Groundswell of support for Amy McGrath among letter writers | Lexington Herald Leader

Fear is Barr’s key value

Congressman Andy Barr’s TV ads suggest his conservative values represent Kentuckians best.

Barr’s conservative values include, less health care for Kentuckians, tax cuts for the richest and elimination of estate taxes and fewer protections from business abuses and financial fraud. Nothing says “me first” like that Kentucky value to whom much is given, more should be given.

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Barr’s conservatism belies other Kentucky values such as forced birth upon any woman who may become pregnant, fewer worker protections and lower wages. Kentuckians must value a low median family income, minimal savings and low retirement savings, because Barr does.

Barr’s conservative values show we also embrace Kentucky’s educational challenges being solved by our conservative belief in charter schools. Kentuckians must believe competition and choice will solve what poor public investment cannot.

Barr’s key conservative value is fear. Fear of change, hope and compassion. Seems more like President Donald Trump’s conservative values than Kentucky’s.

Barr must go

A vote for rubber-stamp Congressman Andy Barr is a vote for major tax cuts for the rich with crumbs for the rest of us, being manipulated by and indebted to Russian President Vladimir Putin, xenophobia, misogyny, racism, fascism, bigotry, governing by 140-character tweets, plus 5,000 lies the first 600 days of a presidency. That’s not even mentioning new attack ads each week full of lies that no decent candidate would ever do, dirty, unhealthy air and water, voter suppression, cruel separation of parents from their children, an exit from the Paris climate accord that all other nations endorse, chaos in the White House and a new disaster every day to divert attention from the latest disaster.

Unless the good people of Kentucky rise up and get rid of this GOP Congress, there is real danger that this country will lose our democratic ideals and values to the technique of the “Big Lie’ perfected by Adolf Hitler.

Vote Dem to keep ‘failed’ policies

Amy McGrath’s opponent ominously warned voters of the “failed liberal policies” of Democrats. I say bring ‘em on, especially if by “failed “policies he means the “failed” Medicare, Social Security, Affordable Care Act, Children’s Health Insurance Program and others. The Republicans have run up a huge trillion-dollar deficit and plan to blame Democrats for being fiscal irresponsibility. If the Republicans stay in power their plan is, in the name of fiscal responsibility, to gut Medicare and Social Security, just to name a few programs. They pull the wool over the eyes of voters by getting them all fired up over gay rights, abortion and other social issues that are hot-button issues but don’t affect the pocketbook and often can’t be legislated anyway. They lie constantly.

Keep an eye your pocketbook, fellow voters, because if the Republicans stay in power they will eliminate those so-called “failed” programs. Vote for McGrath.

More liberal, please

Among my social circle, Republican or Democrat, a common refrain is, “I wish Amy McGrath were as liberal as Congressman Andy Barr portrays her to be.” I didn’t back her in the primary because she doesn’t support a single-payer health care system, but Barr appears to think she does.

Astonishingly, he thinks his constituency will think that’s a bad thing. Over 50 percent of GOP voters nationwide support a single-payer system. Healthcare costs are skyrocketing while pay barely rises, and healthcare outcomes continue to deteriorate. But Barr seems to think this is a winning tactic.

“Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good,” we say, while our working poor struggle with $10,000 deductibles on employer plans. The good ain’t good enough; we self-select out of preventative healthcare we can’t afford. There are short lines in the waiting room but long lines at the emergency room, driving up costs further.

Barr an extremist

Congressman Andy Barr’s attack ads of distortions and half-truths about Amy McGrath, meant to scare voters into voting for him, say more about Barr’s lack of character than about McGrath.

Barr’s silence on tariffs demonstrates why he shouldn’t be re-elected. Tariffs are nothing more than taxes which will be paid by middle-class Americans.

McGrath’s opposition to President Donald Trump’s border wall is correct, fiscally and logically. Building the wall necessitates the government to acquire privately owned land. Eminent domain lawsuits could take a decade or longer, costing billions. Likewise, the terrain will prevent building a continuous wall, leaving gaps that defeat a wall’s purpose.

Barr’s attack ads claim McGrath is too liberal for Kentucky. McGrath isn’t too liberal --Barr is too extreme. If being too liberal is not being a rubber stamp for the Trump agenda, then McGrath is what Kentucky needs – courage and intelligence, not craven servility.

