Health care, economy, Iraq top concerns for 1st Congressional Democrats
May 18th, 2008 Posted in In The Newsby Victoria Wallock
State House Reporter
Reprinted From Article Published May 22nd, 2008
(May 22): Six people are vying for the Democratic nomination for the First Congressional District. Following are their takes on the issues:
Michael Brennan
Michael Brennan, a licensed clinical social worker who works on child and family issues at the Muskie School of Public Service, served in the Legislature from 1992 to 2006, first as a House member and then in the Senate.
He’s running for Congress, he says, because what was once taken for granted in this country is no longer available to the working class.
“The cost of education and the cost of health care in this country have gotten to the point that working-class and middle-class people can no longer have even the smallest part of the American dream,” he said.
Brennan supports universal health care and scholarships to public colleges and universities for all those graduating from public high schools. He believes those programs could be paid for, in part, by ending the war in Iraq.
“The first thing I want to do is make sure we end the war in Iraq,” he said, and take the money being spent there to help pay for health care and college.
Democrats and Republicans alike have continued to fund the war, most recently approving an additional $170 billion appropriation, he said. “That $170 billion gets us pretty close to universal health-care coverage or college for free,” he said.
Brennan, 55, was born in Portland and has lived there for the last 32 years. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Florida State University and a master’s from the Muskie School, where he now serves as a policy associate.
He talks about the race in terms of his two sons.
Brennan said when he and his wife went to pay for their children’s college tuition, they had to take out another loan on their home, which they had already paid off once. When one of those sons went to work at a job that didn’t offer health insurance, he paid $2,400 a year for a plan with a $10,000 deductible.
“At the end of the year, he had paid Anthem $2,400 and had not gotten $1 in health-care coverage,” Brennan said. “That’s why I’m running for Congress.
