I find Larry Persily`s opinion piece in the Oct. 11 Sentinel, “Congressional Republicans too selfish to govern,” to be a misleading half-truth customized to fit his anti-Republican propaganda.
He blames the Republican “mini-majority of eight members” for hijacking the remaining 427 House representatives, “creating turmoil, uncertainty,” etc. He conveniently leaves out that the Republican speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, was removed from his post because Democrats also voted against him. To be exact, 208 House Democrats and eight House Republicans voted to oust McCarthy in a no-confidence vote — the final tally was 216-210.
Without the major support by Democrats, Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz (plus seven others) could not do much except to bring the motion to vote. So how come Dems do not carry some responsibility as well for the “animosity and confusion” when they could have protected McCarthy from being fired and did not do so?
Also, Persily`s claim that “a 2% mini-minority” prevents 98% of government from functioning properly is wrong. The correct number in this case is 50.7% (216 votes to remove McCarthy, 208 by Democrats). I realize the figure of almost 51% does not fit Persily`s agenda as well as 2%, but fact are facts and math is math.
On the other hand, I fully agree with Persily that inflation is still too high, homelessness too prevalent, health care too costly, gun and drug deaths too common, attacks on personal freedom too numerous and real leaders too few and very far between. Adding the unsecure southern U.S. border, persistent supply chain problems and foreign policy failures perfectly describes well Bidenomics in action.
My opinion is that we have bigger problems to worry about than to freak out about replacing the fired speaker of the House with one who will keep his promises and understands that a $33 trillion national debt is a serious problem.
-- Ivan Simonek
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