Free Daily Headlines :

  • COVID-19
  • Vaccine Info
  • Money
  • Politics
  • Education
  • Health
  • Justice
  • More
    • Environment
    • Economic Development
    • Gaming
    • Investigations
    • Social Services
    • TRANSPORTATION
  • Opinion
    • CT Viewpoints
    • CT Artpoints
DONATE
Reflecting Connecticut’s Reality.
    COVID-19
    Vaccine Info
    Money
    Politics
    Education
    Health
    Justice
    More
    Environment
    Economic Development
    Gaming
    Investigations
    Social Services
    TRANSPORTATION
    Opinion
    CT Viewpoints
    CT Artpoints

LET�S GET SOCIAL

Show your love for great stories and out standing journalism
CT VIEWPOINTS -- opinions from around Connecticut

How little we expect of our representatives

  • CT Viewpoints
  • by Peter Thalheim
  • September 6, 2018
  • View as "Clean Read" "Exit Clean Read"

A good politician avoids talking about subjects that are uncomfortable. Connecticut has five U.S. representatives and two U.S. senators. All are Democrats for now. They represent our state of approximately 3.5 million people. The one existential threat to the survival of Connecticut is its $70 billion in unfunded pension and health-care benefits to existing and past state employees. With an annual budget of a little over $20 billion per year, the state cannot pay 100 percent of these past obligations and still hope to keep workers and capital in the state to pay the rest of the bills.

So it seems to me that the seven Congressional representatives all have it easy as they get a pass on having any concrete plan to address the biggest threat to health care, employment, schools, trains, roads, bridges, municipal aid, parks and the environment in Connecticut and the future of the state as more and more tax dollars at the state and local level are sucked up for past and present promises to state and municipal workers.

With skill and capital leaving the state at accelerated rates following Gov. Dannel Malloy’s tax hikes, I wonder whether our federal representatives believe that Connecticut can be helped by encouraging free enterprise, fewer regulations, fewer mandates and lower taxes or do they believe the statist view of a bigger administrative state with more rules, mandates, fees, taxes and regulations is the correct route? Please enlighten us.

So if our congressional representatives can get a pass and can continue to evade this existential threat of $70 billion in unfunded pension and health care obligations, I believe we can at least ask, what else are they doing?

Are they protecting American interests and human rights in this hemisphere? I am afraid the record is thin.

What about the Venezuelan, Nicaraguan and Cuban disasters?

What about our American brothers and sisters in Central and South America? It seems to me that our federal representatives are not aware of the humanitarian and economic disaster in socialist Venezuela.

Over 80 percent of the population is malnourished. Basic medical supplies are non-existent. Political freedom is at an end. Millions of Venezuelan’s have fled this socialist hell, over two million since 2014, yet I have heard very little out of any of our representatives or senators consistently criticizing this socialist disaster. Senator Cory Booker said silence is complicity.

In Nicaragua, peaceful demonstrators against the Socialist Daniel Ortega have been executed with Russian sniper rifles just this past spring, and what are our federal representatives doing about it?

When Socialist Cuba and the Socialist leader, Victor Chavez, of Venezuela declared “Cuba-zuela” as a combined revolutionary project, I did not read headlines of any of our federal representatives taking exception to Cuban involvement in Venezuela. That the Cuban military sent interior police experts to Venezuela to help Chavez and later Maduro socialists consolidate their power through systematic political repression, our representatives’ continued silence concerns me.

These are our American brothers and sisters. The Cuban military will not let Venezuela free themselves as the Cuban military and Cuban socialists need Venezuelan oil to fuel their socialist dictatorship. Which congressman, congresswoman or senator will speak up? Silence!

Cuban and North Korean slavery

It also appears that all five members of Congress and the two senators don’t care that Cuba and North Korea presently engage in slavery. Cuba sends health care workers and “teachers” to Venezuela in exchange for oil. It is slavery because, the families and children of the Cuban workers are kept as hostages in Cuba to help assure the return of the workers. The workers only keep pennies on the dollar for what the Cuban government charges Venezuela for their work.

