The Congressman Dances

Buck Bryan wrote an interesting letter to our Congressman, Chris Gibson last week, published in the Glens Falls Chronicle. I spoke with Buck so that I wouldn’t get him wrong. He is pretty moderate. But I have sent the following letter to Mr. Gibson and the Chronicle in response:

I thank you for two things: Voting not to defund the National Labor Relations Board, and your willingness to cut the military budget. (The Congressman is a retired Army Colonel and has a good voice on this issue.) But you had nothing to do with preventing default and you know it. You were part of the the group that took us to the brink and tripped the recent downgrade and the gyrations in the stock market. You want it both ways: You tell us that you support "cut, cap, and balance" and were willing to risk default to please the Tea Party folk . Then you tell us that you voted for the needed resolution to the debt ceiling crisis because if we had defaulted it would have been a disaster.

Buck Bryan says that DEBT and KILL have the same number of letters. This is completely irrelevant. Most people need credit (debt) to buy a house or car. I needed it this year for a new furnace. CREDIT makes GROWTH. (These words each have six letters; also irrelevant.) And to have credit, I need a job and income. For the government this means revenue from taxes. Trying to substantially reduce government debt has the effect of strangling growth.

The books Bryan recommends by Michael Lewis and by Gretchen Morgenson and Johua Rosner are good. But they don’t preach against debt by cutting spending, but explain how wall street recklessness and lack of government regulation of banks are the root of our problems. And of course they are about how both Democratic and Republican Congresses and administrations have been complicit in creating the boom and the bust we suffer. Don’t pander to the Tea Party, Mr. Congressman. Get busy on something that will make jobs and growth, not the populist party line.

End of letter. I have also been critical of the Congressman for scheduling only 2 or 3 "Town Halls" this summer, and those in very small out of the way towns. He isn’t unusual.  Majority of Congress Avoids Town Hall Meetings

Mostly he appears at events where he won’t be confronted. Here is what happened in the southern part of our district:

We still don’t have a Democrat to challenge Mr. Gibson next year, but I hope we can get Scott Murphy or someone of his caliber to run. Scott bravely faced the Town Halls in 2009 and calmed everyone with reasonable words about the health care bill, which he had obviously studied carefully.