Graves doesn’t serve 6th District’s interests

To the editor:
Weldon Woodward believes Sam Graves is a true leader (letters, last Thursday, “Graves is a true leader in the 6th District”).

“He is not afraid to vote and he votes quite often,” Woodward writes.

The problem that I see, is that Graves may vote “quite often” but that he votes the wrong way all of the time.

“As a farmer, I can tell you that we’re not happy with Sam Graves as our representative,” says Bill Bruce of Lucerne, chairman of Farmers for Kay. “In the district, he says what we want to hear, but in Washington, he does the bidding of the oil companies and special interests.”

Kay Barnes, the Democratic candidate in the 6th District, recently told a concerned group of seniors, “Sam Graves was caught on tape saying he would like to ‘wrangle in’ Medicare. He has repeatedly tried to destroy Medicare, voting to cut billions from the program and raise premiums.”

Bob Saunders, chairman of Seniors for Kay, said Barnes’ leadership is needed to protect seniors’ health care. “For the last eight years, we have watched Washington do everything it can to reduce Medicare benefits and raise premiums,” he explains.

Graves supported Bush’s Medicare bill, which gave more than $100 billion in windfall profits to big drug companies and blocked the government from negotiating lower prescription drug prices. He also advocated to cut Medicare and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, leaving seniors and children behind.

Time after time, Graves has voted in lockstep with the Republican administration, and time after time these votes have not benefited the 6th District. I ask Weldon Woodward, “Are you really better off today than you were eight years ago?”

What the 6th Congressional District needs is Kay Barnes. She will also vote often, but vote the right way as well.