hello and good evening welcome to town meeting television channel seventeen tonight we're doing a little bit of a candidate forum for the u s house of representatives for the vermont republican primary that's coming up our two candidates tonight are h brooke page he goes by brooke and on you ten you i'm going to ask some questions as we go along and do an opening statement everybody gets about two minutes apiece more just go back and forth it's hard to believe it's been two years since the last election here is nothing's really happened in that two years right and so it's been kind of a boring time so let's get started brooke wanted to start off with  just an opening statement tell us why you're running and what experience to you bring to the position ok well thanks the main reason i'm running for this and couple other positions is that i want to especially in the u s congress want to bring a little bit of bipartisanship back vermont's congregation delegation i'm sorry has been exclusively democratic for a long period of time so long that  will no longer be in office one way or the other and that he will ascend to the us senate position and because of that he hasn't taken any really strong positions for a number of years seems to be attempting to get a whole lot of face time on television as i guess they all do it really but not accomplishing that much for a month he certainly addresses the issues occasionally but doesn't come up with anything else for solutions just the other day he was up and saying opens bay and they were taking him out of the camera can and ran to see the r algae bloom that suddenly hasn't developed i don't know what that's all about exactly but we'll go back to washington really not provide any solutions or any real funding the other day he was talking about taking the cap off of electronic electric cars electric vehicles because the caps that were originally set for those are now being met and electronic electric vehicles really aren't the real end game answer for climate change it's really hydrogen and hydrogen cell technology that will resolve the pollution problems as far as transportation i think i've run out of t e ok but so that's my main thing is there would be nice if we had one or maybe two republican who were that went down to washington on behalf of the state of vermont certainly republicans at this moment at least would get a warmer reception from the white house than than are all democratic delegation who seem to want to poke the bear more than do anything to get it to come to mutual agreements on solving some of the problems you know with the same question why do you want to run and what experience do you bring i think it's in iowa but here i would like to run while i am running for u s congress because i believe that i feel i'm in a unique position to bring the working class viewpoint to washington i work full time i have i live in the northeast kingdom it's a very economically depressed area in many ways but beautiful and i choose to stay there and i think that my particular experience and work experience and experience talking to the people of the state of vermont can benefit me in taking over peter position as mr page here has said mr wells has been in washington for twelve years we've not seen any major changes in that period of time for the state of vermont many people that i talk to are dissatisfied with the performance that he has and it is my hope and my belief that i can bring fresh ideas and a new perspective and certainly give the people a choice for a republican candidate as there has not been in some of the previous elections there is not always been the choice for a republican candidate and i believe that i am a good choice for the state of vermont i will work very hard for the people and i feel that i can do very well in washington well let's let's talk a little bit about the state and that uniqueness you know were we're generally an agricultural state or least known to be that way and one of the questions we have is what do you think about the future of vermont's agricultural priorities various things that go on with the economy how are you going to keep that going what you start on well i will say that my first job right out of high school was milking cows so i had uniquely positioned to understand the agricultural economy i have many friends that are still in agriculture and i believe that the state needs to continue to have farming and forestry to sustain its economy we are a state with a lot of tourism base and we have agriculture as well there have been many talks about subsidising agriculture in the past year or so definitely before that as well but i think believe that it's important to remember that farmers as a people ar independent people they farm it's a hard life and they choose to do it for the independence that it can offer them a good life to raise their families and i don't believe that vermont farmers want to be substituted by the government when you talk about our neighbors to the north who have subsidize acre culture they do a lot of shopping in the united states for things like dairy products and cheese and no can so forth and it's important to note that when you're thinking about subsidizing farming that it has not really proven that successful in the places that have had it that being said i think there's disaster relief that needs to be in place for farmers certainly a bad year can really really harm the economy and so forth etc but i don't believe that subsidizing is the way to go brooke what do you think about our agricultural economy right now but i think agriculture generally in the dairy industry specifically is in dire straits much of the production has been taken over by what i call factory farms where they have one hundred thousand or a thousand or more cows that are just basically kept in the barn all the time and they're producing so much milk out of these industrial dairies that the smaller dairy farm the farmer that has two three four hundred girls in the