Dear Editor:
In a Jan. 4 Perspective, Congressman Luetkemeyer stated that he, as a member of the House, has been hard at work on legislation for his constituents. I view his performance differently.
I wonder where else in America can you "work," produce no usable results, and keep your job. If you pass a bill that you know will go nowhere that is not work, in my opinion, but rather a waste of our time and tax dollars. And then to brag about how few bills were passed by folks in the House is despicable. Over 40 votes to repeal ACA? Really? Yes, a budget was finally passed but the Senate had to ask House representatives 13 times before they would come to the table for discussion, not exactly a confidence boosting statistic.
This Congress ran on jobs so where are the programs designed to create them? Our current unemployment rate is at 7 percent and the House in its infinite "generosity" decided to discontinue long term benefits, yet, when this same rate was 5 percent during the Bush years long term unemployment was extended. Infrastructure all across the U.S. is crumbling and Americans are out of work. Don't we think it's time to change this?
Yes, I agree with Congressman Luetkemeyer that Congress needs to start working together but with a party that is heavily invested in voter suppression and ginning up hate at every turn, I don't see Republicans investing much effort in compromise or governance.
Congressman Luetkemeyer did mention that the House tried to move along the Keystone XL pipeline to create jobs, but this project is a disaster in the making. Job creation estimates for this project have been drastically reduced. More importantly the oil we'll get from this area is very dirty and development will be costly to the environment. Some estimates say that pollution levels emitted during the cleaning process would be the same as an additional 5.6 million cars on U.S. roads.
The water used to clean this oil becomes polluted containing a sludge that could eventually contaminate drinking water. And this oil is too dirty for U.S. consumption but rather will be sold overseas. We see the limitless resources of big oil at work here.
I do agree that much work needs to be done but here is where I will claim my status as a Missourian - show me results, Mr. Luetkemeyer.
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