Democracy in peril

I hope Kentuckians vote for Amy McGrath to represent us in Congress, and here is why. Congress was created to be a co-equal branch of government that serves as a check and balance to the power of the other two branches. In the past 25 years, or so, and especially in the past two years, Congress has been completely co-opted by the executive branch. In its current form, Congress is functioning as an extension of the presidency, not as a counterbalance. This is dangerous for our democracy. It is absolutely necessary that Americans are represented in a fair and equitable way.

Congressman Andy Barr has demonstrated he completely and unequivocally represents Republican interests. The same can be said for Sens. Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul and Gov. Matt Bevin. It’s painfully obvious that our state and our country are out of balance. We must vote for change.

Barr ignored town hall requests

Congressman Andy Barr criticized Amy McGrath for not showing up to a debate in which she never said she would participate. Please. What about Barr not showing up for town halls to discuss the Republican House health care bill?

In spite of many requests for town halls, Barr only held two. I had to drive from Frankfort to Richmond to hear his views. Worse, at the Lexington town hall, Barr couldn’t answer questions from the audience. He admonished the audience for “misbehaving” as health-care professionals voiced concerns and the audience pushed back on Barr’s answers. Indignant that the audience did not agree with him, Barr responded that he didn’t have to have town halls if he didn’t want to. And since then he hasn’t.

Like Sen. Mitch McConnell, Barr only goes to safe Republican venues like Chamber of Commerce meetings.

Numbers tell the story

Fact-checking candidates has become a full-time job. Facts matter, so here are a few numbers that you need to consider as you look at Congressman Andy Barr’s voting record. He voted to tax the middle class 92 percent of the time, voted with President Donald Trump 96 percent of thetime, funded education 22.7 percent of the time and supported women’s rights 16.9 percent of the time. Plus Barr twice voted against helping relief efforts in Texas and Puerto Rico.

Do the math. Vote McGrath.

Who’s robbing whom?

Congressman Andy Barr has uncomfortable kinship with his attack ads blasting Amy McGrath for “socialized medicine.”

In the prolonged debate in Congress about Medicare and Medicaid, conservatives called it “socialized medicine.” When progressives finally prevailed, the economically advantaged jumped on the bandwagon of private medical insurance.

Many of them cooperated with the government for patients, but others benefited from both private and government health care.

In lieu of current conservative robbing of the poor and the middle class to reward the rich, socialism, distinguished from communism, is the way to go.

McGrath is not the one robbing the middle class.

McGrath a diverse voice

There are six congressional districts in Kentucky that elect a representative to the U.S. House. Currently, five of those seats are occupied by Republicans. One is a Democrat — John Yarmuth in the Louisville area’s 3rd District.

Both our senators are Republican.

All eight of these positions — Kentucky’s voice in Washington — are currently held by white men. Only one is a Democrat. No women. No people of color.

Is this what we want for our state?

To even begin to provide some checks and balances to our voice in the nation’s capital; to bring forth the important social issues to Congress; to provide fair, democratic representation for women’s issues, the middle class, and the poor — we all need to consider Amy McGrath, Kentucky’s 6th District Democratic nominee for Congress.

Each of us can help start the needle moving forward on Nov. 6. Each of us has an important responsibility. Vote.

Barr spreads falsehoods

Rep. Andy Barr’s claim that Amy McGrath and other Democrats favor eliminating “the middle-class tax cut” is patently false. McGrath opposes the Trump/GOP tax legislation because the benefits are overwhelmingly distributed to the wealthy and corporations.

As an example, Valero Services, an oil refining company in Texas, has received a $1.9 billion tax benefit in the first quarter of 2018, according to the New York Times. It is such gross inequities in the legislation that McGrath has denounced, not the marginal tax relief for the middle and working classes.

Barr’s ads also grossly misrepresent McGrath’s positions on abortion, open borders, and health care.

Just as false information in product advertising undermines consumer trust in markets, false information in campaign ads undermines voter trust in the election process. Barr needs to exhibit some integrity and stop the false advertising and lies.

