Martin Heinrich and Jon Barela Congress Hopefuls Spar on Economy

ALBUQUERQUE (By Sean Olson, Albuquerque Journal) September 1, 2010 — Candidates for New Mexico's 1st Congressional District seat clashed Friday on government spending, immigration and health care issues during their first general election face-off.

Incumbent Rep. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., and his challenger, Republican businessman and lawyer Jon Barela, presented opposing views on all of the questions posed by sponsors of the Albuquerque event.

Heinrich spent much of his time defending acts of Congress during his freshman term, telling the crowd that Republican ideas on the economy would lead the country into another disaster.

"I realized about two months into my term that, because of this recession, $13 trillion of private wealth had already disappeared in this country," Heinrich said. "We cannot afford to go back to the very policies that created this hole in the economy in the first place."

Barela attacked what he said was a Democratic spending problem in Congress and vowed to fight high taxes. Entrepreneurs should create U.S. jobs, not the government, he said.

"It's about how we reduce this crushing debt and deficit that threatens any kind of hope for an economic recovery," Barela said. "It's about the future of our kids and how we are going to respond to this crushing debt and deficit."

On immigration, Barela said he supports a guest-worker program along with heightened border security. He said Americans should not judge illegal immigrants too harshly, however.

"This is maybe where I break ranks with many conservatives," Barela said. "I happen to believe in the goodness of many of the immigrants that are here in this country. They contribute to the economy in many ways."

Heinrich said that instead of a guest-worker program, he supports increasing the number of available visas for agricultural and high-tech workers. He also outlined other aspects of his immigration philosophy:

"If you are willing to take responsibility for what you did and your only crime is immigration status, then you should be able to pay a fine, you should be able to take responsibility, you should be able to pay your back taxes and get in at the end of the line and say, 'I'm willing to learn English and willing to study to be an American and I'm going to fight to be a taxpayer, not a burden,' " Heinrich said.

Barela criticized Heinrich for his vote to support health care reform, which Barela said has too many unintended consequences and high costs.

"Make no mistake about it. If you are a business person, you are going to get hit hard by this bill in terms of excess and new suffocating regulations," Barela said.

Barela said he supports allowing insurance companies to compete across state lines, tort reform and giving tax credits for insurance directly to individual families as solutions to increasing health care costs.

Heinrich said he did not believe Congress did enough to address lowering the cost of health care in its reforms, but said the bill was still a step in the right direction. He challenged Barela's claim that New Mexican businesses would be hurt by the reforms.

"What you won't hear is that over 90 percent of the businesses in New Mexico are actually exempt from the coverage requirements in that legislation because it doesn't apply to small businesses," Heinrich said. "In addition, the majority of businesses in New Mexico will actually get tax credits as a result of the legislation to help them add more people or provide more coverage to their employees. That's a tax cut."

Heinrich said he favors a "quality over quantity" approach to health care, where businesses in the system can make more money based on favorable outcomes for patients, rather than performing more procedures.

The Nov. 2 general election opponents appeared before Women Impacting Public Policy and the Association of Commerce and Industry at the Mariott Pyramid North hotel in Albuquerque.