BY WANDA JO STAPLETON
Forty-two thin-skinned Republican freshmen in the U. S. Congress, including our own James Lankford of Oklahoma’s District 5, wrote President Obama on May 10 to ask the President’s help to stop the “political rhetoric” and condemn the “partisan attacks” on these newly elected Republicans.
These freshmen felt the heat back home from people like me because of their “yes” votes for Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget bill [HCR 34] which ends Medicare as we know it.
Specifically, future Medicare beneficiaries – people now under 55 – would get a voucher called a “premium support payment” from the federal government. Each individual could then use this voucher as partial payment for health insurance from a private company. No economies of scale there and no guarantee of health insurance either.
Rep. Lankford was one of 11 newly elected representatives to hold a news conference on May 11 to promote the letter [described above] to President Obama.
Now, on his website under the heading “Let’s Get Past All the Attacks, Get on to the Serious Business,” Lankford wants to hit the reset button, wipe the slate clean, and let bygones be bygones as he continues to “represent” about 750,000 of us in Oklahoma, Pottawatomie, and Seminole counties.
We’ll see how that works for those who voted for him.
– Wanda Jo [Peltier] Stapleton, a former Democratic state representative, lives in Oklahoma City and is an occasional contributor to The Oklahoma Observer
Our memories are so short, Ms. Stapleton. The voters will have to be reminded again and again. Taking away the retirement insurance that a worker pays for throughout a working life is nothing short of theft. Don’t let the voters forget.
Sadly, you are so right, Sharon. Happily, I’m told that Lankford will have an opponent in 2012 who will help us remind the voters of his “theft.”