Tom Mullins
This spring, a Pew Research Poll showed that 76 percent of Americans do not trust the federal government and feel it has too much power. In January 2009, 68 percent of Americans had a favorable rating for the Democrat Party, but the Pew Research Center showed that favorable rating had plummeted to 38 percent. Pew Center Director Andrew Kohut said 53 percent of Americans want government “reformed and its power curtailed.”
According to an August 4 Gallup poll, only 11 percent of Americans feel Congress is doing a good job. At home, numerous New Mexican politicians have been convicted for corruption and others continue to be under investigation. Only 43 percent of voters nationwide want their current representative reelected.
Why? The people’s trust has been violated egregiously.
Trust is essential for government to best serve the people. It is time for change, and in this election New Mexicans and all Americans must know what their candidates actually believe and stand for. Voters need to trust their representatives to listen and carry out their will, not to vote only the ideological party line to support an administration’s agenda.
The liberal progressive agenda of Obama, Pelosi and Reid is driving the country far to the left of most Americans, and New Mexico’s representatives are in lockstep with them. Their agenda is socialist and it does not serve us well.
Spending wastefully, usurping power
As I have campaigned across New Mexico’s 3rd Congressional District, I find most of us want government to live within its means. We want an end to the backroom payoffs for access and sweetheart deals. We expect our representatives to vote for legislation they have actually read and understand, and we want our voice heard and for them to vote accordingly.
All of New Mexico’s representatives voted against the will of the people when they voted for health care reform. Polls show 58 percent of us oppose the present bill, which passed only because of the public option exclusion. Now, Ben Ray Luján has co-sponsored a bill to include the public option. Fearing defeat at the polls in November, this incremental trick is a method used by progressives to ultimately get what they want before the end of their term. Rep Luján is a proud member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
New Mexico’s representatives have now voted for a financial reform bill that excludes regulating Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and HUD, the very organizations that gave us the sub-prime mortgage meltdown. The legislation they voted for now allows the Treasury to take over and run any financial institution they feel may be approaching insolvency and to do so without a day in court. This is a gross usurpation of power that must be stopped this November.
President Obama has appeared in numerous public forums assuring us the recovery is well underway. Yet, we just learned 40.8 million Americans are on food stamps, which is up 19 percent from last year. Unemployment is also on the rise, now that the temporary census jobs are winding down.
The president has told vacationers and businesses to stay away from Las Vegas and to curtail our spending. Yet Michelle Obama took 40 of her friends on Air Force 2 to a $2,400-per-night resort on the Costa del Sol in Spain, accompanied by 70 secret service agents. The entire trip will cost more than the president makes yearly, and you and I pick up the tab.
Send our representatives home
Because of these legislative tricks, presidential misrepresentations and entitlements, the voters are telling me they are fed up with the present policies and public spiel coming from the mouths of politicians ruling Washington.
The truth is our massive national debt has increased four times during the Obama administration to $13.2 Trillion, a cost of $47,000 to each of us, and our present representatives have voted us that liability. Our balance due will continue to grow in interest and can only be paid through increased taxes or printing money.
The irresponsible votes for unsustainable spending could have been prevented by better representation. Our representatives needed to ask us what we wanted, not what Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama wanted. They should all be sent home this November.
Mullins is the Republican candidate for New Mexico’s 3rd Congressional District seat in Congress.