With the government being shutdown for almost two weeks now,
both Congressman and constituents are growing weary. Congressman Leonard Lance yet again voted against the bill
to raise the government "debt ceiling" for spending. Even
though he is strongly against the enduring government shutdown he seems to be
going against his word or the way that he is being quoted in the Press.
It
seems as though there is a backlash that has finally begun from Lance’s
constituents back in New Jersey.
One example is a resident of the Westfield area. She wrote to her newspaper complaining
that now Lance’s office seems to be refusing certain phone calls made by his
own constituents. This is quite
troubling because his re-election does depend on the feelings of his
constituents as well as his GOP.
According to this particular angered constituent he seems to be voting
more extreme than even his GOP but aligning more-so with the Tea Party. He has voted approximately 42 times
against Obamacare in this new budget for the federal government. However, like I said in a previous blog
post: Obamacare is not an issue that is to be debated over in this current
budget bill. Since this seems to
be one of the only conflicts both the
House and the Senate cannot agree upon, they are just wasting precious time. Lance also talks constantly of how
disappointed he is in Congress’ progress, and speaking about this government
shutdown and the way Members are acting is the exact reason why the American
people view Congress in such a negative light. However…
I
find it extremely interesting that Lance took the time from Washington to
travel all the way back to one of his districts in order to have a news
conference concerning cancer. He
traveled all the way back to the Steeplechase Cancer Center at the Somerset
Medical Center in New Jersey to advocate for an earlier routine mammogram age
and encouraged breast examination and self-examination age to work on earlier
prevention. Congressman Lance at
the age of only twelve years old, lost his own mother to breast cancer. He was quoted, “We know that early protection
is the best protection”(Deak 2013).
It was definitely a topic where he was able to sympathize with the people
from a very personal experience, which would definitely be a factor that may
help him in the next election. I
think it is really valuable the information he emphasized, and it was definitely
good publicity. However, my concern is the issues that
are currently at-hand with the federal government
shutdown. Since he is particularly
one of the individual representatives who has had a hard time with a
compromise, shouldn’t his priority be with this conflict resolution and putting
forth more effort to re-open the government? I think from the previous constituent’s stated concerns,
many may be angered by his attendance at this conference. There may be greater issues at hand for
this coming week and now past week.
The way he speaks at this cancer conference and is encouraging women
throughout the state to get tested earlier for breast cancer is not going to be
moving the resolution forward on the Hill. As the constituent stated in the previous article, and I
think she has a point here: “Come election time, Leonard Lance will be
judged on his record, not his rhetoric” (Bitette 2013).
**Sources:
Bitette, Nicole. "Congressman Leonard Lance Voted for
the Shutdown, Resident Says." Westfield
Patch, October 13, 2013. http://westfield.patch.com/groups/politics-and- elections/p/congressman-leonard-lance-voted-for-the-shutdown-resident-says (accessed
October 13, 2013).
(accessed October 13, 2013)
No comments:
Post a Comment