Comments on Congress's Accomplishments for 2007

Last Friday my Congresswoman, Tammy Baldwin, sent out a year in review e-mail about Congress's accomplishments in 2007. I sent her office a summary of the points made in the year-end message.

Generally I try to keep messages to politicians short and on a single point. Politicians do keep track of how their mail is running on various issues and avoid voting against the mail. Tammy Baldwin is special in that she sometimes sends non-form-letter replies addressing specific points made to her.

In this letter to Baldwin, I make an exception to my single-issue messages and comment on a range of issues.

I italicize (added for the blog posting) points that I think deviate from the Democratic Party positions.

Dear Congresswoman Baldwin:

I enjoyed reading your year-end report. I am happy the Democrats attained a majority and were able to make progress.

I did not follow the ethics package, but I know it was sorely needed. In 1994, the GOP took over Congress promising radical reforms. They gave us the same deficits, out-of-control sweetheart pork-barrel spending, and scandals that they said they would put a stop to. I appreciate any efforts for reform, including the ethics package and pay-as-you-go rules.

I have read the 9/11 Commission report, and I wondered why we hadn't implemented all its recommendations. I'm glad you passed something to correct this.

If the increased subsidy of student loan interest survives future budget pressures and is phased in as planned, it will do more for America than any other domestic policy initiative you could pass.

The Energy Independence and Security Act sounds like a good first step in the right direction. Reducing carbon emissions and thereby global warming is an investment that will save future generations from paying the price for cheap energy today. I urge you to consider nuclear power as one piece of the puzzle of reducing carbon emissions. There is much to be done in the area of conservation, but absent some revolutionary energy source, at some point we must choose between nuclear and combustible fuels that emit greenhouse gases.

The minimum wage increase is a "band-aid" to treat poverty, but it is a good first step. I would love to see the minimum wage indexed to inflation just as the tax brackets are, so we would not have to spend time debating this every few years. Real improvements in poverty will come from increased education and future efforts to protect children during their formative years.

It is unfortunate President Bush vetoed funding for SCHIP and stem-cell research. It is unfortunate, also, that you could not pass a law allowing Medicare to negotiate with drug companies. In the long-run, though, President Bush's idea of giving heathcare consumers more control through HSAs is a good one. I urge you to change your position on this and, if you have to chance, to agree to support expansion of HSAs in exchange for more funding for healthcare for the poor.

I appreciate your making Iraq a priority. I am not knowledgeable enough to know how and when we should withdraw our forces. Reckless foreign policy got us into the Iraq mess. We should be judicious about how we get out.

I hope in 2008 Congress resists the pressure to bail out borrowers and lenders caught up in the subprime lending debacle. Such a bailout would be pandering to the FIRE industries and people in expensive houses they cannot afford.

I look forward to seeing you at your upcoming birthday party. You do a great job representing our district, and I'm grateful for it.

Sincerely,

Charles J Gervasi