McGrath a listener

The first time I met Amy McGrath, she was new to politics and I had never so much as put a bumper sticker on my car. But I saw right off that Amy was special. She listened more than she talked and wanted to know what we needed, what would improve our lives.

By now we have seen more than a dozen vicious attack ads, all lies. Amy is no rubber-stamp for anyone, not even the Democratic party; she knows we can control our southern border without ripping children away from their parents; her 32-page economic plan lays out exactly how to move Kentucky forward. And how many of us have seen a single dollar of those tax cuts for the wealthy?

I have an Amy McGrath bumper sticker on my car. And for the first time in a long time, I am excited about voting on Nov. 6.

Questions for the congressman…

I have some questions for Congressman Andy Barr.

The mainstream media have on occasion gotten a story wrong and had to make corrections, yet you would rather rely on sources that time and time again have been completely discredited. Why do you feel that making policy decision based on lies is better than ones based on facts?

As a fiction writer, I like creating my own fantasy world just like you do. Can you say something about the joy you feel making policy that forces everyone to live in your fantasy world?

How do you choose which wild conspiracy theories to accept, and which to reject?

You’ve been known to attack people based on the feeling that typos reveal their true beliefs. In your attacks on women’s health, you tend to avoid using periods. Is this deliberate?

I believe the people of Kentucky’s 6th District deserve to know Barr’s answers.

Do some work, Barr

Regarding Congressman Andy Barr’s TV commercial touting his travels across the Bluegrass, might I add his viewers are as bored as his children. He is not getting paid to drive around eating ham and spending our tax dollars

He should go back to Washington, find his seat and propose the following enactments:

To make sure that Kentuckians’ elections are safe from Russian interference;

To make sure the Russians have not hacked into our water, gas and electric power plants so that come January we are not covered in excuses;

To make sure the Russians are not hacking into our economy;

To have the courage to expose the secrets President Donald Trump gave to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Master of talking points

Empty-suit Rep. Andy Barr is the uncrowned king of parroting talking points. Erratic crybaby President Donald Trump can’t stay on message, throwing a monkey wrench into robot Barr’s teleprompter. Robot Barr has suffered numerous privations, paper cuts and pains in the arse spending half the year fund-raising for his campaign and regurgitating talking-point propaganda. Paraphrasing Abraham Lincoln, robot Barr’s policy input has been thinner than the soup made from the shadow of a pigeon that has starved to death.

Massachusetts has spent twice as much on education than Kentucky for decades, with the result that Massachusetts residents earn twice as much per capita than Kentuckians. What has robot Barr ever done for education? Zilch. What has he ever done to improve the lot of Kentuckians? Zilch.

Robot Barr is a mealy mouthed follower who obstructs the hope of new, pragmatic leadership.

Barr panders to Trump

Joel Pett’s cartoon on Oct. 17 was good, but it would have been better if it had shown Congressman Andy Barr licking President Donald Trump’s boots as he dances around the grave of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

When Trump attacks the free press as an “enemy of the people” he gives the green light to despots and dictators around the world to murder journalists.

Barr lacks the courage to stand up to the president when he’s wrong. He does not deserve to be re-elected.

Pay attention!

Inspired by Martin Niemöller ….

First they came and dismantled the protections against big money in politics –

Because I was not really into politics, I paid no attention.

Then they started to lower taxes for the rich –

Because I was in the comfortable middle class, I paid no attention.

Then they began to silence the free press as they reported on all of these things –

Because I thought social media could fill the gap, I paid no attention.

Then they came for my Social Security, my Medicare, my freedom –

Because there was no free press, I did not know I should pay attention.

I am only one person but I can make a difference — and so can you. Elect Amy McGrath. She is a voice for all people in this district. Speak now with your vote or it will be too late for democracy as we know it.

Who really gets the tax cut?

There is an old saw about the potentially misleading use of the arithmetic mean or average. “I have one foot in boiling water and one in ice water but on the average I feel fine.”

When I saw Congressman Andy Barr’s campaign video where he says he voted for a middle-class tax cut giving the average family in Kentucky more than $2,000, I wondered who got that money.

The Tax Policy Center in Washington D.C. showed how taxes changed by income bracket.

