Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Unpardonable sin: flabby thinking


Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson has represented the state in Washington, D.C., for six terms, and he wants more.

He stopped by the newspaper last week and addressed questions about many of the major issues facing the nation today.

Simpson is amiable and easygoing, especially with the Congress currently in recess. His demeanor endears him to his constituents and other lawmakers.

As the author of the Central Idaho Economic Development Recreation Act, which would finally resolve the issue of protecting the White Cloud and Boulder mountains as wilderness, he put together a strong coalition of people with vastly different interests and attitudes.

Chances are good that he'll get another term, given that Idaho voters sent him to the Legislature for 14 years before they elevated him to the national level.

Even so, Simpson is daily committing what should be an unpardonable sin in a state and nation facing terrible financial times and trouble abroad.

He's guilty of flabby thinking.

His positions on issues such as regulating lending, getting control of health insurance costs, immigration, taxation and the economy are straight from the dog-eared Republican hymnal.

The lyrics are simple and easily repeated—good for campaigns, but tragically inadequate for the complex problems facing the country today.

The Republican hymnal praises reducing or eliminating government regulation on everything from banks to grass growers, increasing competition in the private sector, keeping taxes low and reducing the deficit as antidotes for the nation's ills.

It's the same dogma that delivered the biggest deficit in history, the worst economy since the Great Depression and the highest health care costs in the world.

The best example of Simpson's flabby thinking came when asked if he had succeeded in blocking an extension for unemployment benefits, what he would have told the approximately 1,000 residents of Blaine County who were receiving them.

Simpson first excused his no vote by saying he wasn't against extending the length of time benefits could be received, he just wanted them paid for with corresponding cuts in the federal budget.

Asked what specific items or programs could be cut, Simpson could not name a single program, saying instead that the budget is so big there must be something to cut.

Pressed again about what he would have told the unemployed to do if benefits had ended, he said he would have told them to "write their congressman."

It was a flip and flabby answer, and not the only one he delivered.

Our troubled nation needs better thinking than this—much, much better.




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