barn is really struggling you know  the subsidies aren't the answer but at the same time the government has so meddled in agriculture that it's almost impossible for the farmer to survive as much as you may want to stay on the farm when he's when he's running no give revenue month after month sometimes year over year it's impossible no matter how much you love it you know you're not going to drive yourself into bankruptcy and take what value the farm has and run it into the ground in spoil whatever future your family has and other another good example is all of this carrying on with ethanol in the midwest farmers are so hooked on the corn going into ethanol production that they virtually can't get out and all of this is had effects on the farmers here and in vermont and throughout the northeast in the midwest in that corn prices have triple basically since the beginning of all this ethanol program and worst of all and is that ethanol is not producing any better results as far as pollution we follow up with you honey it was pretty clear that she thought the subsidy program was not that beneficial she saw a real negativity to what do you think how do you feel about that i think i think if if we want farmers to survive especially here in vermont and you know the the agricultural community is really a a showcase or a backdrop for our tourism you know people come here to see cows in the field and and the corn growing and rose they don't come here to see black billboards papering over the the countryside and i think that for farming is an essential part of vermont's legacy in part of its history and part of its future but it's only going to be a future if most of the farmers haven't planted what i call their last crop and that's another subdivision or shopping center and that's what's rents what's happening i we are losing i think eight to ten percent of our forms every year and have been for five or six or seven years and and long before that but in smaller numbers and ten years from now with those figures hold out there won't be any farms left on your what do you think i'm just a mean so brooke is kind of taking this down this road now that that the push of development versus you know the family farm type of thing what do you think it's definitely no secret that farming has been in the decline however whatever goes down must come up and chile and that being said as i've said before about subsidies i will repeat what i said but part of it is economy part of it is opportunity for the youth to stay on the farm a lot of the farms go out because they don't have anyone to take over and that's a sad state of affairs when you've had a family farm it's been the same family for ten ten generations up to and it's very important to remember that other economic factors play into this buying local supporting local is very important not just in dairy but in that stables and everything that's one of the models in my campaign by american higher american buy local stay local it's very important for us to maintain that liability in our local economy most people i would say if they look around a friend or a neighbor has some connection to farming and it is true that with agriculture and tourism is connected and it is important to maintain that people come to the state of vermont to see farms it's part of our history it's part of our heritage it's what people expect from us so if that being said i believe that like i said disaster relief or farms that are in dire straits is important but i do not agree with the government oversight of farming granted there is some i think that it's probably led in a negative direction all in oh well that kind of leads us now since we're talking about agriculture in this whole  into the environmental type of thing as the u s congress person you may have some impact or what would you say about the environmental issues that are affecting vrba right now and what could you what kind of role could you play that help with any of those issues that are coming up we'll start with broke here ok i think the farmers have been falsely identified or at least over identified as being the main polluters for that the valuable phosphates the food for the crops to be swept downstream and i think that the state has not has been negligent i think the federal government has been negligent in attempting to remediate these problems and help the farmer find a way to keep this valuable you know commodity on his property to be used and it's not just phosphates it's topsoil and and all of you know the different nutrients that the farmer wants to keep on the farm in order to have a productive  greenstock to be feeding feeding the cows or or producing other crops what do you think in terms of the environment as far as i recall to relates to the very moment i agree that the farmer is not deliberately trying to the waterways it is difficult for a farm located near a lake or a waterway to maintain that and erosion throughout history has always been a question of how best to contain it and i believe that there should be studies into the best way of stopping pollution in the waterwa by all means it needs to be addressed but there is also other factors that play into that for example the waste water spills into lake champlain and it's not just agriculture that you have to look at you have to look at it as a whole and that yet there is human error as well there is from what we hear mechanical error so all of those things need to be taken into account when you're thinking about pollution and it's very important to remember that the environment always is changing you  have to maintain the right balance to have a change in the right direction to maintain a healthy ecosystem and so forth and so i want to encourage our viewers out there that if you'd like to call in a question and not the only person that needs to ask questions or if you have a burning question just give us a call at eight six to three nine six six that's eight six two three nine six six we'd love to have a