The candidates in Minnesota’s 3rd congressional district faced off in their first televised debate before the midterm elections. Democratic incumbent Dean Phillips and Republican challenger Tom Weiler agreed that the economy and inflation will be one of the key issues in the campaign, but disagreed on the cause and the solutions.
“The biggest thing that unfortunately contributes to our inflation is the excessive government spending that the Biden administration has proposed and Congressman Dean Phillips and other far-left Democrats who have approved all of the government spending requests,” Weiler said. Phillips says inflation is a global problem, not just a US problem. “The main cause of inflation is imbalances between supply and demand,” he said. “It wasn’t US government spending that caused global inflation. It’s very difficult in America right now. I know we both know that. But the inflation rate in the OECD countries is currently exceeding 10 percent and we are just over eight (percent).”
As far as solutions are concerned, says Weiler, the main thing is to slow down the rapid growth in government spending. “First and foremost, we need to stop excessive government spending,” he says. “We need to reopen America’s energy, particularly the gas and oil industry, to become energy independent again… so we’re not relying on OPEC and Russia to set oil prices and gas prices for Americans at the pump and heating our homes.” “
Phillips says the Inflation Reduction Act he supports will help reduce the deficit and that should help reduce inflation in the long run. He also defended the need for recent government spending. “We had to make a decision,” he says. “It was either supporting families and businesses, reducing unemployment, keeping business going through the most trying days in our recent history … or the massive closure of unemployment stores.”
The candidates also debated crime, electoral security and abortion. You can watch the entire debate on At Issue on Sunday morning at 10am.
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