To get more than $2,000, family income must be above $148,000. Income below $86,000 gets less than $1,000. The benefit is highly influenced by high-income families with huge tax breaks. The hypothetical average family will get the $2,000. But your family probably will not.

Barr all-wrong

Who is Rep. Andy Barr? Garland Hale Barr IV is a career politician who cares nothing for average Kentuckians.

His desperate campaign is based on out-of-context sound bites and flat-out lies to smear his opponent. Barr – Too Devoid of Character for Kentucky.

Barr claims to have won the fictitious “War on Coal” despite the fact that coal jobs and production have steadily declined since he was elected. Barr – Too Dishonest For Kentucky.

He is too spineless to stand up to President Donald Trump and his vile Twitter attacks. By his silence he helps destroy our standing in the world community. Barr – Too Weak For Kentucky.

He wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act, leaving hundreds of thousands without health insurance. Barr – Too Regressive For Kentucky.

His idea of middle-class tax cuts benefits major corporations and the upper 1 percent. Barr – Too Elitist For Kentucky.

Andy Barr – Wrong For Kentucky.

It’s a new day

Goodbye, Congressman Andy Barr.

Finally, the days of Barr running his election campaign on affability and accessibility are over. In these times when “truth isn’t truth,” voters are rightfully expecting more substantial information.

In Barr they will find a man who owes his entire political life (as do all Republicans) to the Koch brothers and their network of billionaires that fund their campaigns. David Koch, quoted in a nationally reported interview, said, “We expect a return on our investment.”

Consequently, “the idea man” works feverishly to further the Koch agenda, which has become the Republican agenda and, simply stated, means more for the super-rich at the expense of everyone else.

That broad grin that Barr wears that you thought was a smile is actually a smirk at having fooled the people of the 6th District for so long.

Single-payer worth examining

An Oct. 9 letter writer seemed to demean 6th District congressional candidate Amy McGrath because McGrath did not revile single-payer health care.

The United States spends more than twice per capita on health care than any other industrialized nation on earth. And our health outcomes are nowhere near as good as what most of those other countries achieve. So in other words, we are paying more than twice as much for worse service.

What is the one difference between our health care system and those of all the other industrialized nations? The answer is that all of those other countries have single-payer healthcare.

Look for the truth

I get so tired of seeing Congressman Andy Barr’s attack ads on television against Amy McGrath. What is Barr trying to cover up by being negative to her?

I have been to several of McGrath’s events and she is a very positive person and a good speaker. She is trying to fight a good campaign without flinging mud the way Barr’s campaign is being run. She believes our government can be run for the betterment of all Kentuckian, not just for one party or the other.

Maybe I am jaded by politicians who take sound bites from their opponents’ speeches and put together an ad that is totally false. Unfortunately, many voters don’t research what is true and what is made to look like the truth. I hope voters will be able to see through the smoke and mirrors of this smear campaign and vote for truth.

Republican for McGrath

I can’t believe there are people gullible enough to believe Congressman Andy Barr’s ads. Amy McGrath has never said she supports abortions — she said she supports women’s right to choose. People, stop believing everything you see or hear and use your brains to get to the truth.

McGrath has said “building a wall between the U.S. and Mexico is stupid,” and if we remember the wall built between East and West Berlin, we will see how well that worked out. President Donald Trump said that he would get Mexico to pay for the border wall and anyone with a brain should know that will never happen.

Barr says McGrath will hurt coal in Kentucky. Everyone should know coal is going to go the same place that tobacco went — out of this state. Find other industries for Kentucky.

I’m a Republican voting for a new person in Congress — McGrath.

Barr, revealed

Congressman Andy Barr has always presented himself as good ol’ backslapping Andy. This election, however, has revealed Barr to be a hyper-partisan political hack in lockstep with the extreme Republican agenda. He is willing to vote “enthusiastically” to repeal the Affordable Care Act and to denigrate Amy McGrath’s military service.

Barr’s spineless fealty to a likely criminal president in charge of the most corrupt administration in recent memory is really what’s at stake here. The Kremlin’s candidate has made a mockery of the presidency; Barr’s silence speaks volumes.

Equally disturbing is Barr’s voting record on the environment. He has a zero rating on the League of Conservation Voters’ scorecard for 2016-17 with 73 votes against environmental issues. That includes votes that cut funding for the Environmental Protection Agency and would sabotage any effort to address climate change.

