The following is a reprint of a guest column by David Lore in today's Newark Advocate.
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Congressman Pat Tiberi gave it the old Buckeye cheer when he spoke last April 22 at a Capitol Hill breakfast hosted by the OSU Alumni Association.
“Do something great,” Tiberi said, echoing the university slogan according to an article in the association newsletter.
“In Congress, you have the impact of making someone’s life better,” Tiberi said. “That’s what Ohio State prepared me to do.”
Tiberi, R- District 12, represents all or part of three central Ohio counties, including western Licking County.
So just what in Tiberi’s voting record this year would qualify as doing “something great?”
And how has he made “someone’s life better?”
Although a Republican, Tiberi says frequently that he’s all for change – just not the change being offered by President Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats.
That’s why he’s responded to Obama’s “Yes We Can” with his own battle cry: “No, You Won’t!”
After eight years of voting for nearly every plank in the Bush-Cheney platform, Tiberi since December has voted “no” on dozens of major pieces of legislation, including:
· The budgets of every government department – including education – with the exception of the military and homeland security.
· The cap-and-trade energy and environmental bill to reduce dependence on foreign oil and reduce use of polluting carbon fuels.
· A bill to modernize crumbling public schools
· A bill to allow local prosecution of hate crimes.
· The Volunteerism and Education Act to promote university efforts to improve their local communities.
· The Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2008, Obama’s stimulus package to avoid something not-so-great (another Great Depression).
· A Democratic-initiated bill to prevent mortgage foreclosures.
· Obama’s initiative to extend $15 billion in loans to U.S. automakers.
Tiberi has justified most of these votes by saying he’s just trying to protect us from the excesses of Democratic rule.
But how did his vote last January against the so-called “Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act” make anybody’s life better? Ledbetter, you may recall, sought relief from the courts – and Congress – after her employer for 19 years paid her less than males in the same job but kept it secret.
And last March, how did Tiberi’s vote(s) against the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act qualify as doing “something great?”
The measure, approved in the House with only one vote to spare, protects two million wilderness acres and tightens security at national parks and monuments.
According to news reports, the wilderness bill drew near-solid Republican opposition after the GOP failed to amend it to allow loaded firearms in national parks.
During the Bush years, Tiberi was a cheerleader for the $1 trillion Iraq war as well as hundreds of billions of dollars worth of tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. But now this reformed “spend-oholic” has joined the noisy right-wing shout out again Democratic health care reform.
“There's no doubt that health care reform is long overdue,” wrote Tiberi for The Advocate on Aug. 9. “However, the Democrats' plan continues the national spending spree.”
Want to “do something great,” Rep. Tiberi?
How about retiring.
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