Somebody Say Something

Each week I get Jerry Moran's newsletter. Each week I find reason to be outraged.

One week it was his insistence that ACORN was undermining the American democracy. Nonsense. Plus, the bill that the House passed was unconstitutional. (Read yesterday that ACORN is folding its tents and going away. Now who will the demagogic right flog?) Then there was "Cap and Tax," a right wing talking point.

It was on and on. I responded to Moran on several occasions. I pointed out that the anti-ACORN bill was a bill of attainder (which the court also found - no surprise) and therefore unconstitutional, and I never got a response from the congressman. I pointed out that "Cap and Tax" was a right wing talking point. I never got a response.

I keep getting "call your Congressman" notices from various liberal and progressive organizations and I ignore them. What's the point.

But this week's letter from Moran beats all.

Instead of working to improve our current system and reduce costs, this plan will substantially grow the Federal government, impose job-killing tax hikes on our fragile economy, increase our growing deficit, and cut Medicare by more than half a trillion dollars.

That quote, from his newsletter, is not justified by any facts. In fact, the CBO says just the opposite - that this will be good for small business and individuals because it will reduce the deficit. It will not cut Medicare in ways that effect the recipient. That's also been authoritatively demonstrated. But our Congressman doesn't care about facts. He apparently doesn't think we care about facts either.
Later in the newsletter he writes:

Like many Kansas families, my wife Robba, and I recently sat down at our kitchen table and finalized our tax return.

Now, this may in fact be entirely true, but it is entirely misleading.

It sounds as if he and his wife sat at their kitchen table and worked through, by hand, with paper and pencil and calculator and tax tables, their 1040. Sure they did. You know that Jerry Moran has his taxes done by some high powered firm, either in Washington or in Kansas City - the likelihood that he has his taxes done by H.R. Block or does them using one of the online softwares is slim to none. Moran is a fairly well to do lawyer who has spent much of his life in Congress - he is an insider. He and his wife may have sat at the kitchen table and signed the documents, but that's about it. C'mon. Be honest.

I'm pretty much tired of this kind of lying on the part of our Republican officials, and I call bullshit on it!