U.S. Rep. Mazie Hirono said today that she supports President Barack Obama’s jobs initiative to help spur economic recovery, but former Gov. Linda Lingle said it would further expand the national debt.

In their final U.S. Senate debate before the November election, Hirono said Obama’s plan would put people to work repairing the nation’s highways, harbors and other infrastructure but has been blocked by Republicans. “This is a bill that the Republicans in the Senate have held back for over a year,” Hirono, a Democrat, said at the one-hour forum sponsored by Hawaii News Now and the Star-Advertiser.

Lingle, a Republican, said Obama’s jobs initiative would add another half-trillion dollars to the nation’s $16 trillion debt. “That’s just not fair to the younger generations,” she said. “It’s really theft from the next generation, when you spend money today that is not going to benefit them, but they are going to have to pay for it.”