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What
others are saying...
These pages are
devoted to reprinting with permission Letters to newspapers,
journals and on-line media concerning politics in Pennsylvania's
16th Congressional District.
Oil is a Finite Resource
by Donald J. Holler, Paradise
6/27/2008
Republican
simple-mindedness was evidenced again recently with a "Joe Pitts
called me" show. I was enjoying Al Gore's book "The Assault on
Reason," when I was interrupted by a call from Congressman Pitts. He
was soliciting questions from people he had called.
A caller from Willow
Street sure didn't get it. His solution was to buy a fuel-efficient
car. Why, that's wonderful. Too bad American car manufacturers got
around to that idea way late.
I think the fundamental
question is to ask whether there is an unlimited supply of oil. Or
one could ask whether there is an unlimited supply of gold. I have
had Republicans respond to my question in a variety of ways: There
have been responses from "Why, yes, oil supplies are unlimited" to
"What do you mean?" to the "Assault on Reason" theory of "How does
one know whether something is unlimited?"
The current Republican
answer to our oil shortage is to drill along the continental shelf
from Maine to the state of Washington and/or in the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge in Alaska and that will solve all of our oil
problems.
There are reliable
reports that Saudi Arabia has not found any new oil reserves in the
last 20 years. Is their supply of oil unlimited?
Isn't it
time to get off this oil kick and stop funding those people who hate
us? There is not an unlimited supply of anything. Isn't it about
time we start funding research to find
other sources of energy?
Down on
Pitts
by John W.
Crawford, Strasburg
Lancaster Sunday news,
June 22, 2008
During this heated
election year I will no doubt be amazed again when people vote
against themselves and vote along their party lines. I will not be
one of those people.
As one who grew up in a
agricultural community and who is a lifelong hunter, trapper and
fisherman, I will not vote for Joe Pitts for Congress again.
After looking at
a respected
voters’ guide
on the Internet, I find that Rep. Pitts does not
represent my rural values or my values as a sportsman in Lancaster
County.
Mr. Pitts has voted in
support of radical animal rights groups such as The Humane Society
of America and the ultra-radical Funds for Animals. Mr. Pitts is
just another one of those politicians that hides behind empty words
and votes the opposite way. Hunters, trappers, fishermen and
livestock farmers beware — Joe Pitts is playing on the other team,
not ours.
Pitts Views Rich and
Corporations As His Constituency
by B. Gerard
Bricks, Kennett Township
The Kennett
Paper, June 12, 2008
When Mr. Pitts (R, PA
16th) wins an award from the Club for Growth (CfG) (article, May
29), the voters can be assured that the constituents whom Mr. Pitts
is serving well are the rich and the corporations – not the middle
class and the poor.
The US has become a
corporatocracy - government of, by, and for corporations, NOT of,
by, and for ‘we the people.’ Pitts and the CfG are working
diligently to ensure that this does not change.
Corporations have
outsourced jobs and cut pension plans. They locate offshore to avoid
paying their fair share of taxes. They have held wages at 1970s’
levels while paying management exorbitant salaries and bonuses. They
have cut health benefits and will withhold medical services if your
treatment cuts into their profit margin.
‘Cut taxes’ and ‘small
government’ means cut taxes for the rich and cut government services
for the rest of us, as well as, cut government regulations and
oversight so that corporations can continue to run amok.
From the military take
over of Cuba in 1898 to protect sugar plantations, to the military
take over of Iraq in 2003 for oil, multi-national corporations have
motivated a century of American warmongering to grow the empire,
their profits, and the wealth of a small elite.
‘Social security reform’
means turn your retirement over to Wall Street to fund the next
sub-prime mortgage crisis they create.
‘Legal reform’ and ‘end
abusive lawsuits’ means they risk your health and safety with no
recourse on your part.
Pitts complains of
special interests. Yet it was Rick Santorum, Tom Delay, and the
whole Republican Party who joined with K Street lobbyists and Jack
Abramoff to turn sale of our government to the corporations into a
high art form. Several have now won appropriate awards - called jail
terms.
