Roy Cho challenges Scott Garrett in congressional race

WANTAGE — Ernest Scott Garrett (R-Wantage) has won election six times by lopsided margins to the House of Representatives.

On Tuesday, he will face a new foe in 32-year-old Democrat Roy Cho, who is embarking on his first political campaign in a bid for the 5th Congressional District seat. Recent polls have shown the race to be tight.

Cho has criticized Garrett's vote against ending the government shutdown last year.

Garrett has defended his voting record, saying he voted numerous other times to end the shutdown. He said he disagreed with the deal that ended the shutdown.

"It failed to deal with the underlying problem" of the long-term debt of the country that has been estimated to run between $17-18 trillion, Garrett said. "Our children and grandchildren will have to pay for that."

Economy
Garrett said his focus is "the economy and jobs."

"I've met so many people who have just lost their job or are trying to find a job," Garrett said. "College kids can't find work."

"What we are trying to do is reform the policies of this administration which have failed terribly," Garrett said.

Garrett said he has voted to approve more than 40 job-creation bills in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. The majority of them have not passed in the Democrat-run U.S. Senate, he said.

He cited the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act as a bill he was most proud of. It will help startup companies grow and obtain more capital, he said. The act, which was signed into law by President Barack Obama, reduces regulations on new businesses.

Cho stresses the value of private businesses partnering with the government to create economic growth and invest in public infrastructure projects such as repairing roads and bridges. He is a backer of reintroducing the Arc Tunnel project, which could alleviate part of the traffic from New Jersey into New York City, but was halted when Gov. Chris Christie refused to accept federal funds.

"We had $8 billion of federal funding," Cho said. "Now that funding is gone."

"We need to invest in our crumbling infrastructure," he said. He also wants to build more rail in the state.

Cho said he witnessed firsthand the value of government investments in private business. His father was able to start his own freight warehouse through a loan from the New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

Cho said voters are "talking about the affordability of New Jersey" and "the affordability of college."

"Seniors can't retire because they are taking care of their grandkids," Cho said. "People are hurting. People need help."

Health Care
Garrett called the Affordable Care Act, which he voted against, "a dismal failure," and said it hurt more people than it helped.

Garrett has described the law as unconstitutional for requiring all Americans to purchase health insurance.

He wants to replace the law and make health care more affordable by allowing consumers to purchase health care on exchanges across state lines.

Cho said "premiums have gone up," as a result of the law. He would allow Medicare to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies in order to reduce health care costs.

Small businesses "are playing games" so they don't have to provide health care to more than 50 employees, he said. Cho said he would support ammending the law so that small businesses with more than 50 employees might only have to provide a portion of the insurance for some workers.

The Affordable Care Act has done some good things, he said. Allowing children to stay on the plans of their parents until age 26 and having pre-existing conditions covered are all "tangible benefits."

Education
Garrett advocates local control of schools and opposes Common Core.

Cho criticized Common Core for leading public school teachers to teach to the test.

Reducing student loan rates would be one of Cho's priorities. College has become "unaffordable" for many families, he said. Many graduates "can't find jobs and are burdened with student loan debt," he said.

Farm Bill
"I have real concerns over the years on the Farm Bill," Garett said. "It's paying farmers not to farm."

Garrett said the bill subsidizes large farms but doesn't do anything for small farmers.

Garrett said cuts made to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (also known as food stamps) through the Farm Bill, didn't go far enough. More should be done to eliminate fraud and "reign in the significant amount of waste," Garrett said.

Cho said the Farm Bill didn't do enough to help small family farms.

Government Surveillance
Garrett has voted to support bills which would have restricted the surveillance programs of the NSA and other governmental agencies.

"The excessively intrusive programs," which have been disclosed, "violate our privacy rights and violate our constitutional rights," Garrett said.

Cho called government surveillance "a major problem." Citizens have a "constitutional right to privacy," he said. He quoted Ben Franklin, who said "the privacy of our citizenship is paramount."

Minimum wage
Instead of raising the minimum wage, Garrett said the focus should be on raising wages by growing the economy. "Nobody will ever be able to live their life on a minimum wage," he said.

Cho supports raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. "Seventy percent of GDP growth is based on consumer spending," Cho said.

Environment
Garrett has supported gas drilling off the New Jersey shore. "We need to be less reliant on foreign energy," Garrett said.

Cho said the government should invest in clean energy, like wind power.

ISIS
"The administration has failed miserably to address a threat to our country," Garrett said.

He said Obama did not take the threat from ISIS more seriously until two Americans were beheaded.

Garrett voted against sending American troops to train Syrian rebels because he didn't want to risk their lives. Garrett hasn't offered an alternative to the current program of bombing ISIS targets in Iraq and part of Syria.

Cho called ISIS "terrifying. What ISIS represents is fundamentalism."

Cho said ISIS is part of a "pattern of fundamentalism that is growing in pockets of the world where there is poverty and inequality."

"ISIS doesn't speak for the Muslim people," Cho said.

Cho said the U.S. was too slow in reacting to the threat from ISIS. He supports aid to the Kurdish people to fight ISIS.