Andrew Edwards, Staff Writer
Posted: 09/28/2012 05:37:31 PM PDT
SAN BERNARDINO – Congressional opponents Bob Dutton and Gary Miller, both Republicans, continued their campaigns Friday at a forum at Shandin Hills Golf Club.
Dutton, a state senator, and Miller, who serves in the House of Representatives, are competing to represent the new 31st Congressional District.
The San Bernardino Area Chamber of Commerce hosted the debate. The business group’s board members submitted questions on subjects including health care, the economy and immigration.
In response, Dutton, R-Rancho Cucamonga, adopted a somewhat moderate tone whereas Miller, R-Brea, adhered to a more conservative alignment.
For example, when the first question asked the candidates to express their views on the Affordable Care Act, Dutton suggested the law could be improved to reduce costs to small businesses while Miller said the law should be repealed.
“I’m not saying everything with Obamacare is bad, but there are a lot of things that need to be fixed,” Dutton said.
The health care law is particularly controversial because starting in 2014 it will require Americans to pay extra taxes if they do not have health insurance.
“It’s the first time in this country that you have to pay for something if you don’t want it. You have to abolish Obamacare,” Miller said.
Dutton and Miller also said they would support any proposals for a flat tax, or as Miller suggested, a two-bracket tax code as proposed by Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan, a House member from Wisconsin.
On immigration, Dutton said an amnesty for illegal immigrants along the lines of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act would not be successful. He also suggested policy could be reformed to help people who come to the United States on education visas earn citizenship and argued against mass deportations.
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Gary Miller is a senior, highly experienced, and influential congressman who has represented his home district. Why wouldn’t we want someone like him in our district? Dutton touts that his supporters include his father (sugar daddy who gave him his business thus qualifying him to be a “businessman”) and “doctors” (yet the doctors to which he refers include the Reddy family who are actually businessmen who gobbled up neighborhood physician practices). Would you want a surgeon who USED TO LIVE in Orange County and who has the knowledge, skills, experience, and abilities to operate on you or simply a novice surgeon who so happens to live in Rancho Cucamonga?
Miller has been humbly quiet about his accomplishments yet Dutton keeps jabbing a low-level issue that Miller is not local. Wouldn’t you want a congressman who will fight for you IN CONGRESS? Or would you want a congressman mooch at the Redlands Country Club and give only a perception of fighting for you from outside the Beltway? (Remember – it was Obama who implied that it’s better to deal with Washington from the outside.) The battlefield is IN Washington, DC. It is IN M Street, etc… There are no “congressional drones.”
If Dutton knocks off Miller, Dutton will be the lonely and impotent junior congressman from California and will be looked as the guy who shoved out the senior and influential Congressman. Do you think Dutton will get the key chairmanship and committees by doing so?
Crossing the aisle as Dutton has done so in the liberal Democratic California state legislature may be his way of dealing with the lopsided plethora of Democrats in California but the US CONGRESS does not have a lopsided majority of Democrats. The naivety of crossing the aisle in Congress as Dutton has done in the State will be catastrophic for our district as well as for the rest of America.
If Dutton’s platform is that he is local, when was the last time you saw Lewis whose address is local for decades? Yes, Lewis and his wife are very nice people when they are around but I would much rather see him fighting for us in DC.
If Dutton likes to be local, then perhaps he is much better and adept at local politics. Really.
Makes sense why NAR has pumped over a million into this campaign, Miller must be there puppet! Anyway, Pete and them DNC take this seat back with all dirt on Miller. Although he is senior, his FBI case should say something.