Senator Doug Jones at Shoals Democratic Club
SHEFFIELD – Monday night, the Shoals Democratic Club hosted U.S. Senator, Doug Jones, who is running for re-election in 2020. Jones was greeted by a large audience of enthusiasts who relayed to him that they support his plan to restore civility and a sense of mutual accomplishment in Washington.
Jones’ told the audience, that of all the issues he is working on, health care is right at the top of his list. Healthcare, he said, in Alabama is one of the most critical issues that face his constituents. And at the top of his healthcare agenda is infant care and mortality issues. Alabama has the worst infant and mother mortality rates in the country. He said that he is determined to remedy this situation on the Federal side, and he encouraged his audience to continue to put pressure on the Alabama State Legislature to join most of the other States in the expansion of Medicaid. He discussed the cognitive disparity of right-to-life advocacy with the reluctance of State politicians to provide life saving health services to mothers and newborn children. Expanding Medicaid, he said, would deliver to Alabama about $2-billion a year from Washington, if only the Alabama Legislature and the Governor would support it.
He discussed gun violence and the need for not only responsible gun legislation that could be passed quickly in Congress if put to a vote, but Jones also detailed the need for more scrutiny on gun-ownership laws. Jones is a gun owner. He told the audience that, while the national conversation seems to be centered on the two issues of of legal game-hunting and the crisis of gun violence and high capacity magazines, there has been little mentioned regarding the large number of Americans who don’t hunt, but enjoy taking their firearms out to a range or into the woods to just shoot targets, (or as a lot of people say, “go out plinking” with their favorite gun). He acknowledged that there’s a lot of work to do, particularly on high-capacity magazines. 
Jones said that there’s lots of work to be done in Washington regarding our military. It’s expensive, but for the United States to be competitive, America has to modernize. Jones is on the Armed Services Committee and informed the audience that Alabama is about 9th position in the Country in receiving military funding. “Keeping this Country safe is one of my top priorities,” he said. “The Armed Services Committee is such a bi-partisan committee it is a pleasure to work on. Because we agree on a lot of the same things on where we are… The need to modernize our Military. And we’ve got to play catch-up with China and Russia.”
The biggest problem facing the Senate is the inability to get bills voted on, because of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who he characterized as a person who will not bring to the floor bills if he doesn’t think President Donald Trump will sign them into law. Jones emphasized, “Many of those bills are completely bi-partisan in their construction and would be passed, save for the gridlock which is the product of McConnell. He indicated that something has to give. “This is frustrating because there’s a lot of good bi-partisan legislation ready, but we can’t get Senator McConnell to put on the floor for a vote. It appears that Senator McConnell doesn’t think the House of Representatives and the Senate are an independent branch of government under our Constitution. He has openly said that he is going to kill it.” Jones said McConnell enjoys being called the grim reaper, if he doesn’t think that President Trump is going to sign it. “He’s keeping his people from doing their jobs, and he’s keeping me from doing mine. And that I will tell you is very frustrating. This legislation addresses issues that everybody (Republicans and Democrats) wants to get done. We sit down and have a (bi-partisan) dialog on things that are important. Out of a hundred bills, maybe 95 out of a hundred are approved by both sides. And we can’t get them to the floor for a vote. It can get incredibly frustrating.”
As Jones was closing up his remarks, he hit on the events of the past week with respect of Trump’s discussions with the newly elected President of Ukraine. “The things that are going on right now, don’t let any Republican talking heads tell you otherwise. This is very serious…. The leader of the most powerful nation on earth talking to a President that is dependent on him. Dependent on their security from him because Ukraine is under pressure from Russia. And he did mention Joe Biden by name (in the transcript of the conversation).” He told the audience that if they want to go talk to somebody about the conversation, to take the transcript with them. Here is the .pdf: Trump Phone Call To Ukraine President