Barr appears to be the one who’s too extreme for the 6th District.

Tax cuts stolen money

Congressman Andy Barr is running ads saying his vote for President Donald Trump’s tax cuts is giving back $2,000 to each family in Kentucky. That’s not even true because the Republicans cynically changed the tax-withholding tables to make weekly paychecks bigger. Then they eliminated the personal exemption so that money gets taken back when people file their tax returns.

The fact is that the Trump tax cuts are being charged 100 percent to the deficit, like the Reagan and Bush tax cuts before. So even if a family has gotten $2,000 back, it’s not the federal government giving back their hard-earned tax dollars. It’s the federal government borrowing the money and charging it to the national debt to be paid off by future generations. The money returned by the tax cuts is being stolen from the taxpayer’s own children.

Barr vets’ playbook ‘shameful’

The sneak, false attacks by Republican partisans on Amy McGrath’s outstanding military record appear to be in sync with her opponent’s campaign. These “Republican veterans” using their military service for partisan purposes claim to be nonpartisan. Really?

They are following the Republicans’ “swift-boat playbook” to misrepresent and lie about a fellow veteran’s spotless and pioneering record of achievement of service to her country.

We have seen this puppet show before. It’s shameful. But their partisan campaign crumbles in the face of McGrath’s lifelong record of achievement.

Their actions make them look like tools and hit men of a political party, while McGrath seeks to continue her patriotic calling by giving us un-bought, honest and pragmatic representation in Congress that will rise above partisan gridlock.

Query to GOP women

I have question for Republican women, particularly mothers.

As women, I know President Donald Trump’s policy of separating children from their parents at the border broke your heart, even if you didn’t say anything at the time. If like me you are a Christ-follower or a religious or spiritual woman, you know this goes against God or your higher power.

As women, I know you have been saddened by the idea that Trump and the Trump Republicans worked hard to take free birth control away through changes in the Affordable Care Act. And as you all know even better than I do, birth control is the best way to reduce abortions by preventing unplanned and unwanted pregnancies.

Finally, if you are living in the 6th District, I hope you are ready to vote against Congressman Andy Barr, the incumbent Trump Republican who “enthusiastically” voted to repeal and replace the ACA.

GOP health care stance anti-family

Kentucky’s 6th District congressional race may boil down to one issue: health care. As an oncology nurse who’s seen how serious disease can affect families, I understand why. health care is an important and personal issue. Unfortunately, our congressman, Andy Barr, is among the Republicans opposing any effort at compromise.

I’m a Republican myself, but the party’s determination to dismantle patient protections — including for pre-existing conditions — is driving women away. We are often highly attuned to health care after staying up nights with a sick child or serving as a parent’s caregiver. This isn’t just about access to care; this is about affordability. All we hear from our Republican leaders is the promise to kill the Affordable Care Act without even mention of a viable alternative. This is unacceptable.

Family values include keeping families healthy. I support Democrat Amy McGrath for Congress because she supports a commonsense approach to solving problems.

Hold the mansplaining

According to The Merriam-Webster Dictionary, feminism is “the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes” and “organized activity on behalf of women’s rights and interests.” Congressman Andy Barr thinks equality and advocacy for equality is “too liberal” for Kentucky. No mansplaining necessary. I’m voting for Amy McGrath.

McGrath taking high road

Separated at birth?

I noticed a couple of years ago that Congressman Andy Barr isn’t just plain old Andy Barr.

Barr is actually Garland Hale Barr IV. And that reminds me of Thurston Howell III.

Thurston Howell III was, of course, the fictional millionaire who, with his wife, was stranded with others on “Gilligan’s Island.” During the TV show’s run, there was an election to see who would be the leader of the group.

Howell, who famously said the following, decided he would enter the campaign. “An election! That’s wonderful! I’ll spend millions on my campaign.”

And: “The masses are so easily amused, aren’t they?”

And: “No one can pull the wool over my eyes. Cashmere, maybe, but wool, never.”

Thurston Howell III reminds me of Garland Hale Barr IV. Or vice versa.

