I Don’t Hate America!

Notwithstanding the Bush administration’s bull-headed ideology (maybe just blindness to the issue), the Democrat-led Congress is trying again to extend children’s health benefits.

Earlier this week, Rep. John Kline, R, MN-2, came out with a column full of gloom and doom scenarios about the bill. It didn’t take long for Rep. Tim Walz, DFL, MN-1, to answer with a column of his own shedding daylight on Kline’s rhetoric such as a claim that S-CHIP legislation provides give-aways to illegal immigrants. What is really sad about this whole state of affairs is that Bush, Kline and others shouldn’t even need a Democrat to tell them they’re wrong; GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley, Iowa, has blamed false gloom and doom comments like those from Kline on “intellectual dishonesty.” Wow; that’s brutal.

A letter to the Red Wing Republican Eagle by Cannon Falls’ Joy Jacques shows frustration with Kline’s priorities:

Can someone tell me why we continue to throw an unlimited amount of money into Iraq, but we can’t help American kids get health insurance?

Republicans failed us yet again when they refused to override Bush’s veto of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.

It’s obvious that Republicans like John Kline will approve endless sums of taxpayer money to conduct war, and for their own pet projects, yet claim that funding SCHIP is too costly.

These Republicans say nothing about the social costs of denying millions of children access to insurance. They say nothing as they spend $12 billion a month in Iraq. They say nothing when their colleagues spend millions on pork-barrel projects.

They spend and spend, but they won’t fund our kids and help our families.

Does your family have job and health insurance security? Many middle-class families are one catastrophe away from losing what they have worked so hard to achieve.

Our family experienced this. After a costly surgery my husband was laid off by the company that had employed him for 10 years. Our family faced his lost income yet we could continue our insurance for $800 per month.

That’s a lot of money for after you’ve just lost your job.

Policy makers seem more afraid of “socialized medicine” and “Hillarycare” than in dealing with a broken system. All we hear are scare tactics from the Republicans and insurance companies.

It’s long past time we stopped giving these people the benefit of the doubt. Republicans in Washington like John Kline have stopped representing their constituents.

They continue to support a president and an administration that have done nothing but lead our country closer and closer to bankruptcy and ruin.

Let’s send them a clear message. American families should be their first priority.

Reading this letter coupled with the news that Tim Walz plans to hold another town hall meeting with constituents makes me wonder when and if Kline ever intends to hold one.

At the meeting in Winona last weekend, Walz made it clear to the attendees that that type of gathering is one of the most fundamental principles of democracy.

“I would argue it’s a requirement of our citizenship to engage in these discussions,” Walz told the crowd. “I would also argue that it’s a requirment of the job in representing you. It’s critically important that I provide a forum that has as easy and unrestricted access as possible to air your points of view and your concerns.”

Kline’s record of constituent outreach is anything but “easy” or “unrestricted” to constituents. When Kline does invite citizen input the medium is usually a “tele-townhall meeting” which is by its nature restricted. If Walz is able to provide stellar constituent service after fewer than 11 months in office, why does Kline continue to lack in that department?

The voters of the Second Congressional District have sent John Kline to Washington three times. I would certainly think that after five consecutive years of service to the district he ought to feel comfortable enough to have an open and honest conversation with constituents. Or is he comfortable?

Come on, John, how does avoiding open and honest discussion with the public give us a reason to not replace you with Steve Sarvi next November?

This entry was posted on Friday, October 26th, 2007 at 2:27 pm and is filed under SCHIP, Winona, Congress, Steve Sarvi, Healthcare, Tim Walz, 2008. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.