Letters to the Editor: Vote for Bengs in November
Brian Bengs as our U.S. Senator will stand for what is good and right about South Dakota. I urge you to vote for Bengs as our next Senator this fall. Brian’s outstanding character stands out as soon as you hear him speak. He has a calm demeanor and an articulate voice that resonates well in a large crowd and in one-on-one conversations.
Bengs is well-qualified to serve in the U S Senate. Brian served in the US. Navy and the US. Air Force. In the Air Force, he served in the Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps. Bengs worked tirelessly to prevent and address corruption as a federal ethics advisor and prosecutor. He ensured that military decision-makers complied with the law and that they upheld the high standards expected of them.
Brian will fight for regular South Dakotans by lowering taxes for the working class, fighting to protect Medicare and Social Security, and halting the monopolization of agriculture. As a former Independent himself, Brian knows that to get these things done, Republicans and Democrats must work together.
Brian Bengs is a consensus builder who will bring people together for the good of our great nation.
Frank Kloucek
Scotland
South Dakota is a working-class state, so who exactly is John Thune representing in Washington? Thune has worked tirelessly to please his big-business buddies in the Senate. In 2018, he voted for the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. This would have been great if the Act had cut taxes for working-class families. Instead, his vote gave more than $233 billion in tax cuts to his corporate benefactors – at a time when our national debt exceeded $20
trillion – and did little for his working-class constituents.
When bills supporting the working class are brought before Thune, he is much more reluctant to give his support. Just last week, he celebrated his effort to kill an amendment that would have capped insulin at $35 a month. Instead of joining the seven Republicans who voted in favor of the cap, Thune put Big Pharma profits ahead of his constituents who currently pay an arm and a leg for their insulin. I’m certain it has something to do with the almost $250,000 he’s received from Big Pharma lobbies during his tenure.
South Dakota is not a state full of pharmaceutical lobbyists. We are working-class folks with working-class issues. Life-saving medicine is more important to us than billions in tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy, despite what Thune’s voting record would show. He clearly cares more for his big-money and out-of-state corporate interests than he does for the hard-working South Dakotans who put him there. We need to elect a senator who is not for sale to lobbies and big-money interests. We need a change. We need to elect Brian Bengs.
Henry Van Bemmel
Sioux Falls
