Ya know, to my way of thinkin, there just doesn’t seem to be all all that many members of Congress who are actually there to serve anyone other themselves. Their main priority, it would seem, is to gain some level of personal wealth for themselves essentially at the expense of those who sent them there. But every once and a while, there comes along someone who is actually deserving of the respect that so many of those in Congress seem to think that they are automatically entitled to. True, it doesn’t happen all that often, but, every now and again, it does. And as it just so happens, we have one of those folks serving in the House as we speak. Now granted, I suppose there could be more than this one fella, and probably is, but I know that there is at least one. And just who might it be that I am referring to? None other than former Army Lieutenant Colonel and current Representative for Florida’s 22nd Congressional District, Allen West. He’s never been shy about speaking his mind and, more often than not, he’s right on the money with what he’s saying. I can’t think of an instance where I’ve been in opposition to anything he has said. The problem is, that he’s an army of one, and we need many, many more like him if we are ever going to be able crawl out of this hole that Barry has only managed to make much, much deeper. And if we can’t count on the Republicans to take the tough measures, who is left.
It was very recently that he provided us with yet another example of no nonsense approach. It came about as he was talking about the deal to extend the payroll tax cut brokered by House leadership and the White House. Rep. West, a Tea Party favorite, as well as a personal favorite of mine, in displaying a mixture of disappointment, anger and a little resentment, said that the GOP House leadership had caved in to Senate GOP leaders. He described the scenario as being “sold us down the road” for “pathetic politics” in the form of a two-month extension. “I was very upset about what happened with this payroll tax cut extension,” West told WMAL radio station in Baltimore, Friday morning. “We developed a good piece of legislation that took care of us for one year. It was paid for and would not decimate social security, unemployment insurance and also a two-year 'doc fix' and then, all of the sudden -- I get back from D.C. on a Wednesday -- the next day, on a Thursday, we have a conference call and we’re told were going to accept the Senate, what, two-month extension, which is absolutely pathetic policy.” Adding, “We can’t do tax policy that way.” And he’s 100 percent correct! What amount of sense did a two month extension make? It made no sense, and our squishy House leadership simply threw up the white flag of surrender because it was politically expedient.
Rep. West went on to say that when the House Republican members get back to Washington on January 17 they plan to have “some serious discussions” about getting “on the same sheet of music” because, he said, the House leadership did them a disservice by caving in to Senate Republican leadership by passing the two-month payroll tax cut extension in December. “(W)e really felt that our leadership did not stand against the Senate Republican leadership, who kind of sold us down the road with 40 members of the Senate GOP voted for this, you know, pathetic politics. It was not policy,” West added. “And now we are going to start this Kabuki dance all over again.” Asked whether there would be an attempt to unseat House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), West avoided answering the question. “Well I’m not going to speculate about that,” he said. “I think that right now the most important thing that we need to focus on is, how do we rectify this economic situation and now the national security situation?” Under the deal, the Social Security payroll tax for most employees will stay at 4.2 percent of wages through the end of February. Had this deal not been struck, the pay roll tax would have returned to 6.2 percent. Also as part of this deal, the federal government will continue to pay out unemployment insurance claims through February, which is ridiculous. We're paying people not to work!
I’ve never really been thrilled with the so-called leadership “style” of John Boehner. It seems that he continually outmaneuvered by slimy Democrats and this is not the time to be going weak kneed. Last November provided the Republican with what can only be described as being mandate of epic proportions and all they have managed to do is to squander it. More often than not they play right into the hands of the most corrupt president in my lifetime. And the Senate leadership is no better, but right the focus of my ire is limp-wristed leadership in the House who seems to be ore interested in getting re-elected the next time around than they do is preventing our country from going over the cliff. Rep. West sidestepped the question of whether or not he would challenge Speaker Boehner, but, personally, I can't think of a better man to be Speaker, esepecially at this very cricial time. At least I think we, the American people, would be much better served if he were to be in some position of leadership. While beating Barry must remain a very high priority for freedom loving Americans, just as important is gaining control of the Senate and building on our majority in the House. And if we fail in our efforts to send Barry packing, we'll still have the leadership issue to deal with. Both Boehner and McConnell over in the Senate are going to need to be replaced is any significant headway is to be made, especially if Barry is re-elected.
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