2020 Election
OKLAHOMA CITY – Presidential candidate and U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) spoke to a crowd of supporters at the Will Rogers Theatre Special Events Venue Sunday evening.
The third stop on Sunday’s schedule, Klobuchar began with a rally in Fargo, Minn. before traveling to Little Rock, Ark. and then into Oklahoma City. “Fired up” rallygoers held up lime green campaign signs as Klobuchar spoke about healthcare, prescription drug costs, the economy, education and student loan options. Appealing to rural Oklaho- ma voters as “one of the most senior members” of the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, Klobuchar said that “it bugged [her] that only one or two questions [during] the entire nine debates were about rural issues.” She added that since she was elected to office in 2007, has passed more than 100 bills – three of which were farm bills as well as bills for rural education.
If elected, in healthcare, she plans to rework the Affordable Care Act, import safer, cheaper drugs, and realign funds from the opioid settlements to help combat addiction and mental health issues. Disagreeing with Sens. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) in their proposal to reduce healthcare costs, Klobuchar referenced Page Eight of what she called the “well-intentioned” Medicare for All Bill, saying it “would dismantle the entire private insurance system...and 149 million Americans would lose their current insurance in four years.” She instead would like to build on Pres. Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act “with a nonprofit public option to compete with the insurance companies to bring the premiums down.”
Adding her work on a bill with Sens. Chuck Grassley (D-Iowa) and Sanders to re-import safe, less-expensive prescription drugs from other countries, Klobuchar wants to take “down the big pharmaceutical companies to drive down the cost of prescription drugs.” Treatment for addiction and mental health services would be funded from the opioid manufacturer lawsuits, she said. “One in five Americans suffer from mental health [issues]. We’ve seen a 30 percent increase in suicides in this country in 15 years, [predominately] in veterans, people in rural areas who are feeling isolated, students, farmers [and the] LGBTQ community.”
As for long-term care, the 59-year-old Klobuchar said she would look at “everything from strengthening Social Security and Medicaid to actually being innovative about making it easier for people to pay the premiums for long-term care insurance.” Klobuchar would like to strengthen K-12 as well as preschool, she said. Predicting a large demand for medical field and blue-collar workers, she also would like to work toward “free one-and two-year degrees,” a notion once advocated by Pres. Obama. That’s “where so many people get their start, because there are many paths to success,” she said.
Two takeaways from her speech that would appeal to current and future college students: doubling the Pell Grant for families in need, and refinancing student loans. Klobuchar is looking at ways to double the Pell Grant payout for families in need, raising the grant total from $6,000 to $12,000 per year. She would also double the qualifying income level from $50,000 to $100,000 a year. Repaying and refinancing student loans is another key for recent college graduates. Klobuchar said, “If multimillionaires can repay their
yachts and refinance them, students should be able to refinance those student loans and make that loan repayment program work.” Economically, “by taking the capital gains rate and making it closer to the personal income tax rate, it brings in hundreds of billions of dollars,” she said. “We can also use that money to ... create incentives for people to go into certain jobs.” Speaking to voters “who may have stayed home during the 2016 presidential, or maybe voted for another candidate, or maybe even voted for Donald Trump,” Klobuchar said, “this election is - in part - a patriotism check.”