I’m starting the weekend a little early here – looking for some humor in a situation that isn’t really all that funny…
The GiN Joint’s Bartender thinks we may need to get a special dartboard for Nebraska’s First District Representative Jeff Fortenberry; he’s making so many appearances in our “Deserving of Darts” feature.
One visitor to our site seems to agree, albeit with a slightly different take. Yesterday, Linda reported that Fortenberry voted for just 43% of spending cut amendments to the recent HR-1 funding bill despite his rhetoric about spending cuts in public speeches and interviews.
Caleb stated: "I saw those same statistics on how our Nebraska representatives voted for the HR 1 amendments. Kudos to Adrian Smith for achieving 99%, but I am sorely disappointed with MY rep — Fortenberry — who seems to be all talk/hair and no spine."
Caleb's comment reminded me of a video we posted previously. The fellow featured in it does evoke the image of a younger Jeff Fortenberry:
Upon reflection, I suppose I've noticed that the Congressman does seem to have hair in abundance - some might even call it BIG. Which reminds me of yet another video we've posted in the past in Rep. Fortenberry's honor...
Hahaha – the videos are funny! All of you though, especially Dawdy – are missing the bulls eye with your darts entirely. Nothing Fortenbery, Smith, or Terry do makes absolutely one bit of difference until moochers get off Medicare and the retirement age for Social Security is raised significantly. Until you address that – it’s all fluff. But the moment anyone starts talking about this seriously, people start complaining about their own benefits. Most of the talk on sites like GiN can be summed up with “cut the other people’s benefits” but not mine. It’s really easy to sit on the sidelines and bitch about stuff without any substantive proposals that make any sense. I agree with Dr. Ron Paul – cut the military budget, close the multitude of bases around the world, cut Social Security and Medicare, and stop borrowing from the Chinese.
Mr. Ness,
We always appreciate visitors and particularly those who take time to make comments. Our conversation would be more fruitful, however, if it were based on more accurate information and was more civil.
I completely disagree with you that “nothing Fortenberry, Smith, or Terry do makes absolutely one bit difference”. It matters how Congressmen vote. To say otherwise violates common sense. Further, in your efforts to assert that my darts are “missing the bullseye”, you did not do your homework. If you had, you would have discovered a number of articles on our site about how government needs to get out of the charity business.
Clicking on THIS LINK will show you a number of them. That’s a search of our site on the word “charity”. Another search on the term “medicaid” shows additional articles, and yet another on “welfare” shows yet more articles. The concept of government charity and welfare has actually been a subject we have been tracking down and writing about at some length.
Articles, however, are only one aspect of our effort. We have spoken directly with Nebraska Senators about the problem, including making it the central focus of remarks addressed to the group of State Senators from Lancaster County who convened a public input meeting back in November. I actually pointed out the absurd behavior of my own Senator, Amanda McGill, in response to remarks by Linda on that very topic.
It is completely inaccurate to say that we have taken the “‘cut the other people’s benefits’ but not mine” approach in this group. The two people who are currently primarily responsible for the content on this site, in fact, likely receive the least amount of government “benefits” of most people you know. We absorb the expenses of educating our own children by homeschooling them while paying thousands of dollars per year in property taxes to the public school system. I can’t speak specifically for Linda on this subject, but I suspect she would agree; my husband and I expect that none of the dollars paid into Social Security or Medicare will ever see its way back to us. In fact, in order to contribute to straightening out the serious financial straights in the country, we would be willing to give up that money to phase out Social Security and Medicare for people who are our age. My husband has been paying into that system since 1978, at full time hours and then some since 1981.
Of course we do “benefit” from the public roads including maintenance and snow removal – such as they are here in Lincoln -, street lighting, police, fire, and periodically make use of the public libraries. We don’t have a good deal of choice in the matter and would advocate for taking a different approach on some of these items. I believe we pay more than amply for those few services we do use through the heavy tax burdens incurred by all Lincolnites, who it appears from my research, are the highest taxed citizens in the whole state.
I find your comments not only inaccurate, but quite frankly offensive. It is impossible to make such cavalier accusations about my “sit[ting] on the sidelines”. I do more than “bitch” about things. You have no idea how many hours have been spent by either myself or others in this group and, to point it out once again, you could not have spent anytime exploring our website.
You invoked the name of Dr. Ron Paul. While I do not agree with some of his positions on some issues, I am familiar enough with the gentleman to know that he is not a rude man, and while I cannot know, of course, I find it hard to believe he would approve of your conduct here.
I recommend, Sir, that you re-examine your remarks and then look in the mirror. It’s really easy to sit in front of your computer, pull up an article on a website, take no time to do your homework to make sure you have your facts straight, and make all kinds of inaccurate and specious accusations.
I’ll continue to make every effort to be accurate and truthful, polite and civil, and encourage, as I have been doing, personal responsibility, limiting government. I’ll continue spending many hours conducting research in an effort to make sure I have MY facts straight, distributing information, reaching out to legislators and other elected officials and other groups in an actual effort to put a dent, at least, in the very big mess.
As we speak, we are conducting research on Nebraska’s economy, provoked by the question: how can our economy become more free market? In our research on the collective bargaining issue, information clearly shows our entire economy is too dependent upon government, which includes farm subsidies. We are working on putting together specific proposals for free market alternatives, particularly as pertains to health care.
If you really want to do something, rather than simply snipe, we encourage you to do some reading here and considering rolling up your sleeves and helping. I challenge you to look for the announcement of the next GiN meeting – if you intend to behave civilly – and join us in our efforts.
Shelli