Representative, former senator squaring off in Oklahoma
Experienced lawmakers in southern Oklahoma focusing on health care, education in House race.
Representative, former senator squaring off in Oklahoma
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By Aaron Crespo
Published: September 8, 2008
Voters in House District 50 will choose between a House member and a former state senator when they go to the polls in the fall.
Dennis Johnson, the Republican incumbent and a long-time business owner in Duncan, is challenged by Democrat Daisy Lawler of Comanche, who served in the state Senate from 2002 to 2006.Advertisement
Dennis Johnson, 55, Duncan Republican
Johnson said he is looking to reform government spending and health care.
Johnson said his experience as a business owner has given him insights into how a government should be run.
The first major issue Johnson wants to address is fiscal restraint.
As a business owner, he says he knows what it's like to have to do more with less. He said a government shouldn't spend solely because it has the money.
Johnson favors of zero-based budgeting, in which agencies are required to justify all costs, not just budget increases.
Johnson said he wants to see health care reform handled in the state before federal restrictions are put in place.
He said government mandates that force insurance companies to cover certain things could be removed to allow lower premiums, with options for other coverage available in more expensive plans.
Daisy Lawler, 65, Comanche Democrat
Lawler said she served on multiple committees while she was District 24 senator and was the first woman to be chairman of the agriculture committee.
Lawler said she decided to run again after reading that schools in her district couldn't afford books for their students while legislators were receiving new furniture.
Lawler said such money should be used to improve roads and bridges and support education.
During her time in the state Senate, she worked on road and bridge funding.
Lawler is a retired first-grade teacher and rancher. While in the Senate, she helped promote agricultural research at Oklahoma State University and in Oklahoma City, she said.
Lawler also wants to reform health care, focusing on putting plans in place to keep people out of the emergency room. While in the senate, she authored a bill that would allow farmers to sell produce to schools.
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Get rid of breast cancer coverage, vision and dental coverage, the list goes on. This is will create a population of very unhealth citizens. Just to create a check insurance plan that does not cover the common cold.
Then he goes on to state, that a more expensive plan can contain these mandates. He is basically restating the talking points of the insurance lobby. Move all less desirable risk into a plan that will price themselves out of the market place than YOU THE TAXPAYERS will pay for all health care. That is not a conservative agenda. We will have Universal Health Care by the government faster by Rep Johnson's plan.