Lt. Governor Daniel Mongiardo on Issues and Answers

WYMT Issues & Answers: Lt. Gov Daniel Mongiardo-July 6th, 2009

U.S. Senate candidate Daniel Mongiardo got some heat when he endorsed President Barack Obama. But the Lt. Governor from Hazard says he does not always agree with the president, like his stance on a bill that some say would hurt the coal industry.

It includes a plan to reduce carbon dioxide, and during Monday night's Issues and Answers program, the Lt. Governor says the bill that passed the house would hurt eastern Kentucky.

"The Cap and Trade is basically putting a tax on carbon, on CO2, which means anything that produces CO2, coal being number one, is going to be impacted negatively," says Mongiardo.

Even though Mongiardo endorsed president Obama in the presidential election, he says the Cap and Trade bill is one area they do not agree on. "The tax that's going to be levied on Kentucky families, Kentucky businesses, and our economy would be devastating. There's no way that anyone in this whole state could possibly be "for" this Cap and Trade."

But Mongiardo says he does agree with the President's views on health care. "I am for universal health care where everyone has some form of insurance of some form of coverage. I am certainly not for socialized medicine."

Mongiardo says health care is the number one issue facing our country, and says this is the last chance to fix health care before it crashes. "There are areas of this country and this state where health care is better than others. We need to make sure that no matter where you go, no matter where you live, you have the best health care anywhere," says Mongiardo.

Mongiardo hopes to become the only democratic physician in the US Senate. We have also invited Attorney General Jack Conway, who is running against Mongiardo for U.S. Senate, to appear on Issues and Answers, and we hope that will happen in the next few weeks.

Meanwhile, on the Republican side, new reports show Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson has raised more than $600,000 in his exploratory U.S. Senate campaign. Incumbent Jim Bunning still says he is running.