By Rick Green
THE KEENE SENTINEL
During a debate Monday, Republican congressional candidates George Hansel, Robert Burns and Lily Tang Williams expressed opposition to a $280 billion bill to boost U.S. computer-chip manufacturing and make this country more competitive with China.
President Joe Biden signed that legislation into law Tuesday afternoon after it passed the U.S. House and Senate with bipartisan support.
Hansel, the moderate mayor of Keene; Burns, a former Hillsborough County treasurer; and Williams, of Weare, a former Libertarian candidate born in China, met in a N.H. Journal debate at Saint Anselm’s N.H. Institute of Politics.
They are among a crowded field of Republicans seeking to unseat Democratic U.S. Rep. Annie Kuster, of Hopkinton, in the fall and were the only three invited to participate in the debate. Organizers felt they would be of most interest to their readers, according to N.H. Journal Managing Editor Michael Graham.
The three were also unanimous in their opposition to the “Inflation Reduction Act,” a bill Democrats on Capitol Hill are trying to pass despite a lack of support from Republicans. That bill is meant to fight climate change, close corporate tax loopholes and reduce health care costs.
Proponents say that because of the bill’s tax provisions, it would save more than the approximately $400 billion it would spend, including on reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 40 percent below 2005 levels by 2030.
Burns said the climate bill is a “green-energy boondoggle.” He labeled the computer-chip bill “a slush fund and bailout” and said a better approach would have been to require that military equipment contain only U.S.-made chips.
Hansel said the two bills amount to inflationary spending and are a “slap in the face” to consumers at a time when announcements have been made that the country is entering a recession.
There are actually differing opinions on whether the country is in a recession at this time. The gross domestic product has fallen for two consecutive quarters, which signals a recession to some financial observers. Others look at additional indicators and don’t believe the country is in a recession, according to a post on the White House website.
“Lots of people are struggling, people here in New Hampshire,” Hansel said. “Joe Biden and Ann Kuster, they just don’t care. They’re not thinking about you and me. They’re not thinking about the businesses here.
“If you want to bolster an industry in this country, you create a good, pro-business environment.”
Williams said both bills would add to the U.S. national debt.
“Today, fiscal responsibility is a totally alien concept,” she said. “We don’t have the money. We can’t print money out of thin air.”
On the subject of immigration, Burns took the opportunity to attack Hansel.
“Why are the illegals coming here?” Burns said, using a pejorative term for undocumented immigrants. “Because they are going to sanctuary cities like George’s sanctuary city, Keene.
“You have to stop telling them they are going to be protected, they are going to be given a pathway to citizenship.”
Areas where officials limit cooperation with federal immigration officials are sometimes called sanctuary cities. Cheshire County, Harrisville and Dublin are among the locales where voters and officials have supported limits on such cooperation.
In 2017, the Keene City Council adopted a resolution to “only cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Patrol in a request to detain or to report an individual when required to do so by a federal, state or local law.”
Hansel, who was on the City Council at that time, was one of three councilors to vote against the resolution.
“Bob, you’re lying,” Hansel said. “Keene is not a sanctuary city. I just talked to my police chief the other week, and I asked, ‘What would happen if a federal agency came and asked for your cooperation on an immigration issue.’
“He reassured me that we would fully cooperate.”
Hansel said the U.S. should “secure the border, stop the flow of drugs into this country and give some relief to our local governments and law enforcement folks who are just trying to do their jobs.”
Williams said she supports legal immigration and secure borders, but also backs the immigration policy known as DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), a policy to protect some young people who entered the United States unlawfully as children. It allows them to apply for a driver’s license, a social security number and a work permit.
Burns said they should be sent back.
He interrupted Williams several times in the debate. She said his campaign has mischaracterized her views.
“Who needs Democrats when you have Republicans attacking you?” she asked.
Hansel didn’t specify his views on DACA and wasn’t immediately reachable Tuesday afternoon.
Other Republicans running in the September primary for Kuster’s seat are Scott Black, of Whitefield; Michael Callis, of Conway; Jay Mercer, of Nashua; and Dean A. Poirier, of Concord.
Rick Green can be reached at [email protected] or 603-355-8567
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