Voters of the PA 16th
Congressional District should give Pitts an appropriate award in
November – a permanent retirement.
Pitts Supports Bush
War
Team
by B. Gerard
Bricks, Kennett Township
The Kennett
Paper, May 22, 2008
With an election coming
U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts, R-16, of East Marlborough is trying to appear
bipartisan and progressive through token legislation for the poor
and middle class.
He clearly knows that
Democrats have taken three Republican House seats in recent special
elections.
But he is really a
conservative Republican wolf in sheep’s clothing, making small
meaningless gestures to save his political hide. People now know
that the conservative Republican ideological policies are
socialization for the rich and big corporations, but destructive,
rugged individualism for the rest of us.
He proposes two
different plans with $500 contributions coming voluntarily from
financial institutions and employers. Good luck. That amount per
year will not even cover the inflationary increase in Penn State
tuition.
He voted against raising
minimum wage and SCHIP to fund healthcare for children.
He voted for the Bush
administration’s cuts to Medicaid benefits to the elderly.
On 111 separate
occasions, he has voted for continuing the war and occupation in
Iraq. He is a devoted member of the Bush war team that violates
international law, the Geneva Conventions against torture, and
domestic laws on illegal wiretapping and Pentagon propaganda against
“we the people.”
His votes for war that
sends the children of the poor and middle class to fight and die for
oil; and he puts the $3 trillion cost on the country’s credit card
for future generations to pay off. He has cost us 4,000+ dead,
30,000+ wounded, hundreds of thousands suffering mental illnesses,
yet he voted against the new GI Bill.
The PA 16th
Congressional District can, and must do better than this. We and the
country need a true progressive, not Mr. Pitts, working for the
people.
The Philosophy
of Reason
by
Keith Smith,
Ephrata, PA
(www.newPA16.com, 5/16/2008)
Bruce Slater is running
for the US 16th Congressional seat, and he offers a fresh
perspective, unlike our current representative, Joe Pitts. Pitts is
fat from the war on terrorism, and he can barely move to cast a
vote, unless his brother, Bush, helps him up and around. We need
someone to fight for America and for the Americans in the 16th
Congressional District, someone with strength of character and
integrity. Bruce Slater possesses both of these qualities, and all
you have to do is check out his website,
www.slaterforcongress.com, hear what he has to say, and you’ll
see he does. Check out who is funding Pitts’ campaign. Look at the
“Issues” link on the website. YOU compare Slater and Pitts. The
differences are obvious!
Try to reach out to
Bruce, email his campaign headquarters, or find out where he might
be speaking. Learn about Bruce Slater, and you’ll see that I’m
right, because once you hear him out, and then take a close look at
Joe Pitts, you won’t have much doubt about whom you should choose in
November.
With Bruce Slater in
Washington, representing the 16th, and either Barak Obama, or
Hillary Clinton as president, the Democrats could move to make
changes where the Bush administration has harmed us. We need
someone to go in there and start working from day one, to start
crying out on behalf of his constituents, and Bruce Slater is ready
to do that.
Read more....
Excerpt from the
original document published by
www.newPA16.com.
Healthcare in America is the Pits
By: S. Reid Warren III,
Elverson (Tri County Record)
05/15/2008
In a column in
the Tri County Record entitled "Hand control
of health care back to individuals,"
Congressman Joe Pitts comes up with
arguments and "solutions" that are worn out
- been there done that.
Representative Pitts
appears to argue that he's out for the little guy and all the little
guy needs is for government to get out of the regulation of health
care.
This is a bankrupt
concept, and even Representative Pitts admits that the U.S. health
care system is the most expensive in the world even while it lags in
consumer satisfaction. Read more...
Pitts
Turns His Back on Homeowners
Lois
Herr, Executive Director, Lancaster County Democratic Committee
05/12/2008
 In
voting against the housing rescue bill, Rep. Pitts again shows
his lack of concern for REAL PEOPLE with real problems.