question from there from the public out there as well our in fact had just a little bit of said you know there's a discussion that was brought on about the cities and towns polluting and this is a major problem we have specially here in burlington i know for a fact we have ancient sewage system thunderstorm as if this was once in a lifetime event rather than once a month event and you know we heard most recently oh somebody through the valve the wrong way or the computer through the valve the wrong way and and you know three million gallons of water gets dumped tuesday represents four hundred sixty one of those tractor trailer tankers going into the lake and it carefully slips out through a pipe about one hundred feet offshore and that is dumped on the bottom of the lakes and nobody sees it spilling out of pipes and things like  way and financially punished at least sufficiently to have them motivated to resolve the problem immediately rather than study the thing to death while people can even go swimming or or go out on the beach or in burlington or up to say moments while on you know that's an interesting idea so that remediation may be the local you know local people may have to make up for those mistakes we also have you know for example we know there are some water issues down south in the southern part of the state what do you know what should the role of the congress be as a congress person you know to address those things i believe that congress in its main capacity needs to be enacting legislation to protect the environment definitely that is important and that is the role that we play locally on the local level which is not the office that i'm running for we need to be looking into upgrading the systems protecting things like that and you creating people really on the necessity for different ways of doing things all of that's important but as for congressional role it's definitely about enacting legislation that protects the environment thank you all i want to talk a little bit about now we've kind of talked about vermont and some of the things that are affecting us let's look at it more at the federal level at the nationwide level because you're going to be you could be you know want to be your representative there are so if we talk a little bit about like supreme court what you know what are your views you everyone i think is more aware nowadays of what the issues are but what were do you stand on a let me start on you with that where do you stand on supreme court nominations and the future of those things well the supreme court is very important to the country because ultimately they are making decisions on laws they are interpreting the constitution and it's very important that we have judges that are constitutionally based judges that they understand the constitution they take the time to look through it and make an assessment based on what they read and not their personal opinion that is very important that being said the nominee brett kavanaugh that is now up before the board has said that that is where he stands i don't feel that he has any particular malice towards women or bias towards women he seems to be a very reasonable man more than qualified for the job he's been serving in the court system for quite a few years including under justice kennedy who he would be replacing so he he has some firsthand knowledge and i think that that's important when you're going into something like that that you have some knowledge going in and i think that it will work out well if he is nominated  brooke what do you think well you know i think a lot of people have lost perspective on all of this that you know while mr obama was in office his he made picks and while they were debated they weren't hotly debated and there was a lot of name calling and things of this nature and and you know now mr trump is in office and he's making a couple selections and  far have been very conservative but you know very right headed also that you know they they don't have a lot of agenda that they come to and things like that yet the folks on the other side of the aisle are going absolutely absolutely insane have the you know it's being voiced and it's just really sad that here's good people that you know are stepping up to to take these positions and they're just tariffs and various things that are on there i'm certainly not an affair in favor of a law is a fair policy is where you know anything goes i think we have to have a degree of protection for our consumers and for our workers in the united states part of trade is making sure that the products of being brought into the country are safe to use and from children's toys to pharmaceuticals at least the chinese and and some of the other asian  countries have had the law say fair attitude anything goes send them anything and hope we don't get caught with the lead in the paint and the specificity in the in the pharmaceuticals and from that aspect i think we have to be very very careful and i think as far as protecting our workers we have to be willing to put up tariffs where the other side the other side is playing unfairly in steel in automotive manufacturer in electronics and in so many different places in these other countries especially in asia the government is heavily subsidizing these industries so that the companies in the united states that are trying to compete with them aren't on a level playing field by any you know i mean the playing field so radically tipped that the american workers are all falling off and we have to find a balance and i think president trump for all of those negative points you know certainly is spot on as far as trying to get this under control and and at for in terms of safety but also in terms of trying to be fair about things so under pick up on that what we're what do you stand on the like the trade policies and things that are out there i think that the blast administration failed to protect the american workers and the american economy with unfair trade practices i