This page was last updated on July 26, 2012.
Congress doesn’t have nation’s best interest; Jayne Berresford; Beaver County Times; July 26, 2012.
This appears to be the fourth letter from Ms. Berresford. The previous letter I critiqued was entitled “Help, don’t hinder.” The previous letters I didn’t critique were entitled “Birth control not important issue” and “‘Our employees’ should live like us.”
Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.
“I can’t help but wonder what would have happened if after America chose President Obama, we would have elected a government in 2010 that was as determined to work for the people as our president.”
[RWC] Mr. Obama had significant Democrat majorities in both houses of Congress for two years (2009-2010), including a period with a filibuster-proof Senate. As we saw with Obamacare, Republicans couldn’t stop anything President Obama wanted even when not a single Republican voted for it. If something Ms. Berresford wanted didn’t get passed during those two years, she can’t blame Republicans.
“Unfortunately, we goofed. There is no way that a Congress that openly declares war on our president in front of not only America but the world has our best interest at heart.”
[RWC] Yes, “we goofed” (a gross understatement) in 2008. In 2010, a lot of folks who voted for Democrats – including Mr. Obama – in 2008 began to see the huge mistake they made. Voters wanted to stop Mr. Obama and his allies and the only means available was to make Republicans a strong majority in at least one house of Congress.
Remember, Democrats in 2010 were torched at both the federal and state levels.
I think Ms. Berresford means the House of Representatives, not Congress. Then again, the last two years the Democrat-majority Senate voted down Mr. Obama’s budget proposals 99-0 and 97-0.
“To me, this has been a slap in the face to the people of this country. It implies that we, the people, are no longer capable of electing our own president. I can’t help but wonder what he might have gotten done had he been given the respect and authority he deserves as president.”
[RWC] Is Ms. Berresford saying we slapped ourselves in the face? As I wrote above, overall voters voted as they did in 2010 to slow/stop Mr. Obama’s agenda. Ms. Berresford appears to believe we should elect representatives who will serve as a president’s rubberstamp. What happened to checks-and-balances function of the three branches of our government?
The very reason the 2010 election went as it did was because voters couldn’t “help but wonder what [Mr. Obama] might have gotten done had he been given” again the power he already had for two years. For example, the majority of Americans opposed a government-run, taxpayer-funded healthcare monopoly yet Democrats shoved Obamacare down our throats without a single Republican vote. As a reminder, the Obamacare bill included a government takeover of the student-loan business.
“Someone tell me why Congress won’t help our college kids with this interest hike? Why in 2012 women still have to fight for equal pay for equal work, and why are Republicans against it? Why do women have to fight again for control over their own bodies? And why, oh why do they refuse to pass either a jobs bill or a transportation bill that could create thousands or millions of jobs?”
[RWC] From where does Ms. Berresford get her news?
Regarding the student loan stuff, Democrats intentionally manufactured this issue in 2007 for political gain. Let’s take a look at what happened.
· In 2007, congressional Democrats passed the College Cost Reduction Act of 2007 (H.R. 2669). That bill gradually cut the interest rate in half, from 6.8% to 3.4%, over the period from 7/1/2006 – 6/30/2012.
· In both houses of Congress, 100% of Democrats who voted on H.R. 2669 voted for the bill while a minority of Republicans voted in favor. This allowed the bill to pass with veto-proof majorities in both houses. Then-President Bush should have forced a veto-override vote, but he did not and signed the bill.
· Cutting the student-loan interest rate was so important to then-U.S. Senator Barack Obama he did not cast a vote for or against H.R. 2669 on two occasions. On 7/19/07, Mr. Obama’s last vote on H.R. 2669 was at 1:47 pm. Mr. Obama then missed votes 257 through 270, with roll-call vote 270 being the first time H.R. 2669 passed the Senate. Where was Mr. Obama? Campaigning in New Hampshire. What consumed Mr. Obama’s time on the day (9/7/07) of the Senate’s final vote? Mr. Obama was busy campaigning in California and Oregon.
· H.R. 2669 stipulates the interest rate returns to the pre-H.R. 2669 level on July 1, 2012. Yes, you read that right.
With a veto-proof majority, why did Democrats write the bill so the interest-rate reduction would expire? How would an expiration date benefit the students Democrats claimed they wanted to help? Further, why have the interest-rate reduction expire on July 1st of a presidential election year? The election year had to be 2012 because 2008 was too soon after the bill’s passage (9/27/07). The sole purpose of H.R. 2669 was to manufacture an election-year “crisis” for Democrats to exploit.
The “fight for equal pay for equal work” and “women hav[ing] to fight again for control over their own bodies” are also phony, manufactured issues. In case Ms. Berresford missed it, quite a few women are Republicans and hold office. I suspect Ms. Berresford also believes Republicans want polluted air and water, uneducated kids, and so on.
Finally, if “a jobs bill or a transportation bill … could create thousands or millions of jobs,” what happened with the approximately $800 billion “jobs” bill passed just after Mr. Obama’s inauguration? Consider the following quote: “We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. And I have just one interest, and if I am wrong … somebody else can have my job. I want to see this country prosperous. I want to see people get a job. I want to see people get enough to eat. We have never made good on our promises … I say after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started … And an enormous debt to boot.” - Henry Morgenthau, FDR’s Treasury Secretary during the Great Depression, testifying before the House Ways and Means Committee in May 1939.
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