By the same token, scores of North Koreans are hired out to the Chinese and Russians to work under very hard conditions in occupations such as construction. The North Korean worker’s families are kept at home to assure the proper conduct and return of the forced laborers. The laborers only see pennies on the dollar for what their socialist government hires then out for. Here again, North Korea earns millions in hard currency for their weapons programs. Our Connecticut’s federal representatives silence on this is deafening. Senator Cory Booker (D-New Jersey) says silence is complicity.

I believe every Cuban and North Korean man or woman is a person versus property that Cuba and North Korea can export. Why are our federal representatives silent? One or two votes on sanctions don’t make a policy. My expectation of a U.S. representative is that they are strong advocates of the rights contained in the Bill of Rights and to speak out against the systematic denial of those rights and countries that are diametrically opposed to the Bill of Rights.

I would like my representatives to speak out as forcefully on this human trafficking by Korea and Cuba as they do on other human trafficking. To do so, however, would offend the ascending progressive wing of the Democrat Party. So we hear nothing.

Iran meddling in Venezuela and Argentina

When Argentinian prosecutor, Alberto Nisman, was killed hours before he was to give testimony in January, 2015, on Iranian involvement in the bombing of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association in Buenos Aires, which killed 85 and wounded hundreds more, what did each representative and senator say?

I am concerned that Iranians are assisting the socialist government of Nicholas Maduro today to suppress dissent in Venezuela. Venezuela is on the American continent. Why are Iranians meddling here? I believe our federal representatives have been very lax on Iranian meddling in this hemisphere. By all means, please speak to this Iranian meddling.

I think it must be nice to receive a collective pass from the main media on all of these issues. It is safer for these representatives to rail against nominee Judge Brett Kavanagh who will be confirmed as a Supreme Court Justice, regardless of our representatives’ objections. It is safer for our representatives to speak about health care insurance than to discuss the island of waste plastic in the Pacific Ocean, larger than the State of Texas, which was made in China and is being added to daily by China and India.

How little we expect of our federal representatives… and how little we citizens know about what they do.

Peter Thalheim lives in the Riverside section of Greenwich.


CTViewpoints welcomes rebuttal or opposing views to this and all its commentaries. Read our guidelines and submit your commentary here.

Sign up for CT Mirror's free daily news summary.

Free to Read. Not Free to Produce.

The Connecticut Mirror is a nonprofit newsroom. 90% of our revenue comes from people like you. If you value our reporting please consider making a donation. You'll enjoy reading CT Mirror even more knowing you helped make it happen.

YES, I'LL DONATE TODAY

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

SEE WHAT READERS SAID

RELATED STORIES
Education is the cornerstone of democracy
by John J. Petillo

The events of January 6 represent an inflection point for our democracy and, in truth, for our concept of civil society. Much has already been written about the political and cultural tides that swept our nation toward these events —and a real understanding of their significance will not be possible for some time, in part because the reactions and responses to these events are still unfolding as I write.

A rebuttal to ‘A call to save arms’
by Tyler David Gavitt

A response to "A call to save arms: is vaccination really the solution?" published January 25: The aforementioned article, written by Genevieve Diamant, stands to do potentially significant damage to the efforts by the citizens and government of the State of Connecticut to bring under control the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Holocaust, history and today’s politics
by Avinoam Patt and Laura Hilton

On January 6 the world watched as domestic terrorists stormed the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, DC.  The pictures seared into our memories of this day are replete with symbols of hatred, racism, and extremism: The Confederate battle flag, the white power hand gesture, and the gallows erected near the Capitol reflecting pool. What many may not have noticed within this sea of white supremacy was the prominence of anti-Semitic images.

Sticker shock
by Eric W. Kuhn

It would award a modest amount to families making less than $203k in the first year of the program, ramping up to as much as $1,800 in year four. On a sliding scale, the money would also go to families making up to $682,000 a year. Really? That's 8.7 times the median household income in America.

