What Republicans Are Suffering From

“Rabies is a severe, and often fatal, viral polioencephalitis that specifically affects the gray matter of the dog's brain and its central nervous system (CNS). Furious rabies is characterized by extreme behavioral changes, including overt aggression and attack behavior.”  ~ Source: Rabies in Dogs, PetMD.com

 I will confess that I chose not to watch the SOTU message last night. I just wasn't up to looking at the sour Republican faces, heroes being paraded out and over zealous Democrats standing and clapping as if they were punctuation marks in the President's speech.

So I watched some hockey instead where I was assured of not getting any crawler updates on the SOTU stretching across the bottom of my screen. Had it not been for leaving my Facebook page open I might have even gotten through the evening unscathed without even a blue tie count.

But today is another day and my email inbox was waiting for me with the Republican message. My new congressperson is Rep. Ann Wagner, she is my representative and at the same time she does not represent me. But today when I read her mail to me I realized what Republicans are suffering from - they have rabies, pure and simple.

This morning's rant went like this:

Time to Turn the Page

West Newsmagazine
January 27, 2014

To the Editor:

After five years of anemic economic growth, President Obama still doesn’t have an answer for one of the biggest questions facing hardworking families in America: Where are the jobs?

With more than 10 million Americans unemployed and millions more living paycheck to paycheck, the president has created a “new normal” in America.

His new normal involves taking more of your hard-earned money and redistributing it to pay for others’ cost of living. Your money is going to pay for skyrocketing health care costs, more unemployment checks, higher energy costs and growing the size and scope of the federal government.

This president continues to take more of your hard-earned money while offering no solutions for upward mobility and good-paying jobs.

Just ask any family in the 2nd District and they will tell you that they’re just one broken water heater or car repair away from not paying their bills on the 15th and 30th of every month.

Over the last five years, the president’s new normal has taken away the American Dream and has forced families to settle for less. That is not only unacceptable, it’s un-American. We can’t allow mediocrity to become the new normal in America.

Time and time again, the House has passed job-creating solutions that will increase upward mobility and restore the American Dream.

In fact, the House has passed 171 bills that are stuck in Harry Reid’s do-nothing Senate.

Republicans have passed bills authorizing the Keystone XL pipeline, which will lower energy costs, create tens of thousands of good-paying jobs and begin a new era of energy independence.

We have also passed common sense policies like the Skills Act, which helps the long-term unemployed by giving them the training they need to find good-paying jobs in this tough economy.

Without real leadership from President Obama and Harry Reid on job-creating solutions like these, our nation will continue to struggle and that’s not fair to the American people.

As your Representative, I pledge to you that I will keep fighting to increase the size of your paychecks, restore your individual liberties and lower costs on everyday items that you depend on like groceries, gasoline and the cost of your health care.

Rather than starting yet another year with the same old failed policies, it’s time we turn the page and begin a new era focused on finding solutions and making your lives just a little bit easier.

Rep. Ann Wagner

2nd District     

~  ~  ~

Rep. Wagner ends with "it's time we turn the page and begin a new era focused on finding solutions" - hmmm and I thought they already had the solutions? 

And I'm not sure what the people want is their "lives just a little bit easier", I think they want their lives a lot better. They want their children educated and to know that going to college won't leave them with a life long debt. To know they can get affordable medical care for themselves and their families.

Just this week a elderly neighbor was going through the halls in our building looking for someone who could help lift her husband off the floor where he had fallen. A man offering to help said "can I call 911 for you?"

"Oh, no", was her reply, "we have called before and it is just too expensive."

Rep. Wagner this is a family in your district that could use your help. I don't think President Obama is responsible for high healthcare costs, those costs were high long before he took office. He tried to turn the page and come up with a solution but Republicans were sitting steadfastly on the very books that contained the pages to be turned.