by Mike Cohen
Printed July 26, 2002
Money, someone once said to mollify the guy he was taking it from, won't buy happiness. Well, maybe it won't, but spending it is something else: spending money can be fun. And when the money you're spending is somebody else's, man, that can be a blast.
I'm talking here, of course you know, about politicians, about one politician in particular, my local congressman, Cliff Stearns. He sent me this thing - I guess you got one, too - marked, importantly: "Public Document Official Business" which turned out to be nothing more than another piece of junk mail, campaign literature setting us gullibles up for the next election.
The thing was marked: "This mailing was prepared, published and mailed at taxpayer expense." Did that make you feel hustled? It did me, a Democrat seeing my tax money being used to pay for Republican flim flam.
I called the congressman's office to see just how much in total this "taxpayer expense" amounted to. The lady I talked to told me she didn't know, but when I pressed she told me ok, she'd look it up, and send me the answer. Well that was mid-June and now is now and I haven't heard from her, so I'll just have to make a guess.
Thousands is the number I come up with, a whole lot of thousands, probably well over a hundred thousand dollars. Who knows? Why won't Cliff Stearns tell me? Is it possible he doesn't even know, that he just went ahead and ordered the thing without giving a hoot about how much of our money he was spending?
It's fair enough for me to ask because after all, these are the same Republicans who used the phrase: "It's your money" when they were pushing the rebate of 1.3 trillion dollars for their rich friends. What's different now?
Well, enough prelude - let's look at this slick paper, full-color masterpiece full of disinformation (with four paragraphs of the congressman himself - two would have been plenty for my taste) which the congressman's brochure calls, in self approval, "accomplishments."
When the Republicans took over from the Democrats, the Congressman tells us truthfully, "The projected budget surplus then exceeded 5.6 trillion dollars over the next ten years, including the Social Security surplus of 2.5 trillion dollars. This meant that we could continue to pay down the federal debt, (the congressman continues, still truthfully) strengthen social security, modernize medicare with a prescription drug plan, and provide needed tax relief to all Americans."
Yes, congressman, you are correct; this was the state of the nation when you Republicans took over from the Democrats, when Florida's politicians and the Republican majority on the Supreme Court diddled with the law and perversely gave the presidency to the party supported by the smaller number of voters.
So what did the Republicans do then, Congressman? To the victor belong the spoils, just as those grasping corporations Enron, Worldcom, Xerox, Global Crossing, Quest, and the rest super-enriched their greedy executives with billions lifted from employees' pension funds and their stock holders' dividends, you Republicans provided what you call "needed tax relief to all Americans."
Except that the way your party played it, the great bulk of the rebates went to the very rich while the people who did need it got a pittance, and the people who needed it the most got nothing.
Yeah, chalk that up as another typical Republican "accomplishment."
With the slowing economy looming ahead, you Republicans managed, nevertheless, to pay back your rich campaign-supporting friends by wiping out the hard won Democrat surpluses, landing us in a recession without the reserve funds that would have eased the pain for so many of our working people who deserve better.
So what does my congressman do? He puts out a costly report, calls it a list of accomplishments and expects us to keep him in office.
I won't dwell on Congressman Stearns' characterization of our stalled military activities as "major successes." We're all in this together - democrats, republicans, all Americans - and I can only wish the very best for those heroic men and women who are carrying our fight to the despicable terrorists wherever they can be found.
I would, however, like to remind you that today's leadership team is pretty much the same team that had one of the world's worst terrorists in hand at the end of the Gulf war, then wimped out and let him go. Can we trust these same leaders to do it right this time?
You tell us, in this same report, congressman, that we are now in a "quick recovery" from a recession and that this is the result of your kissing away 36 billion dollars that you put "directly into consumer's hands." Which consumers are you talking about?
Are they the Americans who lost - and are still losing - their jobs in layoff after layoff, the folks whose investments in the stock market have wiped out most of their retirement capitol, or are you talking about those favored rich consumers whose windfall tax rebate (of "my money") are being used to buy second and third vacation homes and foreign-built luxury sports cars?
So back to the question, congressman Stearns, we do have a Freedom of Information law. Why won't you tell me how much of "it's your money" you spent on that six page slick paper full-color advertisement of yourself?
Did you have fun spending it and is my guess of maybe a hundred thousand dollars too low?
Mike Cohen
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