A Hope For Change

I made reference below to Patrick Murphy’s Guest Opinion in today’s Bucks County Courier Times. Well, here it is.

We need to change the direction in Washington. The Republican Congress has continually turned its back on working families. We need leaders, not political rhetoric, to stand up and make a difference.

Congress gave our seniors Medicare Part D, a confusing mess that benefits the drug lobbyists who wrote the bill more than the seniors who need help. We’re paying more than ever at the pump and the president just got the memo that we’re addicted to foreign oil.

The cost of a college education has never been higher, but Congress cut $13 billion from student loans this year. And we’ve gone from a balanced federal budget that brought record surpluses to an all-time record deficit in just six years. Congress controls our spending, but continues to pour billions into special interest spending. Families in Bucks County are being squeezed, and Congress is asleep at the wheel.

I spent seven months as a captain in Iraq with the 82nd Airborne Division of the United States Army. I saw firsthand that this administration has left our men and women hanging out to dry with no end in sight. We didn’t have enough troops. We didn’t have enough equipment. And we didn’t have the tools we needed to win the peace once we toppled the Saddam regime.

The short-handed, short-sighted planning in Iraq opened my eyes to the failures of this administration. Their arrogance in failing to listen to the experts, such as Gen. Eric Shinseki, who said that we needed several hundred thousand troops if we wanted to win the peace, was underscored by their lack of commitment to those of us on the ground.

I grew up in Northeast Philadelphia, where my father was one of 7,000 police officers keeping the city of 1.5 million people safe. In al Rashid, Baghdad, the 82nd Airborne was responsible for keeping law and order. Al Rashid had the same size population, but there were only 3,500 of us. So when I heard this president say that we were well staffed in Iraq, I knew something wasn’t right. I knew we had to change the course over there.

When I came home and had the honor to work for Sen. John Kerry’s campaign in Pennsylvania, I traveled the state and had hundreds of conversations with people from all walks of life. Through these conversations, I saw that we’re not just on the wrong track in Iraq; we need to change the direction here at home as well.

We need a prescription drug plan that is written for the benefit of our seniors. Drug lobbyists wrote the bill we got, and as a result, Medicare can’t even negotiate or purchase drugs in bulk (as the Veterans Administration does). The pharmaceutical companies can charge whatever price they want. In Part D, the D stands for “disaster.” It needs to be scrapped and rewritten to provide a real benefit to seniors, not just postponed like others suggest.

We need an energy policy that invests in alternative energy sources rather than continuing to rely on foreign oil. We should be investing in hybrid technology and alternative fuel sources. Rather than giving billions in tax breaks to oil companies that pay nothing to drill on public land while gas hits $3 a gallon, Congress should insist on energy independence. We have the American ingenuity here in Pennsylvania to make that happen. There are alternative fuel companies that started right here in Pennsylvania and they’re looking to expand. If Congress would invest in alternative energy, we could pay less at the pump and bring good-paying jobs to Bucks County.

Finally, we can bring the troops home from Iraq and be safer at home if we pursue a national security policy that is tough and smart. As I’ve spent my mornings at SEPTA stations this month, it’s been obvious to me that we’re not doing everything we can to secure mass transit in this country. Pennsylvania has more nuclear reactors than any state other than Illinois, but I don’t feel safer. We need a responsible phased withdrawal from Iraq that brings the National Guard and Reserve home to serve their intended purpose – to keep us safe here at home.

And that’s why I’m running for Congress. It’s time that we send leaders to Washington who will bring a fresh perspective and new priorities. We cannot continue to believe that politics as usual will bring a different result.

A couple of months ago (I think), I said in a post that Andy Warren should give up and contact Ed Rendell about trying to get his old job back at PennDOT. I don’t know if he read this great Guest Opinion from the Democratic nominee who will defeat him on May 16th, but if Warren hasn’t followed up on that now, he should immediately after having read this well-crafted piece from a visionary candidate who has done his homework.