Earth Day Video

  Lonely Leonard It’s getting lonely for Leonard Lance.  Another of his colleagues has chosen to retire, rather than face the wrath of the voters.  And this time, it is the one-time wunderkind, Paul Ryan, whose “sterling integrity” was highlighted by our Congressman.   Oh, please! In 2010, President Obama introduced a bipartisan fiscal commission, co-chaired by Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson. Bowles and Simpson called for policymakers to set, as a basic principle, that the deficit should be reduced in a way that does not increase poverty and inequality; they called for protecting low-income and vulnerable Americans. Paul Ryan never believed in that approach. In December 2010, he proposed a budget that would have been the most regressive in our history.  The first of many to follow.   Under Obama, we had eight years of Ryan’s handwringing about the Federal deficit and the need for entitlement reform.  Under Trump, within a year, we saw Ryan oversee a massive tax cut for corporations and the super-rich, surrounded by fluff about the growth it would unleash.  With a tax plan that was always about pleasing the big Republican Party donors, it was no surprise that the Koch brothers and their ilk immediately showered Ryan and the Republican Party with cash.  Now we see from the CBO that this tax “reform,” and the accompanying budget, will balloon The Federal deficit such that by 2028, the national debt will total 96% of GDP.  We KNOW that Ryan or no Ryan, the drum beat for “entitlement reform,” i.e., cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, veterans benefits and Social Security, will quickly intensify.  Well, WE will not allow the sick, our veterans, and the elderly to bear the brunt of the consequences of a reckless and intellectually dishonest approach to policy making. But Congressman Lance thinks differently. . . . On his Facebook page, he is pictured standing at a lectern which carries the slogan “Debt Reduction NOW.”  And he voted on Thursday to amend the Constitution to require a balanced budget.  Come on, Congressman!  After a year of wholly and completely irresponsible votes, this doomed measure was just an exercise in sanctimonious claptrap.  #RememberinNovember. 

  Way back in 2013, Congressman Leonard Lance’s proud boast was that he had voted 39 times to repeal, defund or dismantle Obamacare. In 2017, Lance voted FOR the Republican repeal measure, when it emerged from the Committee on which he serves. Of course, when faced with a constituency-wide rebellion, Congressman Lance changed his tune, and ultimately voted AGAINST the legislation on the House floor. This is the vote he would like us to remember in his attempts to paint himself as the model of a moderate Republican. 

50 years after his assassination, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. message and vision are still very important for the soul of America. King was a powerful leader who promoted and accomplished great achievements for the black civil rights struggle in the US; he peacefully advocated against  racism in all its forms, using, among other things, the technique of nonviolent protests. He was truly determined and completely dedicated to the cause and not afraid of the personal danger in which his activism placed him. He realized that he was the best path to a hope of a better future, foremost for people of color in America, but also for future generations of all Americans, for the progress and soul of the country, and for humanity in general.

Leonard Lance is a self-described “principled conservative,” a conservative through devotion to small government and traditional morality. But the party he joined does not exist any more.  There is no governing ideology behind Donald Trump. He is devoted only to bringing himself glory and defeating his perceived enemies. What must Leonard Lance, an avowed fiscal conservative who mooted a balanced budget amendment, think when he sees a tax plan his party created add at least $1.4 trillion to the deficit?  And what must he think of his party leadership when they stuck NJ with the SALT liability?