Independent Candidate for U.S. Senate:Margaret Stock

Stock: "I will work to find pragmatic solutions to our real problems"

Commentary By Margaret Stock

For The Cordova Times

I am running for the U.S. Senate as an Independent because the partisan gridlock in Congress is threatening our democracy and our economy.

Congress is broken because partisan legislators put the interests of party and corporate donors ahead of the interests of the country.  I am not a politician. I am an independent problem solver.  I have pledged not to accept corporate PAC money.  When elected, I will advance reasonable, rational, pragmatic solutions to the challenges facing our country.

Our legislators are preoccupied with raising ever more money to assure their re-election; blocking any real reform to protect their corporate donors; and conducting meaningless show votes for partisan political theater.  Not content with being dysfunctional by itself, Congress has spread its dysfunction to the other branches of government by refusing to vote on large numbers of judicial and executive appointments.  The unfilled Supreme Court vacancy is simply the tip of the iceberg.  For example, a year and a half after Adam Szubin was nominated to be in charge of sanctions against North Korea at the Treasury Department, the Senate has yet to vote on his nomination.  The dysfunction in Congress encourages unilateral presidential action because the executive is the only remaining unaffected branch of government.  Unilateral presidential action then results in Congressional cries of executive “overreach.”  Executive “overreach” happens because Congress refuses to do its job.

Senator Murkowski is part of the problem.  A few years ago, Murkowski wrote that Senators must fulfill their constitutional duty to hold hearings and vote on Supreme Court nominees.  Murkowski publicly reaffirmed those principles after Antonin Scalia died, but then reversed herself two days later – apparently after party bosses pressured her.  Murkowski also said she was against repealing the Affordable Care Act without a replacement.  Murkowski again caved in to party leaders and flip-flopped, voting to repeal the ACA without any replacement.  Murkowski claims to support women’s reproductive rights, but yet again crumbled in the face of party pressure and voted to allow employers to deny insurance coverage for birth control expenses and voted to defund Planned Parenthood.  Murkowski claims to support Medicare, but voted for the “Ryan Budget,” which would turn Medicare into a complicated, unworkable voucher program.  Bowing to party and Big Pharma pressure, Murkowski even voted to prohibit the government from negotiating down the exorbitant prices paid for drugs by Medicare Part D, the Medicare drug benefit program.

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As an Independent Senator, I will work to find pragmatic solutions to our real problems.  For example, one of the most pressing issues facing Alaskans is the high cost of health care.  The United States has the highest per capita cost of health care in the world, and Alaska has the highest per capita cost of any state, a situation that existed before the ACA was passed.  The ACA contains many popular features — no disqualifying preconditions, no lifetime benefit limit, children insured until age 26, expansion of Medicaid paid for by the federal government — but is performing poorly cost-wise in the small Alaska market.  In this election, we can either elect Murkowski, who is content to do nothing to fix the ACA, or elect a Senator who wants to fix the ACA and make it work for Alaskans.  As your Senator, I will work to better link provider payments to outcomes, increase transparency of charges, permit optional joinder of Medicare at a younger age, and repeal the law that prevents Medicare from negotiating for lower drug prices.

As outlined on my website, www.margaretforalaska.com, I also support ensuring the health of our renewable resources – first and foremost our abundant fisheries – from threats from extractive industries; overturning Citizens United; and reigning in financial industry corruption.  I believe in a strong but cost effective military, and keeping promises to our veterans.

Because I am not accepting corporate PAC money, I will be beholden to no one other than the people of Alaska.  I am looking forward to getting to work.

Margaret Stock is a 30-year Alaska resident and retired Army Reserve officer who has taught constitutional and national security law and political science at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and the University of Alaska Anchorage.  She is a graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School, the Harvard Law School, and the U.S. Army War College.  She is a board member of the Prince William Sound Science Center and a 2013 MacArthur Foundation Fellow.  She is running as an Independent in the November 2016 election for the U.S. Senate.

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