It’s time to standardize arts grants in Connecticut
by Mandi Jackson and Daniel Fitzmaurice

What all arts organizations need most right now is multi-year, unrestricted general operating support with simplified, fair processes for accountability. This would allow the arts community to better respond to the needs of Connecticut residents instead of the political process, lobbyists, or wealthy donors.

Support Our Work

Show your love for great stories and outstanding journalism.

$
Select One
  • Monthly
  • Yearly
  • Once
Artpoint painter
CT ViewpointsCT Artpoints
Opinion Education is the cornerstone of democracy
by John J. Petillo

The events of January 6 represent an inflection point for our democracy and, in truth, for our concept of civil society. Much has already been written about the political and cultural tides that swept our nation toward these events —and a real understanding of their significance will not be possible for some time, in part because the reactions and responses to these events are still unfolding as I write.

Opinion A rebuttal to ‘A call to save arms’
by Tyler David Gavitt

A response to "A call to save arms: is vaccination really the solution?" published January 25: The aforementioned article, written by Genevieve Diamant, stands to do potentially significant damage to the efforts by the citizens and government of the State of Connecticut to bring under control the COVID-19 pandemic.

Opinion The Holocaust, history and today’s politics
by Avinoam Patt and Laura Hilton

On January 6 the world watched as domestic terrorists stormed the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, DC.  The pictures seared into our memories of this day are replete with symbols of hatred, racism, and extremism: The Confederate battle flag, the white power hand gesture, and the gallows erected near the Capitol reflecting pool. What many may not have noticed within this sea of white supremacy was the prominence of anti-Semitic images.

Opinion Sticker shock
by Eric W. Kuhn

It would award a modest amount to families making less than $203k in the first year of the program, ramping up to as much as $1,800 in year four. On a sliding scale, the money would also go to families making up to $682,000 a year. Really? That's 8.7 times the median household income in America.

Artwork Grand guidance
by Anne:Gogh

In a world of systemic oppression aimed towards those of darker skintones – representation matters. We are more than our equity elusive environments, more than numbers in a prison and much more than victims of societal dispositions. This piece depicts a melanated young man draped in a cape ascending high above multiple forms of oppression. […]

Artwork Shea
by Anthony Valentine

Shea is a story about race and social inequalities that plague America. It is a narrative that prompts the question, “Do you know what it’s like to wake up in new skin?”

Artwork The Declaration of Human Rights
by Andres Chaparro

Through my artwork I strive to create an example of ideas that reflect my desire to raise social consciousness, and cultural awareness. Jazz music is the catalyst to all my work, and plays a major influence in each piece of work.”

Artwork ‘A thing of beauty. Destroy it forever’
by Richard DiCarlo | Derby

During times like these it’s often fun to revisit something familiar and approach things with a different slant. I have been taking some Pop culture and Art masterpieces and applying the vintage 1960’s and 70’s classic figures (Fisher Price, little people) to the make an amusing pieces. Here is my homage to Fisher -Price, Yellow […]

Twitter Feed
A Twitter List by CTMirror

Engage

  • Reflections Tickets & Sponsorships
  • Events
  • Donate
  • Newsletter Sign-Up
  • Submit to Viewpoints
  • Submit to ArtPoints
  • Economic Indicator Dashboard
  • Speaking Engagements
  • Commenting Guidelines
  • Legal Notices
  • Contact Us

About

  • About CT Mirror
  • Announcements
  • Board
  • Staff
  • Sponsors and Funders
  • Donors
  • Friends of CT Mirror
  • History
  • Financial
  • Policies
  • Strategic Plan

Opportunity

  • Advertising and Sponsorship
  • Speaking Engagements
  • Use of Photography
  • Work for Us

Go Deeper

  • Steady Habits Podcast
  • Economic Indicator Dashboard
  • Five Things

The Connecticut News Project, Inc. 1049 Asylum Avenue, Hartford, CT 06105. Phone: 860-218-6380

© Copyright 2021, The Connecticut News Project. All Rights Reserved. Website by Web Publisher PRO