SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KTIV) -
Former Nebraska governor and senator Bob Kerrey has made headlines, lately, opposing a major piece of President Obama's "Affordable Care Act."
Sarah Te Slaa asks, "So were talking about a lot of hot button issues this election season, one of them is the Affordable Care Act. What is your take on that?" "Well, I think largely it's a good thing," said Bob Kerrey, (D) U.S. Senate Candidate. "We've got a hundred thousand men and women in the work force who are making less than 10 bucks an hour and this is going to help buy insurance and it uses the market place. it uses exchanges. I think it needs to be fixed. I would like to see the employer mandate out and there are other things I think can be done to fix it. I think we made some mistakes in it, but the overall effort to try to increase the number of people in the workforce that are able to buy insurance and use vocal exchanges and use marketplace mechanisms to get the job done, I think overall it's a good thing."
Sarah Te Slaa asks, "Can you go into a little bit of detail of why you are against the employer mandate?" "Well, I think the employer based system is already pretty fragile," said Bob Kerrey, (D) U.S. Senate Candidate. "The problem that we already have in the workforce with health insurance is the number of low wage jobs has been going up. The lower the wage, the more difficult it is for a business person to provide health insurance because health insurance can cost $4,000 or $5,000 for an individual and maybe $7,000 or $8,000 for a family so it gets very expensive if your wage is $7, $8, $9 an hour."
Sarah Te Slaa asks, "Now in a recent Omaha World Herald article, you said half of me is kind of Republican. What did you mean by that and what issues were you talking about?" "First of all, I'm a business person," said Bob Kerrey, (D) U.S. Senate Candidate. "That's what I was doing when I entered politics and I went back to it when I left. I think generally what the Republicans do right is figure out how to make the pie bigger. How to make the economy pie bigger by paying attention to taxes, regulation, and so forth. And by the way, the old Republican that I find common cause with the easiest is making sure we have the proper kind of investments. Thinking about our future and not just what's going on right now, but thinking about our future"
Sarah Te Slaa asks, "Real short, give us why you want voters out there to vote for you. Why is Northeast Nebraska looking for you?" "If you are looking for someone to shake Washington D.C. up, if you are looking for someone to be an independent voice, if you are looking for someone to cross party lines and work with Republicans and balance our budget, to make sure this nation continues to be strong, makes is so we finally do something with our tax code to make it simpler, and to reform our immigration law, if you are looking for someone to do all those things who will break with their party when they believe the other party is correct then i'm your person," said Bob Kerrey, (D) U.S. Senate Candidate. "If not, then I'm not."
