The type of thinking we need in Congress
On Nov 6, residents of Illinois' 6th congressional district will have the opportunity to vote either for the 12-year incumbent Peter Roskam or the Democratic challenger Sean Casten.
Roskam has been a full-time Republican politician for the last 32 years, and is supporting the Trump agenda. He has voted to repeal affordable health care, reduce funding for SNAP, weaken environmental regulations, restrict access to abortion, exempt banks from regulations and weaken the Consumer Protection Act, increase NSA surveillance, and reduce taxes, especially on corporations and the top 1 percent.
He has a 93 percent rating from the NRA, called climate change "junk science" and supports Citizens United. He has raised $4.4 million, about two and a half times as much money as Casten, with the largest donors being in the financial and health care sectors. About 50 percent of his donations are from PACS.
The question is, does Roskam represent the interests of most of the 712,000 residents of the 6th congressional district?
Casten is a clean-energy scientist and entrepreneur, having founded two companies and a nonprofit promoting energy efficiency. He sees opportunity and jobs in creating a cleaner, sustainable, environment. Casten supports women's rights, reproductive rights, automatic voter registration, repealing Citizens United, LGBT rights, gun control, equal pay, immigration reform not scapegoating immigrants. He supports investment in job training and education, including support for proven after-school programs. He believes in infrastructure investment. He supports improvements in affordable care, and believes, based on data from other countries, that a single payer system produces better health outcomes at lower cost to taxpayers. Only 6 percent of his contributions are from PACS.
The question is: who do you think would best represent your interests in Congress in the next two years? Be sure to vote Nov. 6 to express your opinion.
Jordan Maclay
St. Charles