Sen. Cotton fills role of Arkansas’ ‘Scrooge’

Yes, ’tis the season of joy: Christmas carols, Christmas lights. and wait, wait, a visit — but alas this one is not from Saint Nick, but Arkansas’ very own Scrooge — Sen. Tom Cotton. In the space of a week he has voted “no” on two important U.S. Senate bills, the agricultural bill and the First Step bill. The agriculture bill not only included help for Arkansas farmers, but more importantly, it also reauthorized SNAP, the program that helps those who are “food insecure.” When one considers the fact that Arkansas still lags behind in per capita income (and the new statistic published in the Democrat-Gazette in today’s paper, Dec. 18, of an increase in homelessness of families), I find it hard to accept any explanation that Sen. Cotton has made as to his vote.

Then yesterday, he followed that vote with another big “no” on the First Step legislation, a law designed to help individuals who have been sentenced under the harsh penalties written into federal law from the 1990s.

As written, it will not only address the “three strikes and out” law, but also make job training and education a possibility for those incarcerated — a true win-win proposition for success.

Just check out the recidivism rate for Northwest Arkansas Correctional Center (less than 15 percent), where the programs designed to educate and retrain those incarcerated are already in place. You can see for yourself that these activities do make a positive difference.

In my opinion, Sen. Cotton does not represent the sentiments of the vast majority of Arkansas’s citizens. As Scrooge himself said: Bah, humbug.”

Lastly, keep in mind only three states — West Virginia, New Mexico, and Mississippi — rank below Arkansas in terms of income and cost-of-living statistics.

PHYLLIS J. JOHNSON Springdale