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Letter to the Editor – Democratic Obstructionism

Dear Editor:

I generally enjoy reading What About This by Wayne William Cipriano, but this past week his comparison of the Democrat’s objecting to virtually every single cabinet nominee as equivalent to the Republican obstructionism during the Obama administration is in error and this is why.  The Democrats had legitimate reasons to oppose most of Trump’s nominees.  Here are a few examples.

Betsy DeVos, Education Secre-tary, had no experience working in education and had never held an elected office.  Furthermore, her family has donated $200 million to the Republican Party since 1970 in effect purchasing her post.  Talk about pay for play.  Her claim to fame was being in favor of vouchers and charter schools.  She and her family have been involved in charter schools in Michigan, and the New York Times says Michigan is “among the worst places to argue that choice has made schools better.  Most charter schools perform below the state average.”  Obama’s Secretary of Education was Arne Duncan who worked in the field of education from 1992-2009 when he was appointed as Secretary of Education.

Rick Perry, Energy Secretary, apparently had no idea what the job entailed.  He thought that he’d be the National Ambassador for the oil and gas industry and had no idea that he would be responsible for protecting and managing the nation’s nuclear weapons.  Obama’s Energy Secretary was Ernest Moniz a nuclear physicist.

Scott Pruitt, E.P.A. Administrator, while attorney general for the state of Oklahoma sued the E.P.A. 13 times, but is now responsible for its function. Obama’s E.P.A. Adminis-trator, Gina McCarthy had a 25 year career working at both state and local levels to develop policies on economic growth, energy, transpor-tation and environment and held a Master’s of Science in Environment Health Engineering Planning and Policy.  I’d like someone running the E.P.A. who will protect our land, water, and air from pollution and not side with the polluters.

Another large difference between the Republicans and the Democrats is seen from the different responses we have received from Sen. Blunt and Sen. McCaskill.  When we emailed and/or called both Senators asking them not to vote for various nominees after we’d researched each one, Blunt’s response was the party line spouted back to us.  McCaskill, on the other hand, said she would listen to what was said during the hearings and make her choices accordingly.  Sen. Schumer has also made it clear on more than one occasion that the Democrats would be willing to work with the Republicans to get legislation passed when they can find common ground.  Aren’t compromise and the welfare for all of our citizens what our government is supposed to be about?

Mr. Cipriano, I think the Democrats we’ve sent to Washington do give a “flip” for this country and are doing everything they can to protect us from bad cabinet choices of unqualified people and draconian cuts to assistance for our most vulnerable.  If one takes the time to look at all of the choices this President has made, it is hard, if not impossible, to find a single cabinet choice that was qualified and didn’t have an agenda that supports big business and big banks or destruction of the Cabinet position they hold.  Good reason to object.

Jeanne Scrivner

                     Ava, Missouri