In the 1st District congressional race between Rep. Frank Guinta (R) and former Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D), everyone agrees that the candidates have very different political ideologies. Though that is true, it is not the whole story. Perhaps more importantly, the race also is about the basic economic knowledge of each candidate.

This was made clear during Monday’s debate when the candidates discussed health care. Guinta said he wanted the government to make legal changes that would allow more competition among insurers and medical care providers. That, he said, could help drive down health care costs. Shea-Porter scoffed, saying the idea that health care prices would ever fall is “not realistic.” She countered: “Nothing ever drops.”

Actually, prices for lots of things drop when competition is robust. Take computers, for example. Laptop Magazine noted in January that the average price for a notebook computer had fallen 14 percent in the last two years alone. One study found that from 1998 to 2009, the price of personal computers (adjusted for their computing power) fell by 90 percent.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the consumer price index dropped from 2010 to 2011 in the following economic sectors: communications, wireless phone services, personal computers, wine, natural gas, dishes and flatware, used automobiles, audio equipment, televisions (17 percent in one year!) and even medical equipment and supplies.

In health care, consider Lasic eye surgery. The cost of that surgery, which is typically not covered by insurance, fell from 1999 to 2005 by about $500, the National Center for Policy Analysis has pointed out. People shop for Lasic surgery on price, something they rarely if ever do for procedures covered by insurance. So naturally, the cost of most of those procedures rises.

But Shea-Porter wants more services covered by insurance, and she thinks this will make them cost less. The opposite is true. When people don’t shop on price, prices rise. She said that under Obamacare people get “free preventive care.” It’s not free. Someone pays for it. But to her, as long as the government forbids insurers from charging for it, its costs magically disappear.

Shea-Porter is not just extremely liberal. She is also extremely uninformed about basic economics. Whatever you think about Frank Guinta, at least he has a general understanding of how the economy actually works.