Dr. Robbie Goldstein has a big problem with Congressman Stephen Lynch.
Lynch isn’t left-wing enough.
Goldstein, a fellow Democrat, is primarying Lynch, a 19-year member of the U.S. House of Representatives from South Boston, in Massachusetts’s Eighth Congressional District.
Goldstein described his vision during a Zoom town hall event Tuesday, August 4 with former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang.
Yang’s event included both Goldstein and Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse, who is primarying U.S. Representative Richard Neal (D-Springfield). Yang has endorsed both challengers.
Goldstein, who works as an infectious disease specialist and primary care doctor at Massachusetts General Hospital, summed up what he doesn’t like about Lynch — including, prominently, that at one point Lynch was a pro-lifer.
“We are excited about the momentum we have going up against someone, who in my opinion no longer represents the Democratic Party,” Goldstein told Yang. “Someone who is against the Affordable Care Act, someone who describes himself as ‘pro-life,’ someone who has been a barrier to the LGBTQ community for much of his time in office, and someone who is not supporting emergency cash relief and the financial security that people need in this country. I think our chances here are great to bring dramatic change to the eighth district of Massachusetts.”
Although Lynch continues to call himself pro-life, he has voted with the pro-abortion side since 2013. Last year, he had a perfect 100 percent rating from NARAL Pro-Choice America. In 2004 and 2006, however, he reportedly had a zero percent rating from the same organization.
In 2017, Lynch notably voted against ending taxpayer funding for abortion and against a 20-week abortion ban, according to NARAL. The United States is one of seven countries on earth to allow elective abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy, joining China and North Korea on that list, as The Washington Postreports.
Goldstein’s campaign web site calls the challenger “unabashedly pro-choice.”
“In Congress, he will affirm that every person should be able to decide for themselves if, when, and how to have a family, and he will fight every day to protect choice,” Goldstein’s campaign web site states. “He will prioritize repealing the Hyde Amendment, and will work to ensure that everyone has access to comprehensive, high-quality reproductive care.”
The Hyde Amendment prevents federal funds from paying for abortions.
During the online event Tuesday, Goldstein mentioned his support for safe consumption sites for illicit drugs and Medicare-for-all. He also described a possible approach for implementing Yang’s signature issue, universal basic income.
Goldstein said that the coronavirus pandemic is a prime opportunity to give universal basic income a test run, and possibly make it permanent moving forward.
“We have an opportunity right now to figure out how we do basic income in the setting of COVID-19 to use this as an experiment,” Goldstein said. “I’m a scientist at my core, it’s who I am and how I was trained, so let’s do the experiment. Let’s figure out how we can use a monthly basic income during the COVID-19 pandemic to get them the food security they need, the housing security to get them back into this economy — and then let’s use all of that data that we collect over the next six months, nine months, 12 months to come up with a really amazing program moving forward.
“I can tell you it will help my patients,” he added. “I can tell you it will help the five million people with COVID across this country. It is absolutely something we should move forward with. I think there’s the political will certainly. Maybe not the current members of Congress, but I think there’s support across the country for moving forward with that amazing experiment.”
Goldstein did not describe how the government should pay for universal health care and universal basic income.
Goldstein’s campaign web site also says that he supports the Green New Deal. Although the cost of such a plan is unknown, some estimates put it between $5.1 to $9.3 trillion per year if fully enacted, according to FactCheck.org.
