In contrast to Erik Paulsen who favors offshore drilling and nuclear energy, Jim Meffert will fight for investment in homegrown sources of energy such as wind, solar, geothermal, and biofuels. Not only are they safer and renewable, but they will also create good jobs and economic growth in Minnesota and throughout the country.
Read about Jim Meffert's visits to the new green Maple Grove Library which uses efficiency and green technology to save energy and to the Minneapolis Electrical Training Facility in St. Michael, where apprentices are learning to install solar panels and other green technology skills.
Watch JimTV: Jim on Clean Energy
(2 Minutes)
Meffert - Can't Allow Enormous Step Forward in Health Care to Be Dismantled
Jim Meffert
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act passed by Congress represents an enormous step forward in reforming our nation’s failing health care system. While far from perfect, this bill will provide coverage to nearly thirty-two million uninsured Americans. The legislation stops insurance companies from denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions and dropping people when they get sick, while eliminating lifetime limits and restrictive annual coverage limits. Further, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reports that the bill will reduce the federal deficit by $1.2 Trillion over the next two decades. The reforms in this bill will help reduce Minnesota's health care taxes by nearly 5% because we will no longer need MinnesotaCare. We can get rid of the assessments, premiums and provider taxes.
This bill is a first step towards achieving universal and affordable health care as a right, not a privilege.
Yet there will be a great deal of resistance as we continue the fight for better health care for all. The insurance industry, highly paid specialists and health company CEOs have plenty of advocates in Congress who will attempt to reverse or block further reform at every turn. Congressman Erik Paulsen has collected over $198,000 from health care interests and has consistently opposed reform in the state legislature and now in Congress according to Alliance Minnesota. We cannot allow Rep. Paulsen and the extreme right to succeed in dismantling the progress we have made.
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Find out more on Jim Meffert at the Jim Meffert for Congress website and by listening to Tim O'Brien interview Jim on Democratic Visions.
