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PrintSeptember 30, 2008
Open letter to Lindsay Graham
The Honorable Lindsey Graham
RE: Defeated "Wall Street Bailout" bill
Dear Senator Graham:
Despite disagreeing with you on some issues and finding your stance on others lukewarm, I support your re-election (financially and with my vote), just as I support Senator McCain's quest for the Presidency -- support which has greatly increased by his naming a no-nonsense conservative as his running mate. However, this statement regarding the failed "Wall Street Bailout" bill...
"I have never been more disappointed in the Congress than I am today. I hope every member of the House of Representatives -- Republican and Democrat -- who voted against this legislation will work in the next twenty-four hours to improve the bill. Now is the time to put the national interest above the self interest."
...which currently appears on your senatorial web site is inappropriate, ill-conceived, and appears petulant in nature. Further, it likely contains the very real potential to provide not merely cover for, but ammunition to, even more absurd public posturing and pork-barreling by Democrats over the course of the next few days if not weeks. Must conservatives really continue to be castigated by the likes of Speaker Pelosi, Representative Frank, Majority Leader Reid, and Senator Dodd? If so, can Republicans please not actually make it easier for them to do so by writing their script?
Please consider, when indicting 228 fellow members of Congress, 133 of whom are members of your own party and most of whom, one presumes, actually wish to serve the best interests of their constituencies, that they may really and truly have ethical, moral, fairness/justice, policy, democracy-in-action, or economic-based objections to the legislation. If so, they are hardly alone. It appears much of red-state America is indeed sitting on that side of the fence rather than attempting to straddle it. Please also consider, at least for a moment, that these 133 may have been right - since 95 Democrats seem to have either agreed (or at least been similarly fearful). Additionally, there is a substantial amount of scholarly economic brainpower being tossed against the "bailout" bulwark (at least as currently and all too hastily designed) which can hardly be dismissed "self-interest."
If someone is going to slammed with the charge they failed to "put the national interest above self-interest," it might be better directed at Senator Reid, Speaker Pelosi, Secretary Paulson, and the original "deal" negotiators. House members who voted against the biggest bailout in history may well have had re-election on their minds (after all, they face it every 24 months), but they also likely were representing the heart's blood of their friends, neighbors, and supporters back home. They also probably didn't have the fortunate circumstance of being in a safe re-election seat.
Ramming an ill-conceived, never-before-imagined-much-less-attempted $700,000,000,000 hypothesis down taxpayers' throats without sufficient consideration as to what it may mean in both the short and long-term (not to mention that staple of legislation everywhere - the law of unintended consequences) seems far more likely to be an exercise contravening "the national interest," than that which your statement implies.
Surely you were indulging in hyperbole (or perhaps irritated indignation, due to the potential harm the defeat of the "Wall Street Bailout" bill might conceivably have on Senator McCain's candidacy), but I have no doubt either you or your staff can think of many times when you have "been more disappointed in the Congress." At least I certainly hope so. I can.
Personally, I hope EVERY member of BOTH the House and the Senate will work together for longer than twenty-four hours to cast out and completely revamp the bill, since, most assuredly, now is the time to put national interests above Democrat attempts to insert potential, multimillion-dollar windfalls for Leftist organizations such as ACORN, and instead take enough breathing room to at least see if market economy capitalism will work - before Congress legislates it into socialism.
Please consider joining the efforts of conservatives like Senator Jim DeMint (R) South Carolina, Mike Pence (R) Indiana, and Jeb Hensarling (R) Texas.
Sincerely,
Sincerely,
Mac Fuller
Columbia, SC
