First Senate Debate Shows Big Differences

Posted 8.21.14

Mitchell, SD - August 21, 2014 - South Dakota farmers and ranchers know how to effectively farm, ranch and be good stewards of the land better than liberal Obama Democrats and Washington bureaucrats. That’s the message Mike Rounds delivered to the crowd at Dakotafest yesterday. Agriculture is South Dakota’s number one industry and our state’s economy depends on its success.

Gov. Rounds offered issues-based solutions to big government’s intrusion into the lives of South Dakotans by limiting the effect of liberal Obama Democrats and the big government bureaucracies that have run amok under the current administration. Job one would be support and passage of the REINS act. The bill, that has passed the US House, but is held up in the Senate by Harry Reid, would require the liberal Obama Democrat agencies to get congressional approval before they implement job killing policies.

Part of that reining-in would mean dramatic cuts or even elimination of some departments including the Environmental Protection agency which has proposed ridiculous regulations against agriculture including regulating temporary standing water, carbon emissions, the limiting of farm dust and methane gas produced by cattle.

From KSFY:
Republican Mike Rounds says he wants to reign in the Environmental Protection Agency and their proposed Carbon Tax which could drive up the price of gas and diesel for farmers. "It's going to drive up their costs on an enormous scale. We have to stop the EPA from doing damage to our national economy with this Carbon Tax.”

Rounds’ suggestion to eliminate the US Dept. of Education also drew applause from the audience. “We would eliminate 5000 federal bureaucrats with average salaries of $102,000 per year,” said Rounds. “They’re not teaching our kids and we shouldn’t have to be told by Washington, DC how to teach our kids.”

While Mike Rounds focused on solutions to our problems like repealing and replacing Obamacare and balancing the federal budget, the other candidates vying for the US Senate seat focused on finger-pointing without offering real solutions.

From the Argus Leader:
"That's just exactly the way that we would expect it to go," Rounds said after the debate. "We're the frontrunner. Everybody else has nothing else to lose."

Rounds says voters have a very clear choice between two very different philosophies on how our government should run and which direction our nation should head in the future.

From KELOLand news:
"I think there's a big difference up here,” Rounds said. “I think big government is the biggest challenge we've got and we want big government out of South Dakota. We want it out of your backyards.”

Voters will have another chance to see these vast differences in the next scheduled debate which happens Friday, August 29th at the State Fair in Huron.