U.S. Rep. Blake Moore handily wins 1st Congressional District debate

OGDEN — U.S. Rep. Blake Moore (R-UT) won the first televised debate of the 1st Congressional District race on Monday, more or less by default.

His opponent, Democrat Rick Edwin Jones, began the exchange on the wrong foot by trying to deny that recent massive federal spending by the Biden administration caused the current staggering rate of inflation and proceeded to go downhill from there.

“I understand why people are frustrated,” Jones said in response to a question from debate moderator Kerry Bringhurst.

“But I feel like the media has promoted a myth that has a kind of superficiality to it. The main idea (of that myth) is that inflation is caused by debt.”

Then, like the economics professor that he once was, Jones droned on comparing the budgets of respective presidents as far back as Jimmy Carter.

“Every subsequent president, with the exception of Bill Clinton, had astronomical debts,” he concluded. “We’ve had astronomical debts for 40 years and there’s been no inflation.”

Somehow or other, Jones never did get around to explaining why the national inflation rate is hovering at around 8.5 percent and Utah’s inflation rate, counted from January of 2021 when President Joe Biden took office, is now at 15.5 percent.

But Moore was happy to remind him.

“We just passed $31 trillion in the national debt,” Moore argued. “That spending has directly led to nationwide inflation.

“This isn’t just Republican Blake Moore saying this — even Larry Summers, one of President Barak Obama’s economic advisors agrees – that the enormous amount of federal spending, particularly in the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act, has created a 40-year high rate of inflation.”

Most economists agree that the Biden administration’s policies have created a “perfect storm” of inflation.

In addition to the aforementioned American Rescue Plan Act, with a price tag of $1.9 trillion, Democrats in Congress have run up another $898 billion in miscellaneous spending in the past two years. That includes the $160 billion for the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 and a whopping $738 billion for the ironically-named Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

To top it off, the Biden administration has issued a string of executive orders curtailing U.S. energy production, including canceling the Keystone Pipeline on the day that Biden took office. Those presidential orders have contributed directly to doubling the price of gasoline at the pump.

(Inflation) is a tax on very single American,” Moore emphasized. “I don’t care how much you make or what your income status is … People are seeing it play out in their daily lives.”

As their exchange moved onto other topics including climate change, water and affordable housing, Moore was about to draw on two year’s experience on Capitol Hill, while Jones — a newcomer to politics — was limited to rehashing economic theories.

The debate between Jones and Moore took place on the campus of Weber State University in Ogden, sponsored by the Utah Debate Commission. The exchange was moderated fairly by Bringhurst, the station manager of Utah Public Radio on the campus of Utah State University.

In his introductory remarks, Jones said that he is running to advance American ideals, including the protection of voting rights in the face of voter suppression efforts by some states and gerrymandering.

Moore’s motives boiled down to wanting to finish the bipartisan work he has started in Washington.

Although the debate was civil, Jones did land a jab when he claimed to be the only candidate who actually lives in the 1st Congressional District.

Moore is a resident of Salt Lake City and, even with the help of a much disputed district map approved by the Utah Legislature, still lives about a block outside the district’s boundaries.

The Utah Debate Commission is a consortium of higher educational institutions, media organizations and business and civic leaders dedicated to creating a non-partisan and independent system of debates among qualified candidates for statewide and federal offices in Utah during each election cycle.

The purposes of the Utah Debate Commission are to educate voters about viable candidates and their issue positions, promote a civil exchange of ideas among the leading candidates, and elevate the discussion of the most important issues confronting the State of Utah.

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9 Comments

  • KA October 11, 2022 at 8:38 am Reply

    Umm….he’s a white Mormon with an (R) after his name – which is literally all you need in Utah. He could have shown up in a tube top, drinking a beer and he’d still win.

    • Reed Damon October 12, 2022 at 10:04 am Reply

      Do you ever get tired of hearing yourself make senseless points? As a white male I’m pretty sick of women demeaning men at every opportunity. We white men built pretty much everything in life that you enjoy. Roads, planes, cars, most of the food you eat, etc. Try a little gratitude instead of woke nonsense. You’ll never be happy unless you do.

      • KA October 12, 2022 at 11:31 am Reply

        I am a white male. Try again.

  • Cheryl Everman October 11, 2022 at 10:37 am Reply

    Did you not listen to the entire explanation? I believe Jones said inflation was caused by the pandemic (which caused massive supply chain issues), the war in Ukraine (which has exacerbated those issues globally), and the corporate consolidation of market power (greed). As to Keystone, arguing Biden stopping a pipeline carrying tar sands to the gulf for export is the reason for massive increase in gas prices is a garbage GOP talking point. Unlike communist Russia, the energy companies here control the extraction, production AND distribution. Their CEOs have been recorded in calls with investors lauding inflation because it lets them raise prices to whatever the market will bear, aiding their balance sheets in recovering from 2 years of losses. In 2011 (our last energy crisis) when the price averaged $102 bbl, premium was $3.68 (about $4.40 in today’s dollars). We see the same behavior playing out in the housing market. Costs did not increase to maintain rental property, but rents continue soar. Seems people love capitalism until they have to live with the consequences of supply and demand. Then they want the government to DO SOMETHING! Finally, with regard to government spending be the driver, if that were the cause, it would have been off the rails when Congress passed Trump’s $7.8T in deficits. Blake Moore ignores two facts 1. Even after the massive relief checks were added to the original budget in Biden’s first year, the deficit dropped from $3.13T under Trump to $3T, a reduction of $126B. 2. 68% of the mandatory spending is Social Security and Medicare. Boomers are retiring so this number is increasing. The money comes from TRUST FUNDS set up to pay these specifically so even though they’re included in the overall budget, they impact nothing in terms of real spending.

    The author also blames Biden for the Afghanistan withdrawal. Guess he forgets that was negotiated and planned under TRUMP! Biden had barely taken office.

    • Ttunac October 11, 2022 at 11:24 pm Reply

      “Unlike communist Russia, the energy companies here control the extraction, production AND distribution.”
      …Which is controlled by investment. Biden made it clear his administration would be adversarial to the oil/gas industry. Bad investment in an industry that the government has stated its intention to phase out.

    • Ron DeAngelo October 12, 2022 at 10:04 am Reply

      Are you done boring us?

  • pablo October 11, 2022 at 12:56 pm Reply

    Really nice unbiased reporting!!!!!! (sarcasm)

  • whoknows October 11, 2022 at 8:48 pm Reply

    @Cheryl

    so Biden had no choice but to implement Trump’s plans in Afghanistan, more than 6 months after he’d taken office?

  • Scooterpie October 12, 2022 at 10:08 am Reply

    I think the opinion section is bleeding into the news section.

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