Cliff Is Out of Touch with Reality

Confront him at "town meetings" in Marion County

Cliff Stearns (the current “soon-to-be-retired”) congressman holds “Town Meetings” tomorrow (Saturday, April 12th) in Marion County. The announcement for these meetings shows how out of touch he is with reality. (By the way these announcements were sent at taxpayers’ expense.)

Look at his “talking points” (below) and confront him tomorrow at his Town Meetings ~ don’t let him evade the tough questions ~
Williston Public Library, 9-10 a.m., 10 SE 1st Ave
Ocala Palm, Magnolia Room, Royal Palm Clubhouse, 10:30-11:30 a.m.
Oak Run Country Club, Palm Grove Club, 1:00-2:00 p.m.
Ocala, CFCC, Klein Conference Center, 301 SW College Rd, 2:30-3:30 p.m.

1. Cliff says: “Congress needs to … sustain the pro-growth policies that delivered 52 straight months of job creation from 2003 through 2007. One important step is extending the tax relief provisions that will soon expire. If Congress fails to extend these provisions, more than 116 million Americans will see their taxes increase by an average of $1,800.”

I say, "there he goes again," distorting reality to confuse and mislead voters ~ people are losing jobs, jobs are being sent overseas, our economy is not growing, retirement investment and family savings are ‘tanking’, home mortgages are being foreclosed ~ and our congressman shouldn’t be sticking his head in the sand and hiding from reality.

According to the U. S. Department of Labor, a total of 152,000 jobs were lost in January and February, and again in March at least another 80,000 more jobs disappeared: the biggest monthly job decline in 5 years. That’s almost a quarter of a million jobs gone in just three months.

From March 2007 through February 2008, 299,000 manufacturing jobs evaporated; and from September 2006 through February, 331,000 construction jobs vanished.

And, unemployment rates hovering around 5% are terribly misleading; they only count the unemployed who are “looking." After 26 weeks of looking and benefits run out, all these displaced former employees drop off the radar and are no longer counted, but they’re still out of work!

I met with the College Dems at the University of Florida in Gainesville last night—besides the war in Iraq, they’re biggest concern is whether there will be a job for them when they graduate. That echoes a fear I hear throughout the 6th Congressional District: “Even if the national financial ‘melt down' hasn’t hit my family yet, when will it hit?”

2. Cliff says: “… the number of illegal immigrants in our nation [is] 15 million … we could have over 83 million by 2030.”

I say: “Baloney!” Just another scare tactic to take our eye off the ball, to divert attention from the real failures of the Bush administration ~ their bungling of the Iraq war and the destruction of what was a thriving American economy.

Yes, undocumented foreigners living here is a problem. Increased border security is essential and is working, and will work even better with more funding and better enforcement of existing laws. But, Cliff wants to mount a massive nationwide dragnet of all the undocumented residents and “send them back.” Remember, most of them are here because American businesses wanted them here, and those businesses and the government, “winked” at it and didn’t enforce existing laws for decades.

But, Cliff just offers simplistic answers right out of the ultra right wing radical playbook.

So, Cliff, who’s going to pay the hundreds of billions of dollars for the hundreds of thousands of law enforcement officers, prosecutors, public defenders, judges, jailers who will be needed to “round ‘em up” and process them for deportation? Who’s going to pay for the jail cells, and “relocation camps”, and transportation?

And what about the millions of kids born here—American citizens—whose parents are undocumented? Are you going to pay for years and years of foster care or orphanages for them when they’re ripped from the parents’ sides as Mom and Dad are hauled across the border? How will you handle the massive economic and social cost of millions of these American children suffering psychological trauma from tearing apart their families, leading to poor school performance, unemployment, welfare, crime, etc. What does that say for upholding family values?

And what about the millions of more kids who are not citizens but were brought here when they were young and have never known another country? They play on our school sports teams, march in the band, participate in scouts and church groups, salute the flag and say the pledge of allegiance ~ they have grown up as Americans embraced by their communities. Do we throw them out, too? To go where? To a country they’ve never known, that’s never been home? We drive this 12-year-old, 15-year-old, 19-year-old kid to the border and say “good riddance and good luck”? That’s downright immoral!

Cliff’s simplistic answer to such a complex problem is just plain wrong. We deserve better from our congressman! We need to secure our borders and then work on healing the animosity over undocumented aliens with a comprehensive program that makes sure that back taxes are paid, gets acknowledgement that laws have been evaded by those who came here illegally as adults, imposes restitution through fines or community service, but also provides a path toward citizenship—including learning English. Those who came here as children did nothing wrong, and should not be punished for the errors of their parents!

3. And, of course, Cliff says we need to “… complete our mission in Iraq.” And that “Commanders in Iraq are proceeding with the drawdown of American troops.…”

I say, we already completed our mission of removing Saddam; but, by being bogged down in Iraq, we’ve diverted our military from pursuing the terrorists who directly threaten the United States. America is less safe now because of our prolonged involvement in the Iraq civil war which has stretched our volunteer armed services to their limit. And, just this week, Bush halted all troop withdrawals indefinitely. Now feuding religious and tribal leaders can continue fighting out their endless civil war over the dead bodies of America’s soldiers. Cliff won't say it, but I will: Enough is enough! Mr. Bush, end this war and bring our troops home!