Dear Editor,
The Great Bend Tribune reported that during his Jan. 3rd visit to Great Bend, Sen. Jerry Moran lamented the gridlock in Washington, D.C., stated that Democrats and Republicans are vying to score to points so can they get re-elected instead of serving their constituents and said he will do his part to end the rancor in Washington.
These are all key roadblocks to a solution to our federal debt problem.
Those of us in Republican states such as Kansas certainly have our share of the blame for the debt problem.
About half of our $14 trillion federal debt comes from the Bush era due to the unfunded Afghanistan and Iraq wars, the Bush-era tax cuts (that Sen. Moran voted for) and the recessions that started under Bush including the current recession.
The problem of banks that are too-big-to-fail, associated with the current recession, was legalized by the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act that Sen. Moran also voted for
Despite this shared responsibility, Sen. Moran made this statement about his Democratic colleagues, “the responsibility for America’s high unemployment... (and) soaring national debt... lies squarely at their feet.”
Sen. Moran wrote this in an appeal for the Free State Political Action Committee that he formed.
His stated objective is to collect money from Kansans so that he can be part of the outside money that will help finance campaigns in other states.
It is a near certainty that these campaigns will include truth bending negative ads that will disparage 12 of his fellow Senators with the intention of ending their careers in the Senate.
Sen. Moran’s sentiment about ending gridlock and rancor is admirable.
But it is difficult to see how his actions will do anything but increase both and suppress any opportunity we have to solve our federal debt problem.
John Sturn,
Ellinwood