The two candidates for U.S. Senate in Kentucky met for their fifth and final debate before Election Day, this one broadcast on Kentucky Educational Television.Republican Rand Paul and Democrat Jack Conway avoided most of the rancor of their previous debate at the University of Louisville and discussed issues such as Wall Street regulations, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and health care.Paul defended his proposal for a higher deductible for some Medicare recipients."What I did say on many occasions was a higher deductible would help fix the problem but would be politically unpalatalble, would not be feasible. But there would be ways that maybe in the future, younger people might have to pay higher deductibles and you may have to do means testing," Paul said.Conway said he supports the new health care overhaul law, but believes it can be improved."There's going to have to be some things tweaked in this bill. I don't want to penalize employers, but we're going to have 45,000 small businesses in Kentucky that get assistance with premiums. And my opponent's on record as saying that we need to go back to the health care system we had in this country pre-World War Two," Conway said. The candidates are vying for the Senate seat that will be vacated by retiring Republican Sen. Jim Bunning.
Rick Howlett was midday host and the host of LPM's weekly talk show, "In Conversation." He was with LPM from 2001-2023 and held many different titles, including Morning Edition host, Assignment Editor and Interim News Director. He died in August 2023. Read a remembrance of Rick here.
