Mariannette Miller-Meeks Answers Voter Questions at Oskaloosa Event
Mariannette Miller-Meeks during a recent campaign stop in Oskaloosa, Iowa.
During a recent visit to Bridget’s Public House in Oskaloosa, Iowa, Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks fielded questions on issues central to her campaign, including prescription drug prices, border security, economic policy, and election integrity. With Iowa voters present, Miller-Meeks shared specific legislative actions she’s taken and her perspective on the path forward on these pressing topics.
Asked about her work on lowering prescription drug costs, Miller-Meeks responded by detailing her legislative efforts around pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). “In State Senate, I passed a bill in 2019 on transparency and pharmacy benefit managers,” she explained. “If you look at the entire drug supply chain, from manufacturing to the pharmacist dispensing of drugs, through that whole supply chain, there’s an opaque area that’s filled with the pharmacy benefit managers.” She emphasized the complexity of this “opaque area” and described how PBMs exert control, saying, “They require rebates in order to put prescription drugs onto a formulary. Since they do now, the sixth largest PBMs control 90% of the prescriptions filled in the U.S.” Her federal reform proposal seeks to “ban de-linking and spread pricing, which would, in effect, lower prescription drug prices immediately.”
Addressing the core values she promotes in her campaign, Miller-Meeks summarized her platform in an elevator pitch: “Constitutional freedoms, lower prices, secure the border, decrease crime and protect girls’ sports.” When asked how she intends to accomplish these goals, she explained, “We’ve passed HR 2, we’re looking at government spending, and we voted against large government spending bills.” Miller-Meeks also discussed her support for extending the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, stressing that reauthorization is crucial, as it contains provisions like the doubled child care tax credit. “If we don’t reauthorize that, that means the doubling of the child care tax credit goes back to where it was before 2017,” she noted.
The topic of border security and immigration enforcement surfaced, and Miller-Meeks made clear her stance on the role of Congress versus the executive branch. “We’ve already passed laws. We have hearings, we conduct oversight hearings, but we also only have one branch of government,” she said, emphasizing the importance of executive enforcement. She pointed to recent reports on underreported border numbers, saying, “The Biden-Harris administration has not been honest on the numbers… it’s about 25% more people coming across our southern border, illegal immigrants, than has been reported by our own federal agencies.”
On election integrity, Miller-Meeks voiced support for stringent voting laws, highlighting legislation passed during her time in the Iowa State Senate. “Every election integrity law that we passed… we’ve had more people voting, as people have confidence in their elections, confidence that there’s not fraud,” she asserted. Citing her own narrow electoral history, she remarked, “If anybody knows about every vote counting, I do — that’s right, six votes in 2020.”
Finally, when asked about her approach to tackling inflation and high prices, Miller-Meeks stressed the importance of fiscal responsibility. She recalled the March 2021 COVID-19 relief bill, which she believes contributed to inflation. “People forget that when they passed the COVID Relief bill in March of 2021, $1.9 trillion, that sparked inflation,” she said. To address ongoing economic pressures, she suggested “regulatory reform, tax cuts and jobs act, pro-growth policies, [and] trade” as key areas to focus on.
Miller-Meeks wrapped up the session by emphasizing her commitment to listening to voters across Iowa. “People out here in Oskaloosa or people in Sigourney or in Fairfield or in Keosauqua aren’t garbage. Their votes matter. Their voices matter.”
