ON BEING THE LLANO COUNTY DEMOCRATIC PARTY CHAIR


The simple reason for wanting to Chair the Llano County for the Democratic Party is that I want to make a difference. I have marched and written hundreds of letters to our representatives in Congress.  Almost equally disturbing are the Texas Governor and Republican members of our legislature and their positions on public education, bathrooms, immigration, and women’s rights.  We must turn our state Blue again.  It begins locally.

I’ve read the ACA and the recently proposed replacement bills.  I favor improving the ACA or, more importantly, moving closer to a single-payer system.  The insurance and pharmaceutical companies have made millions on the backs of the average American citizen.  This cannot be allowed to continue.  We also cannot allow Medicaid to be taken from the most vulnerable in our society, as proposed in the most recent bills. 

I fear Medicare will be privatized, which is Representative Conaway’s intention along with many of his Congressional colleagues due to ‘pending bankruptcy.’  This is not true and should be repeatedly exposed as an untruth.  If Medicare is privatized, it gives free rein to insurance companies to deny payment for health care treatment and the denial of claims.  When claims aren’t paid, the hospital or clinic, or physician will expect payment from the elderly.  Millions of elderly will become destitute. This, coupled with the Republican's goal to reduce Medicaid funding by billions of dollars, means that if an elderly person without assets has to be cared for in a nursing home, Medicaid will not help fund it.  Rural hospitals will close, and people will potentially be homeless.

Tom Price, the Secretary of HHS, proposed a 14.8% reduction in Social Security while he served in Congress.  Conaway, along with his colleagues, intends to reduce Social Security in various ways.  This needs to be exposed.  Their reasoning is that it’s going bankrupt.  The Republicans took $3 trillion out of Social Security to pay for the illegal invasion of Iraq by George W. 

As the Chair of the Llano Democratic Party, I want to not only bring more Democrats into the fold and encourage activism, but I also want to reach out to others who identify as Republicans.  I believe more will become Democrats as the truth is exposed concerning the Republican agenda, backed by the Koch brothers and other interests that simply want to protect their wealth on the backs of the poor and middle class.

We need to convince others of the positions we have in common (and stop trying to convince them that Trump is bad), which is as follows:
1.    Campaign reform---get big money out of the pockets of politicians
2.    Term Limits---Congress members are easily influenced when their need to be re-elected supersedes representing their constituents.
3.    A state that values education
4.    Medicare and Social Security stabilization
5.    Healthcare Reform that’s fair to all Americans
6.    Ensuring that our elderly, the disabled, and disadvantaged children are not neglected and left in the streets to die.

Now that I’m retired, I will give my devotion and time to being the Llano County Democratic Chair.

Respectfully submitted,

Dana Rushing    

(Post Script:  I was unanimously elected by the Precinct Chairs to be the Llano County Democratic Chair on August 14, 2017)                                                                                                             






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