Opinion of these Joe Kennedy speeches/emails?

[Blue3]

Congressman Joe Kennedy III to offer the Democratic response to the State of the Union

(these opposing-party responses are a tradition that needs to die)

He's very young, new to Congress, and definitely somewhat there because of his family... but he did have a great response on the healthcare issue about a year ago. I'm interested to see how he does. (At least he's not running for President, doing these SOTU response speeches tends to be bad luck).

Here's his old healthcare speech/email, and a few others. He definitely articulates these positions really well, in my opinion.




What do you think of these speeches/emails?








Mercy.

It is about how we care for the least among us -- not how we treat the powerful.

It calls on us to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and comfort the sick.

It is kindness. It is grace.

There is no mercy in a system that makes health care a luxury. There is no mercy in a country that turns its back on those that are most in need of protection: the elderly, the poor, the sick, and the suffering.

There is no mercy in a cold shoulder to the mentally ill.

There is no mercy in a policy that takes for granted the sweat, the tears, and the sacrifice that working Americans shed every day so that they might care for their families' basic needs: food, shelter, health, and hope for tomorrow.

So when Speaker Ryan called his repeal bill "an act of mercy" last week, I knew I had to speak out.

It is an act of malice.

We, as Americans, are better than this. Every working family deserves better than this. And when millions of people have their access to health care put on the chopping block, we have to stand up to this.







Like you, I was devastated to see the Senate move forward with its heartless plan to repeal Obamacare last night.

When I think about this debate, I don't think about whip counts or Washington. I think about one of my constituents, who I met a few weeks ago.

Ted is a bricklayer from Fall River, Massachusetts. It's hard, proud work -- the kind that comes with frequent physical injury. He's no exception, and for years Ted took opioids to deal with the pain. He traveled the long, painful road to addiction ... and fought back.

By force of will and faith, he pulled himself up. He got treatment. He got his life back together.

But a few months ago, an injury cost him his job and health insurance. And a new diagnosis just came in: liver cancer.

It's a bad break at the worst possible time -- the moment we all dread, a blow that could come to any one of us or someone we love.

So here's what I'll say: This is where our system proves what it's made of. We must deliver. For Ted, and for every American in need of a little compassion and mercy.

When our people are sick, or tired, or terrified, and have given everything they've got ... we do not abandon them.

We pull them up. We bet on their resilience. Because there's nothing more fundamentally American than the belief that our people survive, endure, and rise to fight again. They deserve a government and health care system that will jump into the ring, right by their side.

This is the ultimate test in our health care fight -- to create something as good and decent as the people we serve. We cannot fail.







It is among the most basic human truths: Every one of us, some day, will be brought to our knees. By a diagnosis we didn't expect, a phone call we can't imagine, or a loss we cannot endure.

That common humanity inspires our mercy. It fortifies our compassion. It drives us to look out for the sick, the elderly, the poor, and the most vulnerable among us.

Yesterday's bill -- yesterday's devastating bill -- does the opposite.

The bill is more than premiums and tax cuts. It is a cold and calculated world view: One that scapegoats the struggling, and sees fault in suffering. One dead set on dividing us based on who we love, where we come from, the direction of our faith and the size of our fortunes.

We see it in their tax plan, their budget cuts, their immigration policy, their civil rights assaults -- and yesterday, in their cruel health care plan.

We must reject it.

We must decide, instead, to take care of each other -- because, but for the grace of God, we will all one day wake up in need of a little mercy.

This nation's character has never been defined by the power we give the already strong -- but by the strength we give the weak.







The tax bill that the House passed just minutes ago, and the Senate passed late last night, will touch every American life.

It is a cruel reminder of the choices our congressional leaders have made.

They've chosen inherited wealth over hard-earned income.

They've chosen executive profits over employees' retirement savings.

They've chosen a massive, permanent gift to the richest corporations -- paid for by mothers working double shifts, by low-income students struggling to get by, and by vulnerable Americans not getting the help they need.

Yet there are more choices to be made -- and we need to keep fighting.

Here is what comes next:

These same representatives -- the ones who just added more than a trillion dollars to our debt with these unnecessary cuts -- will claim that spending is out of control, and launch an attack on the programs that define our society as caring and open.

They'll come for Medicaid, for education and food assistance, for Medicare and Social Security -- programs that you've paid into, so that they'd be there when you need them, or when a friend or neighbor needed a helping hand.

And they'll have the gall to call it "entitlement reform."

It is shameless and morally reprehensible.

[I Will Not Be Wrong]

I really like him, but I was very disappointed he refused to back the universal healthcare bill last year.