Report on WAFA delegation to rob wittman 10/26/17
Three WAFA members met last week with Rep. Rob Wittman from Virginia’s 1st Congressional District. A video of the meeting is posted below.
We discussed several topics:
Representative Wittman agreed that there should be no fracking in the Taylorsville Basin because of the risk of contaminating our local water supply.
He expected that any tax cuts would benefit the working class and small business but he did not commit to holding steady on the deficit; neither did he discuss not giving the wealthy the largest tax benefits from any new bill.
He firmly rejected any attempt at reasonable gun safety laws, such as outlawing assault weapons, because he feels it so difficult to define what such a weapon is. (We suggested that the role of our democratically elected office holders is to write legislation that not only would decide how to define assault weapons accurately but that would also represent our best values as a culture and a democracy.)
He said he was concentrating on legislation and serving on committees, rather than the President’s fitness for office.
Finally, he again declined to consider a Medicare for All as the solution to our country’s huge health insurance conundrum, despite the fact that such a single payer system would cover everyone with first dollar coverage for all medically necessary care (including medications) without needing to spend any more than we currently spend in a system that still leaves 28 million uninsured and tens of millions more who are deeply underinsured (with huge deductibles and copays).
We had a good and polite discussion on these issues, but nobody’s mind was changed. We hoped he would be able to come to a town meeting in this area, but we left without any such commitment.
We would appreciate any comments about our meeting with Representative Wittman. Check in with us on our Facebook page. Click HERE for a link.
Thank you for your interest and efforts on behalf of the issues important to We Are For America members.
Report prepared by Jay Brock and Shelley Pineo-Jensen, WAFA co-coordinators