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Kuster and Negron Square Off at AARP Candidate Forum

Jason Moon for NHPR

Democratic Congresswoman Annie Kuster and Republican challenger Steve Negron faced off Thursday at an AARP-sponsored event in Concord.

The two candidates for the state’s 2nd Congressional District debated issues including Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare.

Kuster said she would fight for such programs and she criticized Republican policies she says are putting them at risk.

“I have to say, the only threat to Medicare and Social Security is the tax break for millionaires and billionaires that added $1.5 trillion to the debt.”

Negron argued that Kuster has been in office for six years and has not made those same programs financially sustainable.

On the issue of paid family leave, Negron criticized Kuster for proposing a government-run program that he says would place a burden on small business owners like him.

“You know, I don’t have to have restrictions and a law to tell me what’s in the best interest of my employees. And so I fight people mandating to me as a business owner what I can and can’t do. I think that’s up to the person that’s writing his name on both sides of the check.”

Negron currently represents Nashua as a state representative. Kuster has been in Congress since 2012.

Jason Moon is a senior reporter and producer on the Document team. He has created longform narrative podcast series on topics ranging from unsolved murders, to presidential elections, to secret lists of police officers.
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