You slacker: 94/100
30 October, 2016 | Index
Dear Hillary Clinton,
Gerard Mclean here, from Englewood, Ohio, about ten miles north of Dayton. This is the ninety-fourth letter of one hundred I am writing you on health care; one for each day between your nomination and your election. The previous letters can be found in your USPS mailbox or online at 100HRC.com.
Apparently, when one advocates for SinglePayer, MedicareForAll, UniversalCare in America, one tends to get labeled a slacker and a freeloader. Well, this should “dispel with this fiction” that I am taker and set the record a bit straight.
- I have started four companies from nothing in my lifetime, the first when I was seventeen (unless you count the four paper routes I had when I was nine.) My current company has been going strong since 1995 and has provided jobs for twenty-two people.
- I have raised two kids, now 31 and 25. I have paid for college tuition for both.
- I have purchased three houses.
- I have paid taxes (federal, state and local income) every year since 1974. Yes, I have tax returns for all years, in the unlikely event I ever run for public office.
- I paid for my entire college tuition.
- I have been working full-time or greater since I was just shy of ten years old.
- I pay for my own health insurance subsidy-free every month.
I’m not asking for anything free; just value and human dignity for the tax dollars I am paying. Maybe I’m the sucker.
On paper, Hillary, I should be a Republican so perhaps that is why I don’t show up in your polls and marketing personae your team puts together to target. Perhaps that is why my “demo” eludes the folks looking to craft the narrative of who the ACA has helped. Regardless of why I am being overlooked, we also need SinglePayer, MedicareForAll, UniversalCare just as much as the poor and disadvantaged do. At the current trajectory, future health care options will not suffice.
Regards,
Gerard McLean
cc: Sen. Sherrod Brown
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