Surely he must know that avoiding foreclosures by refinancing
helps not just the homeowners but also the neighborhoods in
which they live. These are treacherous economic times. The
bill was not a give-away but an opportunity for ordinary folks
to buy time, ultimately helping both homeowners and lenders.
Some Republican legislators see that there are hundreds of
thousands of real families needing help, but not Pitts.
Representative Pitts and Dirty Air
Debbie Franz,
New Era Readers Blog
Friday, March 28,
2008
Since 1970, the League
of Conservation Voters has researched and issued an annual National
Environmental Scorecard. This year, 20 environmental and
conservation organizations collaborated to select what they
considered to be the key environmental legislation voted on during
the first session of the 110th Congress. Their 2007 Scorecard was
just released in February.
All members of Congress,
House and Senate, were graded on whether their votes upheld efforts
to protect U.S. citizens on health and safety issues, give us
excellent clean air and water quality standards and move the country
towards renewable energy sources. The average score of the House of
Representatives as a whole was 53%. The average score for the
representatives from Pennsylvania as a whole was 62%. The complete
2007 report and all past scorecards are available on their Web site
(www.lcv.org).
Unfortunately, our
representative, Joe Pitts, received an embarrassing score of 10%. As
he comes from an area dedicated to saving farmland, wilderness
areas, historical buildings and towns, and now in the throes of
facing the fact that the EPA has judged Lancaster County air unfit
to breathe during several days of every summer, I'm shocked at his
lack of responsible voting on serious environmental matters.
Fortunately, we will
have the chance to vote for a candidate this fall who promises to
care for our environment through his actions and votes. That
candidate is Bruce Slater.
Environmental Legislation
Lois Herr, Elizabethtown
Saturday, March 1, 2008
I was appalled to learn that John McCain was the only Senator who
two weeks ago chose to skip a crucial vote on the future of clean
energy in America -- dooming the measure to fail by just a single
vote.
Now I am even more
appalled to learn that this is a pattern with Senator McCain. On the
League of Conservation Voters scorecard he received a 0 for missing
the 15 most important environmental votes in 2007. McCain's score of
0 is lower than members of Congress who died last year.
PA Senator Casey, on the
other hand, has a 100 score for environmental legislation in 2007.
Senator Clinton voted positively on all environmental legislation
but missed 4 votes, which lowered her score to 73. Senator Obama
voted positively on all but one of the environmental bills and
missed 4 votes for a score of 67.
Representative Joe Pitts
(PA-16) hit a 4-term high of 10 on his LCV ratings. Pitts’ and
McCain’s LCV scores expose the real record behind the rhetoric: a
lifetime pattern of voting with polluters and special interests or
ducking the important votes. We can do better! Bruce Slater will
protect our environment better than Pitts in the 16th, and Senator
Clinton will be so much better as President than McCain.
Pork-barrel Pitts
Bruce Slater, Narvon
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Yesterday’s New Era
carried another accusation by Joe Pitts. Like prior commentaries in
this newspaper and others in Chester County, Mr. Pitts once again
accuses the Democrats for all that goes wrong in Congress. He
repeats the same bottom line: The Democrats are guilty again; the
Democrats did it again; it is the fault of the Democrats that
nothing gets done; it is the fault of the Democrats that spending is
too high!
Does Mr. Pitts ever
proof read or try remembering what his staff puts in front of him to
sign? Allocating fault along party lines is an old song. The tune
is getting tiresome. Read more...
Why
not an energy stimulus package?
Jane Shull, Lancaster
Intelligencer Journal
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Kudos to Paul E. Miller
for his letter, "Why is U.S. so dependent on fossil fuels?" (Intell,
Jan. 17), describing our horrific national energy policy which
sustains the profit-making of the fossil fuels industry and the
Mideast war.
Last year, I heard a
presentation on wind energy that suggested that if we had a
comprehensive wind energy program tying strategically placed
turbines across the country on a coordinated grid, wind energy could
provide three times the energy we now consume nationally from all
sources -- that is wind energy alone.
Such a program could be
part of a much-needed economic stimulus program while increasing
national security.
Of course, according to
his voting record, we could expect U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts would vote
no.
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