By Mike McCombs
The Island News
More than 300 people attended a town hall-type meeting with Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) on Sunday, Jan. 18, at the Holiday Inn in Beaufort.
Booker was in Beaufort as part of the South Carolina Democratic Party’s “On the Road With Senator Cory Booker” tour, which included roughly a half dozen stops over three days, mostly in the rural Lowcountry.
During the tour, Sen. Booker, who joined state and local Democratic leaders, focused on the challenges facing most Americans, in particular, the rising cost of health care.
Attendees turned in handwritten questions on index cards and he answered many over about an hour and a half during his roughly two-hour appearance. He encouraged the crowd to stay orderly because he wanted to answer as many as he could.
“I hope you understand that the richest nation in the world should not have the most expensive health care and the worst outcomes for a developed nation. That the wealthiest nation in the world shouldn’t [be among] developed nations that have the highest … infant mortality rates, and the highest paternal mortality rates, that we should be outliers,” Booker said.
Booker pointed out that unlike the United States, last year the populations of Germany, England and Canada had no “people declaring bankruptcy because they can’t afford their medical bills. [But] we have thousands of people here in the United States of America. I ask you to refocus yourself on those words of our founding [fathers] — life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. You cannot have any of those if you don’t have access to healthcare.”
Bluffton’s Sarah McCarty said she came out to hear what Booker had to say mostly for inspiration.
“I’ve heard Senator Booker speak before, and I think he’s very inspiring,” McCarty said. “And of course, like many Americans, I’m really worried about what’s going on. And I was hoping to get a little bit of inspiration to keep going forward with optimism that there really might be some improvement in the future.
McCarty said she likes what Booker has to say about Americans all being “in this together.”
“I think as a nation, we may have lost our [sense of] being one people trying to work together,” she said. “And I hope that that will happen in the future, that we’ll join together to try to help out each other, our neighbors, our friends, our community.”
As a retired physician and medical educator, health care is a hot topic for McCarty.
“I’m very concerned about what’s going on both with RFK Jr. and with people losing their health care.” Dr. Remy Olodum, also from Bluffton, is retired from the U.S. Army and owns his own business. He is also a Veterans Service Officer who assists veterans with their VA benefits.
Olodum just wanted to hear Booker speak and get a sense of the direction of the Democratic Party.
He agreed with with Booker that if Democrats actually turned out to vote, they could win.
When asked what Booker could talk about that would interest him, he said the “most important things that everybody’s concerned about right now. That is the economy, the availability of health care, [and the cost of] food.”
Mike McCombs is the Editor of The Island News and can be reached at TheIslandNews@gmail.com.
