http://kunr-assets.trinityannex.com/audios/193_10-14-10_SENATE_DEBATE.mp3
In a TV studio in Las Vegas, Senator Reid defended many of the policies he's pushed through congress. Reid: "We had to do healthcare reform to maintain competitive[ness] in the world economy. And it creates jobs, thousands and thousands of jobs." Angle portrayed that measure as a job killer, and promoted one of her main themes as an alternative. Angle: "The solutions to the healthcare cost of insurance are free market."This sums up the difference between the two fairly well. Reid wants to use Government to directly help people and yes, often by bringing home lots of pork as the number one ranking Senator. Angle, on the other hand, wants to privatize a host of government programs and trust the free market. But that put her on the defensive a fair amount because she's advocated cutting some things a lot of people like, such as medicare and social security. She previously wanted to privatize social security, but lately she's been saying she wants a "personalized" retirement system, like government employees have. Mitch Fox (moderator): "Why did you change your position on social security?" Angle: "Well because the idea of personalized covers both private and public. If it's good enough for Harry Reid it should be good enough for the rest of us." But Reid accused her of changing her position as a campaign tactic and that she's got a long history of wanting to take social security out of the government's hands. Reid: "Now she talks about and has for years talked about getting rid of social security- for years. You can't put this money into the stock market. Look what would've happened had we put this money in the stock market as was suggested by President Bush." Reid dragged out more of Angle's own words to use against her Reid: "My opponent, listen to this idea, she wants to privatize the Veteran's administration, think about that." Angle called that a mischaracterization. Angle: "What I said was we could do better." But she did in say she was working toward a privatized system while talking about the VA on a Vegas radio show. Angle did manage to clear up her stance fairly well on one issue: when she was asked about her statement that it's not a senator's job to create jobs. Angle: "Harry Reid, it's not your job to create jobs, it's your job to create policies that will encourage the private sector to do what they do best and that is to create jobs." Which goes to underscore the difference in philosophies the two candidates have. Reid and Angle are statistically tied in recent opinion polls. You can cast a ballot by the way as early as Saturday when early voting begins in Nevada.