Nikki Haley wrong to test competency of politicians over 75

Jan. 16 − To the Editor:

Nicky Haley has come up with a new proposal on who can run for Congress and it is very troubling. She wants to impose a competency test for people over 75 who run for Congress. (Of course short of a Constitutional Amendment, this would be unconstitutional). She wants the government to develop a test to be administered to all those over that age who are running for Congress. The government would have to select people to administer the test and evaluate the results. Evaluating the results would be very much subject to opinions of those doing the evaluating. On a competency there are no absolute answers and different evaluators could reach different conclusions. In a case where the evaluator concluded the person was not competent, the person would undoubtedly appeal this decision to the courts where we would have the battle of so-called experts, each supporting a different conclusion from the same results.

Do we really want a country where people like Dr. Fauci are deciding who is allowed to run for Congress? If left wing Democrats were making decisions on the test, it might include questions like how many genders are there? Someone who answered two instead of five or six (or whatever the “correct” number is ) might be found to be incompetent .

The bottom line is the U.S. Constitution and the voters, not government bureaucrats, are the only ones who should be deciding who is competent to serve in Congress. Ms. Haley, please admit you made a mistake and retract this horrible idea.

Rep. Mike Harrington

Strafford District 18

Strafford