Timothy Horrigan © 2006: commentary written August 15, 2006
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This is a letter which I wrote on August 4, 2006 about a couple of the many recent outrages committed by the Republican leadership in Congress. The way to stop these outrages is to elect more leaders to the Congress like Carol Shea Porter, Democratic candidate for the New Hampshire First Congressional District seat. She is running in the Democratic Primary on September 12, 2006— and if she wins (and I think and hope she will) she will run against Republican incumbent Jeb Bradley.
Carol
Shea Porter on the campaign trail with her leading primary
opponent, Jim
Craig.
The original version appeared on August 11, 2006 edition of a small local weekly, the Exeter, NH Rockingham News.
Original URL (which may not work
forever):
http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/rock/08112006/opinionletters-Rock-ltr-0811.html
The letter also appeared in the August 13, 2006 (actually distributed on August 11) edition of the alternative biweekly The New Hampshire Gazette. It may have appeared in other papers. (I used a link which sent it to every paper in the 1st Congressional District, not all of which I have seen. Some of the papers don't even have websites.)
To
the Editor:
There has been a ridiculous battle going on in
Congress this summer which shows why we need more leaders like Carol
Shea Porter in Congress. A majority of the American people and even a
majority of our Senators and Representatives favor raising the
minimum wage. (The federal minimum wage has been stuck at $5.15/hour
for nine years, a rate so low it barely pays for the gas you need to
drive to work.) The American people also do not favor repealing the
estate tax, which only effects a few super-rich families (who in most
cases can avoid the tax anyway) but which does raise a significant
amount of revenue at a time when our nation is at war and when our
government is almost bankrupt.
The Republican leadership's agenda on these issues is the opposite of the American people's: so the Republicans cynically packaged a small minimum wage increase in the same bill with repeal of the estate tax (along with other massive tax breaks for the wealthy.) These were two totally unrelated issues packaged together simply to make the Democrats look bad: they either had to vote against the minimum wage or they had to vote in favor of the tax breaks. The disgusting thing about this was the fact that the Republican leaders didn't actually favor this bill themselves: they actually believe that minimum wage should not be raised. They were proposing a bill which they themselves opposed, and in so doing they demeaned themselves and demeaned what us left of the integrity of our nation's political system.
An even demeaning episode took place several months ago when John Murtha proposed a bill to begin an orderly withdrawal of our forces from Iraq. In a memorable turn of phrase, Murtha's plan was falsely caricatured with the phrase "Cut and Run." The Republicans never actually debated Murtha's bill: it was sent off to die in committee. However, the very next day after Murtha filed his bill, a bill which truly was a "cut and run" proposal went to the floor of the House and the Republicans claimed that this represented the essence of Murtha's plan. The Republican leaders were not in favor of this bill, which got only 3 votes (none from Republicans): the only purpose of this bill was to prevent a real debate on Murtha's proposal and to try to undermine the credibility of those who want to get our troops out of Iraq.
We need leaders in Congress who will not just favor the interests of the American people but who will force both parties to debate the issues honestly and openly, on their own merits. We need real leaders like Carol Shea Porter.
Timothy Horrigan
7A Faculty Road Durham, NH 03824
ph: 603-868-3342
email: Timothy.Horrigan@alumni.usc.edu
Congressman
John Murtha addressing Democrats in Hampton, NH, July 2006.
A shorter version (revised on August 7, I think it was) appeared on Tuesday, August 15, 2006 in the local Dover, NH daily, Foster's Daily Democrat.
Congress needs Carol Shea-Porter
Foster's Daily Democrat (Dover, NH): August 15, 2006
original
URL (registration with paper required):
http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060815/NEWS1302/108150162/-1/NEWS13
To
the editor:
There has been a ridiculous battle going on in
Congress this summer which shows why we need more leaders like Carol
Shea-Porter in Congress.
A majority of the American people
and even a majority of our senators and representatives favor raising
the minimum wage. (The federal minimum wage has been stuck at
$5.15/hour for nine years, a rate so low it barely pays for the gas
you need to drive to work.) The American people also do not favor
repealing the estate tax, which only affects a few super-rich
families who, in most cases, can avoid the tax, but does raise a
significant amount of revenue at a time when our nation is at war and
when our government is almost bankrupt.
The Republican
leadership's agenda on these issues is the opposite of the American
people's. So, the Republicans cynically packaged a small minimum-wage
increase in the same bill with repeal of the estate tax, along with
some other tax breaks for the wealthy. These were two totally
unrelated issues packaged together simply to make the Democrats look
bad. They either had to vote against the minimum wage or vote in
favor of the tax breaks.
Republican leaders didn't actually
favor this bill themselves. They believe the minimum wage should not
be raised. They were proposing a bill which they themselves opposed.
This demeans them and what is left of the integrity of our nation's
political system.
An even worse example came when Congressman
John Murtha introduced a bill in favor of the orderly removal of
troops from Iraq. Republican leaders killed his bill in committee.
But they did cynically send a true "cut and run" bill to
the floor of the House, even though no one aside from exactly three
maverick Democrats voted for it.
We need leaders in Congress
who will not just favor the interests of the American people but who
will force both parties to debate the issues honestly and openly, on
their own merits. We need real leaders like Carol Shea-Porter.
Timothy Horrigan
Durham, NH
1st
CD candidates: Michael
Callis, Jim Craig, Gary
Dodds, Carol
Shea Porter, Peter Sullivan: Milton, NH, June 2006.
And if that's not enough, I wrote an even shorter version and sent it to the Manchester Union Leader, which has a 200-word limit for Letters to the Editor. As far as I know, they never ran it, but here it is:
There has been a ridiculous battle going on in Congress this summer which shows why we need more leaders like Carol Shea Porter in Congress. A majority of the American people and even a majority of our Senators and Representatives favor raising the minimum wage. (The federal minimum wage has been stuck at $5.15/hour for nine years.) The American people also do not favor repealing the estate tax, which only effects a few super-rich families and which raises a significant amount of revenue at a time when our government is almost bankrupt.
The Republicans cynically packaged a small minimum wage increase in the same bill with repeal of the estate tax (along with some other tax breaks for the wealthy.) These tax breaks were packaged together with the minimum wage simply to make the Democrats look bad: the Democrats either had to vote against the minimum wage or they had to vote in favor of the tax breaks. By proposing this cynical bill, the Republicans demeaned themselves and demeaned what is left of the integrity of our political system.
We need leaders in Congress who will force both parties to debate the issues honestly and openly, on their own merits. We need real leaders like Carol Shea Porter.
Timothy
Horrigan
7A Faculty Road
Durham, NH 03824
ph:
603-868-3342
email: Timothy.Horrigan@alumni.usc.edu
See also:
My June 29 Conference Call with USAction about swing voters in swing districts. (The NH 1st CD is such a district)
Four More Wars! Four More Wars! Four More Wars! Four More Wars!
Anyone But Jeb! (Jeb Bush, rather than Jeb Bradley, actually— but I think they both deserve to be defeated.)
My Hurricane Katrina page. (Carol's experiences working on post-Katrina relief efforts, where the federal government was in her words "literally missing in action," became the final impetus for her decision to run for Congress.)
The
Forgotten Liars by Timothy Horrigan
[November
27, 2008] I also wrote