Congressman James McGovern (or McGovernment, as one Go Local reader pithily commented), has opened up a new office in Worcester. An incumbent Massachusetts Democrat (yes, a deadening tautology, but bear with me), Rep. McGovern now has three offices in his 2nd Congressional District. My Congressman, Henry Waxman, only has two offices, yet his Congressional district spans the entire Santa Monica Bay, from the South Bay to the Valley.
McGovern must be busy doing the business of the people. . .
McGovern just introduced the Wounded Warrior Service Dog Act, which will allocate five million dollars for the next five years to help train assistance canines for wounded veterans. Helping our wounded warriors is a worthy cause. Then again, I hope that McGovern has cosponsored legislation which will get our troops out of Afghanistan, too. American forces are fighting a losing battle in Central Asia, where the identity of the enemy often remains interminable, the boundaries of battle undetermined, and the fighting fierce yet intermittent. Why not eliminate the rising number of wounded veterans in the first place? And how about all those extraneous military bases, like those troops stationed in Germany?
Furthermore, Rep. McGovern should demand oversight and investigation into the poor treatment of our veterans when they return stateside. Thousand of homeless veterans barely subsist on medications and food allotments, when they should be resting and recuperating at the Brentwood VA, for example. He and Congressman Henry Waxman should co-sponsor legislation which will force expedited service and construction in all Veterans Administrations throughout the nation.
What other issues has McGovern been governing about?
He has given nineteen speeches (so far) to "End Hunger Now!", with the latest speech highlighting the importance of chefs. Instead of talking about ending hunger, he ought to talk about ending joblessness, which will end when the federal government stops taking from the makers and making more takers. Still, he claims over and over that this country can end hunger once and for all.
To protest the recent reformed farm bill, which enacted massive cuts to the Supplementary Nutritional Assistance Program, or food stamps, McGovern has joined the challenge to live on $4.50 a day so that he can endure the same privations as food stamp recipients. He must not be using Bay State EBTs, since residents have received plastic with thousands of dollars to spend. Nothing ensures waste like giving a man another man's money.
Hunger is a serious issue, but McGovern has no business expanding the government to help end this problem, for privation of any sort cannot be resolved under the purview of the state. In many cases, government intervention creates more losses. When President Franklin Delano Roosevelt attempted to aid farmers struggling with diminishing prices, he ordered millions of animals slaughters and acres of farmland burned. Imagine all the people who could have been fed with all of that food.
Also, the lawyer lobby in Washington and throughout the country have eaten away at initiatives to end hunger. Legal wrangling prevents supermarkets from donating excess food. The threat of lawsuits following potential contamination has so spooked supermarket leaders, that they take no chances and throw away all their unsold merchandise. Tort reform to protect non-profit charities would go a long way to end hunger. Homeless charities wisely allocate resources because they discourage just giving food, since most people struggle with greater needs. Help a man to a job, and you have done more than feed his stomach: You have prospered him body and soul with a reason to live and give. A man's hunger for worthy and wealth must be cared for.
What else has McGovern been up to?
To his credit, McGovern has cosponsored legislation which will limit the National Security Agency from spying on Americans without a warrant in connection with terrorism. The legislation further H.R. 2399, the Limiting Internet and Blanket Electronic Review of Telecommunications and Email Act (LIBERT-E Act) also requires that FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) courts release all court documents to Congress and provide a summary of proceedings to the public. Then again, Rep. McGovern's concern about our privacy on our phones and over the Internet clash with his insistence that the government must take from some to provide for those who will not work for themselves.
Republican President Gerald Ford once said:
"A Government that is big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything away."
In other words, A government which the people depend on to feed them (with food stamps), to clothe them, to subsidize them from womb to tomb is a government that is empower to subtract individual liberties without an uproar.
Instead of passing laws to help veteran assistance dogs and giving speeches to end hunger, here's a better idea to fight hunger, Mr. McGovernment: Lose the new office and the get the government out of our lives altogether!
Of course, with a posh salary, excellent benefits, and a easy job (he was reelected unopposed four times), McGovern has no problem living off the government.
With a name like McGovern, why would anyone assume otherwise?