Yesterday evening I received an email from Jeff Merkley (D-OR), the Senator I volunteered to help defeat faux progressive Republican, Gordon Smith. I’d like to share that with you, because his reasoning is spot-on.
Tom,
I’ve got a pretty simple test when I’m considering legislation. Will it help the middle class and small businesses create opportunities and get ahead? It’s a test the debt bill couldn’t pass, which is why I voted no. All policymakers should use that criteria, but the debt plan we voted on today proves that not to be the case.
After over two years of a devastating recession, and a decade of stagnant wages before that, our number one goal should be creating jobs and making sure our kids have opportunities in the future.
Instead, this deal will cut off jobs and pile burdens on middle class families who are already paying the price for a decade of bad policy choices.
Imagine: Americans who may have lost a job, whose mortgage is under water, who can’t afford their kids’ college anymore and have seen prices skyrocket for food and gas are asked to tighten their belts.
At the same time, the very wealthiest Americans and big, well-connected special interests are 100% insulated from any sacrifice. Their lavish tax breaks and sweetheart deals sprinkled throughout the tax code have been conveniently put off limits for any cuts.
The conventional wisdom says we have to swallow this deal. But if we give in to these ransom demands and allow the extremists to continue their assault on the building blocks of middle class prosperity in order to protect the wealthy and well-connected, we’ll be facing more ransom demands soon enough.
I don’t discount the need for tough choices to bring down our unsustainable deficits. But they can’t be only tough choices for those who can least afford the sacrifice, while those in the penthouses and boardrooms continue amassing more and more and more.
This is a fight about more than how we lower the deficit, it’s a fight for our country’s basic values, and our future. Too many in Washington seem to have forgotten that America’s economic strength is inseparable from the well-being of its middle class. If we continue to sacrifice their prosperity to provide more to the well-off and well-connected, we sacrifice America’s greatness. Let’s not let that happen.
Jeff
The work I did on his behalf was one of the best investments I have made. We need more Democrats like Jeff. I was just one of several hundred people who worked on his campaign. His victory shows that when we stop whining and get off our asses, we can make a difference.
16 Responses to “Jeff Merkley: Why I Voted No”
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He has the right focus! Good man!
Yes he does!
thanks for working for him! I just called Sen. Gillebrand’s office to thank her for her ‘NO’ vote – I like people who have prinicples and put the country ahead of greed!
The solution is to elect more like them.
I wish he were my Senator instead of that asshole Mark Kirk. bleeech. I know my rep (Joe Walsh – teabagger) voted for it.
Poor Lisa. 😥
TomCat,
You are very lucky to have both he and Ron Wyden working for you in the Senate. Both men are fabulous!
Jack, I don’t consider it luck. Getting and keeping them is hard work.
At this point I am way to disgusted and really demoralized to comment with any thought; But it seems those fools in Washington have and will continue to..ignore anything we the people want .. This small group of “Terrorists” are apparently in control .
We need to make these exceptions the rule.
I’m disgusted with the whole process of politics right now. It seems to be the vehicle by which both parties are capable of extracting more and more of the nation’s wealth for themselves and their cronies. Putin said yesterday that the US is a leech on the world. I’m beginning to think he’s got a point. We are not the Greatest Generation any more. Those values have been destroyed.
Blue, it’s up to us to restore those values.
It seems as though most politicians have no values or conscience. Jeff Merkley, however, does.
Jeff is what happens when people get off their lazy asses.
Time to reward the Jeff’s (those who stand up and fight with and for we the sheeple, rather than for those who support endless war, more fortunes in the coffers of the villainaire rulers, etc.) with a ‘green star’ . How members of Congress vote and voted, and what Presidents and their administrations do and do not do is proof certain of whether or not they deserve our ‘green star’ – a.k.a. vote and support in getting elected.
Welcome Rita. 🙂 Your stellar reference told me who you are.
Whever there is a real choice, I fully agree. We got rid of the Republican Jeff replaced, bit life is not always so black or white. Sometimes the only choice is the least bad that has a chance to win.