Common Sense Health Issues
The General Assembly desperately needs more physicians with experience in delivering care to a community. And we need physicians willing to speak out for patients—because sooner or later we are all patients. For over a decade I fought hard against Phil Berger on his pathetic stance against Medicaid expansion (which left mostly working poor women out in the cold.) Unforgivable—and a tragic example of incredibly bad legislative judgment by my opponent.
This lost decade will have so many negative repercussions going forward. Don’t think for a moment that the funerals will stop now that we have Medicaid access for the working poor. Ten years of uninsured status set up half a million North Carolinians for a future of diminished health. Lack of insurance sent some folks on a downward spiral towards financial insolvency, as medical debt is now the chief cause of personal bankruptcy. Rural communities who saw the loss of their local community hospital now face a 5 percent permanent increase in mortality, according to recent studies.
As your senator I will strongly resist any further attempt to erode women’s reproductive rights. Early in my career I did obstetrics. (Notice I did not say deliver babies, as my wife Sara always reminds me, it’s the women who deliver the babies!) The right to an abortion is a fundamental healthcare right for women. I recall numerous patients—a pre-teen victim of sexual abuse by a foster father, a woman literally attacked by a once-friendly boss late one night (and afraid to report it to the authorities), a pregnant woman who spent the night bleeding heavily in the ICU—where patients and their families, along with their physicians, made a decision to terminate the pregnancy. It must remain a woman’s right to make such a serious decision. And simply declaring exceptions for women who are victims of confirmed rape will not address this absolute need—over three-quarters of rapes in our country are not reported to medical or legal authorities.
There are other crucial issues in healthcare worth fighting for: the need to elevate and advance the state’s fight against the fentanyl poisoning crisis which has taken the lives of so many of our citizens (I wrote a two-piece article on this last fall for the Rockingham Now newspaper), the need to endorse science-based methods in healthcare policy, the need to limit the outsized influences of insurance companies and healthcare systems on the General Assembly, the need to deter aggressive medical debt tactics, the need to improve minority and rural access to healthcare, and the need to relieve excessive drug costs.
PUBLIC EDUCATION MATTERS
As your senator I will fight with everything I’ve got to restore good public school funding and substantially improve teacher pay. My wife and daughter are public school teachers. We raised our kids in Rockingham County’s public schools. I am a product of public school systems from kindergarten through medical school. I was the first one on either side of my family to earn a bachelor’s degree. I stayed home as an undergrad, loading trucks each night for nearly four years to pay my way through school. Without an excellent public school system supporting me along the way, I would have never made it into medicine. Berger and his cohorts have made it more difficult for kids like me to succeed.
In my thirty-two years in Rockingham County, our state has dropped from 33rd in the nation to 48th in per student public school funding. If we had just held our ground—and 33rd is nothing to brag about—our school system would be receiving an additional 18 to 20 million dollars for our local schools. Think of all we could do with those funds to promote a quality public education for the kids of the county. Over the past twenty years, North Carolina was the only state in the nation to actually cut the amount of funding per public school student, when adjusted for inflation. This will directly damage our ability to compete in the 21st century. What are we thinking?
The rotten funding is really starting to feel and look like an intentional descent intended to diminish the quality of our public schools. Things actually got worse this year. With the new vouchers, our wealthiest citizens can expect a multi-thousand dollar check, from taxpayer funds, to send their kids to the costliest private schools. Meanwhile, Phil Berger and the General Assembly somehow cannot find the funds to offer teacher raises just to keep up with inflation. This is wrong and must be reversed.
It’s been said that a state budget is really a moral fiscal document, an expression of our values. The leaders of the General Assembly are hell-bent to cut corporate taxes to the lowest in the nation. They have financed that by slashing public education funding. Our state has utterly failed the moral test at hand. Any budget balanced by sacrificing the future of school kids is morally wrong and economically shortsighted. As your senator I will fight to reverse this wrongheaded path we’ve taken.
INTEGRITY IN GOVERNANCE
Too often our legislators do not respond to the needs and concerns of our citizens because they are more concerned about campaign donations. Too often they are not held accountable for poor governance because of extreme gerrymandering. Too often they court the wealthy and rich corporations, and seek their financial support through super-PACs that act outside of standard campaign finance laws.
Within the past year my opponent, flush with cash donations from a developer, mistreated the folks of Summerfield by threatening to deannex a thousand acres of their town when they did not fully comply with the developer’s wishes. He may still deannex the land in question through legislative bullying. He certainly “deannexed” his voters when he cut Summerfield out of his district with a recent gerrymander.
My opponent also pushed an unpopular casino upon the residents of Rockingham County, after the proposed developer funneled tens of thousands of campaign donations in his direction. And surely the General Assembly hopes the casino industry will donate huge amounts of cash, through super-PACS, mostly to Republican legislators. In a recent three year period, the video gaming industry funneled 800 thousand dollars in cash to the General Assembly. How does this possibly help democracy?
My proposal? I invite my opponent to adopt the same pledge that I have made: I will not accept campaign contributions or PAC money from corporations or individuals who have business pending before the General Assembly. It’s that easy! But because it involves money, for some, it will be very hard to accept.
We all need to endorse sensible reforms aimed at limiting gerrymandering by both sides. This would give voters a true say once again in the outcome of issues important to their community.
Imagine the immediate positive effect of such changes—no more back-hall secret negotiations favoring the highest bidder. Imagine legislators looking at an issue purely from the perspective of how it impacts their constituents, rather than how it might affect their campaign coffers.
Imagine the quality economic growth in store as we weigh solely the benefits to the community of any proposed industry!
Small Businesses, Environment, LGBTQ+ Community, Gun Safety, and Tax Policy
Do no mistake brief summaries as somehow meaning I care less about these issues….
As a small business owner for over twenty years, I know the challenges of dealing with regulations and running a business. I support proposals, such as one made by Senator Michael Garrett, which would exempt a portion of a small business’s income from state corporate taxes. Small businesses do not have access to the legislative process like the large corporations do, and so they see less favorable legislation. As a major engine of economic growth for our state, they deserve a break.
The state government must take an active role in protecting our environment. There are folks in the halls of the capitol building who do not give a hoot about the environment, as long as they can make a little more money on their pet projects. The fight to maintain a healthy environment and climate will be one of the most important of the 21st century. As your senator I will do my part to ensure that North Carolina maintains an excellent natural environment for our health—and the next generation.
Through my decades of clinical practice, I cared for and grew to love many of my patients who happened to be members of the LGBTQ+ community. It is wrong and cruel to use their own natural choice about whom they fall in love with as a punching bag in false culture wars that help no one! I’ll fight against these stances when they arise, and I will tirelessly point out the prejudice and cynical politics that fuels such false culture battles.
I fish a lot, but I also hunt some and own multiple guns. The NRA and others have hijacked the legislative process, once again with false claims of danger to second amendment rights. I strongly support our state instituting common-sense gun laws, to lower the risks of violent death to families, children, and members of law enforcement.
Young families and middle and lower class families have been given a raw deal from legislative tax policy over the past dozen years. North Carolina taxes are now more regressive, falling more heavily on the shoulders of those who can least afford them. As your senator, I will work to restore a more progressive tax system to give these families the relief they deserve.