(I apologize for the Autoplay on the first video. I've changed the html code to autoplay=false, but that doesn't do the trick. Please, just mute your sound until you're ready to view the film)
The Washington Post published a piece today on The Fix naming five members of the House to watch today in John Boehner's debt cliff/budget vote. One of those five is a Tea Party darling, a Palinist, and representative of my SC District 1, Tim Scott. I believe he was the first to call publicly for impeachment of President Obama if the Fourteenth Amendment was invoked to raise the debt ceiling without congressional support. He's determined to keep unions out of SC and keep Boeing in his district, so he's an active opponent of the NLRB.
I don't want to watch him; I'm embarrassed by his abandonment of the many Medicaid recipients and indigent members of District 1. But watch him I shall. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. I've been writing Scott almost daily, but I don't think he's listening. So I'm going to invite you to write him, because now he's not just my problem. He's yours, too.
Scott's website requires that you prove you belong to his district before he'll let you speak to him, despite the fact that he clearly wants to speak for more than his district. Let's get to know him a bit, take a look at what he stands for and why the WP thinks he's significant. Then, you leave your message for Tim Scott here in a comment and I'll include them all in today's letter to Scott. The man wants to be on the big stage, he needs to hear from the big audience.
Tim Scott is a freshman Representative from the coastal district of SC that includes the ports of Charleston and Georgetown and
Scott's district includes Charleston Naval Base, which supposedly establishes its conservative chops. District 1 has been a Democratic stronghold historically (no Republican had ever served a full term from this district since Reconstruction until Ronald Reagan gathered it into the fold!).
"Most of Charleston's African-American majority areas were shifted to the 6th District in 1992, seemingly making this district unwinnable for the Democrats. However, in 2008, Linda Ketner came within two points of shifting this district back to the Democrats. Representative Scott is one of two African American Republicans (the other being Allen West of Florida) to represent their respective states since Reconstruction. (Wikipedia)
Scott owns an Allstate Insurance Agency in Charleston, SC and is partner in a real estate firm there. He's taken unequivocal stances in the tea party mold: He is determined to see The Affordable Care Act (healthcare reform) repealed. He supports immigration policies in line with Arizona's notorious SB 1070 and wants to force all new immigrants to learn English. This spring he introduced legislation to deny food stamps to any recipient who participates in a union strike. Tim Scott is the African American face of the Tea Party in Congress.
Here he is meeting with his "constituents" in Summerville on July 6th:
And here's Scott on CNN two weeks ago.
Why is Tim Scott on the Five Representatives to Watch list?
Tim Scott: Scott is a tea party darling who, despite being elected in 2010, is already regarded as a rising star in South Carolina and nationally. He is reportedly leaning “no” (on Boehner's current debt ceiling/budget vote) but he is also one of two House freshmen — South Dakota Rep. Kristi Noem is the other — who were chosen as liaisons to the party leadership. If ever Boehner needed Scott’s vote, today is the day. (Washington Post)In other words, he applied to have closer than usual access to Speaker John Boehner and he got it. If Boehner can't sell Tim Scott on this evening's vote to raise the debt ceiling under Boehner's latest plan, he can't get there from here. That plan won't make it past the Democratically held Senate and Presidency, but the slower this all goes, the closer we get to the US defaulting on debt and to the (I'm convinced) potentially devastating consequences of that.
Tim Scott wants to stand between me and you and a deal that let's us both sleep better between now and August 3rd.
What would you like Tim Scott to know? I'll copy your comments and send them off, letting Rep. Scott know that if he wants more power and influence in Congress than his little district affords, he's going to have to listen to us all. If you don't get to this post before the vote this evening, send your comments on anyway. We'll be hearing from Tim Scott again and again, I fear, both in the near term and the long.
What I'd like to say to him would likely get you into trouble.
ReplyDeleteHere is my message to Tim Scott (corrected for typos):
ReplyDeleteMr. Tim Scott,
You and other Tea Party Republicans seem to suffer from one fatal flaw: A callous disregard for one of our founding documents that clearly states:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed …”
How does your no compromise, hostage-taking approach to governance square with these words? It does not. Like a bad and oppressive marriage where personal boundaries are violated, you and your Tea Party Republicans fail to distinguish between YOURS, MINE, and OURS. The United States is not just YOUR country. It is also MY country. It is not just YOUR tax money; it is also MY tax money. A public debate without compromise and consensus is not my idea of “consent of the governed.” The key word in this debate should be ‘US,’ not ‘yours.’
I have paid into the Medicare and Social Security system my entire life. That makes it MY money, not yours. And I resent attempts by you and other Tea Party Republicans to cut or change my benefits. Tantamount to THEFT, entitlement cutbacks are a violation of the social contract hard won generations ago by my forbearers.
I resent paying higher marginal tax rates than the millionaire and billionaire clients of your Tea Party regime who refuse to pay their fair share of the burdens of civilization.
I resent the credit worthiness of MY country being held hostage by you and a minority rabble that has demonstrated more anger management pathology than common sense. When you took your oath of office, you promised to uphold the U.S. Constitution which clearly states: “ "The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned." For some inexplicable perversion of logic, you think Grover Norquist’s No Tax Pledge holds more legal authority than your obligations as set forth in the U.S. Constitution.
I resent the atmosphere of character assassination, bigotry, and fear engendered by you and other Tea Party Republicans who have defamed and vilified every good citizen holding a different point of view.
No, Mr. Scott, you have disrespected us, verbally abused us, and now threaten to steal from us. You no longer have the consent of the governed. Most of all, you have disgraced our institutions and your Party. At election time next year, I want a DIVORCE!
Octo, I love your letter to Rep. Scott. Bravo!
ReplyDeleteNance, as you know, I left my letter over at Mature Landscaping.
Thanks, guys! I've been blowing up Tim Scott's email the last few days and I was running out of things to say and ways to say it.
ReplyDeleteWe will need to continue our communication with tea party House members for a while, if for no other reason than that it puts them on notice that we're paying attention. If you have a tea party Rep in your District, I'll be happy to return the favor. Poor you.