Miller-Meeks seeks Dave Loebsack?s U.S. House seat

    Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks is in the running for Iowa?s Second Congressional District, which includes Washington County. The seat is held by Democrat Dave Loebsack, who is serving his second term in the U.S. House of Representatives. Miller-Meeks ran unsuccessfully against Loebsack two years ago.     

    Miller-Meeks was born and raised in a town in Texas of about 1,500 called LaCoste. She left high school at age 16 to attend a junior college in San Antonio. She enlisted in the Army at age 18 and would later become a nurse in the officer corps. She served 24 years in the Army and retired with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

    She and her husband Curt eventually settled in Ottumwa, where they live today. Until 2008, she operated a private ophthalmology practice in the city. She said she spends her time nowadays volunteering at a free health clinic for families who have fallen on hard times.

    Miller-Meeks said she is running for Congress to ?help reclaim the American dream.? She said there is a fundamental divide between her approach to governance and that of her opponent.

    ?Mr. Loebsack believes government is the solution to all the problems we face,? she said.

    Health care was the preeminent issue on Capitol Hill last spring, and Miller-Meeks said she strongly opposes the health care bill passed by Congress and signed by President Obama. She said the government?s role in health care should be to care for the needy and to detect and prosecute fraud.

    She said she favored portions of the bill, such as preventing companies from discriminating based on pre-existing conditions, preventing companies from dropping insurance for customers when they get sick, and the expanded coverage for adult children.

    ?None of those require over 2,000 pages to enact,? said Miller-Meeks.

Miller-Meeks said she likes the increased coverage in the bill, but does not believe it will bring down the cost of health care as promised. She also claimed that a number of new IRS agents will have to be hired to monitor compliance with the insurance mandate. She added that it is important that citizens be able to purchase health insurance across state lines.

    With regard to education, Miller-Meeks said there should be more competition in the field. She said charter schools and school vouchers will improve the quality of education while reducing the cost to taxpayers. She wants teachers to be paid based on merit, which should be judged on classroom performance but not necessarily on the standardized test scores of their pupils.

    ?Our current educational system does not help the most needy,? said Miller-Meeks. ?The money doesn?t get down to the teachers, and the teachers don?t have the flexibility they need.?

For more, see our Sept. 29 print edition.