By David Slone
Times-Union

WARSAW – The Libertarian and the Democrat candidates running for the U.S. House seat in the 2nd Congressional District showed up Tuesday for the Kosciusko County debate, but Republican candidate Rudy Yakym III was a no-show.

Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Rob Parker, who moderated the event, said the “third candidate could not make it and did not send any remarks.”

Libertarian William Henry and Democrat Paul Steury took turns answering eight questions posed by local media during the forum, ranging from topics like inflation and the economy to global threats.

The first question asked what the most pressing issues are in District 2.

“Well, there’s lots,” Steury said. He said he’s a teacher and last year he had three students overdose on fentanyl. “So I truly believe fentanyl is a major, major issue we need to address.”

He said he’s been around to all 11 counties in the district and they all have some fentanyl problems.

He also said climate change is the most pressing issue “that we need to think about.” An expert in environmental issues investigation, Steury said, “This is really something we need to start addressing and taking some action on.”

Henry said the priorities fall in line with what people really need right now.

“My priorities are fiscal stability. At the federal level, we really need fiscal stability.  Our agencies are spending way too much money. Every year, at the fiscal end of the year, we see these agencies really off-loading all of this money and spending as much as they can so at the end of the year they can say they need more,” Henry said. He said the agencies don’t need to spend all of that excess money at the end, but could be pinching some money and saving some dollars.

He said the U.S. could also liquidate some of the properties it doesn’t need and been throwing money at, and that would help the real estate market, too.

Veterans and veteran care also is a priority, Henry said.

Asked to name a specific policy area or House committee they would like to serve on if elected, Henry said definitely veterans issues as he is a disabled veteran; while Steury listed education and labor as he’s a teacher, energy and commerce, natural resources and science, space and technology. Steury also would like to be on the select committee for the climate crisis.

Asked if the U.S. democracy is in peril, Steury said, “I think we need to address what’s happening with voter registration and election integrity and voter suppression. We talk about fraud a lot. I don’t think there’s fraud. I think we’re trying to reduce the amount of voters that are able to vote.”

Henry answered, “No, I do not believe our democracy or country is in peril, not at this point. Not to the point where we can’t turn it around and make some changes and really start fixing some things.”

He said faith in the system has to be built and to do that the system has to work for the people.

“We’ve got to show that system working for the people. We’ve got to use our resources for the greater good, not pointing at us,” Henry said, adding that the country has seen a lot of domestic spying, Patriot Act increases and red flag laws increase at the federal level. “These should be red flags for everyone at this point. … We should be watching out for each other, not turning each other in or having the threat of turning each other in for some of these things.”

Everything we do, Henry said, is captured by the NSA.

“Everything that happens on the federal level that we see like these mass shootings … the FBI and the federal agencies always say the same things: Yeah, we were watching them but they never did anything. So with these agencies not netting like they should be netting and not preventing things from happening, I think we really need to change the focus of how we’re dealing with some of these things so we can strengthen our nation wholly,” Henry said.

Another question asked who should be responsible for the Jan. 6 and other civil protests where criminal acts are perpetrated by many participants. Henry said whatever individual broke the law should be held responsible, and Steury agreed, saying a law is a law.

As for what measures they would support to help fight inflation, Steury said inflation is a global problem. He said raising interest rates hurts “our wallets” by increasing housing and vehicle prices.

“To lower inflation, what we need to do is raise wages and you need to vote for somebody who writes policies to lower gas prices, build homes and makes groceries cheaper, which I will do,” Steury said.

Henry said the U.S. really damaged itself over the last couple of years by shutting down the government.

“And I think the biggest point that needs to be made is that we really hurt our economy, shutting ourselves down like that,” he said.

Small businesses and people in the service industry were really hurt.

He also advocated for balancing the budget and getting out of debt. The U.S. also needs to get back to being producers and not just consumers.

Another question was: How would you work with Indiana farmers to make sure they can continue to produce the food the world needs and still make a living? Are Hoosier family farms endangered?

Steury, who grew up on a pig farm, said they’re not endangered.

“And I truly have been reaching out to farmers around the 11 counties, and so I helped out with the harvest of soybeans a couple weeks ago just because I wanted to help them out,” he said.

Steury said, if elected, he would make sure farmers have everything they need so that they can continue to grow.

“Hoosier families are not endangered at all,” he said, but he would like to focus on smaller farms and make sure they grow.

Henry said, “Indiana farmers are Hoosiers’ biggest asset and they really are because they net the most money that the state makes every year in farming. They make billions upon billions of dollars for the state of Indiana.”

He said regulatory restrictions need to be reduced on the farmer.

The final question was about global threats and tensions. Henry said he was a strong proponent of national defense and was a strong proponent of increasing that on bad actors, but not on the American people. “We need to be prepared for what may come,” he said.

Steury said climate change is probably the biggest threat there is.

You can find the entire forum on the city website.