My Congressional rep, Maurice Hinchey (D-NY-22) is a perfect example of a liberal Democrat that needs to be sent into retirement. I attended a debate between him and his opponent George Philips last week where written questions were accepted from the audience.
One of those questions was for the candidate to describe their priorities for deficit reduction. Hinchey didn't even have an answer for the question. He started asking about what deficit and if the question was related to his personal finances, etc. To make this even better, this is a senior member of the House appropriations committee and he has no ideas about how to reduce the deficit.
Here's the article from the local paper.
22nd CD: Hinchey, Phillips spar over key issues - DailyFreeman.com
Quote:
Hinchey, a nine-term incumbent from Hurley, several times needed questions repeated for him and at one point responded when the moderator asked, “Please detail your deficit reduction priorities?” by saying, “I’m not sure what you mean by that. What deficit? My deficit personally?”
After being told it meant the “government’s” deficit, Hinchey said: “This country has had a deficit in all of its legislation, passing out spending, for all, well, well over 100 years. Every year, and then it comes back and the thing is adjusted.”
Phillips, a Binghamton-area history teacher, responded: “I’m deeply troubled that a member of the House Appropriations Committee could not even begin to fathom that we have a deficit problem, and I think this underscores the problem in Washington, D.C., right now. We have an almost $2 trillion budget deficit this year, and my opponent said he wanted another trillion dollars into the failed stimulus.”
|
At another point in the debate, Hinchey commented that Medicare and Medicaid were not in trouble. The audience found that comment quite amusing and the moderator had to remind the audience to be quiet because they were laughing so much.
Quote:
“Why did ... we pass a bill that had $500 billion in Medicare cuts that is going to hurt seniors in this area?” Phillips said. “Why did we pass a bill that is driving health insurance costs up for every small business I’ve talked to six months later? Why did we pass a bill that didn’t have some of the reforms in it that we had asked for? Why did we pass a bill that Congress didn’t bother to read? Over 2,000 pages long, over one-sixth of our economy.”
Hinchey countered that the insurance companies were driving prices up in advance of changes that won’t take effect until 2012 and 2014, and he drew laughs from the audience when he said “Medicaid and Medicare are not in financial trouble.
|
To make this even better, Hinchey put his hands on a reporter who was asking him some embarrassing questions about how Hinchey profited personally from some of the deals he cut in Washington.
Dustup with reporter grabs attention (videos) - DailyFreeman.com
Quote:
“All of a sudden, I see Hinchey moving towards me and coming directly at me, face to face,” Kemble said. “I remember fingers around my neck.”
Kemble said that Hinchey held his fingers there for a few seconds.
Kemble said he recalled thinking to himself to “just breathe” and, then Hinchey must have realized “what he was doing and just stopped.”
Kemble proceeded to cover the debate and filed a story for the Freeman that was published Friday morning.
Mike Morosi, a Hinchey spokesman, said the congressman “regrets that he didn’t walk away sooner to end the heated exchange.
|
Which isn't the first time Hinchey broke the law
Federal Offices for Orange County NY by Orange County NY Shooters
Quote:
Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) pleaded no contest Jan. 5 to a charge of carrying a loaded handgun in his baggage at Washington National Airport and was given a "suspended imposition of sentence."
Hinchey's lawyer, David Lenefsky, said, "We did not plead guilty to anything because we had no intent to violate any statute."
Lenefsky said that by his plea Hinchey acknowledged the hand gun was his and that he had a license to carry it in New York, but not in Virginia.
"The handgun was inadvertently in a piece of luggage I took from my upstate New York home when I drove back to Washington for the late-November congressional session, and it was still in that piece of unopened luggage on Dec. 1 when I decided to fly back to New York, "Hinchey said in a statement.
Hinchey, who voted for the anti-gun Brady Bill, appeared before Judge Joseph Gwaltney in a county district court. The judge's slap-on-the-wrist ruling means sentencing was suspended and will be lifted automatically in a year. You know what would have happened if it had been you instead of a Congressman -you'd get out of prison sometime in the Twenty-Third Century.
|
Ironically, Hinchey is an anti-gun Congressman.
I read an article on politico.com that claims 90 Democratic seats in the House are at risk. Here's to hoping the Republicans win every single one of them, especially Hinchey's.