Fireworks at Budd, Manning Debate for NC 13th Congressional District

As predicted here earlier this week, the televised debate between conservative Republican incumbent Congressman Ted Budd and liberal Democrat challenger Kathy Manning got heated. The most volatile fuse was an exchange about an ad by the Budd campaign called ‘Queen Kathy’ that rightly paints a picture of Manning and her developer husband benefiting from taxpayer funded projects that feed into their business.

At the Spectrum News debate Tuesday night featured Manning telling Budd he should “be ashamed” for the commercial. Budd doubled down on opposing the cronyism that enrich people like Manning and her husband while doing nothing for the constituencies they claim to care so much about.

“The discussion of recent campaign ads drew perhaps the most heated moment, as Manning accused Budd of lying in one of his ads.

“That is an absolute lie, and you should be ashamed of yourself,” said Manning, who argues the claims made in an ad about the construction of a parking deck in Greensboro are false. PoliticFact recently rated one of the key claims in the ad as “false.”

Budd, meanwhile, doubled down. “It benefits what’s ultimately to be my opponent’s and her husband’s hotel, and I think that’s an insider deal,” he said.”

Well played. Budd smartly stuck to his guns and called out his opponent for the crony nature of theirs and others municipality-supported development projects. It’s a crony swamp in Greensboro, and Manning is a part of it.

Budd is a conservative’s conservative – a gun store owner, strong on principles and light on the muck of the Swamp. Manning is a stereotypical affluent urbanite liberal that makes big feel good promises that will lead to Big Government running amok.

That much was clear when they debated other issues Tuesday evening.

“Throughout the debate, Budd touted what he says were the benefits of last year’s Republican tax plan.

“I look at a lady just down the road who has a furniture business, and instead of buying one power saw that was $250,000, she bought four of them for a million dollars and hired more middle class employees,” he said. “This is working.”

Manning argued it only added to the national debt, while not doing enough to help the middle class. “This is putting a huge burden on our children and our grandchildren,” she said. “It’s also putting national security at risk because, don’t forget, China holds an enormous amount of our debt.””

Arguing against tax cuts may work in Greensboro proper, but it’s unlikely to win over voters through the 13th district that see real benefits from the current Trump economy, the tax cuts being a central boost to that.

Also, for the umpteenth time, tax cuts do not add to deficits. Spending money you don’t have adds to deficits, and that is FAR less likely to happen with Budd than with Manning.

The Democrats’ feigned concern for the debt and deficits is really quite laughable, especially with Manning who is focusing her campaign on government sponsored healthcare solutions, the biggest money pit in the world.

All in all, Budd seemed to stand his ground in the debate, even in the face of a coordinated campaign against the veracity of that one campaign ad.

Current polls have Budd with a slight advantage, but Republicans in the 13th better turn out to support a solid Freedom Caucus member if they want to avoid endless, frivolous impeachment proceedings by a Democratic House Majority come January.