THE ISSUES:

Helping Promote Renewable Energy

Tommy Sowers: Districts like Missouri's Eighth that get a great deal of their energy from coal should not be penalized in a transition to other sources of electrical power. Biomass co-firing with coal in current power plants is an economically viable first step. My district is rich in timber and has a top-notch engineering school; it would be a perfect laboratory for woody biomass or cellulosic biofuels development. Creating new and greener production sources is also vital, because for long-term, sustainable, and incentivized R&D and growth in green technology an entire industry must develop. Having led raids in Iraq by the light of burning oil wells I understand the strategic importance of weaning ourselves off oil and transitioning to safe domestic sources of energy.

Joel Pollak: The most important ways for government to help are to stop subsidizing big oil: stop killing jobs with false interventions like cap-and-trade and start creating incentives for businesses to invest in research and development. I believe the Illinois' Ninth district can and should become a leader in the development of alternative energy technology—including wind, fuel cell, and battery technology. Investors are ready to get involved. Our district has the infrastructure, the universities, and—most important—the people and skills to lead the way. Now we just need leaders and representatives who share that same vision.

Creating Jobs

TS: Southeastern Missouri has too many counties above the already terrible national level of unemployment. One thing we need to do is to start building things in this country again. To get our manufacturing base back in my part of rural America, we need twenty-first century infrastructure investments. I had better cell phone service in Baghdad than I do in many parts of my district, and our tax dollars paid for those networks in Iraq. This isn't the first time rural America has been dying. FDR's Rural Electrification Administration in the 1930s didn't just string power lines outside the cities, it brought jobs and prevented rural America from slipping further behind. Surely we can do it again. Cell phone and high-speed broadband are a minimum requirement to rebuild our rural manufacturing base, not to mention the advances in distance education and health-care delivery they support.

JP: We can create jobs by passing an investment tax credit, an idea first used by President Kennedy, to give businesses 10 percent back everything they invest in new capital. That will create jobs right away. We can also create jobs by reducing the massive federal budget deficit, which is hurting confidence in our economy and crowding out the private sector. We also must lower taxes on business and investment, which are higher in America than almost anywhere else in the world. Finally, we must stop job-killing legislation like card check and cap-and-trade. These steps will open up opportunities for Americans to create jobs and find jobs.


Arizona's Immigration Law and Immigration Overhaul

TS: While the Tenth Amendment does give states some leeway in drafting their own laws, the Arizona law seems like a cry for help that does not deal with the underlying problem. Any U.S. immigration policy reform must first and foremost focus on workplace enforcement and border security. Until and unless these are accomplished we can never really address this massive security issue.

JP: I studied the law thoroughly. I had some initial concerns about the language—vague terms like "lawful contact," for example—that were addressed in later amendments to the law. I don't think the law poses a threat of racial profiling—and neither does the federal government, which had an opportunity to bring that accusation up in its lawsuit against Arizona, but failed to do so. I am disappointed that so many politicians tried to divide Americans against one another without actually reading the bill. We need border security first, then sensible immigration reform that prioritizes skilled workers who create jobs and opportunities for other Americans. I am against amnesty, and believe that those who are here illegally should be handled on a case-by-case basis according to the circumstances of their arrival and whether they have committed further offenses, paid taxes, and other factors.


Net Neutrality

TS: The Internet opens up opportunity and information like nothing else, and it is critically important in keeping rural America connected with an ever-globalizing economy. Access to the Internet and to the sites on it must not be based on a "pay-for-play" system, which benefits big business and crushes the small businesses that are the job creators and innovators in this economy. I support expanding access to the Internet through initiatives like improved rural broadband infrastructure, not restricting it.

JP: I don't believe that the government [via the F.C.C.] should be in charge of regulating the Internet. I am also concerned that some companies are using 'neutrality' to favor their own market position against that of their rivals.


Afghanistan

TS: Afghanistan is much more challenging than Iraq: It is larger, has a greater population, no history of a centralized government, a seventh-century tribal mentality, and a leader who can't seem to decide if he is on our side or not. As someone who led counterinsurgency operations in Iraq, I believe that Afghanistan needs new thinking at the Congressional level. The Constitution wanted the Congress to be heavily involved in debates about the execution of wars, and since WWII the number of veterans in Congress has fallen as has the level of Congressional engagement in these debates. Congress has shirked its Constitutional responsibility by not yet setting a strategy for Afghanistan or even being meaningfully involved in the discussion. Supporting the troops doesn't mean simply giving them more resources; it means giving them an achievable mission or sending them home.

JP: Afghanistan is different from Iraq—in good and bad ways. On the good side, there is less of a secessionist problem, as there was in Iraq. On the bad side, the state itself is very rudimentary and weak compared to Iraq—which was itself a failed state. That said, if we focus on defeating the terror groups militarily, as we did in Iraq, we will succeed. Part of that effort means winning hearts and minds. And part of it means showing assertive force, without self-defeating rules of engagement. I don't believe we should expect to be in Afghanistan forever, but I don't believe in arbitrary pullout dates that are disconnected from conditions on the ground.

THE DEBATERS:

Democrat Tommy Sowers, 34, is currently running for Congress in Missouri's Eighth District, where he was also born and raised. After graduating college, Sowers served 11 years in the U.S Army as a Ranger, Green Beret, and then taught at the United States Military Academy at West Point. He recently made the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's "Red to Blue List," a program that highlights exceptional campaigns and awards them with additional support—in recognition of his efforts to unseat seven-term U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson. Sowers is also currently working to complete his Ph.D. in government.

Republican Joel Pollak, 33, running in Illinois's Ninth Congressional District, was born in South Africa and immigrated with his family to the U.S. in 1977, becoming a naturalized citizen in 1987. After graduating from Harvard and Harvard Law, he settled in Skokie, Illinois, where he has worked as a legal researcher and author. Pollak rose to national prominence after a video of him confronting and then debating Congressman Barney Frank regarding the Congressman's role as Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee's responsibility for the financial crisis became a hit on YouTube and went viral. Last year, he published his second book entitled Don't Tell Me Words Don't Matter: How Rhetoric Won the 2008 Presidential Election.

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