Barr little help to military

As a veteran with 28 years’ service, I pay attention to legislation that affects military members and retirees. I am extremely disappointed in Congressman Andy Barr’s record and with misrepresentations in his ads.

I know there are veterans who support Barr. It’s important to bear in mind there are lots of veterans in older generations who oppose having women in combat or in the military at all. That does the women who have served honorably a terrible disservice.

It’s sad Barr panders to those folks and attempts to give the impression that most veterans support him. Barr votes the party line on the military and that doesn’t support those who serve. He supports a larger budget, but that mostly helps military contractors. He has actively opposed legislation to protect service members from outrageous interest rates charged by payday lenders.

I look forward to much better representation with Amy McGrath.

Barr has nothing

The ads that Congressman Andy Barr is running against Amy McGrath are beyond scurrilous in nature. A candidate who had anything to run on would not depend upon such lying words and manipulated images.

So it is obvious that Barr has nothing concrete to run on. After six years he is the epitome of a stuffed suit, a white middle-aged man with no accomplishments other than voting with President Donald Trump 98 percent of the time. So rather than trumpet his own accomplishments (which are nil) he has chosen to viciously attack a woman whose boots he is not fit to lick.

McGrath is the real deal: an American patriot who will bring Kentucky into the 21st century. Barr is merely a corporate shill, a man bought and paid for by the landed gentry and the payday lenders. Vote for McGrath for Congress; send Barr packing.

‘Country over party’

I was with the 871 Airborne Combat Engineers in World War II for three-and-a-half years plus three years in the reserve, fighting for the freedoms you have today. All veterans have served and many have paid the ultimate price with their lives. Bodies are still laying in the soils of foreign fields.

Amy McGrath has served to preserve that freedom. As a veteran, she understands how difficult it is to return home after combat. She recognizes the care our veterans deserve, and she will fight so that our veterans receive better health care and benefits.

McGrath’s service speaks to her appreciation for our values. She has fought to defend our freedoms, and she knows defending our country isn’t a partisan issue. She will continue to fight to better this nation, rather than fighting for one side of the political divide, because she knows preserving American values means putting country over party.

Barr no Amy McGrath

Ironically, Congressman Andy Barr’s commercials often show his cute children, yet he has no problem voting to take away school lunches for the poorest children in American society (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program).

Nor does he condemn the Trump-Sessions cruel actions stripping refugee children from their parents. Guess his banking and anti-regulation votes assure him more campaign money to attack Amy McGrath’s military heroism.

Having taught at two military bases in the 1960s, I can assure him that his service to special interests in Washington is in no way comparable to her heroic service in our military. I guess whoever said God looks after drunks, America and children never anticipated the present GOP representatives in Congress. Hopefully voters will reject his dirty tactics and return him to Lexington.

Easy for McGrath

If Amy McGrath could deal with 89 combat missions, she certainly can deal with 89 (or more) combative congressmen. Go McGrath!

Two sides of Barr

Will the real Congressman Andy Barr stand up? The man who approved the appalling, vicious, deceptive barrage of ads against Amy McGrath was the one who got my attention. He ensured my vote — for McGrath. Now there’s a kinder, gentler version of him appearing that is surely calculated to make us forget the means used to bury her. This voter is not forgetting. How about a vote for integrity — vote McGrath.

Barr lies on campaign ads

Of all the inaccurate statements made about Amy McGrath in Congressman Andy Barr’s attack ads, the one that rankles me the most regards her position on a woman’s right to choose. Ads approved by Barr equate that right with deciding to abort on the way to the hospital, as if that were supported by McGrath or even permitted under Roe v. Wade. Supreme Court decisions allow women and their doctors to decide on abortion in early pregnancy, but give the state the right to regulate abortion once the fetus is viable. Upholding the right to choice incorporates those restrictions.

Barr knows his commercials distort the right of women to make their medical decisions under Roe v. Wade, and what it means that McGrath supports that right. Does Barr just assume his audience won’t know he’s lying?

He should run on his record, if he can; not on lies.

