Harman, Kuykendall Outline Differences on Health Care, Taxes

An issue-packed forum Saturday helped delineate some substantive differences between the main candidates in the South Bay’s 36th Congressional District--a key seat in the battle this fall for control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

The two centrist candidates, former Rep. Jane Harman, a Democrat who held the seat for three terms before giving it up two years ago when she made an unsuccessful run for governor, and the man who succeeded her, Rep. Steven T. Kuykendall (R-Rancho Palos Verdes), met for the first debate of the campaign before an overflow crowd of mostly senior citizens.

Harman went on the attack early in the forum, knocking Kuykendall’s votes against measures to add a prescription drug benefit to Medicare and against a health insurance reform bill favored by health care providers, consumers and AARP, formerly the American Assn. of Retired Persons, which was the main sponsor of Saturday’s forum.

“Steve Kuykendall is a decent man,” Harman said, “but I believe we must make tough choices” about improving health care coverage and shoring up Social Security, and not make sweeping tax cuts. Kuykendall voted to eliminate the federal inheritance tax and erase the so-called “marriage penalty” that extracts higher income taxes from many couples. President Clinton vetoed both proposals.

Kuykendall said he voted against the health care measure, known as Norwood-Dingell after its authors, because it would have held employers liable for the actions of their health insurance providers and therefore would have discouraged employers from offering coverage. And he defended his prescription drug vote by saying an alternative plan he offered, to encourage private insurers to help cover drug costs, was a better way to go.

“In the six years Jane Harman was in Congress, a plan never passed out of Congress” to help seniors and the disabled with prescription drug costs, Kuykendall said.

The crowd at the nearly two-hour debate filled the 500-seat James Armstrong Theatre of the Torrance Cultural Center and spilled into the lobby, where television monitors were set up.

Many of the questions centered on topics of interest to senior citizens. They account for nearly one-quarter of the district’s registered voters but, because of their consistently high turnout, will almost certainly represent an even larger portion of the vote on Nov. 7.

One question had to do with proposals to “privatize” Social Security by allowing workers to funnel a portion of their earnings away from the government’s pension system and into private investments.

Kuykendall said he favored the concept of allowing such a system but only for workers now in their 20s and 30s. “It’s a different workplace now,” Kuykendall said.

“I oppose partial privatization of Social Security,” Harman said, drawing applause.

When Kuykendall retorted that he believed young workers ought to “take responsibility” for their retirements and not rely primarily on the government, he also drew applause.

But the debate also included some local issues, most notably the proposed expansion of Los Angeles International Airport.

Both candidates said they favor a regional approach--having other Southland airports bear some of the load instead of LAX taking much of the anticipated growth in passengers and cargo.

Kuykendall drew appreciative laughs when he called the Federal Aviation Administration “one of the most mind-numbing organizations I’ve ever been around” when he described his efforts to get community leaders and federal officials to work together.

“The role of the member of Congress here is to be a leader on this issue,” Harman said. “This is probably [among] the top one or two issues in this district. Being a mediator is not enough.” Harman said she would “stop the funding for the FAA” until she was satisfied with its response to area concerns about noise, traffic and other airport problems.

Harman told the audience they have a real choice because she and Kuykendall “stand in very different places” on key issues.

Kuykendall pointed to his 25-year residency in the district and his work as a local city council member and state legislator. It was a clear dig at Harman, who moved back to California to run for the seat in 1992, then gave it up in 1998.

“I’ve raised my family here,” Kuykendall said.