Rep. Kenny Marchant's Latest Junk Mail

I live in Texas' 24th U.S. Congressional District, which means that from time to time I get political junk mail from Rep. Kenny Marchant. Since it is usually filled with lies and half-truths, I normally toss it into the nearest trashcan. Yesterday, his latest propaganda tome arrived in my mailbox. Since we do have an election coming up, I thought I'd see what he's got to say. Surely, he's ready to apologize for the many Republican screw-ups since his election.

So I held my nose and read the brochure. Seems Kenny thinks Republicans are about one election away from saving the whole world! He starts painting his rosy picture with strengthening the economy. Kenny thinks the economy is just great. He says that 5.4 million new jobs have been created since August of 2003. What he doesn't say, is that most of these jobs are low-paying service-oriented jobs, while high-paying manufacturing and computer jobs are still being outsourced to foreign countries. Kenny then tells us how lucky we are to have only 4.6% unemployment. He seems to ignore that the unemployment in the DFW area, where his district is located, is more like 5.5%, and it is even higher in many parts of Texas. He also doesn't mention that this figure only counts those applying for or receiving unemployment benefits. Those who have exhausted their benefits are not counted.

Kenny then wants us to know that because of Republican tax cuts, tax revenues have grown this year, as if the two had anything to do with each other. What he doesn't want you to know, is that tax revenues are up slightly because the economy has shown modest growth. He also doesn't tell you that a larger share of the revenue is being paid by the middle and working classes, and a smaller part is being paid by the rich. If the Republicans had not given the rich those tax cuts, the revenue could have been up even more, and maybe we could begin to pay back some of the enormous debts that Georgie is creating.

Of course, Kenny has found a magic bullet to fix whatever might be wrong with the economy. He wants to restore the line-item veto. I guess he thinks Georgie has been so competent and responsible, that we should give him even more power. Kind of makes me wonder if Kenny has ever taken an IQ test.

Then Kenny moves on to energy independence. He thinks we'll be fine if we just drill for oil in the Arctic National Refuge and the Gulf of Mexico, and then reduce restrictions on building of new refineries. I found it hard to believe he actually called for these measures. Obviously, protecting the enviornment is not something very important to him.

On securing our borders, Kenny has climbed on board the racist right-wing anti-immigrant bandwagon. He makes it clear that he is not in favor of "amnesty" for anyone. He even goes so far as to refer to undocumented worker's as criminals. And of course, he's in favor of a fence and other technologies that won't work. After all, it's just money, and scaring voters will bring him votes - at least that's what he thinks.

Then Kenny says he wants to increase access to healthcare, but he didn't really mean it. All he wants to do is increase access to healthcare savings accounts, make it harder to sue a doctor, and increase small business access to healthcare plans. Even if all three were done, this wouldn't even make a dent in the 40 million uninsured Americans. I guess Kenny doesn't want to talk about those Americans.

Kenny finishes his fictional tract with supporting the troops. Somehow he gets through this whole topic without mentioning Iraq a single time [or Afghanistan]. Could it be that he doesn't want to draw a voter's attention to the mess the Republicans have created in the Mideast?

Thank goodness we have a choice in District 24 this year! Kenny is being opposed by Democrat Gary R. Page. I'll be voting for the candidate who understands reality and logic. I'll be voting for Gary R. Page this year. Please join me, and let's get rid of Kenny Marchant.