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I Feel Cheated
By Dick Ackermann, Winsted
We have just finished with the Congressional elections for 2002. It was a very unsatisfactory experience. What were the issues?
There was prescription drugs. That is an important issue, especially for senior citizens. It was never clear which one of our congressional candidates was doing more than the other one in this area. Both wanted the votes of the seniors, and both attacked their opponent in TV ads. Did anybody hear a clear explanation of a position? How much it would cost, or where the money would come from? Talk about negative campaigning.
Privatizing Social Security, or at least a part of the funds, is another senior issue. Not much light was shed on this one. Social Security is in deep trouble. Did either of the candidates explore this and offer solutions?
What about those things that matter to young folks? Well, it seems that a lot of them don't vote, so why should the politicians deal with issues that don't help win elections? Never mind that that college tuition will rise greatly next year. We will have a football stadium that cost hundreds of millions of dollars that might have otherwise helped keep tuition in line. The construction industry does not make campaign contributions to candidates that don't advocate big construction projects.
Why does Nancy Johnson spend millions of dollars of other people's money to help her keep her job? And Mr. Maloney is no better. This business of raising and spending enormous amounts of money is devastating our political life: elected officials spend a lot of their time and energy raising money. We don't pay them to be using their time and energy raising money. They are also in debt to those who contribute large sums to the election campaign. I feel cheated when I know that my representative is mostly concerned with pleasing his financial supporters. Why can't or won't our leaders find a way to eliminate this scourge?
The whole healthcare issue is just out of control. There are solutions, but we do not hear about them from the candidates.
Our President has used a great deal of taxpayer money flying around in Air Force One raising campaign funds for Republican friends. While he has been doing this who has been minding the store? How many of us could take the time off from performing our jobs and still get paid like him? Bill Clinton did the same when he was in office.
Most of all, what happened to the discussion of Iraq? Nancy and Jim skirted this issue. We may soon be killing thousands of "enemies" and losing who knows how many of our own young men and women. Why? There simply has not been enough open discussion about this.
I really feel cheated by this election.
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