WATCH: Highlights From This Morning's Debate

Press Release

This morning, on issue after issue, Kelly highlighted her strong record of independent leadership, while Governor Hassan offered nothing more than empty Washington talking points.

Check out highlights from this morning's New Hampshire Senate debate on WGIR:
Hassan's Budget Veto

KELLY: First of all, you want to talk about acting like Washington -- she did veto a budget and delayed money from addressing the heroin epidemic and mental health beds we needed. At the time she basically said it would blow a 90 million dollar hole in the budget with the business tax reductions and she eventually agreed to those tax reductions when she was overridden by members of the opposite party and her own party on the budget. Now she, you know, takes credit for it, so you want to talk about taking credit for something and double speak…

Kelly on the dangerous Iran Deal

KELLY: Very bad deal. Bad deal because it is going to allow Iran to keep basic nuclear infrastructure that it will allow it to legitimately seek to have nuclear weapons capability at least within ten years if not sooner.

And what have we seen from the bad behavior from Iran since this agreement? Testing ballistic missiles in violation of U.N. resolutions. Writing on the side of some of the missiles they are testing, in Hebrew, that they want to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. There is no reason that Iran should be focusing on developing intercontinental ballistic missiles unless they want to hit the United States or one of its allies with a nuclear weapon.

Think about the cash… relief they have gotten from this administration that is going to supporting terrorism, undermining our interest. They are threatening our Naval vessels in the Persian Gulf. They are also supporting groups in Yemen that are taking aggressive steps against us, most recently. This is a very bad deal for our country. And it is one that makes us less safe and our allies less safe. And it is one I've opposed. I think that we should have taken a much stronger position and not allowing them to keep their nuclear infrastructure, to address their ballistic missile program, and their support for terrorism which has grown and continues with this deal in place.

Kelly on the Affordable Care Act that is not so affordable

KELLY: Well let me just say, the Affordable Care Act is not so affordable for people in New Hampshire. When it was passed, we were told that if you like your plan you can keep it. We know that so many people lost plans that they wanted to keep, and are paying much more. The claim was that families would be paying $2,500 less, and they are paying so much more. The average increase nationally is 25 percent. We're waiting to hear what the increase will be this year in New Hampshire. Higher deductibles, higher copays, less money in people's pockets. We had an insurer leave the exchange, 11,000 people had to find new insurance as a result of it. Even President Bill Clinton has said this is a crazy system where you have hard working people who are being crushed and paying so much more.

So if you want to change this, certainly these are big differences between Governor Hassan and I, because I want to have more competition, more choice, not one size fits all from Washington. I want to expand health savings accounts, flexible spending accounts, I do want to make sure we address pre-existing conditions and those who need the support who can't afford health care, but it shouldn't be done in the way it has been done.

And this is an issue where if you want to make significant changes to the Affordable Care Act, there is a big difference in this race, and I will be fighting to make sure that people in New Hampshire have affordable health care, aren't paying higher deductibles, higher premiums, higher copays from the one size fits all from Washington which we have seen from this bill. And in fact, Secretary Clinton wants to expand the Affordable Care Act as opposed to really addressing fundamentally, the problems with it.

Kelly on her work to protect Medicare

KELLY: When it comes to Medicare let me just be clear, I've actually received an award from AARP for my work on caregiving and for seniors. In terms of Medicare -- we do need to preserve it. I've voted to preserve and strengthen Medicare Part B, stop Medicare Advantage cuts and to make sure doctor's rates aren't cut, and I'm certainly not going to do anything to harm my mother or any senior on Medicare. I want to preserve it and strengthen it. For the younger generations I have supported giving them choice of whether they want Medicare as it is, or if they want to have other choices, but not for anyone at or near retirement. For her to say we shouldn't look at different ways to address lower costs for Medicare when I am making sure that people can have the Medicare so it doesn't go belly up -- that's basically not wanting to solve this problem.

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