While it isn’t fair to lay the blame of the least-productive U.S. Congress in history on Rep. Lynn Jenkins, it is fair to say she is part of the problem. REP. JENKINS believes in obstructionist policies. She voted to shut down the federal government last fall over the Affordable Care Act. In her three terms in Congress, she has aligned herself increasingly with right-wing politics. She has voted to cut spending on education, Pell grants for college students, and Head Start programs for needy children. MARGIE Wakefield got her first taste of politics working as a staffer for U.S. Sen. Bob Dole before she attended law school at the University of Kansas.
Jenkins never misses a beat to lay the blame on Democrats for the nation’s ills.
Which is why her opponent, Margie Wakefield, is a breath of fresh air.
On health care:
“The new health care law is the first step in what will likely be an ongoing process,” Wakefield says. “I support the advances such as eliminating preexisting conditions, allowing dependents to stay on their parents’ health care coverage until age 26, and a focus on early detection and preventative services.”
Is it perfect? No, says Wakefield. But it’s a good start to making us a healthier country.
The solution? Not a repeal of the health care act — for which Jenkins has voted 50 times — but fixing the problems, by, get this, working together.
On Medicare:
Wakefield is a proponent for keeping it strong, while Jenkins favors taking it out of government’s hands.
Jenkins is among Republicans who favor the privatization of Medicare.
Now it may seem handing over the function of a government responsibility to the private marketplace would be a smart thing. The perennial joke, after all, is that the government can make anything worse.
Today, government-operated Medicare guarantees enrollees certain health care benefits. If Medicare were privatized, seniors would be given a monetary voucher they could use to purchase their own insurance through a myriad of private health insurance companies.
Privatizing Medicare would eliminate the current guarantees of health care, because it would shift the burden of its cost to the open market — health insurance companies — that must put profitability first, and patient care, second.
The same scenario can be said for the privatization of Social Security and Medicaid, also targets of the Republicans’ “Path to Prosperity.”
Of course in Kansas, we’ve already privatized Medicaid. The result? Reduced services, longer waiting lists to receive services, delayed payments, and no savings.
Jenkins also uses fear-mongering as a campaign tactic, saying the Affordable Care Act will cut Medicare benefits.
“Just across-the-board wrong,” said Sandy Praeger, our state’s insurance commissioner, whose job is to know the ACA inside and out.
“There have been no cuts in benefits,” Praeger said.
She voted against the 2014 Farm Bill.
She is in throes of big business because of their large campaign contributions, no longer able to connect to our concerns or be our voice.
For the last 29 years she’s practiced family law, a profession, she says wryly, that has taught her a lot about how to compromise.
As our representative for the 2nd District Wakefield would bring a sharp mind, unfettered by party politics and free from obligations to anyone but those who matter — us.
— Susan Lynn
Margie Wakefield best candidate for Congress
