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Which constituents did Altmire help?; Jewel Robertson; Beaver County Times; April 9, 2010.
Until January 2007, Ms. Robertson’s letters (here, here, here, and here) focused on bashing President Bush. In her first letter, Ms. Robertson opined that President Bush could be listening to Satan. That tells us much of what we need to know about Ms. Robertson. Since January 2007, race has been a regular feature of her letters, though Ms. Robertson reverted to Bush bashing in “‘No one can be as bad as Bush was’.” As I wrote about another serial Bush basher, I guess some addictions are too tough to overcome.
Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.
“I read both letters to the editor in Wednesday’s paper regarding U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire, and I received a message from both of them.”
[RWC] I believe the letters to which Ms. Robertson refers are “Altmire heeded his constituents” (Dennis McKee) and “Altmire showed he thinks for himself” (Earl L. Richards).
“The message was that the communities those letters came from probably don’t have the poverty rate that some of the other communities Altmire represents do.”
[RWC] In case you missed it, Ms. Robertson just told us a person’s opinion is less or more correct depending on where the person lives. That said, I suspect home location would not have been an issue for Ms. Robertson had the letters shard her position.
“When I heard that he listened to his constituents, I knew he wasn’t speaking concerning any of the people I know. I never voted for him because when I first met Altmire, I knew he was not for all of the people. In fact, he is against President Barack Obama.”
[RWC] The first sentence reminds of the lefty who didn’t understand how Richard Nixon won in 1972 with 49 states and 62% of the popular vote. She said, “Nobody I know voted for Nixon.” If all of the people Ms. Robertson knows think alike, perhaps she needs a more diverse group of acquaintances.
If a died-in-the-wool lefty didn’t vote for Mr. Altmire, for whom did she vote? Since I believe it’s safe to say Ms. Robertson would never vote for a Republican, she either didn’t vote for this office or wrote in someone’s name.
As for Mr. Altmire being “against President Barack Obama”, I doubt it. Keep in mind Ms. Robertson has written at least five letters defending Mr. Obama (Previous examples are here, here, here, here, and here.). I suspect that in Ms. Robertson’s mind, you’re either an Obama lapdog or you’re “against President Obama.” As I wrote in a previous critique, I can almost picture an Obama shrine in Ms. Robertson’s house.
“Let’s remember Altmire does have health care (and so do I). Yet there are millions of people in this country without it, and they need it. These are the people he and all of the politicians should have voted for.”
[RWC] Where in the U.S. Constitution does it say a responsibility of government is to vote for any group of people at the expense of another? The last I heard, we were all supposed to receive equal treatment under the law. That’s not the case when a goal of a law is to rob Peter to pay Paul.
“Instead of looking at the smaller picture, look at the big picture. His vote would have helped those other than the more well-off in his district. He has the right to vote as he pleases, and we do, too, come the next election.”
[RWC] I don’t know why Mr. Altmire voted as he did but, given the demographics of his district, perhaps he considered the following. Obamacare takes $500 billion from Medicare over the first 10 years. Since Medicare is already running a deficit (payouts exceed Medicare tax revenue) and was expected to go bankrupt by 2017 even before Obamacare, I think it’s fair to say taking $500 billion from Medicare to spend on other pieces of Obamacare certainly won’t help Medicare.
On top of that, Mr. Altmire could have considered the so-called “doctor fix” passed annually for Medicare. As a reminder, the “doctor fix” amounts to about $20-$25 billion per year to make up for Medicare’s normal underpayment of doctors. Without the fix, a significant number of doctors would simply stop seeing Medicare patients. For a 10-year period the doctor fix is about $250 billion, and Obamacare excluded the fix so its supporters could say Obamacare would reduce the deficit. If the doctor fix does not continue to be implemented, that will be a total of about $750 billion taken from Medicare over 10 years and fewer doctors who will see Medicare patients. Again, how does this not hurt Medicare?
Please read my paper entitled “Healthcare.”
“Let Altmire know he should have an interest in all of his constituents and not just the ones in the most influential areas.”
[RWC] Ms. Robertson can’t keep on message even within the same letter. Here Ms. Robertson says Mr. Altmire “should have an interest in all of his constituents,” yet just two paragraphs back she asserted Mr. Altmire “and all of the politicians should have voted for” “millions of people in this country without [healthcare].” Does anyone care to guess which sentiment Ms. Robertson really believes?
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