Retire Garrett

Unless you’ve been in a below ground bunker that lacks cable or Internet access today, you have probably heard about South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford’s dalliance with an Argentinian woman. Sanford, who previously served 3 terms in the House of Representatives, was considered a potential Republican candidate for President in 2012 and one of the rising stars in the Grand Ol’ Party. At this point Sanford’s chances of getting the 2010 nomination are all but eliminated, and his future in politics is in similarly shaky territory. Meanwhile Scott Garrett has never, to our knowledge, had an affair with an Argentinian woman. But he does have 1 shameful similarity with the disgraced Governor: inexplicably voting against beneficial and important legislation in Congress. Read more…

Back in 2007 Rep. Garrett supported President Bush’s proposed $28 billion in cuts to the Medicaid program. Many pundits agreed with Bush’s cuts, and they may have been correct in principle, but not in practice.

The $28 billion in cuts Bush proposed and Garrett supported were aimed directly at programs serving the developmentally disabled. As reported by Blog the Fifth the cuts would have done the following:

…permit states to deny coverage for drugs, even when medically necessary…phase out Medicaid reimbursement for some services, including some transportation and certain administrative costs related to Medicaid services (e.g. physical, speech, and occupational therapies) provided to special education students…may jeopardize such “habilitative” services as social skills training, employment-related rehabilitation, and some transportation services.

During high school I volunteered in a program for children with Autism. It was heartbreaking to see what those kids had to go through. They desperately needed the social skills therapy we provided, just as they need certain drugs and other rehab services to deal with their conditions.

For Scott Garrett to decimate services for the developmentally disabled is despicable. Not only that but it is poor economic policy. Without federally mandated programs that help the developmentally disabled individual to learn to live independently, a huge burden is placed on families’ finances. Aging parents are forced to cut back their work hours if not quit their jobs altogether to care for their developmentally disabled child, who now lacks the rehab services to help themselves.

Blog the Fifth aptly sums up Scott Garrett’s ludicrous support of Medicaid cuts:

We must not continue to balance the budget on the backs of the defenseless simply because they don’t have lobbyists.

If you contact Rep. Garrett about why he  wanted to cut programs for the developmentally disabled his office would give you an articulate and semi-feasible answer. But there is no justifiable reason for him to cut programs for people who desperately need them. It is bad government, economically shortsighted, and morally repugnant. There are no excuses.

Herb Jackson’s Capital Games column today has an interesting snippet about Representative Scott Garrett:

Rep. Garrett opposed an auto industry bailout when it was proposed by the Bush administration in late 2008, and signed a letter suggesting the companies go through bankruptcy reorganization rather than receive government support.

But after hearing from constituents, he is not happy with the closure of car dealerships in his district.

In a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and presidential adviser Lawrence Summers, Garrett said the closures “represent the direct loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs and millions of dollars to local economies.”

He demanded to know the reasoning used by a White House task force in pressing for Chrysler and General Motors to shed dealerships.

Garrett has this point on his side: When the Obama administration took an active hand in managing the car companies, it inherited the heat that comes with the disruptive changes the companies have to make to stay in business.

But worth noting: At a hearing in December, Garrett criticized the restructuring plans submitted by Ford, Chrysler and GM for putting that disruption off.

“The question is, do we close dealerships in 2012 or restructure union obligations in 2011? None of that’s going to help us right now: Things have to be done sooner,” Garrett said.

This is the same Garrett who votes against anything that has anything to do with the federal government spending money – if it isn’t on Iraq. and this is the same Garrett who said recently that TOO MUCH REGULATION was to blame for the financial crisis, and that the free markets should sort themselves out.

And yes, this is the same Garrett who voted against the stimulus bill (the largest middle class tax cut in history) that also was to bring thousands of jobs to his district, spoke out against the auto bailout and wanted the auto companies to go through bankruptcy – just as the “free market” would have it.

But when the inevitable happened and dealerships in his (and my) district closed – he wonders how the free market would allow that and feigns outrage.

Interesting.

We hear a lot from Scott Garrett about the free market. He praises it. He thinks the unfettered free market is a boon to America. He thinks the lack of an entirely free market caused the economic meltdown. We now know Scott Garrett was wrong.

There is agreement across the spectrum from the left to the right that the abolishment of regulatory oversight was a major contribution to the meltdown and our recent economic troubles. No one was watching the cookie jar.

The free market philosophy can only work if the people handling our banks and financial institutions are honest and trustworthy. Of course, many are but too many are not. Hello Madoff, Thain, Enron, AIG, Bear Stearns etc. This is not new. History clearly shows how people seek advantages over others, permit greed to overcome good character, conform when they need to whistle blow, take risks with other peoples’ assets and money and more.  This is not new and it is not likely to stop or change.

Is Scott Garrett living in another dimension – way out somewhere?

Since it is difficult to be assured of honesty and trustworthiness, our economic institutions must be monitored and appropriate regulations must be put in place to prevent bad behavior from undermining our country. While these measures would not guarantee an end to dips in the economy and high unemployment rates, it would certainly decrease the chances of their occurring in such an extreme fashion.

Additionally these measures would prevent people from losing the entirety of their savings and pensions.

The unfettered free market has led to a weakened America. It is actually patriotic to support appropriate regulation to keep America strong.

Scott Garrett – are you so naïve or just in bed with the financial lobbyists?

District 5 voters, we really do need a Congressman that understands history along with human behavior and will vote to protect our interests.  Say No to Garrett and YES to a strong America..