O P I N I O N
Stand up. Speak up. It’s your turn.
I’m a lifelong resident of Manchester and have served as an Alderman since first being elected in 2013. I’m proud of this city and I’ve voted in a lot of elections here over the years. But this election is different.
Like many Granite Staters, I’ve worked hard and paid for decades into Social Security and Medicare. I earned these benefits and I’ll count on them in my retirement. But let’s be clear: Social Security and Medicare are under attack by Donald Trump and the extreme MAGA Republicans who are threatening to slash them.
That’s why for Granite Staters like me, the stakes of this year’s presidential election couldn’t be higher. Every single year Donald Trump was president, he proposed cuts to both Social Security and Medicare. And a second term could be a lot worse.
Earlier this year, Trump said “there is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting.” He once backed raising the retirement age to 70 and has even called to privatize Social Security, describing it as a “Ponzi scheme.”
Donald Trump’s extreme agenda would be devastating for me and the over 300,000 Granite Staters like me who currently rely on these essential programs. We worked for and earned these benefits, and the thought of Trump and extreme Republicans taking them away worries me deeply. It should worry you too.
Thankfully, President Biden has made it clear that Social Security and Medicare will always be protected under his watch.
In fact, under President Biden, Social Security recipients received the biggest benefits increase in 40 years, and he’s called for an increase in Social Security funding to improve services for seniors.
He’s fighting for our benefits and is committed to protecting and strengthening these programs – a stark contrast from the cuts promised by Trump and his MAGA Republican allies.
But protecting Social Security and Medicare is just the start.
While President Biden is expanding health care coverage, protecting the Affordable Care Act, and lowering the costs of prescription drugs, Donald Trump is promising to repeal the law and gut health care protections for tens of thousands of Granite Staters – making health care more expensive for Americans with pre-existing conditions.
President Biden capped insulin at $35 a month for seniors, benefitting more than 338,000 Granite Staters and others on Medicare. And he’s lowering health care premiums – cracking down on Big Pharma price gouging and allowing Medicaid to negotiate lower drug costs.
With Trump, costs would skyrocket, and he’ll let Big Pharma charge whatever they want for prescription drugs. If he gets a second term, Donald Trump would once again serve his billionaire friends at the expense of seniors here in New Hampshire.
It’s clear that while President Biden is focused on moving the country forward, Donald Trump is focused on taking us back. And it’s not just on these issues – Trump’s extreme agenda doesn’t just threaten our health, his extremism threatens our community’s safety too.
As someone who spent over 34 years in law enforcement, I’m proud of the work President Biden is doing to end gun violence in America. While Donald Trump stands with the gun lobby and opposes common sense gun safety efforts, President Biden has signed more executive actions on gun violence than any president in history, and he signed the most significant bipartisan gun safety law in nearly 30 years.
Now he’s fighting for universal background checks and a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines to protect our children and our communities. Donald Trump consistently stands with the NRA, pushing for more guns in our streets and classrooms.
It’s clear that Donald Trump poses a serious threat to the America we know and love – to the benefits we’ve earned, to the health care we deserve, and to the freedoms we hold dear. He’s pushing an extreme agenda that’s completely at odds with the values Granite Staters believe in. We have to stop him.
That’s why I’m proudly voting for President Joe Biden – the only candidate in this race who can be trusted to move our country forward and make life better for hardworking Granite Staters. I hope you’ll I hope you’ll join me.
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Bill Barry, a lifelong resident of Manchester, currently serves as the Ward 10 Alderman. He previously spent 34 years in law enforcement, working with the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office and the Auburn Police Department.