”When Steve King says that the Affordable Care Act is terrible and should be repealed, we need to remind people that the Affordable Care Act helped put over 20 million people on insurance and actually decreased the rise of the cost of medicine,” he said Wednesday in Fort Dodge. ”We also have to remind people that health care is a right and not a privilege.”

”When Steve King says we cannot revitalize our civilization with other people’s babies, we have to remind him that that is always how we have revitalized this country,” he added.

”And when Steve King says you can take my AR-15 when you take it out of my cold, dead hands, we can remind him that it is everybody’s unalienable right to go to outdoor concerts, to go to church, to go to school, without the fear of being shot,” he said.

Paschen, of Ames, talked to about 15 people at Bloomers on Central. He faces Leann Jacobsen, of Spencer, and JD Scholten, of Sioux City, in the June 5 primary election.

-Messenger photo by Bill Shea John O’Brien, standing at left, talks with John Paschen, a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the Fourth Congressional District, Wednesday afternoon at Bloomers on Central in downtown Fort Dodge. O’Brien is the Democratic candidate for state Senate District 5.

The winner will face King, a Republican from Kiron, or his primary opponent, Cyndi Hanson, of Sioux City.

The Fourth Congressional District now represented by King includes Webster County and all the surrounding counties.

Paschen was critical of King, but said nothing about Hanson.

Paschen, a pediatrician, said his knowledge of health care sets him apart from his Democratic opponents. He said he expects health care will continue to be an issue before Congress.

He said his maturity and experience in leadership roles within the medical community also give him an advantage over Jacobsen and Scholten.

”I’m used to working with physicians,” he said. ”Let me tell you something, there is no harder group to work with than physicians. Talk about herding cats.”

During his visit Wednesday, Paschen offered his opinions on these issues.

Health care

The candidate said the Affordable Care Act championed by former President Barack Obama implemented minimum standards for health insurance policies.

He added that after the law was enacted, the steady rise in the cost of health care began to slow down for the first time in 25 years.

He said that soon after taking office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order taking away the federal funding that enabled insurance companies to offer polices to the sickest Americans under the Affordable Care Act. He said that action, and not any inherent problems with the law, are causing the current health insurance turmoil.

”The best things about it have been taken away,” he said of the law.

Paschen said he wants people to be able to buy into Medicare, the federal health insurance program for the elderly.

He added that he thinks the country needs to transition to a single payer health insurance plan for all Americans.

Gun control

Paschen said he supports the right of Americans to have guns for hunting, sport shooting and home protection.

He said he is opposed to bump stocks, which enable certain weapons to fire faster, and suppressors, that reduce some of the noise made by a gun.

He said the government needs to tighten background checks for potential gun owners.

He said assault weapons must be banned.

The government, he said, cannot go into homes and seize such weapons. But if those guns are unavailable in the future, and an optional buyback program is implemented to get some of them off the streets, the risk from them will be reduced.

Abortion

The candidate said his stand on abortion is based on his life experiences, which include talking to older physicians who worked to save the lives of women injured in botched back alley abortions.

”An elective abortion is a failure of society on many levels, but until society evolves beyond the point where it’s needed, it has to be safe and it has to be available,” he said.

”If we make abortion illegal, we’ll be killing women,” he added.

New federal tax cuts

Paschen said the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans benefit the most from the tax cuts.

He said middle class and lower income Americans should benefit the most from any tax cuts, because they are the people who are most likely to use the extra money to buy vehicles, appliances, furniture and maybe even homes.

”We have to put it in the hands of people who are going to take that money and put it right back into the economy,” he said.

He said he believes the tax cut bill was rushed through Congress to give Trump a victory.

Syria and North Korea

Paschen said he is concerned about the United States being drawn deeper into the Syrian civil war.

”I am ready for a diplomatic solution that will stop the killing,” he said.

He said he believes a way to ease Syrian dictator Bashar Assad out of power can be found.

The candidate said he isn’t optimistic about Trump’s planned summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

”I don’t have a lot of hope,” he said. ”I think we’re being played.”