We just attended a meeting with our U.S. Senator that was arranged by six patriot groups here in Delaware. My main impression of him was that he is a nice guy who diminished himself by being evasive. I agreed with him on one or two points, and disagreed with him on more, but his avoidance of the questions really annoyed me. Okay, maybe I need to cut him some slack. After all, he told us that all of his advisers [including his barber] thought even coming to speak to a group of conservatives was a bad idea, and he came anyway. That should, and does, count for something. I respect him, even if I won't vote for him. [disclaimer here: my son is working on his opponent's campaign]
He served in the US military for 27 years, and has apparently never worked in the private sector. He has held elective office for the past thirty-five years, and is very good at being a politician. You might guess that isn't exactly high praise coming from me...
Most of the time tonight was divided between moderators asking him questions that the leaders of these various groups had culled from their membership and Senator Carper answering [or sometimes completely evading] those questions.
Some of his answers bordered on silly, as when he spoke at length about the lack of an assistant secretary of acquisitions for the Department of Defense being his reason for supporting the four National Labor Relations Board recess appointments made by President Obama while the Senate was still officially in session. Don't worry if that last bit didn't make sense, it didn't make sense when he was saying it, either.
He stood by his prior comment that the role of the federal government is to "steer the boat" of the country, and expanded that to state three specific reasons he supports subsidies to private companies paid for by our taxes. He believes the federal government should pay for basic research and development of commercial technologies, give tax breaks for technologies the government wants to encourage, and use tax breaks to "create" a market for products the government wants to support.
This statist approach corrupts the free market, and makes a capitalist like me shudder, but as a lifelong government official, it seems quite reasonable to our Senator. He never mentioned how the working people who pay the taxes that are then given to these private firms are ever supposed to be repaid for their investment. As long as the government is 'steering' that doesn't seem to matter.
Leave aside his views in favor of mandated health care coverage and his apparent lack of knowledge on other issues of concern to Delaware conservatives he is supposed to represent, his fiscal policies are enough to lose my vote.
As best as I can figure, Senator Carper is 65 years old. Maybe its time for him to come home and spend more time with his wife Martha. He truly does seem like a nice man, and I'm sure she'd enjoy his company rather than having him serve another 6 year term. And our state and our country need someone who trusts individuals more than government mandates for a change.
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