U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-Chester/Berks) and Republican challenger Neil Young debated Wednesday.
Reading NAACP President Stacy Taylor moderated the discussion on Berks Community TV. The two candidates discussed war, inflation, immigration, the border, and tax policy.
Young, a high school social studies teacher, made the case that he’s the person to represent the 6th District. Higher prices, increased chaos abroad, and an education system that has traded “excellence for equity” are issues he’d handle differently than Houlahan.
Houlahan, who has represented the district since 2019, defended her record of voting for various Biden-Harris administration bills like the Inflation Reduction Act and the Chips and Science Act, which added trillions to the national debt.
Houlahan, a former Air Force officer and business owner, argued she has the experience needed to keep the country strong.
She wrote legislation to combat inflation and gun violence. A bill she authored to stop fentanyl from coming into the U.S. was signed into law, she said.
Neil Young
“I’m recognized as one of our most bipartisan legislators in Congress,” said Houlahan.
Young began the forum by introducing himself in Spanish.
He said the Biden-Harris administration has redefined Title IX and “intentionally hid critical information from parents.”
“The truth is that we could have secured our border. The truth is there was a House bill but it wasn’t voted for by my opponent. We could have protected our girls on the sports field. We could have kept them from being drafted onto the battlefield. We could have sanctioned Iran and reduced their ability to fund terrorism. We could have passed the parents’ bill of rights. We could have distanced ourselves from anti-police, anti-Israel colleagues, like AOC, who was on the steps of Reading High School just this past weekend. We could have been honest about what the Inflation Reduction Act actually was. And that was a backdoor Green New Deal that has driven inflation and restricted American energy,” said Young.
Asked about the three most important issues, Young cited foreign wars, inflation, and illegal immigration.
“We’ve crept precipitously close to World War III,” said Young.
“Inflation is completely out of control,” he said, adding that groceries now cost 21 percent more in Pennsylvania, and gas prices have doubled.
“We’ve got over 10 million people who have come into this country. We don’t know who they are. We don’t know if their asylum claims are correct. And we’ve lost 300,000 unaccompanied minors. We’ve got a disaster at our southern border.”
Houlahan agreed that “we are in a precarious time in terms of our peace on the global stage.
“I believe in precipitous time in terms of what’s going on in Ukraine, what’s happening in Israel, what could possibly happen in the Indo-Pacific. And as a consequence, I believe we are at an important time to have people at the table, myself included, who have deep background on this issue. I serve on the Armed Services Committee, I’ve served on the Foreign Affairs Committee, I now serve on the Intelligence Committee.”
Houlahan said the COVID pandemic was “a big shock to our economy.”
“But luckily, we’re at a place where inflation is abating, largely because of some of the things that we did to make sure we could keep our roofs over our heads, to make sure that we could put food in our stomachs, to make sure that we kept the schools safe with things like the Inflation Reduction Act, with things like the American Rescue Plan, and things like all of the funding we did for the paycheck protection program.”
America must continue to grow its economy, she said.
“And some of the things we’re doing with the Chips and Science Act, for example, reshoring, onshoring, peer-shoring, all of the jobs we need to, the technologies that we need to aggressively seek, the things we’re also doing to make sure that we complete on the stage with the skills and jobs that will bring us into the next century.”
Asked what she would do about systemic racism, Houlahan said the federal government should make sure “we have equal access to education” and that the criminal justice system treats everyone equally. Adults need to have the skills for jobs, she added.
Young said, “Our schools are failing” –including those in Chester and Berks Counties, where most have decreased in performance.
“There’s nothing that is exasperating wealth gaps and wealth divides more than a lack of school choice,” he said.
Houlahan opposes school choice.
“I am not in favor [of sending] money to follow a child into a faith-based school. I don’t believe that is the role of the government. The government’s role is to educate all children and keep them [in] a very strong public school system.”
They also sparred on abortion.
Houlahan’s daughter was about to give birth to her granddaughter.
“And the idea that she is going to be born into a world where she has fewer rights, fewer bodily [autonomy] rights than I do, is something that’s really, really worrisome,” said Houlahan. “This is a conversation a person should have with their family, their faith, their doctor, and our government should stay out of this.” She said 30 percent of military women do not have access to birth control.
Young agrees with the late liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg that Roe v. Wade was “on shaky legal ground.” And while he is personally pro-life, he would leave the abortion decisions to the states. Since Roe was overturned, there are now more elective abortions than ever, and most are chemical abortions in the early months of pregnancy, he said.
“I’m always going to fight that we are a family-friendly environment,” he said. “That we’re not struggling with the cost of groceries, with the cost of gas.”
The U.S. is experiencing a population decline, he said.
Young noted 10 million people have illegally crossed the border since Biden-Harris took office.
“That House bill my opponent voted against had a provision, remain in Mexico. This [provision] takes care of a whole lot -to see if your asylum claim is going to be granted. That saves us a whole lot of resources. It would have increased border patrol agents. It would have criminalized visa overstays. It would have resumed construction of a border wall.”
Houlahan said she voted against that bill because it would allow children crossing illegally to be held for a month, “which I felt was an atrocity,” but she supports a “bipartisan” bill that failed to pass in the Senate.
Young said the bill’s author said the final bill was “unrecognizable” and voted against it, as did six Democrats. It would have allowed 5,000 people a day to cross the border and permitted them to claim asylum.
“Sometimes bipartisan only serves two parties, and it doesn’t serve the American people,” said Young.
Asked to discuss the high cost of housing, the pair differed on the causes.
Young said the average cost of a house in Pennsylvania has risen from $195,000 to $300,000.
He believes that the Biden-Harris “war on fossil fuels that we use to transport 90 percent of everything we make” is the main cause. He pointed to restrictions on drilling on federal land and on exporting natural gas, along with “massive government spending.”
Also, illegal immigrants compete for rental housing in Reading and Coatesville, he said.
“Rental prices and home prices are inextricably tried,” Young said.
Houlahan disagreed, saying migrants play no role in housing costs.
She’s met with organizations like Habitat for Humanity that receive government funding to help people with affordable housing. She said Vice President Kamal Harris proposed government help with down payments.
Houlahan said the “Biden administration has done a wonderful job bringing allies in” to help with the Ukraine War.
“These are very dangerous times, and we need to be working with our allies to make sure we are as safe and secure as possible,” said Houlahan.
Young said Russian President Putin annexed Crimea when President Obama was in office. And now he’s invaded Ukraine under Biden.
“There is a penalty to weak leadership,” said Young, who brought up “the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.” That withdrawal had “long-lasting foreign policy effects in places like Russia (and) in empowering Hamas.”
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