OPINION:
Democrats continue to skew the facts to make the Republicans the only ones responsible for a do-nothing Congress. The Democratic Senate has not passed a budget in three years and will not accept bipartisan bills passed by the House for debate. The Tea Party made the public aware of the serious problems with the Obama legislation and executive orders that made the economy worse, killed job creation and added costs to taxpayers, especially the middle class. The 2010 election resulted in a Republican House majority and 47 Republican senators, enough to prevent Democrats from ramming through their legislation.
There were two areas where the Republican-controlled House was right on principle and also on the appropriate legislation. The public would have been receptive if they knew the facts to counter the criticism. First, they opposed increasing the debt ceiling without a firm legislative commitment to cut spending. The debt ceiling was raised and has since increased, and there are no real spending cuts in place. Second, they passed a one-year extension of the payroll-tax cut extension and a two-year doctor fix. The cuts are to be paid for by freezing the pay of Congress and federal workers. The Senate passed a two-month extension with a two-month doctor fix, to be paid for by burdening homeowners with increased mortgage payments. Clearly, the people would have favored the House version.
While I believe Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had the best of intentions, his unwise interventions allowed President Obama and the Democrats to pass their bad bills. In the debt-ceiling issue, he allowed criticism to influence him and failed to work to get binding spending cuts in place. In the payroll-tax cut extension, he again was unable to work with the House and get the better bill passed.
The lesson is, the Republicans have the better proposals for solutions. The people will support them, and the Republican House and Senate leadership need to be united to serve their constituents and the country and get us out of the mess Mr. Obama has created.
MARVIN L. HOOVIS
Centerville, Mass.
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