(CAPITOL CITY NOW) – The candidates vying for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) agree – the nation needs a new Farm Bill. They do not agree on how to get there.
“We haven’t had a five-year Farm Bill since 2012, and that one did not have an inflation adjustment,” said Republican Don Tracy (pictured, right). “Farmers also want E-15 year-round, because E-15 uses corn products, and that would increase the price of corn, and that would also lower the price of energy. So it’s a two-fer.”
“As part of the Farm Bill, it includes commodities. It includes nutrition. It includes conservation and so many other areas,” said Democrat Juliana Stratton (pictured, left). “It’s not that, as Mr. Tracy said, that Democrats don’t support it. Democrats are fighting to make sure that SNAP benefits and that nutrition aspect can be included in the bill. And it should be.”
The two debated Tuesday on Chicago’s public television station, WTTW. As with the station’s gubernatorial debate last week, it’s the only face-to-face matchup between the two candidates.
The federal minimum wage, which has been $7.25 an hour for seventeen years, is another area of disagreement.
“I’m proposing that we raise the minimum wage to $25 an hour and have a livable wage and not just the bare minimum, where people can have a little more money in their pockets. That’s Number One,” said Stratton, the lieutenant governor. “Number Two is: we should give middle-class families a tax break, and we can pay for it with a tax increase on those making $1 million or more.”
“Every solution my opponent has to the cost of living is more government spending,” said Tracy, a former chairman of the Illinois Republican Party. “She just mentioned raising the minimum wage, which of course will be a death sentence for small businesses everywhere. And what wil’ that do to the cost of living? What will that do to the cost of a cheeseburger?”
Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3.
