MassaForCongress.com
This week at the studios of WETM TV in Elmira New York I told the audience of Coleman and Company, a local 30 minute TV political talk show, that I intend to run against John Kuhl of Hammondsport for the honor of Representing the 29th Congressional district before the United States House of Representatives in Washington DC.
I take this decision, one of the most difficult I, or my family, has ever faced, because of several reasons. But no other reasons are so clear as the continuing assault on the security of our Nation, the ongoing war on the Middle Class that built it, and the disgraceful shortchanging of the Veterans who defended it at home and overseas.
National Security: The Iraq War and the Escalation
The war in Iraq is making us less secure. It is consuming our most valuable resources, the men and women of the Armed forces, their equipment and their ability to defend us around the world. It has cost us over a trillion dollars and continues to cost us more than $27,000 every minute of every day that we occupy Baghdad. Instead of a new strategy to shorten our involvement in a never ending Civil War, we have been given more of the same with rubber stamp votes of approval by some in Congress. That must change.
I believe that the only route we have today is to announce to the world that we will start withdrawing immediately, we will apply the lessons of Bosnia where we facilitated the creation of three separate semi-autonomous states ad we let them choose a form of central government of their own selection. We will be fully out of Iraq within 18 months to two years. The regional players, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, Iran, Syria and the Iraqi people themselves must determine their own future. Continued permanent American military bases, the presence of tens of thousands of American military combat personnel and the millions of tons of equipment needed to support them – all these things are inflaming the very factions that we must now turn this country over to. There is no easy solution, no silver bullet. But the course that the President has chosen and that John Kuhl has rubber stamped is wrong.
Here at home, Corning, New York, a family is facing the deployment of both parents leaving a two month child behind in the care of grandparents. John Kuhl recently wrote a letter to the Secretary of Defense to review deployment policies when both parents are available for deployment. But the truth is that no letter will relieve the tremendous strain on our military. When politicians vote, on the one hand, to rubber stamp George Bush’s surge and then, on the other hand, try to cover the direct results of their votes with letters to the Secretary of Defense, they only expose themselves for what they really are. To vote for the surge that George Bush is currently implementing is to vote to send both of these parents to Iraq. The two-faced hypocrisy that says one thing and then votes for another cannot no longer be allowed to hide. That must change.
The Other War: Assault against the Middle Class
The assault on the Middle Class continues. The President is now proposing a new tax on health care benefits which would force working Americans to seek ever lower standards of medical coverage. Last year I joined the National effort to bring quality access to health care to all Americans. I believe that single payer health care is now the only solution left. Single Payer health care reduces costs per individual and costs per family. It allow medical professionals greater freedom in choosing the right course of treatment for patient and it strengthens the medical infrastructure, especially in rural areas that are currently facing drastic closures of for-profit hospitals run by demanding HMOs. Creating yet another tax loophole is not the solution to solving the real crisis of declining health care access in this country. That must change.
John Kuhl, in the midst of a close election, appealed to organized labor by co-sponsoring the Employee Free Choice Act. The fundamental basis of their bill is to allow workers to use the mandatory intent to organize ballot as the actual ballot for forming a Union. Today, two votes must be cast and the first is cast with both the name of the worker who desires to form a Union and the Union they desire to join. That card is required to be publicly submitted through management who then has an unlimited amount of time to intimidate, fire and replace those workers who desire to exercise their rights to organize. John Kuhl, days after the election and $88,000 later in campaign contributions from organized labor, withdrew his name from the Bill. He did so after George Bush stated that he would veto the Bill.
In what was clearly a rubber stamp attack on working men and women, John Kuhl sided with the Corporate Boardroom and the Oval Office against the break room and the assembly line. John Kuhl was the only member of Congress to reverse his vote and he has since justified his decision by ridiculously stating that the Communist Party of America supported the workers right and therefore he could not. He also hides behind the Republican talking points that he is "protecting the concept of the secret ballot." Of course, that is simply false since there currently is not a secret ballot when it comes to requesting permission to even have an election to form a Union. I support the Employee Free Choice Act and, unlike John Kuhl, once I give my word I won’t reverse my position simply because George Bush says to. This situation must change.
The Free Traders of Congress and the White House continue to force living wage jobs overseas. There has been a fundamental breech in the contract between the people of the Government and the Government of the People. Many seem to believe that we are doomed to become a nation where the two last employers are Wal-Mart and the prison system. We were promised the vision of new high tech manufacturing. We should put Americans first but the professional politicians in Washington DC have forgotten that -- to the destruction of tens of millions of working American families. As one example, Free Trade with Communist china is not free trade. The result of this policy is continued destruction of the Nation that the millions of American fought to create. A handful of Washington professional politicians. controlled by special interests, benefit from this arrangement. That must change.
Better Treatment for our Veterans
We have now seen the tip of the iceberg with the growing scandal that is outpatient health care at Walter Reed Medical hospital, the crown jewel of military medicine. Here, in our own backyard, a decision knowingly made and agreed to by the Washington politicians in 2004, is now final and the key in-patient mental health care hospital at the Canandaigua VA center has closed its doors - with no real alternative for care for those left out in the cold. With an ever dwindling representation of Veterans in Congress those men and women who represented us on the battlefield are not represented in Washington. John Kuhl knew that this facility was going to close and originally justified that closure with statements about how new facilities would eventually be built. He knew that there was no money in the budget to fulfill the false promises he was making. He knew that patients would be turned away. Yet he did nothing to stop the closure. Now he has submitted sham legislation to make VA funding mandatory, legislation that only last year he refused to support. That must change.
Conclusion
We face real and pressing National emergencies that can only be addressed in a clear say-what-you-mean-and-mean-what-you-say voice. I intend to be that voice and with your help we will build on the tremendous success that we saw in 2006 and bring a higher standard of leadership to Washington DC.
I will start, today, the challenge of again raising the funds needed to represent those who have no representation. We are rebuilding our campaign web site, opening up a low cost store front office, and moving forward with the goal of individually meeting 5000 voters who either did not vote or voted against me. Retail politics is the most effective ground work that we can establish while we build a world class war chest to counter the inevitable onslaught of Corporate George Bush rubber stamp tidal wave of false accusation negative advertising money. We came within 1% of winning during the last cycle and I believe that 2008 can be an even bigger year for progressive commitment than 2006.
With your help and the dedication of an enthusiastic team we can cross that one percent and bring victory to a District that saw a higher standard of leadership robbed form them by the Republican Congressional Campaign committee. Now, early in the campaign is the time to sign on and make a difference, Now is the time to alert your friends that the 29th Congressional district race is one of a few where a real difference can be made.
God Bless you all and God Bless this great Nation Called the United States of America.
Eric Massa