Sebelius Tells Obama Supporters: ‘Be the Change’
September 29, 2008
By Steve Klinger.
Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius told a crowd gathered at a rally in Mesilla Monday for Sen. Barack Obama that it’s not enough to vote for change: “We need to be the change.”
A crowd of about 200 on the historic plaza where the Gadsden Purchase was signed in 1854 roared its approval when the second-term Democratic governor of a predominantly Republican state assured her listeners Obama is looking out for working men and women: “We need a president who understand that the best way to get Americans back on track is for all of us to prosper.”
Sebelius said that while Obama would give an income tax break to all Americans making less than $250,000, John McCain would do even worse than follow the failed policies of the Bush administration and give $300 billion to the wealthiest corporations “and nothing to hard-working Americans.”
The biggest response to her words came when she said, “It is time for the richest country on earth to make sure that every American has access to health care,” after eight years of the Bush “non-health plan” that has provided less money for preventive and emergency care.
“To keep doing what we’re doing over and over again, even if it isn’t working, is insanity,” Sebelius said.
Even worse, she said, under McCain’s plan employers will have to pay taxes on health care benefits, thus discouraging participation.
“We need to get rid of rules that allow insurance companies to choose who has health care in America,” Sebelius added, generating more enthusiasm from a Democratic crowd that included numerous elected officials: state Reps. Joni Gutierrez, Jeff Steinborn, Joseph Cervantes, and state Sens. Mary Helen Garcia and Mary Jane Garcia, as well as Democratic National Committeewoman Mary Gail Gwaltney.
Sebelius told the gathering the nation desperately needs an energy policy and that Obama would advance support of renewable energy such as the abundant sunshine in New Mexico and the prevailing steady winds in Kansas.
Loud applause greeted her declaration, “We have to end the war that we’re in,” spending $10 billion a month in a country that has a huge oil surplus, and, “We need a foreign policy that builds more friends and fewer enemies.”
Sebelius closed by emphasizing the importance of New Mexico in the electoral process:
“If New Mexico elects Barack Obama and Joe Biden,” she said, “he will be the next president of the United States. There is no scenario that doesn’t go through New Mexico in electing the next president.”
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