Day 19: Mike Castle’s Betrayal of Delaware
The LTE that I submitted to the News Journal yesterday:
With his vote against the Stimulus Package (and against the largest middle class tax cut in history), Congressman Mike Castle definitively demonstrates that his allegiances are no longer with the citizens of Delaware he was elected to represent. Mr. Castle was quick to support every facet of President Bush’s agenda that increased both the deficit and the debt: tax cuts that took us from historic surpluses to historic deficits; voted for Patriot Act provisions that increased spending on multiple fronts, including unneeded surveillance of Americans; an unnecessary war in Iraq that adds to our debt burden every day; and Medicare Part D, which made sure that the government would not be able to negotiate preferred pricing of prescriptions paid for by taxpayers.
In addition, he supported the massive winding back (and just plain ignoring) of the regulatory environment that kept the banking and credit institutions from taking on excessive risk; and supported every bit of conservative cant and legislation that led us to this broken economy. And now that his party has thoroughly broken the US economy, he feels no obligation to help fix it. Based upon this vote, his only obligation seems to be only to his party, meaning that Delawareans now have 2 years to live with a Congressional Representative who thinks it is his job to represent Washington Republicans. We know that Washington Republicans simply do not care that real people are losing their jobs, their homes and their health care – their interests are only in the next election and in partisan politics. Every once in awhile, Americans face a crisis that should transcend the usual party politics and demand that our elected officials work together to craft a solution to that crisis. This massive recession that is now more than a year old, with many more months (perhaps another year) of contraction left is one of those crises. I know that many citizens of Delaware are very disappointed that Mr. Castle has abdicated his responsibilities to us, and call on him to remember that while both Democrats and Republicans have returned him to office year after year, now is the time to begin thinking about sending someone to Congress who will unfailingly put the interests of the people of Delaware first.
They won’t publish it (I think it is too long), but it is time to be heard on this. And time to be heard often. Write your LTE expressing your thoughts on Castle’s vote and submit it to the NJ here. Make your entry short, and to the point. You do have to leave your name and phone number and if they decide to print your letter, they will call you to verify that beforehand.
Keep a copy of what you sent in, and post it in the comments if you like — only here you can do that anonymously. If you don’t want to post your masterpiece, just let us know you sent one.
Tags: Mike Castle
Cassandra, they may print it. The limit is 300 words so they will likely edit it. That would be too bad because it is a work of art.
Shout out to U.I. this morning — thanks for all your help on the phones yesterday!
Excellent letter. You’ve illuminated the differences between Castle’s actions when Bush was President and now in a clear – and damning – manner. It’s all so obvious… at least to most Americans.
Great letter. I second Cassandra’s call for everryone to write a letter today.
Day # 19 of your incessant hatred and unfounded arguments.
The stimulus bill will stimulate a transfer of generational debt like never before.
The middle class will be socked with tax increases which will wipe out any small decrease Obama has in mind.
The tax cuts you bemoan did not cause deficits- runaway spending did.
Part D is hugely popular with seniors, you need new material.
Here is mine:
Great idea, I’ll have to compose a letter as well. You guys have taken all the good writing already!
You’re welcome Rebecca. I think Lisa must be doing a great job at contacting people because there were hardly any callers I encountered that did not know about the election on Thursday.
Mike, kindly inform us what is factually wrong with these two LTEs, instead of your hypocrisy, your knowing full well that your party’s policies have produced a recession so deep that huge measures are required at this time in an attempt to stimulate a recovery and to invest in our future.
If anything, I don’t think the package is big enough, for which your party deserves the blame as we speak, for your lock-step unwillingness to properly address this crisis, other than your stupidly wanting more of the same, tax cuts that favor the wealthy. No Mike, NO! You already lost, and you continue to lose!!!
All your party appears to care about is the 2010 election cycle. If that is the case, I believe you will lose even more, hopefully even Mike Castle’s seat!
You tell ’em, Perry! 🙂