Health care among top issues as Hill, Tucker vie for D.C. post

FILE - This combination of 2018 file photos shows Arkansas Congressional candidates, Democrat Clarke Tucker, left, and Republican U.S. Rep. French Hill. Tucker and Hill condemned a political action committee’s radio ad that suggests white Democrats will lynch black Americans if they win the midterm election next month. (AP Photos/File)
FILE - This combination of 2018 file photos shows Arkansas Congressional candidates, Democrat Clarke Tucker, left, and Republican U.S. Rep. French Hill. Tucker and Hill condemned a political action committee’s radio ad that suggests white Democrats will lynch black Americans if they win the midterm election next month. (AP Photos/File)

Democrats here and abroad believe state Rep. Clarke Tucker offers the party its best shot at regaining a seat in Arkansas' congressional delegation.

Republicans insist U.S. Rep. French Hill's seat is safe, but they won't take the race for granted, given Tucker's robust fundraising.

More money from inside and outside Arkansas has flowed into the 2nd Congressional District contest between Hill, Tucker and Libertarian Joe Swafford than any of the other three congressional races on Arkansas ballots this general election.

Tucker and national Democratic groups have portrayed Hill as out of touch with average Arkansans. They criticize Hill for his support of a Republican health care bill that, had it passed in the Senate, would have dismantled much of Obamacare, formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Tucker, a two-term state lawmaker, decided to run for the seat after he was diagnosed and treated for bladder cancer in 2017. His personal story has been a major part of his campaign.

"The moment I was diagnosed, my family's life changed forever," Tucker said. "And that's when I knew I had to run for this office to make sure we have a member of Congress who understands that in this world, health comes first. You can't work or take care of your family unless you have access to health care, and that every person in this country should have access to quality, affordable health care."

Hill, who is seeking his third term, and the GOP have cast Tucker as wanting to increase the size of government and raise taxes. They've sought to tie him to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

"He's a big-government, higher-tax, liberal Democrat," Hill said.

Early voting begins Monday. Election Day is Nov. 6.

PULASKI COUNTY VOTES

Hill, 61, was first elected to represent Arkansas' 2nd Congressional District in 2014, defeating former North Little Rock Mayor Pat Hays, a Democrat, with 52 percent of the vote. Hill, a former community banker, won re-election handily in 2016 with more than 58 percent of the vote against Democrat Dianne Curry.

Democrats have held the central Arkansas district for most of the time since Reconstruction, but since state Lt. Gov. Tim Griffin won the seat in 2010, it has been held by the GOP. The district, drawn after the 2010 U.S. Census, includes Conway, Faulkner, Perry, Pulaski, Saline, Van Buren and White counties.

Democrats hoping to reclaim a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives and local political scientists say Tucker needs robust voter turnout in Pulaski County -- something that could be helped by a competitive mayoral race in Little Rock. Tucker, they said, also must minimize losses in the district's six more rural, conservative counties.

In both of Hill's previous races, he's won handily in all six outlying counties, but he lost Pulaski County both times. Even Curry, who ran a low-key campaign, took Pulaski County with 48.6 percent to Hill's 47.2 percent.

Hill's first political experience was as a Senate staff member in the early 1980s for U.S. Sen. John Tower, R-Texas, and the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. He was also then-President George H.W. Bush's deputy assistant secretary of the treasury for corporate finance; Bush later appointed him executive secretary to the President's Economic Policy Council.

Before running for Congress, Hill founded and chaired Little Rock-based Delta Trust & Banking Corp. He now serves on the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services, where he is majority whip.

PUBLIC SERVICE

Hill said he decided to run for the House in 2014 because he wanted to return to public service and take his business experience to Congress. That motivation remains, and he says he's come to love the non-legislative aspects of the office -- constituent service and advocating for the priorities of cities and counties in the district.

