Dear editor,
We don’t have to allow mega dollar corporations and individuals to dominate political and campaign media and to do so in secret. We don’t have to let Social Security fail. We don’t have to shift a larger share of government cost to those of us with less money. We don’t have to pass on record breaking debt to our children. We don’t have to reduce Medicare benefits.
In short, we don’t have to re-elect Rep. Roger Marshall, who cosponsored 289 bills, but not one to regulate big money in politics. Nearly 60 percent of his donations have been from political action committees. Alan LaPolice, his opponent in the Nov. 6 election, is not taking PAC money.
Marshall also failed to sponsor any bill for the basic math fix to secure Social Security by lifting the maximum income level that pays social security tax and making future adjustments to the retirement age.
Marshall faithfully followed party leadership to vote for the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which allotted 65 percent of the first year’s benefit to those of us in the top 20 percent of income and increased the federal debt by $1.5 trillion over 10 years.
We can now prepare for the secondary effect of this law. Even as he increased our federal debt House Speaker Paul Ryan stated that “you have to reform entitlements if you’re going to get this debt under control.” In political speak, reform means cut funding and entitlements means programs like Medicare.
We in the 1st Congressional District live with a massive political inertia that tries to say we should vote for whoever spells their name with an R at the end, even when it means benefiting special interests at the expense of the common good. But we don’t have to.
We can vote for a fifth generation Kansas farmer and battle field veteran. Listen to Alan LaPolice in the Liberal Leader and Times interview at www.liberalfirst.com/local-news/lapolice-i-am-not-beholden-to-special-interests.
Our government isn’t broken. It is the same government that has served us for over 200 years. We are just sending the wrong people. Please vote for Alan LaPolice on Nov. 6.
John Sturn
Ellinwood
