Arkansas’ 2nd District Candidates Meet at AETN Debate

CONWAY — The candidates for Arkansas’ 2nd District congressional seat each said at a debate Monday they had problems with the nation’s new health care law but offered different ideas about whether the federal minimum wage should be increased.

Republican French Hill, Democrat Pat Hays and Libertarian Debbie Standiford each hope to replace Rep. Tim Griffin, R-Ark., who is seeking the lieutenant governor’s office. The debate was recorded for broadcast Monday night on the Arkansas Educational Television Network.

Hill said the nation’s health care law, which at times he derisively called “Obamacare,” tried to do too much in areas of the nation’s health care system that he said didn’t need to be addressed.

“It’s a typical example of a one-size-fits-all solution to meet some challenges in our health care system,” Hill said. “We wanted to help people with pre-existing conditions have better access to health care. We wanted to extend health care to the most needy. And we wanted to make health care more affordable.

“We didn’t need to redo the entire health care system to tackle some of those issues,” Hill said.

Democrat Hays said that, had he been a member of Congress, he would have voted against the health care law but was happy that Arkansas had found a way to extend insurance to poorer Arkansans. He said the “private option” Medicaid plan that uses federal money to purchase insurance was an example of both parties working together to solve problems.

Standiford said the health care law represented another inappropriate imposition on the people — “once again the government stepping in trying to regulate a free market and ending up doing more damage than good.”

The Libertarian and Republican each said they would oppose an increase in the federal minimum wage, currently at $7.25 per hour. Standiford said wages should be a matter between an employer and employee and that it was wrong to assume that most people in minimum wage are trying to support families.

Hill said a mandatory wage increase would deter people from creating “stepping stone-type jobs” generally held by young people as they try to develop a skill set. Hays said raising wages was a good idea and endorsed a ballot proposal on the Arkansas ballot next month.

“It’s an incredible travesty for people to work fulltime and still be considered in poverty,” he said. “It’s hard for me to understand where my opponents are coming from.”