to the corporations stop spending any and all the money
041on wars around the world and building up our military when there's no need to use that money for the education of our children and especially in working-class cities and towns where there's where the situation is it worse for our education of our children thank you mr. Walker which and mr. Jones to you sir we need to equip our teachers so that they don't have to take money other their own pockets to decorate their walls and we could do that I believe so in a very unique way and we need to allow children to experience education that is what we can draw out of them rather than what we force into them that means we need to have a paradigm shift of Education you can only retain 10% of what you read 20% of what you
042hear and 30% of what you see so what we've been using for a hundred years has a 70% failure ratio but you can ask anybody of any age and certainly in this room ask them what their favorite field trip was and they will say all the details not only where they went and what they did but maybe even what they they're brown bag lunch and what the weather was like because they experienced it and those are the limitations of the finances of of that we that we equip our local local schools with I believe that we could create a corporate collaboration that would allow us to integrate these things and prepare for the futures of tomorrow that that we have space that to teach them how to answer phones we could have corporations come in
043and offset some of that space rent that space back from the school district offsetting the local expenses as well and putting that money back into the local the local pockets of the school to work with so again if we create that that that opportunity I believe will have the results that we're looking for Thank You mr. Jones the next question starts with you miss Dingell it relates to voting integrity the League of Women Voters as always advocate for access to voting fairly drawn voting districts and providing accurate information to voters could you discuss steps you think need to be taken to improve voter access and voter integrity well voters in the state of Michigan have an opportunity to vote for Duke ballot proposals in November that will help make elections more fair in this state
044first proposal to would adjust the issue of gerrymandering we have districts that are so cockeyed that the the representatives of that district they're drawing them to get the most Republican votes or the most democratic votes instead of being representative of the area that is being represented proposal 2 would establish a nonpartisan Commission to establish the district lines to proposal 3 would make it easier to vote we need to have no reason absentee voting you would be able to register to vote at the polls that day we're discouraging to many people and it's happening in the state of Michigan at City after city from being able to vote having voter ID etc so I would encourage people to look at both proposal 2 and proposal 3 so that we have nonpartisan drawing of our elected officials
045districts and to that we make it easy for people to vote not put up a thousand reasons but they're not be able to get to the polls on Election Day Thank You mr. Dingell mr. Wonka which to you sir yes everybody in society should have the right to vote and easy access to vote anything other than that is a threat to democracy but beyond that there's a bigger threat which is that in this society money has always ruled the election process and it certainly does today the corporations and rich rich by the politicians of both parties though parties I believe exists to serve the interests of the rich the wealthy than 1% and so I think the biggest problem with the election process in this country is that the working class does not have its
046own political party I think the working class majority's society we should have a political party the working class probably was organized with the with the idea of starting that process with working-class asthma jaudy the population having their own political party to speak for our interests as working people thank you sir and mr. bones to you sir I think we have to protect our Constitution and when we stand for our first amendment I think we can resolve some of this stuff and you may you may seem perplexed by that but just as just this afternoon as I was walking through one of the local towns with my of my your old couple as I knocked on the door I didn't know who they were I just walking through the neighborhood and I talked about sign up
047in their front yard introducing myself said mr. Jones we'd love to have one of your signs up in in our yard we agree with you cross the line everything yet you say and do the problem is we're bullied as 85 year old couple we're bullied in our own community that our house gets egged because of the way we think or the way we vote or the people that we stand for and I said that's a tragedy an absolute tragedy so I don't know if we can create legislation outside that we can we can push for ethical resolve more than than anything and that's is that that the First Amendment right is that we can express ourselves and we should have the freedom to do so and so I think there's disparities in in the way
048we have our fight we financed our elections I think that creates a great great problem but again I think bully and fear is is probably the biggest reason you know biggest obstacle we have I live in a district that's 70/30 split is basically how they call it so much so that the the GOP doesn't want the Michigan GOP does want to give me any money the NRCC does want to give me any money because they look at it as 80 to a bucket with 82 holes on it so why do they want to dump $1 into it so those disparities of 70/30 they've already they call the election and there's outside of unless I knock on more doors and that's what I'm trying to do to change the way things are Thank You mr. Johnson
