(As promised, here’s Russ Warner’s liveblog. He’ll be around in the comments, so please ask questions! Thanks to the candidate for stopping by. Also, please try to stay on the topic of health care with your questions.
bummped again-juls. I want to thank Russ for stopping by. Keep posting the comments, and I’m sure he’ll try to get to them at his convenience. Thanks!-brian – promoted by Brian Leubitz)

Dear Calitics Community,

It’s been a pleasure getting to know some of you over the past several months.  I had a wonderful time at Yearly Kos in Chicago last month and have really enjoyed meeting people from across the country with shared Democratic ideals. 

I want to address a topic today that has always been a priority of mine – health care.  The health care crisis our country faces is not a partisan issue, it affects all of us.  One of the main reasons I’m running for Congress in California’s 26th district against David Dreier is to work toward fixing our broken health care system. 

Yesterday morning I spent some time at the Head Start facility in Rancho Cucamonga, and spoke to parents about the difficulties they face living without health insurance and caring for their families.  One woman in particular told me about her situation – her husband just accepted a new job that doesn’t offer insurance.  They have a young daughter and can’t afford private insurance.  We can’t turn our backs on working families in our community who are struggling to take care of their children, as David Dreier continues to do. 

Dreier recently voted against expanding SCHIP (State Child Health Insurance Program), which would give health insurance to children of middle and low income families.  He is more concerned with helping the lobbyists and big corporations who give him money, than helping insure 5 million children who would otherwise have no access to health care and the preventive care they need to stay healthy.

We need to end the war in Iraq and bring the resources we’re spending on the President’s failed policy back home.  Taxpayers in the 26th district alone will have paid $1.3 billion for the war through 2007.  For the same amount of money, we could provide health care to nearly 150,000 children in our own community. 
Even Governor Schwarzenegger has seen the importance of providing health care to our uninsured children and, with Governor Spitzer, wrote to President Bush to expand SCHIP recently. 

I have lived in this district for over 27 years.  I’ve raised my family here, sent my children to public school and have kept my small business here.  I will always fight for what is right for our community and its children and working families.

As David mentioned, I’ll be online and would love to chat with you to answer any questions or concerns you may have.  I look forward to speaking with you.

Sincerely Yours,

Russ Warner
Democratic Candidate for Congress (CA-26)