WILLIAMSON
FOR
U.S. CONGRESS
DEMOCRAT
CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT 6
“The Future Can Be Ours.”
480-607-9726
Dear Friend,
What does David Schweikert mean when he says, repeatedly, that he wants
“to save the Republic?” Certainly he could not be referring to the results
of his behavior during the government shutdowns in the fall of 2011 and in
the fall of 2013.
In the fall of 2011, Rep. Schweikert, as part of the notorious Gang of 40
in the House, supported the government shutdown and protest against
raising the debt ceiling. One end result of this protest? Standard and
Poor’s downgraded the U.S. debt rating from a AAA to a AA+.
(“S & P Downgrades the U.S. debt rating,” HOUSINGWIRE,
Aug. 5, 2011, www.housingwire.com). How is that “saving the Republic?”
It certainly didn’t save our Republic’s financial reputation, for one thing;
nor did it inspire confidence in investors around the
world in our country’s ability to make responsible
financial decisions.
In the fall of 2013, Rep. Schweikert, again as a “gang” member of the Gang
of 40 House Republicans who are specialists in the politics of spite,
perpetrated, along with his nihilistic colleagues, a government shutdown
that resulted in about 800,000 federal employees being furloughed for
approximately two weeks. (“Shutdown to Cost U.S. Billions, Analysts Say,
Eroding Confidence,” Annie Lowrey and Michael D. Shear, New York Times,
October 18, 2013, www.nytimes.com). That’s a heck of a loss of income
for those employees who have families
and loved ones dependent upon them. How does that achieve his goal of
“saving the Republic?” It certainly didn’t save our Republic
economically, that’s for sure. When our federal employees–about 800,000 of them
in this case–can’t pick up their paychecks, it not only hurts them and
their families, but also, with their decreased economic consumption, puts
a dent in our economy as a whole.
My mother’s father’s father–one of my great-grandfathers–held the
crucial position of Fire-Watcher in the centuries-old city of Steyr,
Austria. He and his wife and their 15 children lived in The Tabor–The
Tower–which, on a high ridge, looked, and still looks, down spectacularly
on the Steyr River Valley. I know, because I was there in 1971–when I was
20–and had a beer at what is now The Tabor Restaurant, the one-time home
years and years ago of one of my ancestors and his family.
My great-grandfather Steininger’s job was to watch for fires in the town
of Steyr below. Presumably, it didn’t hurt to have 15 kids who could help
out with this! When he saw a wisp or curl of smoke somewhere in the valley
beneath him, he sent a message by horseback rider, or maybe telegraph, to
the authorities in the city who then took the water-wagons to the place of
the smoke’s origin.
Analogously, I feel I’m in a position similar to that of my Austrian
great-grandfather. I see fiscal smoke–evidence of fiscal fires that
should never have started except that Rep. David Schweikert, along with
his buddies in the Gang of 40, couldn’t resist the opportunity to try to
make our President and then-Secretary of Treasury, Timothy Geithner, look
bad. The consequence of these fiscal fires was that, in Shutdown #1,
our country’s debt rating was downgraded; then, for Shutdown
#2, about 800,000 federal employees, plus our economy as whole, got burned when
those workers couldn’t, as a result of Rep. Schweikert’s actions as a
member of the Gang of 40, be gainfully employed for approximately two weeks.
When elected your congressman, I will douse such unnecessary fiscal fires
before they have a chance to spread and cause damage to our country’s
debt rating or to the thousands of hard-working federal employees who
deserve to be paid in a timely manner. I will not engage, as has David
Schweikert, in shutdown joyrides at the expense of taxpayer dollars and to
the detriment of the financial reputation of the United States. My goal
will not be to disparage the thoughtful efforts of my President and his
Secretary of the Treasury, but to support them.
If you wish to contribute to my campaign, please check out my website at
williamsonforuscongress.com. Click on “Make a Donation” and, by means
of safe and secure PayPal, donate to say yes to your Democratic candidate
in CD6 who has your best interests–and not those of obstinate
idealogues–at heart. If you would prefer to send a check, the address to
which you can mail your donation is available on that same page on my
website. Please be sure to include your name, address, and the name of
your employer and occupation.
The Future Can Be Ours if we reject the politics of spite as practiced by
David Schweikert and his gang of 40 spoilsports in the House of
Representives. My objective, as your congressman, will be, reasonably, to
play considerately with others in the congressional sandbox and not to
throw sand in the face of the American people by insisting, unrationally,
on having my own way. I’m a graduate of Saguaro High School in Scottsdale;
and when I was a student there, I was a member of the Humanities Club. (If
you check out the Saguaro Sentinel yearbook from 1969, or perhaps earlier,
you will see me in the club photo.) One goal of that club, as I remember,
was to understand and appreciate the viewpoints of other cultures and
peoples and not to have a closed mind about things. I respect the right of
extreme Republicans–some might call them Teabaggers–such as David
Schweikert to hold their particular ideology; but I do not respect their
efforts to disrupt and make
dysfuntional the responsible operations of government.
That is why I ask, beginning on October 9th with the mail-in ballots, for
your vote so that the fiscally hazardous fires started by the shutdown
shenanigans of Rep. Schweikert and his Gang of 40 friends, can be doused
before they have a chance to spread and damage our nation’s debt rating
and the lives of our federal employees. In that sense, I see that I am
operating with consanguinity in the tradition of my Great-grandfather
Steininger, who, as the fire-lookout in The Tabor, gazed eagle-eyed over the
beautiful Steyr River Valley and kept the city of Steyr, Austria safe
from threatening conflagrations for many years.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
John
W. John Williamson
Scottsdale, Arizona