Voters should hold GOP accountable
I respond to the Tuesday Dispatch article “National debt nears $20 trillion,” which omitted relevant facts regarding our current Congress.
On Jan. 13, each and every one of Ohio’s Republican congressmen voted “yes” on a concurrent resolution that adds $10 trillion to our national debt in the next 10 years. Voters will never grasp the staggering hypocrisy of their representatives without questioning those who talk one way and vote the other, refusing to meet with or answer to their constituents.
In 2004, when the national debt and the federal budget deficit hit historic highs under President George W. Bush and a Republican majority Congress (including Rep. Pat Tiberi and then-Rep. Rob Portman), voters re-elected a GOP borrow-and-spend agenda, as Vice President Dick Cheney declared “deficits don’t matter.” Incidentally, the Bush administration’s jobgrowth performance remains, as the Wall Street Journal put it, “the worst track record on record.”
Most voters likely don’t know that during President Barack Obama’s terms the U.S. budget deficit came down by a trillion dollars, the Affordable Care Act dramatically slowed the growth of Medicare spending, and, contrary to Republican talking points, job growth continued for a record 75 straight months.
Repealing the ACA will add to our deficit, but Republican congressmen never have to answer to this. Can someone please get through to Ohio’s congressional representatives and pass along these facts?
Republicans’ hold on power currently comes from divisive and deceitful rhetoric fueled by propaganda paid for and circulated by wealthy donors and media enriched by tribal politics and government borrowing and spending.
Republicans were willing to shut down the government and contrive a credit downgrade in 2011 over the issue of debt when the debt was much lower and the president was a Democrat.
Do Republicans’ words match their votes? No. Only when voters are wellinformed do they have the means of holding their representatives accountable.
Harold Chichester Columbus
John Riordan Pickerington Westerville