049mr. Nemeth to you sir I support the broadest expansion of democratic rights including the removal of ballot at all ballot access restrictions including voter ID laws there are numerous efforts which are made to exclude any genuine representation of the interests of the working class from our political system massive sums are expended to make sure that you get the best candidate money can buy we have a government of by and for the rich every year you get to choose between evil and even greater evil it's all a big dog and pony show and everyone knows it we live in a sham democracy those who say you can solve society's problems by changing the election that the election system have it backwards the real problem is the nature of society that the anti-democratic forms and reforms are
050the expression of the oligarchical character of society the greatest share of a workers life is spent not under democracy but under the dictatorship in the workplace genuine democracy means the extension of democracy to the economy to make sure the banks and large corporations are controlled democratically by the working class as a socialist I fight for a state in which the working class can assert democratic control ever over every aspect of society Thank You mr. Nemeth mr. Wolowitz the beginning of the next question starts with you relating to immigration more than 2,600 children were separated from their families at the u.s. border and as of about two weeks ago four hundred and sixteen children remained in federal custody it's likely that many of these children will never see their parents again because their parents were deported
051without the federal government keeping any contact information meanwhile Congress in the White House have failed to achieve immigration legislation what should be done to remedy this immigration crisis you know what's happened to those children who were separated with it's it's really criminal but it's part of a bigger situation here in terms of immigration they try to use immigration first of all to divide working people okay between native-born workers and immigrant workers I believe every person who comes to this country to work to find a job she should come here as a full citizen have full citizen rights the corporations and bosses use their legal status of immigrants in order to keep them working harder for less money in order to better exploit them in other words and if they these workers had immigrant workers had
052full citizenship status they would not have to accept those kind of conditions number one if if working people were saw each other as allies instead of trying to pit us against each other we weave stronger as a working class to try to fight for rights for all the working emigrants who come here do not take jobs from people that's a false premise okay every person who works spends money and when you spend money you create more jobs so it's not America taking jobs from native-born workers the issue is that all workers are exploited in this working in this working class in this country and they try to use immigration as a false propaganda to try to divide working people so I as I said again I believe everybody who comes here looking for work should
053have full citizenship rights thank you mr. Wolowitz mr. Jones to you sir well we have laws for a reason and when people break those laws there's consequences you can choose anything you want in America you just can't choose the consequences of your choices and that being said children on a daily basis throughout America are separated by parent from parents that break the law and our left parent list because the parents made a choice to break the law and we have laws and we're going to abide by those laws I think we should be law abiding citizens so when people come into the country illegally then there are laws to stop that from happening from happening so I guess don't do the crime if you can't do the time but America was built on immigration and
054we need to work on immigration reform and before they before they come to our doors or there should be some other process involved that we work on before they get here or as they get here to process on a different matter but laws are laws and I think we should have all all body citizens and support those laws thank you mr. Jones mr. Nemeth to you sir well Trump's attacks on on immigrants and Muslims are horrifying and criminal you know that they've torn families apart and now they're imprisoning families together it's just been reported that thousands of children are being sent to a detention facility in the desert in Texas under horrific conditions you know they talk about finding nooses in these cells these people aren't criminals they're workers and they're children I mean it's
055outrageous that they're imprisoning children you know and it's not just it's not just the Republicans it's not just Trump the under Barack Obama the Democrats deported more people than ever in American history millions of people were thrown out of this country Obama earned the nickname of DePorter in chief and it's just and it's and it's an international problem I mean in in Europe and in Africa people had root being driven from their homes as a result of 25 years of war waged in the Middle East by the United States with the support of Republican and Democratic administrations our position is for the abolition not just for the abolition of ice but the end of detentions the end of deportations we want to open the borders and unite the international working class everyone should have the
056right to live and work where they please without harassment and with full citizenship rights as a socialist I say to American workers that workers in other countries and immigrants are not our enemies they're our greatest allies and we must resist every effort to divide the divide us against each other Thank You mr. Nemeth and MS Dingle to you ma'am this country is in very serious need of comprehensive immigration reform when we talk about tearing children away from parents at the border they're not criminals there's the grandmother that tried to come into this country with her two granddaughters hurt their mother was legally residing in this country and was sending money back to the to her mother and to her children one of the gangs found out that they were getting money from America came beat
