If there was time before the election, you know what commercial I’d like to make? It would start on a television screen that was showing one of the attack ads against me. It would be the one where the voice-over says: “Gary Kroeger said ‘Obamacare is a good start.”
The camera would pull back and I’d be watching the ad and then turn to the camera. I’d ask the viewer: “Aren’t politics fun? For the record what I said, before the Affordable Care Act was actually in place, is that it looked like it could be a good start (toward reform), but only with changes that lowered costs. I said that bi-partisan cooperation could make it better, and I noted that it was actually hatched by a conservative think tank 25 years ago. In their own words (the Heritage Foundation) it was ‘a proper use of government to serve the people.’”
I’m tired of double standards in politics. I have a feeling you are, too. Several weeks ago, pollsters called people in my district and were asked about Obamacare. When it polled low, the forces against me played their hand by linking me to it. For the record, my forays into ACA have been to offer critical improvements. The ads also linked me to Single-Payer support and, also for the record, that is not something that I’ve gone into at any great length. In fact, the only time I’ve written about Single-Payer (www.garyhasissues.com) was to simply trace the history of proposed health insurance reforms by both Democrats and Republicans.
Here is my Health Care policy: I would like all Iowans to receive the best possible health care, become the healthiest we can be, with the lowest financial risks and insurance expenses possible.
That’s it. How we get there has to be a cooperative effort between left and right and we have to be able to discuss all of the market forces and options that could serve that end. What has to end is partisan vilification of ideas.
What has to happen is that we have to start believing again that it’s about the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
I’m Gary Kroeger and I approve this message.
