Manny Lopez lashes out at Sarasota Congressman over FEMA funding, touts plans for Social Security and cheaper meds.
By Florence Fahringer
Original Air Date: November 1, 2024
Host: For six years, Greg Steube has represented Sarasota County, Charlotte County, and portions of Lee in the U.S. House of Representatives. Manny Lopez is the underdog challenging the pro-gun, anti-immigration, and anti-abortion congressman. Florence Fahringer had a conversation with Lopez.
Florence Fahringer: The entirety of Sarasota County, Charlotte County, and a portion of Lee County make up Florida’s Congressional District Seventeen. Republican Greg Steube is the current representative for this slice of Southwest Florida, and has been for the past six years. This coming Tuesday, Democrat Manny Lopez hopes to unseat him.
Manny Lopez: I genuinely care about people, want to help people, have a good background, experience, and knowledge, and I’m a fighter for the people, a very passionate fighter, and that’s needed right now.
FF: Lopez disagrees with Steube on a wide range of policies.
Manny Lopez
ML: We’re dealing with a hurricane disaster. FEMA has a big role in recovery and helping people. The disaster would be amplified if it wasn’t for the help of FEMA. Steube doesn’t vote to fund FEMA. He votes against funding FEMA.
The Veterans PACT Act, which is the largest veterans benefit program in over 30 years, that affects people all the way going back to Vietnam up to today’s veterans; He voted against that.
FF: Lopez also has a few pet policies of his own.
ML: I’d like to see us bust the earnings cap on social security. Where today, people stop paying 6.2% social security tax when they make $168,000 or above, which means the very wealthy pay very, very little. A millionaire pays less than half a percent, where we pay 6.2%. And, if we busted the social security cap, the problems with social security would be greatly eliminated.
Pharmaceuticals, that’s another thing — Steube voted against the Inflation Reduction Act, and against dealing with pharmaceuticals, the lower rates that you negotiate with Medicare. And my position is, we’ve got where our incident rates are greatly reduced, and we’re getting ready to be able to negotiate 42 other drugs out there, to lower rates for people. Why stop at 42? We should be able to negotiate all drugs. The VA does it. And Medicare should be able to do it and all the other programs out there.
FF: Steube has run for this seat three times already, and for each of those three runs he’s had a Democratic challenger. Each time, Steube won the seat with a whopping two-thirds of the vote. Manny Lopez is confident that his campaign will break the mold.
ML: Two thirds of the vote … that’s not gonna happen this time. I’m in striking range. I’m working hard, I average 15 hours a day, last week makes a year that I’ve been campaigning. I’ve been going to Republican hangouts since I was in the primary. For many months I’ve been going to coffee shops and Republican hangouts, talking to Republicans. And many, many Republicans are not happy with Steube. They’re finally waking up and realizing that he is not representing the people overall, and they’re realizing his votes.
FF: Lopez describes himself as a moderate — he’s not far right, and he’s not far left. He also believes that most people in the district want a moderate. Steube, in Lopez’s opinion, is not a moderate.
Greg Steube
ML: He’s a MAGA person. I mean, in his own words, he’s an extremist. So, he doesn’t even represent the Republican Party, unless it’s that extreme right.
FF: The reason an allegedly moderate district has overwhelmingly voted for a far-right candidate three times in a row? According to Lopez, while Steube votes like an extremist, he talks like a moderate.
ML: Here’s the thing. Anywhere you go in the country, no matter what state you’re in, most people really do not know how their representative votes on most issues, other than the top two or three issues that are out there, the top, most popular issues to be for or against. Beyond that people do not know what their representative votes for. And these things that I’ve mentioned, people don’t realize, he votes against them. Not just votes against an issue, votes against the people, the benefits for the people. So, he’s full of good rhetoric, but his votes say the opposite of what is good for the people.
FF: WSLR News tried to reach Greg Steube for comment, but did not receive a response by deadline.
To learn more about both candidates, you can visit their websites at electgregsteube.com, and mannyforcongress.com. Early voting has already begun, and election day is in less than a week.
This is Florence Fahringer, reporting for WSLR News.
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