057up the grandmother and tried to put the two daughters into human trafficking though mother was kind where is our heart and our soul as Americans when you meet these doctor children who have lived here their entire life the only country they know is America they want to work here they're paying taxes they're serving in the military let me tell you the story of Dearborn and the young children who wasn't one child the first child was eight years old and said right after the president became president he's dividing this country with fear and hatred she said to me I'm afraid that someone's going to come knock on our door in the middle of the night tear my family away and nobody will hear from us again I heard that from probably another thirty children in the
058next six months I said to Glenn our school superintendent in Dearborn what is going on and he said that's what they're talking about in the schools this is who America is the Statue of Liberty stood for immigration and for where our heart and soul was our compassion we need comprehensive immigration reform thank you ms Dingell mr. Walker which you get the first of the next question it relates to infrastructure Michigan has some of the most deteriorated infrastructure in the country particularly our roads yet only limited funds have been directed at infrastructure even though this would create jobs and increase Economic Development what are the best approaches for improving the nations as well as Michigan's infrastructure well it's the best approaches that use the tax money that we pay to use it for what we intended
059for as a taxpaying citizens and as workers in this country okay look at all the tax we pay city income taxes state income taxes federal income taxes okay sales taxes millage --is of all kinds gas taxes phone taxes but where's this money going to where is it going it's certainly not going for what we intended for which is to build us a decent society to live in not and it's not just the roads obviously the bridges that are falling apart falling down the water and sewer systems that can't keep us give the clean water the schools that are that are falling apart there but the plenty of money is there to be used to pay for the things that working people in this country want the problem is most of the tax money is not
060going to those things it's going to corporate welfare it's going to corporate bailouts it's going to the banks so yes that them that the solution is to take the money that we pay a tax payers and use it for what we intended for mr. Wolowitz mr. Jones to you sir well I think the problem with our inference infrastructure certainly has to do with our big processing on concrete certainly Michigan is a little bit different than everyplace else and a lot of people to understand it but because of our high water tables our ground moves and it moves all the time so there's actually lobbyists that have made it so that you can't take a turn to court because just the way it is unless you're willing to add an extra bag of concrete to the
061mix that's all it takes if we add one more extra bag of concrete to the mix we would get an extra 10 to 20 years out of the out of our roads out of our concrete and every other other other application also the same thing with asphalt there are new technologies that we can introduce that are reasonable but again because of the bid process because of lobbyists dollars because of these things that are bought and paid for we have a we have an interrupt in that system so I think that if we understood our water tables and our concrete I think we could have roads that last like they do in Europe Thank You mr. Jones mr. nemeth to you well we there was just recently a lockout of several hundred Road workers here in
062Michigan because the contractor didn't want to pay their wages didn't want to pay them good wages didn't want to pay them good benefits and they were locked out for weeks and the roads were left unimproved the governor threatened to use the National Guard to fix the road something which I opposed I think it's a right-wing attack on workers to even suggest the deployment of the National Guard to fix the roads it's obviously possible to fix the infrastructure we have engineers and you know everybody who knows how to do it but it's a matter of how is that going to be invested how is that actually going to happen I think it's going to it's going to take a mobilization of the working class opposed to the capitalist system fighting for socialism to get a real
063Public Works program to rebuild the infrastructure all over this country and to build new infrastructure logical infrastructure like trains to transport workers back and forth to work you know and of course we have to look at the impact of deindustrialization here in Michigan and the impact that that has had on infrastructure you know the factories have been left to rot and they're leaking toxic chemicals into the water the you know water systems have been left to decay and they're leaking lead into the water and so you know it's I mean it's criminal what's done being done to the working class and I mean really the rich have no problem with the state of infrastructure Thank You mr. Nemeth as Dingell to you man I think the number one priority for Congress in the state needs
064to be to repair our broken infrastructure program some of my fellow candidates here have even talked about the fact that if we do develop a infrastructure program that we will create jobs and if we create jobs we will have an additional resource it is not only our potholes our crumbling roads and our broken bridges but we need to fix the water infrastructure system in this country we need to have every citizen in this country have access to broadband so that everybody has equal opportunity our electrical grid system is needs to be secured it's one of our biggest potential national security crises so this should be our number one priority working together to fix a broken infrastructure in this country to create jobs and to secure this country thank you miss Dingle and thank you candidates
