John,

 

With the 2020 Elections just one month away, voters around the country are learning about the candidates seeking elected office.

 

For months, we have been telling you about how Mike hopes to continue bringing his Marine Corps experience and problem-solving principles to bear in Congress by empowering patients in health care, rebuilding our military and caring for our veterans, and bringing good-paying jobs and economic prosperity to Northeast Wisconsin.

 

We thought Mike’s recent conversation with Green Bay’s WFRV summed up his views on the key issues rather well, so we pulled some of the highlights. We think they’ll give you a good understanding of who Mike is and what he stands for.  

 

Rising above partisanship & honoring the trust Wisconsinites place in their Elected Representatives:

“First of all, I'm not going to bash my opponent. I’m not going to attack my opponent. I think we have too much of that in politics right now. Right now, in times of crisis, America, in general, and Wisconsin, in particular, has a proud tradition of coming together. And for whatever reason, it doesn't seem like that's happening and that needs to stop…"

 

“I'm trying to serve the people in Northeast Wisconsin, fix problems for a fixed period of time, then I want to go back home to my family and back to the private sector. And so, all I can promise the people in Northeast Wisconsin, if they give me the opportunity to represent them for two more years, is I'm going to continue that common-sense, principle-above-politics approach. I promised the people that I would treat this like a deployment, not a career, that's what I've done so far and I intend to keep doing that if they re-elect me.”

 

Top priorities for Mike in the next session of Congress:

“I think we really need to come together as a country when it comes to health care costs, regardless of whether you support Obamacare or a free market approach. Health care costs are out of control, and they're crushing the middle class in Wisconsin. We have to find a way to bring healthcare costs down for Wisconsin working families."

 

“The second thing is we need to make an investment in our infrastructure here in Wisconsin…. And then, I'd add a quick third is the generational challenge we have, which is this competition with China. It's not going away anytime soon. And what we need to do to win is bring the manufacturing that we outsourced to China back home to the United States, and I prefer it to be located in Northeast Wisconsin.”

 

End Congressional recesses to focus on pressing policy issues:

“I do hope that Congress will no longer take months off at a time because there's a lot of work we have to do. The fact that we're going to go back into session this week and then will be gone for the full month of October makes no sense to me. I understand people have to campaign but legislating, particularly in the midst of a pandemic, strikes me as far more important than any campaign.”

 

Protecting those with pre-existing conditions:

“I actually think both parties agree that we need to maintain coverage for those with pre-existing conditions, so that was explicitly stated in our bill that would have reformed the health care system. I introduced a bill, the Pre-Existing Conditions Protections Act that would explicitly state you have to ensure coverage for people with pre-existing conditions. In any scenario going forward, we have to and we should and both parties agree that we have to maintain coverage for people with pre-existing conditions.”

 

Developing a consensus to fix what’s broken in Healthcare:

“What I still believe today is that, in some sense, both parties have missed the mark when it comes to health care. The fundamental flaw of the Affordable Care Act is that it layered a bunch of bureaucracy and money on top of what was already a fundamentally flawed system and that is the insurance company-dictated, third-party payment system that I believe disadvantages patients..."

 

“We came in and tried to fix things around the edges but fundamentally, what we need to understand [is] the best way to protect people with pre-existing conditions is to empower patients. The foundation for any healthcare reform going forward, whether it's Democrat or Republican, is to adopt an alternative approach based on transparency."

 

“Transparency primarily in pricing so that you as a consumer of healthcare understand what you're paying for and what you're going to be charged when you have to go to the hospital…"

 

“I’m proud to work across the aisle with a Democrat from Colorado, we introduced a bipartisan piece of price transparency legislation. I've worked with the Trump administration on their last two executive orders on price transparency. I just wrote a letter with a Democrat from Maine on some of the things we can do on drug price transparency to the leadership in the House. So, I think there's a whole host of issues that we could solve tomorrow if we were willing to work together.”

 

If you want to support Mike and his efforts to address America’s most pressing problems, please consider supporting his campaign by contributing here.

Onward to victory,

Team Gallagher