Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN-02) hosted her second town hall Saturday in Red Wing, Minnesota, where she was asked about a number of issues, including universal health care and abortion.
“The other thing that I wanted to ask you about is we’ve seen states recently that passed laws that legalized abortions up to and including the time of birth. And whether that’s right or wrong or moral or immoral—that’s not the question I have. But do you feel that’s something that should be paid for as a part of health care?” one constituent asked Craig towards the end of the event.
But Craig’s response was:
“What I want to tell you is that I appreciate the values that your comment is coming from. I don’t believe it is any politician’s role to get in the middle of a discussion of reproductive rights between a woman and her physician. I don’t believe there is a role for the federal government with respect to that question.
Craig then proceeded to close out the event and thank her supporters for attending. Earlier in the town hall, the Minnesota congresswoman was asked about universal health, which she said she “absolutely” supports, but clarified that she still believes in the private market.
“I absolutely support this country moving to universal health care. What that means to me is that every single American has access to health insurance and health care that they can afford,” she said. “But what I think we have to do is make health care more affordable now.”
She went on to state that she believes in opening up the “option of buying into Medicare,” which is something that Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) recently proposed in his first budget.
“So I think we should have a robust discussion about how we get to universal health care, but there are some things we can do right now to make health care more affordable,” she concluded.
At one point during the event, a constituent confronted Craig about her characterization of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act as the “GOP tax scam,” noting that the bill “resulted in more spendable take home income for many Americans, and that any refund is simply overpaid tax.”
“So, assuming you know all this, why do you lie and keep confusing the truth? And if you truly don’t know this, what are you doing in government?” the constituent asked.
“If you look at the data and the 1 trillion dollars we’ve added to the federal debt in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, 80 percent of the value of that bill went to the top five percent, and to large corporations,” Craig responded.
The full town hall can be viewed below:
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Anthony Gockowski is managing editor of Battleground State News and The Minnesota Sun. Follow Anthony on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
