7:28 – Question 13 for Kaptur: What is your biggest failure, and what have you learned?
7:29 – Kaptur seems to think it’s NAFTA, if anything. Says “as hard as you might try to represent the cause of ordinary people and business at the ordinary level, to try and change the nation takes a lot longer.” Is angry that she hasn’t accomplished more. Also sad that she hasn’t been able to spend time with her family. If Iott does well for the rest of the night, he might be able to help her with that. Says she thinks farm bills and various other economic pork projects should’ve been handled quicker.
7:31 – Iott has no response.
7:31 – Question 14 for Iott: When you first announced as an independent, you were in favor of term limits. Is this still a goal now that you’re running as a Republican?
7:31 – Iott says yes, he still supports the idea, and that he’s limited himself to two or three terms, and that the longer someone’s in Washington, the more it becomes about the politics, and less about the people. Says people are at the state level are term-limited, and the President, so why not the legislature? Plans to do it as soon as he gets to Congress. Believes term limits are an important part of the process, and throws in a dig at Kaptur’s long tenure in Congress. Follow-up in re how long it takes to accomplish certain goals in DC. Iott says that ultimately, if he gets to the goal of term-limiting everyone, things will probably happen a lot faster.
7:33 – Kaptur says the two year contract is enough as a line in the sand, without legal term limits. Says the Senate is a bit different, but term limits in the Congress would empower lobbyists even more, because the firms that are there have interests that surpass the short-term. Says their interests would prey on Ohio’s people. Says she sometimes leaves Congress saying, “I’m all my people have.”
7:35 – Question 15 for Kaptur: Cap and Trade?
7:35 – Kaptur says she wants clean coal, and doesn’t know of a coal company that doesn’t. Says they need an energy bill in order to compete in the global economy, and says businesses in Europe receive credits, and our businesses aren’t competitive, given that. Says Ohio’s out-of-step even with closest trading partners, and need energy independence because America’s dependence on foreign oil is its chief strategic vulnerability. Says there’s a close connection between “blood and oil.” She’s really going progressive tonight, and yet somehow managing to sound less strident than the first debate.
7:37 – Iott quotes Kaptur from the first debate, and her disagreement over Cap and Trade. Hits her for contradicting herself. Calls Cap and Trade the biggest disaster to come down the roads – it’s fundamentally a tax on industry. If it’s so good for the coal industry, why would the coal industry be opposed to it? Says Cap and Trade is a disaster, and the Senate was fortunately smart enough to kill it.
7:38 – Question 16 for Iott: You were a private businessman. Congress is not the private sector. What experience will you bring to navigate the Washington culture?
7:39 – Iott hits Kaptur for asking why you’d sell a profitable company. Says people want to buy a profitable company, and says Kaptur doesn’t understand the profit system. Talks about the merger involved being between two similar companies. Says you need people in Washington who have experience in private sector because people in Washington don’t understand business at all. Says you need private sector experience more than ever, even though you can’t run the government exactly like a private business. Says you’d be broke if you ran your house like the government. Gets a follow-up on regrets in re his merger. Says of course there are regrets, but it was still a smart merger.
7:41 – Kaptur says she grew up in a small business family and worked in a lot of different jobs. Says she takes offense at Iott’s statement that she doesn’t have sensitivity to small businesspeople. Hits him again for not having empathy for workers. Oi. Says Iott made a bad business decision when he sold Food Town, because he could’ve built a bigger strategic decision rather than “cashing it out.”