Help Kentucky; vote McGrath

When Sen. Mitch McConnell went to Washington in 1985, Kentucky was ranked in the bottom 5 percent nationally in health care, education and unemployment. Thrity-three years later, McConnell is Senate president, a multi-millionaire and Kentucky is still floundering. Thirty-three years later, more Kentuckians suffer permanent tooth loss than any other state, residents are the fourth fattest and 49th in life expectancy. We’re 45th in job growth, household income and food security (institutionalized starvation). Only two states have a higher rate of poverty. Kentucky’s political leadership, at every level, is a deplorable failure.

Congressman Andy Barr is McConnell’s pawn; he has voted according to the Republican instruction 98 percent of the time. If you think Barr should be a millionaire by 2025, send him back. If you want the desperate problems of this state and Republican intransigence confronted, vote for McGrath.

Is Barr anti-women?

I wonder why Congressman Andy Barr and the Republican Party dislike women so much. In one attack ad against Amy McGrath, the liberal bad people listed are Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Nancy Pelosi. Another ad calls McGrath a “feminist,” aka equal pay for equal work. McGrath is also chastised for noticing that Republicans keep killing Obamacare but have never offered a plan to take its place. So equal pay for equal work and decent health care for all are too liberal?

There are many parts of Barr’s ads that are offensive. By opening each ad attacking McGrath using his own daughters, it is obvious no low is too low. Happy family ads are one thing, but to start attack ads by involving his children is terrible. He could easily stand by himself to “approve” these ads instead he hides behind the skirts of his children.

Think before you vote

A representative to U.S. Congress is not just a representative for the district that elects him or her but for all of America.

What has Congressman Andy Barr, representing Kentucky’s 6th District, done for Kentucky and America except give a huge tax cut to the rich and a pittance to the middle-income taxpayer? What are his plans for the future if he is re-elected as Kentucky’s 6th District representative?

Amy McGrath is Barr’s opponent. Her ads state what she proposes to accomplish in Congress. Learn from McGrath, not from Barr’s convoluted ads against her. Does Barr agree with the ad from the Congressional Leadership Fund indicating a vote for McGrath is giving House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi another vote in Washington? If so, why?

Think. Then vote responsibly for the candidate you believe is best for Central Kentucky, whether you are a Democrat or a Republican.

Don’t vote the party.

Conservatives don’t care

It seems like every 15 minutes or so I see an ad on the TV with a young girl talking about having once been addicted to opioid drugs and how Congressman Andy Barr is working to help people like her. Before that there was one with a mother who had lost her son to opioid addiction.

Conservatives like Barr have shown that they don’t care about poor people with diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure, COPD and even cancer. So it’s highly doubtful that they care about those afflicted with opioid addiction. These ads are just a smokescreen created to give the appearance that they care. Conservatives are good at putting on a show, whether it’s a show about being pro-life or Christian or patriotic, or now, caring about drug addicts. It’s nonsense to believe they care about opioid addicts when they have supported cutting healthcare benefits for millions.

Tax cut questionable

Congressman Andy Barr is a hypocrite when he touts the middle-class tax cut.

His campaign touts the middle-class tax cut in campaign ad after campaign ad. In one, Molly from Nicholasville says she is going to get $500 this year. That’s less then $10 a week. But that help will only last until 2020. Then she will be out of luck. Doesn’t she resent the millions given away to the richest taxpayers who were already able to support their families? And whose tax cuts don’t expire.

I am old enough to remember the Bush tax cut where we all got a $300 check, but which turned President Bill Clinton’s surplus into a deficit.

Why isn’t Barr howling about the exploding deficit under this administration? I guess he’s waiting for a Democratic administration so he can go back to being a deficit hawk.

No response needed

I am disgusted by Congressman Andy Barr’s use of attack ads. I most likely would not vote for him anyway, but in my opinion this completely disqualifies him from getting my vote.

I make a lot of phone calls in my role as a volunteer for Amy McGrath. Lots of people ask me this why she does not answer his attack ads. I reply, because she is a lady and will not lower herself to his level, nor is she going to waste time with responding to lies.

When I met McGrath, I repeated this to her. She loved it.

Truth casualty in Barr campaign

Congressman Andy Barr’s campaign is intellectually dishonest. Over 80 percent of the Republican tax cut went to corporations and high-income earners, not the middle class. The future of Medicaid and Obamacare exchanges are uncertain, and Republicans and Barr failed to pass a replacement for Obamacare. Contrary to Barr’s health-care scare ad, there is no indication that single payer or Medicare for all is in our future. Barr is a novice on health care.

