Sen. Susan Collins recently disclosed that she has long been dealing with a minor medical condition — an essential tremor — that, while it affects her speech, in no way, shape or form has impeded her ability to do her job as a United States senator.
That probably didn’t come as a surprise to you, or to anyone who has ever heard Sen. Collins speak. It’s been clear for a long time that she’s been dealing with some sort of issue. It’s also been clear that it hasn’t affected her abilities at all. She’s always been alert, hard-working (she’s never missed a vote in her career) and capable.
Whether you agree with Collins’ positions or not, anyone who has ever claimed to doubt her abilities to do her job is either grandstanding or clueless — that’s why this benign neurological condition has never been an issue in the past. Still, it’s good that she’s disclosed it.
Sen. John Fetterman, Democrat of Pennsylvania, was hospitalized with clinical depression a few years ago and has been quite open about it. I think it’s good that we now live in a society where people can discuss their mental and physical health issues without feeling guilt or being shamed — at least, not by decent people.
Given all of that, we ought to start expecting more transparency from our politicians about not only their health but their finances. Joe Biden was wrong to never agree to take a cognitive test and release the results. Similarly, Donald Trump is wrong to never release his tax returns, revealing to the entire country the state of his finances. He was also wrong to not put his assets into a blind trust upon being elected, as prior presidents have.
We ought to have norms for any candidates for federal or statewide office: disclosure of medical history, tax returns and — if applicable — their military service record. None of these things ought to be laws, necessarily; there are legal and technical arguments — and good ones — against making them mandatory. There are serious legal and privacy concerns about requiring these sorts of disclosures of candidates. That opens up a broad range of other concerns, which we’ll set aside for another day.
Even so, we ought to be able to expect, as citizens, maximum transparency from candidates for high public office. Anyone running for governor, U.S. Senate or Congress this year ought to release at least two years of tax returns and health records, so we can see that they’re fit for duty, physically, mentally and ethically. That’s where the tax returns come in. If they own a business, they ought to release the business’ tax returns as well, so we can see how it’s structured and that it’s a real, functioning company.
Although the concerns about health come up most often when there is a wide age gap between candidates, health is an issue regardless of a candidate’s age. We know, for instance, that Graham Platner has a 100% disability rating from the VA, earning him about $4,800 a month.
Platner no doubt earned that rating in service to his country, but we can recognize that and thank him for it while still not simply accepting his explanation of the reasons for it. He’s said it’s due to shoulder and knee injuries, herniated discs and PTSD. We have no reason to doubt his version of events, but he ought to release the medical records confirming them, and recent evaluations confirming that he’s fit to serve now.
Similarly, he ought to release the tax records from his oyster farm, so we can see how the business operates. This isn’t some sort of double standard, either. Collins should release all of the same records, as applicable, herself.
So, too, should all of the gubernatorial and congressional candidates on both sides of the aisle. We have a large field of candidates in both parties vying to be our next governor, many of whom have never served in elected or appointed office and many of whom have run substantial businesses. If they’re all going to run on their individual records, we ought to be able to take a peek under the hood and confirm their version of events.
This ought to be a clean, sensible standard applied equally, not a controversial partisan talking point. Democracy works best for all of us when voters have all of the facts. If candidates are telling us their life stories, they ought to have no problem producing documents to verify them.