Local News
Senator Elizabeth Warren and her Republican challenger John Deaton met on Tuesday evening for the primary of two scheduled debates before Election Day.
Over the course of the hour-long debate, co-sponsored by WBZ-TV and WBZ-TV, Warren and Deaton traded contradictions and fleshed out their positions on a variety of key issues, from housing to health care to foreign policy.
Deaton tried to portray himself as a moderate outsider able to disrupt the established order in Washington, a Republican disloyal to former President Donald Trump. Warren urged the audience to not trust Deaton, linking him to Trump policies unpopular in deep-blue Massachusetts, while praising her work in Congress and her willingness to achieve across the aisle.
The two will see one another again on Thursday evening. In the meantime, listed here are three insights into key issues Warren and Deaton debated.
The focus is on immigration
The issue of immigration looms large within the presidential race and played a big role in the controversy between Deaton and Warren.
Deaton said immigration is the problem that separates him from Warren greater than another. The surge in migrants coming to the U.S. has led to each a “national security crisis” and a “humanitarian crisis,” he said, describing his opponent as an “extreme” left-wing politician who supports “open borders.”
Deaton attacked Warren for not supporting the recent bipartisan border bill, which might have provided tougher immigration policies but was killed by congressional Republicans on the behest of Trump. Deaton said he voted for the bill despite the fact that it was “not perfect.”
Warren responded that she “didn’t buy a ticket on a boat that Donald Trump had already sunk.” By the time she was capable of solid her vote, it was clear the bill was dead and Republican support had been withdrawn, Warren said.
The senator acknowledged that a scarcity of immigration reform is putting real pressure on Massachusetts, but criticized Trump's strategy of demonizing migrants and the willingness of congressional Republicans to kill the bill so Trump could run on the problem. While Deaton doesn't repeat Trump's now-debunked claims about Haitian migrants eating pets, Warren said Deaton is “taking a page from the same playbook.”
Deaton made clear that he didn’t support Trump's stated plan to perform mass deportations of migrants, but said there was room for some deportations and that there have been serious national security concerns, even assuming just one percent of illegal ones Migrants coming to the US are “bad guys”.
Warren said she desires to see “comprehensive” immigration reform that might fully reimburse individual states for the prices of housing migrants.
A divide over MCAS
This yr, Massachusetts voters might be asked to weigh whether or not MCAS standardized test scores should proceed for use as a requirement for top school graduation. Asked how they’d vote on Question 2, Warren and Deaton were in sharp contrast on a problem that would have massive implications for one in every of the nation's leading public education systems.
Deaton said he would vote against the measure, adding that it could disproportionately harm “inner city” students and cause chaos if every school district had different standards for measuring students.
“We can’t have 351 standards,” Deaton said. “If you don’t have the MCAS and standards, you’re going to have high school graduates in this state who can’t speak full English, and that puts them at a disadvantage.”
Deaton floated the concept of giving tax credits to teachers who “go to inner cities to teach,” claiming that passing Question 2 could be tantamount to “abandoning” students there.
Warren said she would vote “yes” on Question 2, raising concerns that students with special needs and people just learning English are disproportionately prevented from receiving their diplomas as a result of inadequate MCAS scores. She said the state's elite education system isn’t as a result of MCAS, but slightly to its teachers and public support for them. Because of existing demands, these educators are teaching students more about taking tests than in regards to the actual topics that matter most, she argued.
Deaton said it boils right down to an old mantra: “If it ain't broke, don't fix it.” There's no point in changing the state's education system when it's already probably the greatest within the country, he said.
“I believe it is our teachers who create this system,” Warren replied. “They are the ones on the ground, with our children, and they are the ones telling us how terrible this test is making the lives of many of our children and many of our teachers.”
How to repair the case
Representatives across the political spectrum in Massachusetts agree that the associated fee of living within the state is simply too high. When asked how best to unravel this problem, Warren and Deaton offered competing visions.
According to Warren, the issue is easy: a scarcity of housing. Warren reiterated Vice President Kamala Harris' plan to construct three million homes across the country, including “tens of thousands” in Massachusetts. To bring down house prices and help first-time buyers secure a brand new home, Warren said she would support raising taxes on billionaires to take a position in constructing more homes.
Deaton claimed that Warren's plans weren’t financially feasible in Massachusetts, at the very least within the Boston area. He agreed that the center of the issue was a “supply issue” but said builders had told him how difficult it was to get the permits needed to construct recent homes. He said he supports tax credits for low-income families and renters to assist them secure housing.
Deaton also said he desires to encourage builders to construct and that “the private sector can do this.”
“They've been saying that for decades, and the price goes up and up and up,” Warren said in response to Deaton's reference to the private sector. She said reducing regulations like Deaton advocates could possibly be a part of the answer, but local leaders have to be equal partners they usually can determine how best to administer regulations of their communities.
image credit : www.boston.com