NEGOP: Help us understand how you differ from Democrats

Norlyn sent the following letter via email to Mark Fahleson, Nebraska Republican Party Chairman, on February 16, 2013, with the subject line: “A dime’s worth of difference”.

Note: Links and footnotes were added to this online version of Norlyn’s message for the purpose of encouraging readers to inquire, in greater detail, into the issues Norlyn raised. The first two pages of the relevant portion of the “Chairman’s Report” email, “The Real State of the Union”, to which Norlyn refers in his message to Mr. Fahleson, are embedded at the bottom of this article.

Mr. Chairman,

I am in receipt of your recent Chairman’s Report update, and would like to report an injury; I have some bruising of the chin area, sustained when my jaw hit the floor from incredulity at the following statements:

“President Obama doesn’t live in the real world–the one in which we have a $16.5 trillion national debt, entitlement programs that are unsustainable…”, and

“We need to remind Nebraskans that there’s a difference between our parties….”

Entitlement programs that are unsustainable? Really? This from the state Republican Party chairman whose senators own a super majority in the legislature¹ Note that the link provided within the letter’s text, regarding the vote on LB599 on April 18, 2012, included tallies of the number of seats ...continue the same legislature that is about to pass without serious debate, challenge, or objection, a huge increase in the Nebraska Medicaid entitlement program? An increase that depends for funding on that federal government with the $16.5 trillion debt?

Your Republican state senators, who are leading the charge for this entitlement expansion, and who year after year vote for state budgets that depend on that same federal deficit spending you criticize to finance nearly 40% of the state spending they approve, do they understand these decisions they make add to that $16.5 trillion deficit you seem so concerned about?

Are you concerned at all about those Republican senators from your state party who last year approved a similar expansion in that same Medicaid entitlement program over their Republican governor’s veto?

And who this year, with a huge majority of senators at the Capitol, handed over the chairmanships and control of a majority of the committees to the Democrat minority in the Nebraska legislature?

These Republican state senators of yours that balance our state budget by taking in princely sums of that $16.5 trillion federal deficit spending, do they understand those federal dollars come from taxpayers, including taxpayers in Nebraska?

– Let me answer my own question: a friend recently spoke with one of those Republican state senators by telephone, a senator who was flummoxed and bewildered by the question when my friend asked where the senator thought those funds came from. So, no. Just like the Democrats, the Senator seemed to think those dollars come from the federal Money Fairy.

So can you “remind” this Nebraskan, just what is the difference in fiscal policy terms, between what the Democrats are doing on a federal level, and the decisions and policy solutions being promoted and passed, regarding entitlement programs, by our very own Nebraska state senators, members of your very own Nebraska Republican party, here at the state level?

Please type slowly and use small words, as I am only a constituent who, as a member of the real world, has a limited understanding of these high-level political differences between the parties.

Thank you so much for your understanding and concern. I look forward to having these troubling questions explained in terms I can grasp.

Norlyn Raisch

Concerned Citizen

While Norlyn waits for an answer from the NEGOP Chairman, the following seems pertinent:

• NEGOP HAS adopted official policy designed to influence the voting behavior of Nebraska’s Republican Legislators and to influence the outcome of legislation, however…

• In Sept. 2011, NEGOP leadership convinced a majority of State Central Committee members to support a resolution which promised to withhold future campaign support from any State Senator who did not support the Chairman’s oft-stated “#1 Legislative Priority”; to return Nebraska’s Presidential Electoral vote allocation system to winner-take-all.
  • During the same period, the following issues were the subject of legislation introduced, of concern, or looming, and remain as problems for our state:
    • State budget (multiple issues)
    • Health care implementation and active litigation
    • Collective bargaining / CIR
    • TransCanada Keystone XL Pipeline
    • Ongoing campaign (LB1110/LB599) to expand Nebraska’s Medicaid program to provide prenatal care benefits to non-compliant and illegal immigrant women

• So, the NEGOP leadership WILL flex its political muscle, but the only time in recent memory it has done so was to implement Republican Party political objectives. As bad as that is, the tragic irony is, they’re harmful…
  • A winner-take-all system is entirely OUT OF STEP with Constitutional principles according to their original meaning; Nebraska’s current Congressional District allocation system is closer to the original and wise design found in the U.S. Constitution
  • Winner-take-all is very short-sighted: it favors Democratic / progressive / left-wing policies, with its focus on population centers (big cities), which have heavy concentrations of Democratic voters. (Look at a county-by-county map sometime. Imagine the whole country allocating by Congressional Districts).

• NEGOP doesn’t seem to mind that so many of its Republicans have poor voting / policy positions – there’s no evidence of a broad effort to recruit conservative candidates to mount primary challenges in districts with such incumbents OR, even worse, there is a history of active promotion and assistance for some such incumbents. Here are just two examples:
  • No opposition was mounted against Republican State Senator Kathy Campbell (District 25) in 2012 – she ran for re-election ENTIRELY UNOPPOSED – even though she introduced and beat a drum for two years to provide Medicaid prenatal benefits for non-compliant and illegal immigrant women.
    • If the future health of the budget was not adequate motivation for NEGOP leadership, the river of tears and gushy, eeeewww-enducing embrace of State Senator Jeremy Nordquist (leading ObamaCare implementation advocate in the Unicameral) following the successful veto override on her legislation should have been the final straw…
    

    Kathy Campbell (R) and Jeremy Nordquist (D) share a joyful embrace, apparently Lincoln Journal Star published the picture

   

  • YES, elections DO have consequences! Following her unopposed re-election to the Nebraska Unicameral, Kathy Campbell introduced LB577, the bill that proposes to expand Nebraska’s Medicaid program 
  • NEGOP promoted State Senator Colby Coash (District 27) 2012 re-election campaign events, despite his support for LB599 – which SHOULD HAVE BEEN a make or break vote for ANY responsible Republican Legislator. Further, Coash has a mixed record on an array of other issues.

“ObamaCare”, as in “Repeal ObamaCare”, “Stop ObamaCare”, etc., etc., was a HUGE election issue and “red-meat” talking point for Republicans beginning in 2009, INCLUDING by Nebraska Republicans.

QUESTIONS I WILL ADD TO NORLYN’S LIST…

• What has come of Republicans using “ObamaCare” as an election issue?
• How will Nebraska Republicans handle this issue going forward?

And, when it comes to the NEGOP’S LEADERSHIP…
Will that leadership hold any Nebraska Republican official to account, as in, threaten to withhold support,on anything of substance, like the Medicaid expansion (LB577),…or lawfully fighting implementation in other ways?

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