PBS Wisconsin Public Affairs

Hi, I'm Mark Pocan and I have the honor of serving as our Representative to Congress for the 2nd Congressional District in Wisconsin. And I am asking for your support again this fall. The 2nd Congressional District comprises all of Dane County, Sauk County, Iowa County, Lafayette County, Green County, half of Rock County and a little corner of Richland County. I've had the great pleasure of the last six years of serving in Congress for our district. The last two years have been especially interesting, to say the least, with President Trump and the Republicans in Congress. We have had difficulty in moving a lot of legislation forward. There was a tax cut that was passed last year that 83% of the money will go to the top 1% in ten years. Other than that, it's been a lot of dysfunction in Washington followed up by a lot of corruption with this administration. The three things I think that we are trying to run on

One

making sure that people have access to healthcare and that we're helping to keep prescription drug prices down. There have been a lot of efforts by this Congress to get rid of the Affordable Care Act and in doing so, getting rid of the protections for people with pre-existing conditions. That would be a terrible idea. The one thing I hear over and over at every town hall I do, is people are really concerned they're going to lose access if they have a family member who has pre-existing condition. I myself had a triple bypass a year ago. I now have a pre-existing condition. I think more than ever, people who have that need access to healthcare. That's one of the things that were afforded by the Affordable Care Act. We need to make sure are continued to be protected. Whether it be the lawsuit that the state of Wisconsin is involved in right now that could lose those protections or all the actions by Congress, we need to do everything we can to make sure that people have access to healthcare. I would argue for a single payer Medicare-for-all system. I think makes the most sense. In fact, the Reuters poll about a month ago said 70% of people in the country support Medicare-for-all, including 52% of Republicans. I think that's a goal we have to try to get to. Second, we're running on trying to create more good-paying jobs and investing in our infrastructure. The national infrastructure has been given a D+ grade by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Interesting fact

one out of every six bridges is old enough to qualify for Medicare. We need to invest in that and create those good-paying jobs and continue to make sure that pay increases. Finally we're trying to deal with the culture of corruption that exists in Washington. Whether it be the president's businesses and the problems with the emoluments clause to all the actions we've seen the Mueller probe is trying to take care of about collusion and the interference by the Russian government in our elections. There's much that has to happen if the Democrats take charge. In 2018, we will make sure that we have hearings on many of those issues to get to the bottom of it for the American people. So the bottom line is a lot has to happen in Washington. There's a lot of other issues that are important too, from immigration to climate change and others. I'm committed to getting those done. I ask for your support. I would love to have it again on November 6th. I appreciate you listening and I look forward to working with you hopefully for another two years.