Lunsford talks healthcare and economy at AFL-CIO roundtable

LOUISVILLE -- Meeting with six union members and local and national labor leaders, Democratic Senate candidate Bruce Lunsford, fielded questions about his positions on health care and the state of the economy today at a United Auto Workers hall in Louisville.

In responding, Lunsford sought to connect his opponent, U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Louisville) with President Bush, by denouncing their economic policy as "wreckless."

"You could take 3 things that the Bush-McConnell tandem did: the Iraq war, the tax cuts for the wealthy, and the Bankruptcy Act," said Lunsford. "They don't do those three things, we are not where we are today."

Lunsford singled out the impact of the 2005 Bankruptcy overhaul that has come under criticism by some who say the bill made it more difficult for consumers and businesses to get the protection of bankruptcy filings.

"The bankruptcy act was totally driven by the credit card companies to put us in this spot to make the dominos fall," Lunsford added. "Why don't we reverse that?"

The Democratic candidate met with workers representing communications, automotive, construction, and steel-working industries as well as Cecil Roberts, the president of the United Mine Workers of America, and Bill Londrigan, Kentucky's state AFL-CIO president.

Much of the discussion revolved around the state of the nation's healthcare system.

"These are the decisions that people in this state are having to make right now: Do I continue to try and pay for my health care plan or do I pay for my home?" said Kirk Gillenwaters, a UAW organizer at the event.

"We spend more of our GDP on Health care in United States of America than any other country on earth," Roberts added later. "It's not a matter that we're not spending enough money - we spend more than anyone but we, in many instances, have less healthcare, like when you find 47 million people without it."

Lunsford said one approach to overhauling the health care system would be a public-private partnership, and he pushed the notion that a "blue plate special" of basic coverage for the uninsured could reduce expenses now accrued when uninsured patients go to hospital emergency rooms for non-emergency care.

"Medicaid and Medicare are dysfunctional," added Lunsford, criticizing the fact that those programs use around 60 percent of "the American health care dollar" but do not have "bargaining power" in many dealings with private health companies.

"If you have that kind of bargaining power, nobody should be let out of the trap," said Lunsford. "Because they are special-interest oriented, they let the Pharmaceutical industries out of the trap. They let the [medical] equipment manufacturers out of the trap."

Reforms to Medicare's prescription drug programs in 2003 limited the federal government's ability to negotiate prices on pharmaceutical drugs.

Targeting his four-term incumbent opponent, Lunsford said changes in the health care system would be "easy to address if you are not sold out to the special interest groups, as I believe my opponent is."

With his own business interests connected to numerous healthcare enterprises as an investor and board member, Lunsford has been targeted by McConnell in recent weeks for his association with Valor Healthcare, a company that runs Veteran's clinics throughout the country. In television ads, McConnell's campaign alleges valor was targeted by federal investigations for "deficient care."

Lunsford defended Valor during the roundtable discussion today even as new ads from the McConnell campaign hit the Democrat on the issue.

"We've already saved the [Veterans' Administration] a lot of money and we're giving great care," said Lunsford. "I'm running against an opponent who likes to put a lot of smokescreens up but, in reality, he hasn't done a lot of good for this country."

Several of the workers present referenced the loss of manufacturing jobs in the state and the long-term economic impact of that trend.

"You've not only lost your livelihood, but the facility that we work in in the community - the tax base is gone from that community now for Shelby County," said Dwayne Gilbert, another UAW organizer from Shelbyville. "It was a major contributor to that."

Lunsford addressed the issue by declaring that "it has to be a priority for the country to make manufacturing come back."

He added that some circumstances of the current economic downturn could be utilized to bounce the manufacturing sector back.

"One of the things about having our situation now with the devalued dollar - it does give us the opportunity to do that.  We can do that if our policies are geared to do that in the next four to eight years," said Lunsford. "We should be looking to finance entrepreneurs."

Lunsford received the endorsement of Kentucky's AFL-CIO branch during his Democratic primary campaign, and recent months have found the labor conglomerate mobilizing on his behalf.

During his remarks, Roberts said McConnell's appearance at similar forum would be welcomed. While Londrigan said Lunsford's appearance at the worker's roundtable today was "obviously one of the things that separates him from his opponent."

Gillenwaters echoed Londrigan's sentiment, saying that - in his organizing capacity - he had attempted to visit with McConnell in Washington, D.C. on numerous occasions. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4

"I have tried to speak to the sitting senator for years and he has constantly refused to meet with us," said Gillenwaters. "When we are denied that, not only is it disrespectful to our leadership and those we represent, it's also disrespectful because we are citizens of Kentucky...Politics aside, we are supposed to still have the ability to deliver our message."