think that the president is spot on and trying to bring us back into a level playing field and many people you know go here or there about you know he's too tough or whatever but at the bottom end of the day you have to protect your country you have to protect your khana me and it's very important as i said part of my campaign hire american buy american with higher tariffs companies will think more about staying in america than sending out for more inexpensive labor whatever it causes them to go overseas and i think that it's very important to build up the american economy we certainly have to be a player on the world stage as far as economics and trade goes but we will not be able to maintain that bubble of superiority if you will in the world stage if we do not have a strong economy of our own and i think that that is the ultimate goal of the tariffs and trade policy changes to strengthen america and i agree with that i one hundred percent agree with that do you see any negative impact right now on potential tariffs on vermont i think that whenever things are in the process of shifting they may be difficult that being said the economy is better today than it was two years ago and certainly forty five six years ago so it is in a positive trend it's not something that's very focused on but it isn't a positive trend or do you think brooke well i think accidentally that all of the mischief with china starting to post tariffs on our agricultural goods may actually benefit from on in the soybean and corn prices and things may actually fall because of the lack of demand from china now that's not exactly what we want to have is long term that other people or big punished to assist the vermont farmers or you know any other field the other field that's being damaged currently  is solar installers and solar production because china was so heavily subsidizing their solar panels that they virtually put the domestic solar business out of business now none of those panels were produced here but the installers who are making money from doing holes and growing things together and hooking up wires are certainly in a negative position right now because of that but at the same time i don't see big solar as being part of the i've already said you know this this hundreds of acres of solar fields is not going to be pretty long term productive for us and it's certainly going to have a negative impact on vermont's tourism and lifestyle i want to leave in a couple  somewhat problematic you know that everybody expects everything to be tended to without any cost or consequence i think we lose track of the fact that the health care providers for them this isn't some sort of right it's in flies in the face of that i think everybody is entitled to a basic level of health care you know but as far as everybody being able to get everything without without cost or loss the cost or loss is just  foolishness you know that that like all other so socialist ideas you know socialism is only good until you run out of somebody else's money you wouldn't think well i don't think that anybody doubts the fact that the health care system was definitely broken i believe that it is on the right track to getting better change is slow and it's difficult to accomplish that being said as far as the right to health care anybody who has emergency medicine that goes into a medical practice cannot be turned away for not having the funds to take care of it but at the end of the day the federal government cannot pay for everybody without the money coming from somewhere so ultimately the people are going to be paying for health care one way or another it's just whether it goes through the federal government or they purchase their own insurance and there's a lot of back and forth about preexisting conditions and things like that but all timidly a competitive market is what is needed in health insurance in order to insure lower rates so i want to give you both a chance to get to a closing statement and then you know look right at the camera and tell your fellow vermonters why they should vote for you on you get the sense you get to be the first one thank you my fellow vermonters should vote for me because i have a unique perspective on the state from the working class position that has not been represented for many many years now things that happened and worked forty years ago thirty years ago even ten years ago are no longer working today and i believe that i can bring a fresh voice to washington there's a lot being said about me being the first woman elected to go represent the state of vermont in washington and that would be an otter and i would be proud to be that person however i would run whether that was the case or not i am one hundred percent for the people of the state i wrote will run an honest campaign and i promise to be conservatives but all of the people and fight for those things that benefit all of us not special interest but a citizen for many years of voter an employer historian  vermont is a small state it has very small touch on the federal government but i think that what can be done is to properly put the brunt values out down in washington and to hope that that has some resolved at the end of the day and importantly at least as far as the us house position the river representatives affairs are bring home the bacon to vermont and we've seen very little of that going on with peter welch in recent years well i want to i want to thank our viewers for tuning in tonight and you can watch this again it will be replayed on town meeting television a number of times where you can find it on our our internet site as well i want to encourage everyone that's watching this to stay involved and vote that's the most important thing here is that the republicans get out and vote democrats get out and vote during this primary that's what this station and i'm leading television is all about is keeping you informed so that you can quit get out there and and make your vote i want to thank both our can