Within the course of two days last week, House Republicans have clearly demonstrated their contempt and disinterest in actual governance and disdain for lower income and immigrant Americans.
On Wednesday, July 10, the GOP-lead House decided to refuse to consider the bipartisan Senate immigration bill that would provide a pathway to citizenship for millions of immigrants. They refuse to hold a conference committee with the Senate to reconcile differences. Says Republican Representative Tom Cotton of Arkansas, reform “should not be handed to a conference committee so that they can be reconciled with the Senate bill,” he said in the Wall Street Journal Thursday. As New York Times observed, “A refusal to sit at a bargaining table is another way of refusing to govern.” John McCain calls such an approach “wacko.” But the GOP seems to be hell-bent on harming immigrants, poor and lower income Americans, fearing actual compromise that has defined leadership in this country.
The House GOP wants to pick apart the Senate bill, rather than dealing with it comprehensively. In doing so, their obvious goal is to send immigration reform to a slow death, although polls clearly show that Americans want comprehensive, not piecemeal reform. Moreover, The Congressional Budget Office has said that reform will cut nearly $1 trillion from the deficit over two decades, and vastly increase GDP and the collection of payroll and other taxes. But the GOP’s obsession with the “amnesty” canard they’re pedaling has blinded them, even though the Senate bill’s path to citizenship is thirteen years, full of provisos that hardly makes it easy to achieve.
But wait-it gets worse. On Thursday, July 11, the House passed a farm bill stripped of any reference to the Food Stamp program, which has been included in farm bills for 40 years, since 1973. Ignoring the fact the program has lifted nearly 5 million out of poverty in 2012 and returns nearly $2 for every $1 dispensed in the program, the ideologically driven GOP, says The New York Times, has “contempt for anyone desperate enough to rely on government to help buy groceries.” Make no mistake-food stamps will be provided, but as conservative columnist Kathleen Parker said “Republicans managed to create yet another partisan problem where none existed,” and have adopted “self-immolation tactics.”
In extracting food stamps from the farm bill, GOP Representative Pete Sessions of Texas said “What we have carefully done is exclude some extraneous pieces.” Say what? Extraneous? 47 million people on food stamps is extraneous? The numbers of Americans on food stamps have increased largely due to the GOP’s attempts at austerity and cutbacks in programs for the poor, and their attempts to further subjugate the less fortunate to their ideological intransigence is insensitive, and grossly unfair, and inconsistent with the values of this country.
Parker goes on to say that what her fellow “Republicans are selling appeals to an ever-diminishing market that doesn’t even include their erstwhile allies in business and industry.” In insisting on legislating to appease this diminishing white conservative base, it’s fair to say that the only time Republicans will ever see the White House again is by taking the daily tour.
Richard Calkins is President of the Talbot County Democratic Forum
Chip Heartfield says
I am a new subscriber, referred by a friend, and have enjoyed the items posted the past few days about the Hill, Easton’s music scene and so on. It seems to me that running verbatim a political attack penned by a party operative (no matter the party) gets away from your stated goal of “having The Talbot Spy provide the community with our own discoveries, from our own observations, and thus continuing a local newspaper’s oldest traditions.”
James Dissette says
We appreciate your letter and want to be very clear that we invite any and all political organizations to submit Op-Eds for publication. We have no intention of denying anyone their political observations or beliefs unless they are personally malicious or completely baseless slurs. This particular letter was written openly by the President of the Talbot County Democratic Forum and represents his organization’s vantage point in our very fractious political environment. We welcome counterpoint and substantive debate with the hope that Talbot County will show the way to creating a new political dialogue. Sometimes we have to hear ourselves to understand the implications of what we are saying or we continue reciting the same formulas. No doubt we are all burned out a bit by the ferocity of antagonism between the two political parties but to say that the solutions exist “somewhere out there beyond Talbot County” would be denying ourselves the primary role of becoming the makers of change on a personal and local level. (Eds.)
Chip Heartfield says
Mr. Dissette, thank you for your reply. I believe you and I are on the same page in that I would love to hear about innovations and solutions at the local level for any of the chronic issues facing our country, states, and localities. I guess that is why I would prefer to see an opinion piece that talks, for example, about how Talbot Countians would be affected by any cuts to the food stamp program, or if any farmers on the Eastern Shore are paid to not grow crops and how local folks feel about that use of their tax dollars. The attack by Mr. Calkins could have been published in any paper, anywhere, and to me it does not shed any useful light on the local situation and in fact does nothing but proclaim that the solutions exist “somewhere out there beyond Talbot County,” namely, according to Mr. Calkin’s article, only in Washington D.C.
Richard Calkins says
Point taken. Andy Harris voted for the Farm bill, which subsidizes wealthy farmers and drops 47 million food stamp recipients. Also, see my piece on Andy Harris, which is in this op-ed trail. I’ll have more later on the implementation of the Affordable Care Act on the Eastern Shore, and its ramifications, which Harris has voted against 37 times and is poised for a 38th, due later this month.
Vincent De Sanctis says
Richard Calkins rightfully points out several Republican Party actions that appear self-defeating given the nation’s overall changing demographics. However it would be unwise for Democrats to become too complacent since congressional districts, even in states typically voting for Democrat candidates at the state and national levels, are designed to provide ongoing control of Congress. The Maryland 1st district is a perfect example of how so-called blue states provide the additional House members to supplement those elected from red states. As long as safe districts are carved out of a state’s population enough House seats can be created to allow the Republican Party to continue its onslaught against the vast majority of Americans. The Senate’s constitutionally guaranteed two per state insures that the Senate is always any iffy proposition as to who is in the majority.
Democrats have not yet found the compelling argument at the congressional district and state level that would convince many white working class Americans that the Democratic Party is interested in achieving broad economic prosperity. The Republican Party, as noted by Richard Calkins, thrives on using social issues to mask the greatest shift in wealth. Romney lost the election but the one percent did not lose the economy. Unfortunately issues such as immigration, as important as they are, distract us from the only agenda that counts for the wealthiest establishing and maintaining a power structure- redistricting control, court rulings, legislative procedures, regulatory paralysis, demeaning government, etc.- that enhances and protects wealth.
Vincent De Sanctis