Sen. Lamar Alexander visits West Tennessee

JACKSON, Tenn. — U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander visited Madison County on Tuesday to talk to West Tennesseans.

The luncheon held at the DoubleTree Hotel in Jackson and hosted by the Exchange Club brought out more than 40 people.

“It’s always good to have the senator in Jackson,” Mayor Jerry Gist said. “He has been a real ally and a real advocate of Jackson and West Tennessee.”

The senator told those in attendance there are many things that need to change but that repealing the affordable care act should be the No. 1 priority for Congress.

“Madison County is in an ObamaCare emergency,” the senator said. “Many citizens of Madison County will only have one insurer to choose from on the ObamaCare exchange next year.”

The senator said he believes Washington should allow consumers to use their federal exchange subsidies to buy coverage of their own choosing.

“When you have 4,300 citizens that suddenly only find themselves with one option and that insurance company is pulling out of Memphis, Nashville and Knoxville, that is an emergency,” he said.

With the presidential election only two weeks away, we asked the senator about his take on the presidential campaign.

“I don’t like it at all,” he said. “I would like to hear the candidates talk more about what is right in America. We have plenty of problems. But it’s also the country that most people would like to live in.”

Alexander said he feels by this point in the campaign everyone has made their choice on who they are going to vote for and that he wasn’t in the area to persuade voters.

“Right now, I would like to hear our presidential candidates, both of them, talk more about what is good about our country instead of what is wrong with it.”