Hill said he's proud of two bills he sponsored because they directly affected the 2nd Congressional District. Both were signed into law. One renamed the Perryville post office after an Arkansan killed in Vietnam and the other expanded the Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site.

Hill also sponsored two pieces of financial legislation that became law. One exempts small community banks from a Dodd-Frank Act rule suited for large Wall Street banks. The second, Hill said, was a "pro-consumer, pro-investment bill" that made it easier for consumers to get investment research on exchange-traded funds.

"Now, I have 3½ years of practical legislative experience under my belt, and I'm really able to work effectively both in the House and Senate to get priorities done," Hill said. "So, I believe that I'm in a sweet spot of effectiveness on behalf of the citizens here and the state, not just in financial services but for [constituent service work] and my work in foreign affairs."

STATEHOUSE WORK

Tucker, 37, is an attorney from Little Rock. He has stressed his state legislative experience, noting that he served in a General Assembly with Republican majorities in both chambers. He's touted legislative work on the Arkansas' Medicaid expansion program, criminal justice reform, paid maternity leave, pre-kindergarten and veterans issues.

He's decried the "politics of the past" in Washington, D.C. Tucker said he'd like to be a part of a Congress that works together on issues of mutual interest.

Tucker noted that his behind-the-scenes work on legislation preserving Arkansas' Medicaid expansion and paid-maternity leave for state employees drew the praise of Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson and GOP lawmakers. Tucker said he'd like to work on some of those same issues in Congress.

"There are some themes to the work I did," Tucker said. "They're issues that actually affect people's lives on a daily basis. Another is my effectiveness at getting things done. You do that by working hard and sitting down with someone from a different perspective than you."

Tucker made it to the general election after winning -- without a runoff -- the May Democratic primary against three opponents who were running on policy positions to Tucker's left.

HEALTH CARE OPTIONS

Tucker -- like many Democrats running for Congress -- has been particularly critical of the American Health Care Act, a bill that passed in the House but died in the Senate last year. The bill, which Hill supported, would've gutted many key provisions of Obamacare. Tucker argued that it would've had a devastating affect on people with pre-existing medical conditions.

Hill said Tucker misrepresents the effects of the bill, and he has pointed to a provision that would have prohibited insurers from limiting access to health insurance.

Tucker said that provision is irrelevant because the law would have allowed insurers in states that requested certain waivers to charge patients with pre-existing conditions more in some cases.

"That's really the whole game," Tucker said. "It doesn't matter if I'm offered a policy if my premium is going to be multiple thousands of dollars a month that I can't afford."

Hill countered that such increases would be capped and apply only to those who had lapses in health care coverage. After a year, Hill said, those patients' premiums would revert to the preferred rate.

Tucker said there should be no circumstances in which those with pre-existing conditions pay higher premiums because of those conditions.

Hill said that provision was included in the bill to encourage people to maintain coverage.

"It's the stick in that draft bill, rather than the mandate, to maintain continuous coverage, which is what we do in normal insurance in the private sector," Hill said.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office also projected that community-rated premiums, which are calculated based on the average health care costs for people of a similar demographic, in one-sixth of the U.S. would rise over time because healthier individuals would opt to pay premiums based on their own expected health care costs.

"As a consequence ... people who are less healthy (including those with pre-existing or newly acquired medical conditions) would ultimately be unable to purchase comprehensive non-group health insurance at premiums comparable to those under currently law, if they could purchase it at all -- despite the additional funding that would be available under [the American Health Care Act] to help reduce premiums," the Congressional Budget Office report said.

Mike Siegel, a Hill spokesman, questioned the CBO's projections.

"The CBO is very effective at being congressional bean counters; they're not as effective at projecting how actual citizens will react to public policy," Siegel said, noting the CBO's miscues on Obamacare.

