Recent news coverage highlighted just how bad Congressman Budd is for North Carolina, and voters are calling him out across the state. Last week, veterans in Charlotte and Greensboro slammed Budd for voting against the Honoring Our PACT Act, which would provide health care to veterans exposed to toxic chemicals, including contaminated water right here at Camp Lejeune. In Asheville and Greenville, Gayle Kemp and Charles McLawhorn Jr. delivered a powerful rebuke of Republicans’ plan to sunset Medicare – health care that saved Gayle’s life when she suffered heart failure, and the imperative to unite against Congressman Budd.

Catch up on the bad news for Budd: 

WXII: Veterans urge passage of ‘Burn pits’ bill… NC Senate candidates are on opposing sides.

WSOC: Charlotte veterans call out Congressman Budd for voting against legislation supporting veterans exposed to toxic substances

Asheville Citizen Times: Opinion: WNC seniors can’t afford Congressman Ted Budd in the U.S. Senate

• In July, I will turn 67. I haven’t been able to work since I was 57 when I had to take medical retirement after going into heart failure. I am thankful every day that I had a job with the North Carolina Department of Justice that paid my medical bill when I went into heart failure. But the bills have kept coming. In 2017, my medical bills were $125,000 for surgery. Recently, I had my defibrillator replaced. I got a bill from the hospital for outpatient surgery of $85,000. Without Medicare, that bill would bankrupt me. Without Medicare, I would not have had this service, gone into ventricular fibrillation and been dead within three minutes.
• That can happen to two million seniors like me if we allow Congressman Ted Budd to be elected to the U.S. Senate.
• If Congressman Ted Budd and Republicans get their way, these historic – and historically popular – programs could sunset after five years, leaving millions of North Carolina seniors, including many seniors in Western North Carolina, on the hook for thousands in health care costs and without the benefits they rely on.

Daily Reflector: Charles McLawhorn: Extreme GOP agenda puts seniors’ benefits at risk

• In North Carolina, over 2 million seniors rely on the Medicare benefits that they spent their lives paying into, and over 1.5 million seniors rely on Social Security, including myself and many people I grew up with.
• Despite these numbers, GOP U.S. Senate candidate Ted Budd and North Carolina Republicans are pushing an extreme MAGA agenda that includes sunsetting Medicare and Social Security if they gain back control of Congress in November.
• Republicans are pushing a plan where all federal legislation would sunset after five years, including Medicare and Social Security. The GOP’s extreme MAGA agenda is only the most recent example of Republicans’ long crusade to cut seniors’ benefits.
• Meanwhile, President Biden and Democrats are standing firmly with North Carolina seniors. Together, President Biden and Democrats are working to reduce deficits without touching Medicare and Social Security by making the wealthiest Americans pay their fair share in taxes — while also lowering costs for working families, including strengthening Medicare by enabling the program to negotiate prescription drug prices.

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