Op-ed by Ann Kirkpatrick - April 3, 2026

Try not to choke on your coffee when I say this: Democrats and Republicans have common ground.

Unfortunately, you’d never know this from the current Congress, which has been reckless and unproductive at the very time our working families need leadership and solutions.

The recent vote on the Ryan budget is part of that recklessness. Instead of finding common ground to pass a budget that is fair and protects Medicare while creating jobs, strengthening our small businesses and reducing the deficit, House Republicans chose to make an ideological point during an election year. They dismantled Medicare. They attacked education. And the reckless plan they passed is expected to fail in the Senate.

Here in Arizona, there is plenty of common ground no matter our political leaning. Folks in communities like Casa Grande, Coolidge and Eloy just want good jobs that will put food on the table and pay the bills. We want our farms and small businesses to succeed. We want a safe environment where we can live, work and raise our families. And we want the assurance of Medicare for our later years.

This is the common ground that politicians ignore.

I strongly agree with those across the aisle who want to cut spending and get the deficit under control. But I just as strongly disagree that dismantling Medicare and turning it into a risky voucher system is the way to achieve this.

I was born in eastern Arizona in a tiny town called McNary and grew up nearby in Whiteriver. My father ran the general store there and my mother taught school. They and so many good people across rural Arizona taught me the value of hard work and giving back, even when they didn’t have much. These are the folks that Medicare protects.

Congress should not be leaving seniors on their own to wrestle with big insurance corporations. Congress should not be dismantling Medicare at the same time it is propping up Big Oil and billionaires. Did you know that the Senate voted to protect Big Oil subsidies on the same day the House passed the Ryan budget? Removing a protection for the middle class while boosting the wealthy is fiscally bad and morally wrong.

It’s fiscally bad because Medicare’s chief actuary, Rick Foster, recently warned that the new plan to turn Medicare into a voucher system will shift more costs to seniors. Foster called it a “pretty important risk.”

Foster’s concerns are echoed in an analysis by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, which found that Ryan’s plan “would shift substantial costs to beneficiaries” and “likely would produce few savings.”

It’s morally wrong because seniors rely on the Medicare benefits they’ve earned through a lifetime of hard work, and middle-class families pay into Medicare now to have that protection later. Congress should not even consider breaking this contract with millions of Americans.

Politicians in Washington have lost touch with what matters to working families and seniors. We need to reduce spending and get the deficit under control, but we have to do it the right way. If my neighbors across this district send me back to Congress, I will fight every day to protect their Medicare.

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Ann Kirkpatrick is a former U.S. representative and current Democratic candidate in Arizona’s 1st Congressional District.