William Larsen

Sylvi Smith of the Journal Gazette

Sylvia Smith called me on Wednesday. We spoke for about five to ten minutes. She asked me why I wanted to fire Souder.

Here is what I told Sylvia:

• Mark Souder voted to increase the national debt limit to $9 Trillion.
• He voted for a Rx Drug bill that was projected to cost $400 Billion over ten years and now as of last week it is reported now to cost $1 Trillion over the first ten years.
  
• He voted for an Energy bill that does not address energy problems. Instead of addressing truly renewable energy sources, he continues to support the millennia old processing of burning fuels to do useful work. He supports Ethanol when in fact it takes more energy to produce one gallon of ethanol than the ethanol contains. Every gallon of ethanol produces cost the taxpayer 51 cents in the form of tax credits.
• In March 2005 he called Social Security a "shell game." He stated, "For people under 30 its probably going to be income based. I am not saying we're going to pass that. It will probably be passed after I am dead." He continued "If you're 40, you might make it through the system. But if you're under 40, and certainly under 30, you had better start planning because if you want to have a decent retirement you’re going to need supplemental funds." He knows there is a problem, yet does not address it. He supports tax incentives to help people save but with deficits, is this not just the same as borrowing money to invest?
• Mark Souder is a liberal in the sense he likes to spend money. He votes for earmarks, which is nothing more than borrowed money.
• Instead of voting to protect our men an women in combat with equipment that is appropriate, he votes to procure more humvees built in Indiana and takes credit for keeping jobs here. I believe our men and women in combat deserve the right equipment to carry out the task assigned them over jobs in Indiana. We have armored half-tracks paid for sitting in the desert that were procured to fight a cold war with the Russians.
• On immigration, Souder is wrong when he says you cannot return 12 million illegals to their home countries. There is no such thing as a job an American worker will not perform. There is no job occupation where immigrants and illegals make up more than 1/3 of the workers. If there were jobs American workers would not perform, then we should see 80 to 90% of jobs being filled by immigrants and illegals in specific occupations. This just is not the case. We have increased unemployment among the least educated American. American Jobs are for Americans first. I support finding as many illegals as possible and returning them to their country. If there are truly 12 million illegals here, that means one in 25 people in the United States is an illegal. We should be able to find many fairly easy. Every worker needs a Taxpayer Identification Number. Cross matching programs can find many if they are stealing another person’s identity.

posted by William Larsen @ 12:19 PM