By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
J. Michael Galbraith, a Democrat challenging, Republican incumbent Bob Latta to represent the Fifth Congressional District, doesn’t want to hear about “a blue wave” in Tuesday’s election.
That only fosters the kind of overconfidence that tells Democrats that going to the polls is not necessary.
That kind of overconfidence, he said at a meeting in the Lake Township Hall, is what he believes cost Hillary Clinton the 2016 presidential election.
That overconfidence is what elected Donald Trump, Galbraith said. And the Democrats antipathy toward Trump was evident in the signs that decorated the podium from which he spoke.
Trump, though, isn’t on the ballot. Latta, one of his “foot soldiers,” as Galbraith puts it, is.
Galbraith told the partisan gathering that the Republican congressman who has represented the district since winning a special election in December, 2007, will be “retired” in January. The Ohio Fifth hasn’t been represented by a Democrat since 1939.
The Democrat’s optimism is based on numbers, not surprising for a financial planner with international experience who has taught finance at Bowling Green State University.
Part of those calculations include having “old-school Republicans” casting their ballots for him out of dissatisfaction both with Trump and Latta.
(Libertarian Don Kissick is also on the ballot.)
Galbraith said the fact that he was standing before voters in an open forum was an important distinction. And he promised if elected he’d continue to meet with the public in such forums. The incumbent has not be available to hear the concerns and fears of those he represents, Galbraith said.
Latta, however, has cited more than 1,000 constituent meetings, many one on one, since he’s been in office. Many people prefer these, he said, because they are “intimidated” to speak in public.
In a telephone interview from his Washington D.C. office, Latta steered away from talk about Trump and his behavior as president. The president had just announced that he wanted to do away with birthright citizenship, by which anyone born in this country, including to parents here without proper authorization, automatically are US citizens.
Latta said he hadn’t heard those comments. Asked about the atmosphere in Washington, he preferred to talk about what he believes are the accomplishments of the past two years.
Those include a tax reform bill that’s provided “massive help to the middle class and also helped all the businesses across the district.”
For Galbraith that “reform” is rather a “tax scam” that benefits the well off at the expense of the middle class.
The most pressing issue in the minds of voters he said is health care.
“We should move to single-payer health system ultimately Medicare for all,” he said. He cited a study commissioned by the conservative Koch brothers, which they tried later to quash.
That study, Galbraith said, shows that the national debt could be lowered by $500 billion with a single payer system. With all citizens including the young and healthy included premiums would come down.
Latta has been a steadfast opponent of the Affordable Care Act, passed during the early years of the Obama Administration. He has voted multiple times to repeal it.
Now, though, he said he is in favor of keeping some of its more popular provisions — making sure people with pre-existing conditions can get insurance, allowing offspring to stay on their parents’ insurance until they are 26, and keeping limits on how much someone can spend out of pocket on health care over their lifetimes.
Latta said he wants to make sure that Social Security would be in place for those who contributed to it, and the key to that is to improve the economy so more people are contributing to the system.
Galbraith said he wants to lift the cap on contributions. Any one making more than $124,000 “should pay their fair share, and there should not be a limit. … That would go a long way toward strengthening Social Security.”
Galbraith said the government needs to quit tapping into the Social Security trust fund — $2.9 trillion in the last 15 years by both Democrats and Republicans.
Latta for his part sees the need to adding a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, a move he admitted has never been able to get the two-thirds majority it needs to move out of the House.
A return to “regular order” where the House passes an appropriation measure and then it is taken up by the Senate needs to be restored, he said.
That would allow Congress to address the waste and duplication in federal spending instead of constantly operating under continuing resolutions that keep the funding intact.
Latta also asserted there is far more bipartisanship in Washington than is apparent from news coverage.
He said he’s worked with Democrats on rural issues including providing wifi to the countryside, promoting precision agriculture, and the security of the electrical grid.
The recently signed bill to combat the opioid addiction crisis is an example of such action, he said. That package includes the INFO Act authored by Latta that provides a database of federal efforts to combat the crisis. The opioid legislation passed because the president made it a top priority, Latta said.
Galbraith sees something else coming from Trump — expressions of “hate and divisiveness.”
That’s why he believes this election is so important. “More and more people are becoming aware that their way of life is under threat, and their democratic rights are under threat. … This election is a watershed.”
