Two Infinities
Thu, 26 Jan 2006
Rep. McCotter speaks to Garden City Kiwanians and Rotarians.
Today I attended a Kiwanis Club meeting in Garden City, Michigan. The speaker was Thad McCotter, U.S. Representive from the area. I might have mentioned earlier how Representive John Dingell gave an interview to KiwaniTalk last December. Where Mr. Dingell seemed the voice of reason itself, Mr. McCotter seemed rather the voice of blind ideology. Maybe I'm just getting old.
Among a number of rather startling pronouncements, Mr. McCotter held that
- Many members of Congress had been briefed and were thereby complicit in the NSA's warrantless surveillance of US citizens.
- The United States should not trade with China because it is communist.
- Mexico is a "failed state", and the United States should hold the Mexican government responsible for illegal immigration.
- If the United States moved to a single payer health insurance system, high unemployment like the 9.7% rate in Germany would be a consequence. Furthermore, a system like Canada's would necessarily result in a two tier system where only the extremely rich would receive quality health care.
- US reservists do not resent the government's measures to extend their active duty. Mr. McCotter has not heard any complaints from wounded US servicemen pertaining to treatment after release from Walter Reed Hospital. In fact, their only problems have been due to the protestors outside the hospital, who, however within their rights, are irresponsible.
So all this gets me thinking about unstable systems, though. Why does the difference between Mr. Dingell and Mr. McCotter seem so much more extreme than would represent the differences among the populations of the two suburban, contiguous congressional districts?
posted at: 14:49 | path: | permanent link to this entry
