From the outset, Democratic congressional candidate Rachel Wallace sought to put Republican U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser on the defensive in their debate Tuesday.
But Meuser gave as good as he got as the two candidates tangled, often sharply, for more than an hour.
In her opening statement, Wallace accused Meuser of building a stock portfolio while in Congress that rivaled multi-billionaires Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, voting to slash Medicaid, voting for a huge tax break for data centers and to eliminate local controls on them.
“Dan Meuser has shown he is in this for himself, and I am in this to fight for us, to lower costs, to root out fraud and corruption in Washington, and to bring people together to solve local problems,” Wallace said.
After thanking debate organizers, Meuser wasted no time responding. He criticized Wallace for years spent working for presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden and serving as a puppet for billionaire George Soros, a frequent target of Republicans.
“My opponent came out right out of the gate with lies,” he said. “What she stated about the data centers (was) completely nonsense, completely false, 100%. She put out a mailer that stated how I engaged in some sort of illegal stock trading. Completely false ... Of course, I didn't do that. Any stock that I purchased was well before I got into Congress.”
The two matched up in a Schuylkill County Chamber of Commerce-sponsored debate at Penn State Schuylkill outside Pottsville in their bid to represent the 9th Congressional District starting Jan. 3 in a job that pays $174,000 a year.
The 9th includes all of Bradford, Columbia, Lebanon, Montour, Northumberland, Schuylkill, Sullivan, Susquehanna and Wyoming counties, roughly the western half of Luzerne County and parts of Berks and Lycoming counties.
Lots of sparring
Wallace, 38, of Schuylkill County, and Meuser, 62, of Luzerne County, repeatedly sparred over the nation’s major issues — the economy, health care, immigration and data centers.
“He told our farmers at the Pennsylvania Farm Show, that data centers were a great opportunity, and he's invested in AI companies and big tech,” Wallace said. “You know what? People are tired of high costs and corruption, especially our farmers who work so hard so we can feed our families. And so, we deserve to know, Dan. Why have you voted against our farmers over and over again, supporting these high costs for them while giving data center developers a tax break?”
“If you're asking me a question, I'll bet you I get 80% of the farmer vote throughout Pennsylvania's ninth because of the work I've done,” Meuser shot back.
Health care solutions
In response to a question on health care, Meuser said he favors directing federal subsidies for taxpayers to health savings accounts to help them buy insurance rather than subsidizing insurance companies.
He also favors allowing businesses to form health insurance associations to negotiate lower premiums and expanding Medicare’s right to negotiate lower drug prices
Democrats, he said “want to control” all health care.
“They want a single-payer system,” he said. “I hear a Democrat, by the way, talk about a solution, you know what I hear? We need more government control, and we need to tax the rich, and we need to spend more. That's their plan, more or less for everything.”
Wallace wasn’t having it. She pointed to Meuser’s vote for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that analysts predict will leave hundreds of thousands of Medicaid recipients without health care.
“He voted for a trillion-dollar cut to Medicaid ... people losing their health care, costs going up for everyone, access to our rural hospitals and nursing care in danger,” she said. “Dan voted for those cuts. Here's what I'm going to do: I'm going to reverse those cuts, and I'm going to hold our insurance companies accountable.”
Wallace said she would vote to block medical providers from requiring prior authorization for a procedure, capping spending on health care executives’ salaries and undoing health care monopolies.
Helping small busineses
One question focused on helping small businesses, which Meuser welcomed because he once ran a small business, Pride Mobility Products in Exeter. He took that opportunity to defend the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
“How about no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and a $6,000 reduction in Social Security (taxes), one that puts money in people's pockets, so they have more money to spend, which drives our economy and drives certainly drives small business,” he said.
Wallace said she comes from a family of small business owners.
“And right now, our small businesses they're struggling, and so are our local employers with the cost of gas and diesel, with the cost of healthcare, with the burdens of these tariffs,” she said.
Meuser, she said, voted for the war in Iran that damaged the nation’s economy with higher prices, supported tariffs and to raise health care costs, which hurts small businesses.
She asked him to explain how these votes helped small business owners.
“I did not vote for cuts to health care. You know that. If you don't, I don't know what you're doing up here,” he said. “Medicare was not touched, although you have a big billboard here that it says I cut Medicare. Complete falsehood, complete lie.”
Medicaid spending only won’t rise as quickly as “illegals” and people who refuse to work are removed, he said.
“It’s a $1 trillion cut in Medicaid in the next 10 years, and I do know what I'm talking about,” Wallace interrupted.
Inflation worse?
Meuser told her inflation was worse under Biden.
“Guess where our opponent was? Working during those four years for Biden driving that inflation,” he said.
Meuser said he agrees with farmers who think tariffs are hurting them.
“And I've expressed this to the White House and all along the way. But the farmers are benefiting by it because their food is not being as competed against as it was before when they had huge tariffs to India and everybody else, 90%, and we had minimal tariffs here,” he said.
On data centers
Wallace said she was shocked when Meuser voted for a bill that gave data centers “a huge $80 billion tax break.”
“Congressman, please defend that vote. Did you vote for that bill because it was good for your stock portfolio?” she asked. “Because it was good for the corporations donating to your campaign? Because it isn't good for us?”
“Well, if I was interested in money, I would have stayed in the private sector,” Meuser shot back. “I'm doing this because I want to. I want to serve at a higher level. And by the way, why don't you name this this bill? Because I'm completely not familiar with it. There's been no specific bill that gave money tax credits for data centers” he said.
"Sounds like you don't know what you voted for," Wallace said.
“Well, I know exactly what I voted for, and you're just making it up. I'm not. It's a farce. It's false. Then name the bill.”
When Wallace said she was referring to the budget bill, Meuser demanded the know the specific provision.
“Now we voted to vote for competitive tax rates for all industries,” he said.
The war in Iran
Wallace again challenged Meuser on the war in Iran, which she said raised fuel prices and hurt everyone.
Meuser acknowledged the effect, but said the war was not about energy, but about preventing “a terrorist regime” from “getting a nuclear bomb.”
“Do you think an Iran with a nuclear bomb would not have a bit of an economic impact? I think it would,” he said.
Wallace wasn’t buying it.
“Don’t they still have uranium and missiles and drones? Are we safer today than we were eight months ago?” she asked. “No, we're paying more for gas and home heating oil. These policies have failed.”
“Yes, this has not gone as planned,” Meuser responded. “But the goal is very virtuous.”
On immigration
They seemed to agree most on immigration.
Wallace said the “immigration system is broken.”
“I think that we agree that we should have law and order at our borders, that we should have secure borders, and that we should know who is coming into our country,” she said.
But Meuser doesn’t want a solution, she said.
“Dan Meuser has been in for in Congress for eight years, and he has come home and talked about immigration all eight years,” she said. “If you can't get anything done, isn't it time for someone else to have a turn?”
Meuser said the border was porous under Biden, but President Donald Trump shut down illegal crossings.
“Are you kidding? I went to the border three different times, and I actually traveled there with Democrats, and they would ... come back and tell a different story of exactly what we all saw. It was just a farce. This was a disaster that went on for years.”
