Letter: Residents in 6th District deserve new leadership
By Pat Welter, Waite Park
Published: February 23. 2008 12:30AM - Last updated: February 23. 2008 2:05AMThe other day I received an automated call from U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann inviting me to participate in her town hall meeting.
The word "participate" is used loosely. I could stay on the line and listen to Bachmann respond to prerecorded questions and I could prerecord a question of my own, which was then screened before it was used. The notion of give and take, of dialogue, of real discussion in a real meeting was totally absent. I came to the conclusion that Bachmann's town hall meetings are a showy sham.
I was reminded of this when I read Times Writers Group member Karen Cyson's Feb. 15 column, "Bachmann's mailer costs us."
Her point is similar. The glossy, full color mailing she received from Bachmann using taxpayer dollars was also a showy sham for Bachmann's own propaganda purposes.
I, too, received several such mailings from Bachmann. The focus was on affordable health care for families, Medicare and children's health care. With the glitzy photography, the glossy paper and the nice, flowery language, the mailings looked good until I found out that they were another sham.
According to Project Vote Smart, Bachmann voted against appropriations for the Departments of Health and Human Services three times, against the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act and the State Children's Health Insurance Program four times, and against the Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act.
Her actions speak louder than her showy words. We in the 6th District deserve better. It's time for a change.
Deminn from Minnesota
Comment Posted: 2/23/2008 7:12:02 AMI got this call too, which I remember as being as an opportunity to listen to her positions on issues and provide input by staying on the line and speaking with a representative.
Which immediately got my polidar up and what I saw incoming was not an opportunity for me to ask questions or share input meaningfully, but an apportunity for a representative touch on my wallet. Maybe I was wrong, but as I hung up I remember feeling that my resources, and our resources as a nation, were being wasted in so many different ways with calls like that and the support of people and equipment to make them.
It demonstrated in my own home the problems that both sides of the crown party have with the system they've corrupted in order to keep themselves significant whether or not they are actuallt doing the people's business.
Very sad.
John Ellenbecker from St. Cloud
Comment Posted: 2/23/2008 9:33:02 AMThe glossy, full color mailing she received from Bachmann using taxpayer dollars was also a showy sham for Bachmann's own propaganda purposes.
Funny how Rebublicans who continually complain about wasteful government spending never - NEVER - seem to complain about their Rebublican representatives wasting tax dollars in this manner. I have repeatedly asked people like Gary Gross to identify the waste that they think exists in government - they have never identified this as waste. I will - this is waste - stop it now.
Cross Posted on Dump Bachmann
