By RON GOWER

TNEDITOR@TNONLINE.COM

I wonder how many people are like me and dread the forthcoming 2020 presidential election.

Already I’m sick and tired of the negative and lame politicking. For once I’d like to see the existing presidential candidates address issues that affect me, the little guy in American who is sick and tired of hearing merely about accusations regarding opponents.

For example, there was the Russian meddling situation in which an independent investigation was to have occurred, and nobody accepted the results.

This is not an endorsement or condemnation of any political party. It’s just that there are so many domestic problems in this country being ignored while bickering is occurring over stuff we have no control about.

Sure meddling in our elections by a foreign country is a big deal, but the main objective should be to take safeguards that it doesn’t happen in the future. If our computers are being hacked, then we have an obligation to come up with better security measures, especially to prevent cyber interference.

Back to the candidates, I would like to hear more discussion about what to do about the health care crisis that exists in our country, poverty, our infrastructure, energy proposals, employment and especially about reducing the national debt.

Let’s touch the surface of the health care crisis. A published Bloomberg Business News report said family insurance coverage for an average employer costs $20,000 per year — about the cost of a Toyota Corolla.

Many health insurance policies, whether through an employer or privately purchased, have deductibles of over $10,000, big copays and high prescription costs. Even treating an illness like diabetes can be unaffordable.

Continuing on health care, we complain about Europeans having few choices for treatments. In reality, our health insurers sometimes dictate to use what doctors we can see. Seeing a doctor outside their approval means there won’t be coverage.

Even preapproved surgeries and treatments can result in large medical bills because sometimes hospitals utilize professionals who aren’t within the insured system, resulting in the patient getting large bills.

Politicians in Washington don’t have the problems the average person has with medical bills. They have their own special insurance.

Regarding energy, what’s being done to assure the United States remains energy dependent? Do the politicians have a plan to addressing renewable energy or possibly better utilizing nuclear energy? What’s our energy future?

The national debt keeps growing at an alarmingly unhealthy rate. Imagine the millions of dollars that could be saved by reducing some of the ongoing Washington investigations that are going nowhere and frankly are getting monotonous. Imagine the lawyers and investigators growing rich on such probes that continue for years and years with intangible results.

There has been a lot written in newspapers throughout the country about schools penalizing children whose parents don’t pay their cafeteria bills. The federal government could easily afford to give each student a free lunch in school by making some budget sacrifices. Yet, no political candidate has even mentioned hunger or poverty or education in a serious sense.

Mudslinging will get uglier through the course of 2020 by presidential candidates.

Hopefully, though, issues affecting people like you and me will be debated with potential solutions.

Frankly, in the last presidential debates on TV, it seemed like the narrators were more interested in ratings by stirring the political pot than by addressing the issues that affect the general public.