Osberg holds fish fry/town hall in Marshall
CD7 candidate visits Marshall with combo fish fry & town hall
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MARSHALL -- The Democratic candidate in Minnesota's Seventh Congressional District was on the campaign trail in Marshall over the weekend. On Saturday, Erik Osberg held a combination fish fry and town hall meeting at the Marshall Adult Community Center.
"Part of my intent tonight is to just let you tell me what's on your hearts and minds. So when I'm going around the room that's what I'm trying to do, is find out what real issues we're facing here in western Minnesota," Osberg told the audience.
Osberg is the DFL candidate running against U.S. Rep. Michelle Fischbach in CD 7. He met and took questions from area residents during Saturday's fish fry, in addition to door-knocking in Marshall and visiting local Hmong New Year celebrations.
At the fish fry, Osberg said some of his top priorities as a candidate were to uphold the U.S. Constitution, and get corporate money out of politics. Other priorities, like rural health care, public education and strengthening rural economies, grew out of conversations with western Minnesota residents, he said.
"I truly believe that our health care system is broken. How we fund our health care, that is broken," Osberg said. "We need to get to a place where health care is treated as a human right, not a privilege."
Agriculture was another important issue, as a big part of western Minnesota's economy, Osberg said. He said if he was elected, one of his first asks would be to sit on the House Agriculture Committee.
"And then, as far as education goes, I believe that public investment can lead to public good, and we should get a really good rate of return on that investment," Osberg said. He said he also supported the federal Head Start program, as it both helps education and helps identify at-risk youth. "We’ve got a mental health crisis in this country, and an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," he said.
People in the audience asked Osberg's position on a variety of topics, including the $40 trillion national debt.
"You can't cut your way out of a $40 trillion debt. It has to be a balance," Osberg said. "My approach will be to try to balance the budget through humane, sensible strategic spending cuts. But we also have a revenue problem."
"I do believe that we have what I call a collections problem, as much as we have a spending problem," he said. Osberg called for closing corporate tax loopholes.
One topic a few people asked about during the fish fry was last week's live debate between Osberg and Fischbach, which aired on Prairie Public Television. Osberg said one of his goals was to "win hearts and minds in the middle" as he took part in the debate.
"I had a list of things that I wanted to make sure that I got on the record, and I feel like I got most of them on the record," Osberg said. "I feel like we made a strong case that Congress has abdicated their responsibilities."
"I don't think we lost," he said of the debate. However, Osberg said he didn't feel like the debate was "a knockout."