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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.
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.
Lead by Good Example
Russell Losco,
West Grove
AvonGrove
Sunday, January 17, 2008
I was raised in a
conservative, church-going Christian family of modest means. Among
the values that my parents instilled in me were to “lead by good
example”, “practice what you preach” and “reach out to your
opponents.”
With these in
mind, I was surprised and angered by Representative Joe Pitts’
column “Compromise in the New Year” in last week’s Avon Grove Sun.
Mr. Pitts is proud of his religion, but I wonder if he missed some
of the crucial messages that I was taught in church. Mr. Pitts slams
the Democrats in congress for not consulting with the Republicans
and accuses them of trying to “ramrod” their agenda through. He also
proudly points out that the Republicans successfully blocked most of
the Democratic initiatives.
Perhaps if the
Republicans had “lead by example” during the decade and a half while
they controlled congress, this wouldn’t be happening. Instead they
cut the Democrats out of the loop completely. Not only did they not
consult with the Democrats, they actively blocked legislation from
being introduced if it was from a Democrat, blocked Democrats from
even having a voice, and meddled in the Texas redistricting to
gerrymander the state to assure that Republicans maintained a
majority. If Mr. Pitts would have “practiced what he preached”, then
he would have been pushing for compromise with the Democrats while
he was in the majority.
I have to ask, Mr.
Pitts, is your job to block the Democrats or to make the country
better and stronger. Your voting record indicates that you are more
interested in supporting your party than your country. You have
voted against making the country energy self sufficient. You have
voted against medical insurance for poor children. You have voted in
lock-step with the worst president in the history of the nation.
Instead of putting the nation and your constituents first, you
consistently put your party first.
Mr. Pitts, if you
want to see compromise, then reach out to your opponents and start
working for your constituents. We are not a nation of Democrats and
Republicans, we are a nation of Americans trying to weather
troubling times. We do not need childish in-fighting in our Senate
and Congress. Hypocrisy, Mr. Pitts, is neither a Christian nor an
American value.
How Dare
Pitts Criticize China?
Bob Daecher, Lititz
Lancaster Intelligencer Journal
Wednesday, Sept 19, 2007
In a recent poll, 80
percent of the people disagreed with Congressman Joe Pitts when he
called for the boycott of the 2008 Summer Olympics in China because
of their human-rights violations.
How dare this man judge
China on moral grounds? As a congressman, Pitts receives health care
for himself and his family until the day he dies, and yet he is
opposed to a bill that would extend medical care to children of
hard-working Americans who aren't able to afford insurance.
I am well aware that the
Republican Party in Lancaster County could run Elmer Fudd for office
and still win. I just wish the "R" machine would at least give us
someone who represents the area in a more responsible and less
hypocritical way.
In the meantime, if
Pitts wants to fix China he should move there, but take care of our
kids first.
People
Poll: Readers Oppose Olympic Boycott
Lancaster Intelligencer Journal
Saturday, Sept 1, 2007
"An overwhelming majority of readers
responding to this week's People Poll oppose U.S. Representative Joe
Pitt's proposal to boycott the 2008 Olympic Games in China.
-
281, or 80 percent of the 352
callers oppose the proposed boycott.
-
71, or 20 percent, support a
boycott."
Democrat Slater aims for Pitts’ 16th District seat
By Mary E. Young,
Reading Eagle; Date: Jun 17, 2007
The will of the
majority of his constituents and what is in their best interest
would carry the greatest weight when the time for a vote comes,
congressional candidate Bruce Slater said.
The Lancaster County
Democrat is seeking to unseat Republican U.S. Rep. Joseph R. Pitts
in the 16th Congressional District.
Slater said that as a
congressman he also would take into account the potential for
legislation to harm his constituents or the jobs that provide their
livelihood. Read more...
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