Barr indicates McGrath isn’t conservative enough. Yet, Barr voted for the $1.5 trillion tax cut that will balloon the deficit. He connects the word liberal with welfare assistance to denigrate the poor. He refers to McGrath as feminist, indicating women and men shouldn’t be equal. He implies McGrath, whose entire education and professional career has been military, is somehow a flaming liberal. And no one is advocating open borders – just a thoughtful plan for border protection.

Not so funny

Who knew? Congressman Andy Barr — a comedian! He demanded that Amy McGrath ads be pulled from local TV stations as false advertisement, after his insipid fear tactic of trying to hang a socialist label on her and the implication that opposing a border wall equates with open borders. Silly, silly!

On second thought, distortions, taking comments out of context and fear-mongering aren’t really funny. They say a lot more about the one who does these things than they say about the target of them.

Funny business?

It seems awful funny to me that Congressman Andy Barr doesn’t have anything but attack ads. It seems that he can’t say one thing that he has done for the state of Kentucky or he would have already been putting that out there.

McGrath focuses on people

Thanks to the Herald-Leader for reminding readers that Amy McGrath isn’t using attack ads against Congressman Andy Barr, while he is using them against her. Barr has much more funding from the big donors and that makes it tough for McGrath, who is running against an incumbent.

McGrath is fighting a tough battle, putting the people first and not using attack ads. Barr is just the opposite. His campaign is to malign her reputation and then continue to support programs that take health care from the hands of the poor, and to destroy the Environmental Protection Agency and cause more health problems in a state that already is ravaged by health issues.

Barr supports President Donald Trump, who has taken immigrant babies from the arms of their mothers. Barr supports a trade war that hurts many of our Kentucky businesses.

Barr’s attack ads distort the facts and truth.

We all should be so liberal

Congressman Andy Barr’s negative, false attack ads against Amy McGrath say she is way “too liberal” for Kentucky. Gosh, if that means she puts the people’s needs of Kentucky before her party’s or her own political interest; or she wants to fix healthcare so we can all live better lives; or she wants to make sensible fixes to gun regulations so our children can go to school without being murdered; then I’m “too liberal” for Kentucky, too. And Barr should be too.

Liberal, by any other name...

I have watched with mild amusement Congressman Andy Barr’s explosion of TV ads proclaiming that Amy McGrath is “too liberal for Kentucky”. It caused me to think.

If you like clean air and water instead of pollution by super-rich companies, you are a liberal.

If you believe separating parents from their children at borders is inhumane, you are a liberal.

If you adhere to our Declaration of Independence that all persons are created equal and should not be subject to discrimination, you are a liberal.

If you think middle-class Americans like teachers, police officers and firefighters should be better compensated instead of giving enormous tax credits to Wall Street corporations, you are a liberal.

Of course, labels don’t mean much, so I will support McGrath, who like Sen. John McCain graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and flew jets in combat and is not a career politician.

McGrath for Congress

Amy McGrath will make the super-greatest congressional representative in the 6th District. She will fight for health care and for the poor people.

Congressman Andy Barr must be defeated. He will raise taxes and he is for the rich people. McGrath will help the 6th District and it will be a better place to live.

I urge all Republicans, Democrats and Independents to go to the polls and vote for McGrath.

McGrath protects health care

Three-quarters of Americans indicate that maintaining access to health insurance for those with pre-existing conditions is “very important” (Kaiser Health Tracking Poll, September 2018). Let’s not forget that when Congressman Andy Barr proudly voted to dismantle the Affordable Care Act last year, that was a key provision that would have been lost.

Current Republican repeal/replace proposals being considered by Congress continue this attack on pre-existing conditions protection, and Barr would surely vote for whichever of these proposals makes it through committee. In contrast, Amy McGrath is committed to working in a bipartisan way to fix problems with the ACA while preserving access to coverage for all Kentuckians, even those with pre-existing conditions.

If you value the ability to get health insurance coverage regardless of any pre-existing conditions you or your family may have now or in the future, McGrath is the clear choice for 6th District representative in Congress.