065for your answers this brings us now to our closing statements mr. Nemeth may we have your closing statement to begin I urge you to vote for me Nyles nemeth on November 6th however my campaign is not just about votes it is about mobilizing the working class in a mass political movement for socialism whatever happens next month it will not change the basic course of politics in the United States the Democrats and Republicans both represent the rich and they're both moving sharply to the right ever every election they tell you to remember in November to vote for the Democrats to secure change well we've been sold this bill of goods a thousand times they say you have to vote for Democrats to stop Trump but they are responsible for Trump the real source of change will
066come through the class struggle we have seen initial strikes and protests by teachers hotel workers Amazon workers and UPS workers after decades of suppression by the trade unions workers are beginning to fight back I say to workers you have to take up this fight yourself nothing will be given to you only through the development of class struggle will be it possible to overturn a society dominated by a tiny elite humanity stands at the crossroads capitalism is leading mankind toward catastrophe the horrors of the 20th century are reimbursing fascism world war and dictatorship if you want equality and end to war and the International unity of the working class then vote for me and more importantly join the Socialist Equality Party and build a socialist movement of the International working class thank you mr. Namath and
067I'm as Dingell your closing statement please I thank you for the opportunity to discuss these issues which I think are important to all the citizens of the 12th district and Americans across this country I worry right now but the fundamental pillars of our Constitution some of which we discussed tonight freedom of religion freedom of speech our democracy I think is something worth fighting for I believe that every American we should be creating a climate so that those we can every person can have a job that pays a decent living so that they can live in a safe neighborhood so that they can afford to put food on the table if they need to go to the doctor be able to go to the doctor be able to afford their medicine educate their children and have
068a safe and secure retirement I don't view Social Security as a entitlement or handout people are put into it and it's a promise that we have made to our seniors we need to make sure that we are securing that every person has right to be able to breathe clean air to drink safe water we have to work together so that we keep this country the wonderful country that it is I am proud to be an American I will keep fighting for it I think we have more shared values than we do differences and we cannot let our self-contented we have to work together for our country that I love I'm proud to be an American and I hope that people will consider I'll make sure your voices at the table if I am reelected in
069November thank you miss Dingell mr. Wolowitz to you sir you know the work done by laboring people in this society proven up we produce enough well that every person this society could have a decent life but we don't have a society like this but people have most people don't have decent lives because almost all the wealth that we produce in society - a few people it's only controlled by the 1% the corporation's the banks by Wall Street the written class has the right to demand that the this wealth that we produced is used for social needs for our needs you know we have the right to demand that everyone could have a decent job with decent wages we have the right to demand everyone should have affordable health care that every child should have good
070education that we can rebuild infrastructure the money is there for this but the rich aren't going willing to give up control of this money not on their own volition it won't and it's not going to happen through elections it's gonna take a fight by the working class just as if working people in the 30s and if 1940 had to fight for labor rights just as black people in the nineteen sixties had to fight for similar rights it's gonna take fight of the working class in order to get build a society and head the society that we all deserve and I ask you as a candidate working-class party to vote for us because that is what we are speaking for and what we believe the direct and the working class in this country needs to go
071Thank You mr. Walker which mr. Jones to you sir well jim hedrick said the power of love finally overcomes the love of power the world will know peace I believe a thriving economy helps those things I believe we need to keep that thriving economy going in the right direction but when I interact with community I do not see Democrats and Republicans I do not see labels and I do not see factions I see people I see Americans I see people in a community that struggle I see people that have obstacles and we need to be empowered I see seniors that are frightened I see veterans that are frustrated and I see the next generation disgusted and disappointed with the direction of things so in order to free us we no longer need to be enslaved
072by government handouts and in miscommunications political plays and programs that have left the next generation empty and so we need to have a vision we need somebody go to Washington who actually lives it who actually breathes it and I believe that I'm that person that should be there representing the voice of this community for a long time coming god bless thank you to the candidates for participating in tonight's forum to those who contributed questions and to CTN for making this program possible these forums will be rebroadcast on channel 19 a number of times between now and the election and we are and are available on demand for streaming on your computer or smartphone go to the league's website l WV and arbor org that's l WV and n AR b o r RG and look
073for the link to the programs please encourage your friends and others to watch the forum's also for additional balanced nonpartisan information on candidates and ballot issues go to vote for one one org that's Bo te for 1:100 RG and enter your address there you will find information on the candidates and ballot proposals that will appear on your ballot be sure to vote on November 6th and goodnight [Music] you [Music] you