Thread by @VoteRobDavidson

My closing remarks at tonight’s debate sums up why I’m running for Congress and what’s at stake for our future:

I chose to run for Congress because of an idea.

The idea is a simple one, that we can enjoy greater freedom and liberty if we aren’t held back by debt and disease.

In my ER, I see dozens of times every night how our broken healthcare system has let down the hardworking folks who walk in with an injury that will set them back hundreds or thousands of dollars, or an illness that finally flared up at 2 in the morning when it could have been...

nipped in the bud if only that patient had gone to a doctor six months earlier but didn’t because of a copay they couldn’t afford. I’m running because of the mom who came to my ER at 12am with her child because that was the only time she could use the 1 car that 3 families share.

I’m running for the truck driver who works 70 hours a week yet couldn’t afford his inhaler, yet got back on the road for a long-haul trip right after leaving my ER because he didn’t have any time off.

I’m running for all the folks who’ve ever had to worry about whether they could afford a lifesaving surgery or a test to determine whether they’re about to have a stroke or their child’s asthma medication.

For those of you in the audience who’ve had to make those difficult choices or at home, I hear you.

For those who have to choose between buying the groceries and buying their insulin, yet wonder why insurance company CEOs are the highest paid, I hear you.

For those of you who work hard, care for your loved ones, play by the rules, and simply want a fair shake so they’re not squeezed day after day by big banks, by insurance companies, by drug makers and by Wall Street corporations, I hear you.

Today, more than at any time in our history as Americans, large corporations are tying us down with invisible shackles.

Medical bills. Student loan debt. Ballooning mortgage rates.

Meanwhile, wages stay stuck and commodity prices stay low.

To keep us from noticing how the system is rigged, to distract us from the tax loopholes and the culture of corruption, politicians pit us against each other.

We’re too busy fighting about some grievance on Facebook to notice our wages are the same today as 40 years ago.

We’re too distracted by manufactured controversy to recognize that most of the benefits of this booming economy have gone to those at the very top.

And we’re too busy looking for the things that divide us to notice that we’re all in the same boat, we’re all held down by the shackles of a rigged economy.

Like many other first-time candidates in this election, I have no experience in the kind of politics that Huizenga has.

I’m running on the belief that each of us can enjoy greater freedom and liberty if we got large corporations to put our interests first, not their greed for profits.

And especially in the area of our healthcare, corporate greed will get people killed.

I have seen it happen too often.

I have seen the grandfather who was denied a surgery and lost his battle with heart disease.

I have seen the veteran who couldn’t get treatment for his PTSD in time, and took his own life.

Each death or injury because some so-called specialist with no medical training in an insurance company denied care and treatment is one avoidable, preventable death too many.

I’m running because I want to put the power back into the hands of the people – into your hands.