Guest Columnist - Lowering Costs for Working-Class Americans

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Yadira Caraveo

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Democratic Candidate for Colorado Congressional District 8

My parents immigrated from Mexico to Adams County looking for a better life — a life where if you worked hard and played by the rules, you could put food on the table, a roof over your head, and provide a better future for your children. They came looking for the American Dream. Lowering Costs for Working-Class Americans.

My father raised four kids on a construction worker’s salary and put me through college to live my dream of serving my community as a pediatrician. At my clinic in Thornton, 65% of the families I treated were on Medicaid.

But as I helped families there, it became clear that circumstances had changed for the families I was seeing in clinic. Rising costs and a dysfunctional healthcare system too often now drive families to make impossible choices between necessary care and putting food on the table or a roof over their heads.

And to make matters worse, while families ration insulin, avoid the doctor’s office until the last minute, and struggle to pay for necessary healthcare, career politicians like my opponent have worked to enrich their donors in the pharmaceutical industry at the expense of everyday, working-class families.

One thing became clear: the American Dream I was so fortunate to live is now slipping away from working-class Coloradans. So, I decided enough was enough and ran for Congress with a vision of lowering costs and restoring access to the American Dream.

And when I get to Washington, I’ll arrive with a real plan to combat rising healthcare costs, cut taxes for working families, and increase access to affordable housing. When it comes to lowering healthcare costs, I will stand up to insurance companies and Big Pharma — not cash their checks.

I’ll work to build on my record as a state-legislator where I successfully took on special interests and passed groundbreaking legislation to cap the cost of insulin, force drug companies to reduce the price of prescription drugs and offer a public option to lower costs and increase choice for working families.

My plan doesn’t stop there. Something I hear over and over as I travel across our district is that whether at King Soopers or at the pump, rising everyday costs are making it hard for working families to make ends meet.

In Washington, I will continue my record of cutting taxes for working families and making sure the ultra-wealthy are paying their fair share. I’ll work to secure our supply chain and invest in efforts to increase domestic production of goods — all while creating good-paying, union jobs.

Finally, we are facing a housing crisis in Colorado as mortgages and rent continue to skyrocket. Families are facing red tape, exorbitant fees, and a lack of affordable housing options that makes it nearly impossible for folks to make ends meet.

I will build on my record of fighting tooth-and-nail to cut red tape and put an end to exorbitant fees and invest in affordable housing to get more supply on the market — all while working closely with local communities.

This election is a turning point, and we need to make the right choice for who we send to Washington. Career politicians like Barbara Kirkmeyer have sold us out — and now working-class families are getting nickeled and dimed out of living their own version of the American Dream.

It’s time for a change in Washington. It’s time to elect someone who believes in building our economy from the bottom-up and the middle-out — by lowering costs and helping working families thrive. I believe I am that person, and I hope I can earn your vote this November.