{"id":6248,"date":"2019-02-17T01:35:07","date_gmt":"2019-02-17T06:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/?p=6248"},"modified":"2019-02-17T01:35:07","modified_gmt":"2019-02-17T06:35:07","slug":"andy-kim-talks-va-healthcare-environment-in-first-ocean-county-town-hall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/2019\/02\/andy-kim-talks-va-healthcare-environment-in-first-ocean-county-town-hall\/","title":{"rendered":"Andy Kim Talks VA, Healthcare, Environment in First Ocean County Town Hall"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"U.S.<\/a>

U.S. Rep. Andy Kim addresses a town hall meeting in Berkeley Township, Feb. 2019. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

Freshman U.S. Rep. Andy Kim, a Democrat, faced his first audience in the majority-Republican portion of his district Saturday afternoon, pledging to rise above partisan bickering in Washington and represent all members of his split district.<\/p>\n

Kim, a former U.S. State Department civil servant who scored a post on the House Armed Services Committee, pledged to protect the role of Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst and shepherd in a new Veterans\u2019 Administration clinic in Ocean County. Also, Kim boldly professed his belief in the role of humans in climate change and said he would work to protect the environment and do what he can to cushion the Shore\u2019s impact from flooding wrought by climate change.<\/p>\n

Kim updated residents gathered at the Holiday City West community center, Berkeley Township, on Saturday, telling his new constituents that Congress may achieve more through bipartisanship that what is often displayed on television news segments. He also spoke highly of the nation\u2019s armed forces and said veterans\u2019 affairs would be at the top of his agenda over the next two years of his term. Kim took office in January following his election victory in November.<\/p>\n

The discussion remained civil on Saturday, with controversy limited to a few rumblings when controversial topics such as abortion and climate change arose. Kim consistently spoke about bipartisan agreements in the House (and the third congressional district) and staked out a position above the name-calling fray that characterizes Washington on political talk shows.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s too much partisan gamesmanship that manifests itself in our politics, like gerrymandering, which we\u2019re stopping,\u201d said Kim, to cheers from the audience. \u201cVoters should be choosing their political figures, not political figures choosing their voters.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"U.S.<\/a>

U.S. Rep. Andy Kim addresses a town hall meeting in Berkeley Township, Feb. 2019. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

\"U.S.<\/a>

U.S. Rep. Andy Kim addresses a town hall meeting in Berkeley Township, Feb. 2019. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

Kim pledged not to take \u201ca dime\u201d of campaign cash from corporate political action committees, and said he was open to a discussion on term limits for members of congress and U.S. senators.<\/p>\n

Kim said his highest priorities in Congress include maintaining the role of the Joint Base while bolstering small business in the third district. He also said he is focused on bipartisan efforts to enable the U.S. government to negotiate prescription drug prices through Medicare and enhance access to healthcare for all citizens.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that healthcare is a right, I do, and I believe that everyone in this country who is poor should have access to healthcare,\u201d he said, responding to a question from a resident who asked whether he supported \u201cMedicare for all,\u201d an effort to expand public healthcare coverage to all Americans.<\/p>\n

Kim didn\u2019t say whether he expressly supports Medicare for all, explaining that he would have to review bills as they are proposed before passing judgment. But in the mean time, issue such as reducing drug prices and establishing firm pricing for medical services could help residents who are facing healthcare woes.<\/p>\n

Kim said he supports investments in renewable energy, especially as it applies to expanding economic development within the growing clean energy industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do believe in climate change and I do believe that people have been a cause of climate change,\u201d he said. \u201cFrom the industrial revolution on, in terms of pollution and carbon output, we have been the primary change. There is a lot of scientific consensus on this issue and I think that it\u2019s important for us to be working from a common foundation of facts here. I think there\u2019s more we can do in terms of increasing and strengthening the technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other countries are \u201cleapfrogging\u201d the United States in developing alternative energy sources and America should invest in this development too, he said.<\/p>\n

Asked about the abortion issue \u2013 specifically, whether an abortion should be able to occur late-term, Kim responded to a question from a constituent saying it is most important that expectant mothers obtain quality healthcare from the start.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe certainly want to respect families and the emotional difficulty they\u2019re going through,\u201d Kim said. \u201cWe want to avoid these problems in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n

His answer drew some groans from the crowd, with another speaker expressing the view that abortions have turned into a for-profit industry.<\/p>\n

On taxes, Kim called the cost of living in New Jersey an \u201cexistential threat in our state,\u201d acknowledging that people are leaving due to the high cost of living. He pledged to throw his weight behind efforts to restore tax deductions for state and local tax bills that exceed $10,000, but also work to bring more small business development to the district and promote the growth of opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m focused a lot on trying to make sure our families are not teeter-tottering on the brink of financial collapse,\u201d Kim said. \u201cWe live in a time when 40 percent of Americans can\u2019t handle a $400 emergency.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kim pledged to conduct town hall sessions each month, alternating between Burlington and Ocean counties, and mixing up locations with the goal of appearing in each town in the district.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are my boss, whether you voted for me or not,\u201d said Kim. \u201cThere are people on both sides calling each other names, and I think that takes time away from getting the job done.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Freshman U.S. Rep. Andy Kim, a Democrat, faced his first audience in the majority-Republican portion of his district Saturday afternoon, pledging to rise above partisan bickering in Washington and represent all members of his split district. Kim, a former U.S. State Department civil servant who scored a post on the House Armed Services Committee, pledged […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6249,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[18,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-ocean-county"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/andy_kim_congress_townhall_82.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgsn9q-1CM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}