This is the second part of a three-part series covering the questions concerning national issues, and the candidates’ answers and rebuttals during the 7th Congressional District debate Friday between U.S. Rep. Susan Wild, a Democrat, and her challenger Lisa Scheller, a Republican.

Inflation

Wild: “I have been the leader in fighting to bring down prescription drug prices. We finally got that done, in part, by making sure that Medicare can negotiate some drug prices and by capping insulin at $35 per month for seniors. Health insurance premiums have come down thanks to Democrats passing the American Rescue Plan. I personally led an amendment, which I referred to before, to make sure that no administration could arbitrarily raise health insurance costs and 80 Republicans voted for that amendment. I led the effort to fix the family glitch, which prevented some families from being able to get ACA (Affordable Care Act) subsidies, and the president just signed that into law a week ago.”

Scheller: “Inflation is crushing the dream for all Americans and in particularly for seniors on a fixed income, for working families, for single parents. It is absolutely crushing the dream, and it has been caused by the policies of Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi and Susan Wild. Among these policies is a $7,500 tax credit for people who are buying $80,000 electric vehicles. A tax on natural gas, which is only going to increase our energy costs, and a tax on small business.”

Scheller also said she wants to stop the government spending.

Wild responded to the spending comment. She said the spending during the pandemic started as a bipartisan process under former President Donald Trump. “My opponent was one of the prime beneficiaries of that government spending. You can’t have it both ways. You can’t take $5 million in PPE money, which you kept, and then complain about the spending that the United States government is doing.”

Scheller responded that the money was used for PPE. She said that she doesn’t think the money that is being spent now protects jobs or makes America better. She thinks energy companies are being locked out. “We need energy to fuel our homes, to fuel our businesses, to fuel our factories, to fuel our cars. … Opening up our energy is going to go a long way in fighting inflation.”

Immigration and DACA policies

These policies concern people who were brought to the United States illegally as children. They did not have control over their immigration, grew up here, and are now adults, but considered illegal aliens.

Wild: “We should absolutely take every step toward legalization.”

Scheller: “We absolutely need immigration reform. But before we can do that, we need to secure our border and stop the illegal immigration that’s coming on.”

Wild: “I have voted to increase funding for custom and border control and to make sure that our border control measures are modernized.”

Abortion

Scheller: She said she is against a legislative law against abortion. She is pro-life, but she thinks that there should be an exception for rape, incest, and the life of the mother.

Wild: She doesn’t think partial birth abortion exists. “Women should have complete control over their own bodies. It is shameful that we are even thinking otherwise.”

Hispanic population

Scheller: “I’m going to make sure that one of my district offices is right in downtown Allentown. They want someone who is accessible to them. They want somewhere they feel they can walk into that office and someone is going to listen to their issues and get back to them. ”

Wild: “In my office, which happens to be in downtown Allentown, we have two full-time case workers who speak fluent Spanish.”

Wild said her staff are able to help people fill out forms for Social Security, etc. and get questions answered. They can also get questions answered in Spanish via email or calling on the telephone.

Gun control

In June, Congress passed legislation for enhanced background checks, and funding for states to establish red flag laws to allow police to seize guns from people who are considered to be dangerous. The candidates were asked what further steps they would support.

Wild: “I want to state this very clearly. I don’t think that the vast majority of gun owners are our problem. Our problem is when guns, often illegal, get in the hands of bad actors. That’s what we have to prevent.

“I definitely believe that we need to expand the violent background check. I definitely believe that we’ve got to make sure that a gun sale is not permitted if the FBI background check has not come back. The idea of not having red flag laws is ridiculous. We should know if somebody has a propensity to violence that has been identified by a friend or family member.”

Scheller: “You know you look at Philly and they have some of the toughest gun laws in our entire country and yet it has not stopped the violence. What we need to do is make sure that we have safe communities. … We want safe homes. We want safe houses of worship, and we want safe schools. … Taking guns away from law abiding citizens is not going to change that situation, because criminals are always going to do that.”

The moderator asked Scheller to clarify if she would or would not have voted to support the legislation.

“I’m not going to a hypothetical on a vote that hasn’t been taken,” Scheller said.

The moderator said the vote has been taken in the House of Representatives.

Scheller responded, “I’m going to talk about the issue is we need to make sure we have due process before anyone has a firearm taken away from them.”

Wild: “There is nothing in that law that takes away a gun from a law abiding citizen. All it does it provide enhanced background checks of minors and makes sure that FBI background checks are back before a gun sale is made. The one thing we agree on is that law abiding citizens should not have their guns taken away.”

Ban the sale of AR-15 (assault rifles) to people under 21

Scheller: “The banning of any kind of gun to law abiding citizens is something that I do oppose.” She said that men under 21 use these guns in the military, so other men of that age shouldn’t be penalized from owning these guns.

Wild: “There is no reason that a person under age 21 should own a weapon of war, which is what that kind of gun is. That is exactly the kind of gun that is used in most of the mass shootings in this country, so yes, I would favor that.”