In response to a recent Gallup poll which recorded record-high anti-incumbent sentiment toward Congress, Yahoo! Voices asked contributors whether their representatives deserved to be re-elected.
COMMENTARY | Raul Labrador is a nice guy. I first met him at a Roundup in the summer of 2008. He is affable and smart. Thus, I’m not sure that the Congressman from Idaho’s first Congressional district actually believes the things he says to get elected.
Labrador works hard to keep rich people rich at the expense of the rest of us. Here is a breakdown of three main reasons he should not be re-elected:
(1) He wants to privatize social security. He has voted to end social security as we know it. Labrador wants people to put their social security in the stock market, thereby making making even more money for stockbrokers and banks. Of course if our social security had been in the market in the last couple years many folks would have seen much of their retirement lost.
(2) The congressman wants void the affordable healthcare act. Thus, Labrador wants to go back to allowing companies to turn down people for pre-existing conditions and kick college-age kids off their parents’ policies. He also favors lifetime caps on medical benefits.
(3) He wants to end subsidies for renewable energy sources but still favors tax breaks for big oil.
(4) On top of all of that he still wants to repeal the 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Ratified in 1913, it changed a procedure in place since the nation’s founding, Randy Stapilus of Ridenbaugh Press said:
Up to then, U.S. senators had been chosen by state legislators. The amendment, which was enacted as part of the progressive movement, changed that to provide that the voters of each state would do the honors.
Who would benefit by allowing legislators to choose senators instead of ordinary U.S. citizens? It would be the same people who made out like bandits way back then: Those who have the big bucks to corrupt state legislators with. They could buy Senate seats — which often is exactly what happened in the 19th century.
Raul Labrador’s platform is all about big money and big business. Please look into the campaign of Jimmy Farris for some better leadership.