Until the beer heiress bought the Democratic Missouri Senate nomination for herself, the buzz on Missouri flipping from red to blue was a roar. Now there is no buzz and no campaign and far right Republican Eric Schmitt might as well start buying new drapes. The only newspaper mention of Trudy Busch Valentine since the primary was how she and Schmitt greeted each other at the annual Governor’s Ham Breakfast at the Missouri State Fair in Sedalia. The race has gone from being the hottest in the country to a yawn with a foregone conclusion. Blue America is working on putting together a Draft Lucas campaign for the Josh Hawley seat in 2024. Stay tuned. Meanwhile, we’re overjoyed to see Pennsylvania Democrat John Fetterman adopting many of Kunce’s populist ideas for his pwn Senate campaign in Pennsylvania.
On Monday, Fetterman penned an OpEd for the Times Leader in Wilkes-Barre, going heavy on the law-and-order/accountability narratives that Kunce used in Missouri. “All across Pennsylvania,” he wrote, “we’re seeing soaring prices, hollowed out communities, and families getting ripped off by corporate greed. In towns and cities across the Commonwealth, people are struggling. But too many of the people we send to Washington D.C. don’t see that— because they don’t care about places like ours. Working people of Pennsylvania need more real solutions, solutions that will fight inflation and bring down costs for working people, whether it’s at the grocery store, the pump, or the doctor. And we need to crack down on massive corporations that are ripping us off. This week, I released my plan to hold Washington accountable that will do just that. These aren’t Democratic or Republican solutions. They’re patriotic, pro-America, and pro-worker solutions— and they’re just plain common sense. And while my opponent, Dr. Oz, has been trying to familiarize himself with his new state— and, apparently, with grocery stores— I’ve been putting in work, talking to people across the commonwealth, and coming up with a plan that will improve the lives of working Pennsylvanians.”
The first step of fighting inflation and bringing costs down starts with making more stuff right here in America and bringing jobs home. Because for too long, out-of-touch politicians in Washington have sold out people on factory floors to benefit their friends in corporate boardrooms, passing bad trade deals that have sent thousands of good-paying jobs overseas.
We’ll bring back American manufacturing by punishing the companies that ship jobs overseas, strengthening “Buy American” requirements for companies that do business with the federal government, and mandating that companies we buy from make their products right here at home.
And while we’re at it, we should crack down on companies that falsely claim their products are made here and punish them for ripping off and misleading the American people.
If we make more stuff here in America, prices won’t spike every time there’s a problem overseas. We don’t need to be outsourcing any more jobs and production to China, while making inflation worse.
But when it comes to bringing costs down for working Pennsylvanians, we can’t end there. It’s time we crack down on the big, price gouging corporations that are making record profits while jacking up prices for all of us.
Take the massive oil companies, for example. Chevron, Exxon, and Shell have seen their profits increase 200% since last year, but they’re still charging us sky-high prices for gas. Companies like Tyson posted over a billion dollars in profits last quarter, while raising prices on meat products our families depend on.
It’s gross, and deeply unpatriotic, for the big corporations to be rolling around in cash while charging us record high prices for gas and groceries.
We’ll crack down on this by prosecuting the executives of these huge corporations, including the big oil companies and meatpacking companies who are artificially driving up prices, gouging consumers at the pump and at the grocery store.
We should also cut taxes for working families and stop the ultra-wealthy from abusing our broken tax code. Right now, massive companies like Amazon are simply not paying their fair share— and working people are forced to pay more as a result. It’s wrong and it must end.
And we should make sure Wall Street, hedge fund managers, and mega-millionaires pay their fair share by enacting a financial transaction tax on trades of stocks, bonds, and derivatives.
We also should cut costs for working Americans at their doctor’s office and the pharmacy. That means ending the stranglehold of health care costs on American families by instituting a cap of a thousand dollars per year on out-of-pocket costs, passing legislation to allow for the importation of lower-priced prescription drugs from other countries, putting a cap on prescription drug costs, and going after the pharmaceutical companies jacking up prices. And then I’ll fight to hold drug companies accountable for forcing families to ration insulin as they rake in record profits and rip Pennsylvanians off.
And to get these common sense solutions, we need real leaders who get it. And let’s be clear: Dr. Oz just isn’t connected to the struggles that Pennsylvanians are facing every day. While he’s been complaining about rising prices from his New Jersey Mansion, I’ve been meeting Pennsylvanians on grocery store runs, speaking with them about the challenges they’re facing, and finding real policy solutions that get stuff done and make their lives better.
Working Pennsylvanians are getting screwed. While costs are rising and wages are failing to keep up, too many of our leaders in Washington simply aren’t doing enough. Out-of-touch politicians got us into this mess, we can’t trust an out-of-touch millionaire TV doctor to get us out of it.
If we start getting stuff done, starting with these priorities I’ve listed, we can make real change for the towns, cities, and people of Pennsylvania.
Please consider contributing to John Fetterman’s campaign by clicking on the Blue America 2022 Senate thermometer above. Right now John Fetterman is— on average— over 10 points ahead of Mehmet Oz. But this is no time to get complacent. Oz has already written his campaign a $14,255,916 check… and there’s plenty more where that came from. He owns over a dozen homes and could sell any of them if his bank account starts shrinking. On top of that, McConnell pledged a massive $34 million for Pennsylvania ads smearing Fetterman with hysterical lies like this one.