In 2010, the CBO predicted that by 2016, 23 million Americans would have policies on the Obamacare exchanges. In actuality, 10.4 million had exchange coverage in 2016, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Tucker has also criticized the Republican health care law for the provision that would allow states to determine which health benefits all insurance policies must cover. Such a waiver could be denied, under the law, if the state couldn't prove that it would reduce average premiums statewide and stabilize premiums for those with pre-existing conditions.

Tucker, like Hill, said that Obamacare is flawed, and that there are still plenty of uninsured people. To address that problem, Tucker supports a proposal that would give people the option of buying into Medicare, while still allowing people to stay on their private plans if they like.

"If we have at least one private option, hopefully more than one private option in every marketplace along with an affordable Medicare option, then I think it'll get us a lot further toward ensuring that every American has health insurance, which is the necessary step to having high quality, affordable health care," Tucker said.

Hill said Tucker's plan would bankrupt Medicare. Tucker said that since people would be paying premiums and co-pays, like a typical insurance plan, it would have no effect on the stability of Medicare.

IMMIGRATION POLICY

Tucker supports giving a path to citizenship for people who were brought to the U.S. as children and are now here illegally and who were allowed to stay under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy.

Hill supported Republican legislation that failed in the House that would've given those people renewable work visas. They would've been eligible for U.S. citizenship through traditional means.

Hill also helped get a provision included in that legislation that would've created a fix for children who came to the U.S. after their parents were recruited on work permits. The parents received green cards, but the children, technically, are in the country illegally once they turn 18.

Tucker and Hill agree that securing the border is key to any immigration policy.

BALANCED BUDGET

Hill and Tucker have both espoused support for an amendment that would require a balanced federal budget.

"I don't know any other way now to have the cudgel to get Congress to take the hard choices," Hill said.

Tucker agreed, but he cautioned that spending cuts couldn't be made to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. He faulted Hill for supporting the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. Tucker said he liked the tax relief the bill provided to the working class, but it went too far with cuts for corporations and the wealthy.

Tucker also said the tax-cut bill exploded the national debt, citing a CBO projection that the law will add $1.9 trillion to the debt.

Hill said economic growth generated by the tax cuts will offset much of the lost revenue.

PELOSI ALLEGATION

Republican groups and Hill have tied Tucker to Pelosi, the current House minority leader and former House speaker, from the earliest days of the race.

In the primary, Tucker publicly stated that he wouldn't support a Pelosi bid for House leadership.

Tucker said he'll see who the candidates are before deciding whom he'd support to be speaker if Democrats gain control of the House or minority leader if they don't.

With House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., not seeking re-election, Hill said he's unsure whom he'd support for House speaker if Republicans maintain a majority. He said he likes the leadership style of Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., but Hill said there could be dark horse candidates for speaker with a high turnover of members.

He said Republicans must select someone who represents the entire Republican conference and can effectively communicate its agenda to the minority party, the White House and the Senate.

LIBERTARIAN CANDIDATE

Swafford, 26, the Libertarian in the race, admits he's a long shot, but he believes he can win with the right viral moment that can help voters see they have options beyond the two main parties.

Swafford of Little Rock is a residential appraiser in the Pulaski County assessor's office. This is his first run at public office.

He has a four-step plan to get the U.S. on stable financial footing: eliminate wasteful spending, pay off the national debt, balance the budget and finally cut taxes.

Swafford said he supports cutting taxes, but he criticized the recent Republican Congress' tax cuts.

"It's out of order to cut taxes first," Swafford said, noting that it takes away the revenue needed to pay down the national debt.

Swafford also wants to work on decreasing government mass surveillance and strengthen data privacy laws.

Drug use should be decriminalized with a greater emphasis placed on treatment, Swafford said, and legalizing marijuana for recreational use could create a recession-proof economy in Arkansas. (Arkansans approved the use of medical marijuana in 2016 and await its availability.)

This election cycle could also start building a Libertarian base that leads to an eventual breakthrough for the party, Swafford said.

"Most people are Libertarians," Swafford said. "They just don't know it yet."

SundayMonday on 10/21/2018

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