I’ve been a nurse in Oregon for over 25 years. I’ve worked in rural hospitals, cared for older adults and held the hands of patients who were trying to get through a hard time without enough support. As president of the Oregon Nurses Association and a resident of Umatilla, I know what our communities need, and I know when we’re being failed.

Right now, our U.S. representative, Cliff Bentz, is failing us.

Here in Umatilla County and throughout northeastern Oregon, families rely on essential federal programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. These programs keep seniors in their homes, help working people afford a doctor’s visit, and keep rural hospitals open. But instead of fighting to protect these lifelines, Bentz has supported plan after plan to gut them.

More than 40% of people in Oregon’s 2nd Congressional District are covered by the Oregon Health Plan. That includes thousands of people here in Umatilla County — children, older adults, people with disabilities and working families who just don’t earn enough to cover private insurance. When Bentz votes for budgets that slash Medicaid funding by hundreds of billions of dollars, he’s not “reining in spending.” He’s making it harder for people here to get care, and that means more untreated illness, more strain on our rural health systems, and worse health outcomes for the people I serve.

It’s the same with Medicare. Over 150,000 people in our district depend on Medicare. In communities like Pendleton, Hermiston and Milton-Freewater, seniors rely on that program to afford prescriptions, preventive care, and the kinds of regular visits that help people stay healthy. But Bentz has voted against allowing Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices and against capping insulin costs. He supports privatizing Medicare into a voucher system, which would leave seniors at the mercy of the private insurance market, with less coverage and more out-of-pocket costs. That’s not policy reform. That’s abandonment.

Bentz also supports raising the retirement age for Social Security to 69. For working people across Eastern Oregon — the truck drivers, warehouse workers, farmers, and yes, nurses — asking someone to work longer for less is just wrong. Many of my patients have already worked hard their whole lives. They’ve earned a secure retirement, not a moving goalpost.

As a nurse, I don’t get to ignore reality. I see the consequences of policy choices in the ER, in discharge planning, and in the stories our patients tell us. When someone skips care because they lost coverage, we see it. When a senior can’t fill a prescription because the cost went up, we see it. And when clinics close or scale back because of federal cuts, our hospitals are overwhelmed, and patients pay the price.

Bentz has had every opportunity to stand with the people of Northeastern Oregon and protect the care we depend on. Instead, he’s chosen to stand with national special interest groups and political party leaders who don’t live here, don’t work here, and don’t understand what life is like here.

We need a representative who will fight for our health and our future. We need someone who will protect the systems that serve seniors, working families, and the most vulnerable. Cliff Bentz has shown us that’s not who he is.

We deserve better.

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Tamie Cline, registered nurse, is a resident of Umatilla, the president of the Oregon Nurses Association and recently retired after working as a nurse at Good Shepherd Medical Center in Hermiston.