Rep. Stefanik in her own words - Oh my!
By Ken Tingley
This has not been a particularly good week for our country. Actually, it hasn’t been a particularly good week for the world.
Rep. Elise Stefanik obviously agrees with me. All you have to to is follow her highly critical tweets to understand how bad she believes things are.
But I’ll let you see it in her own words.
I was startled to learn our supermarket shelves were bare. When I went grocery shopping last week, I didn’t have a problem getting anything. I actually spent $192 and there are only two of us. Rep. Stefanik used a photo from the Times-Union to illustrate her point. I’m guessing she didn’t have time to take a photo while she was grocery shopping. It’s irresponsible to make such generalizations.
Previous Republicans have certainly warned us that “Merry Christmas” was in danger - I never understood that either because I continue to use the term liberally - but I was really shocked to learn the entire holiday was in jeopardy.
Perhaps, Rep. Stefanik should not put so much weight on what she gets for Christmas and more value on spending time with family and friends. Isn’t that the true meaning of Christmas.
If we are all together at Christmas, I am happy. Even if there is nothing under the Christmas tree.
It is not Democratic policies that are causing supply problems, it is the pandemic and that has been clear for some time.
The Twitter universe is often an evil place where people can be mean and insulting. Our former president showed us the way in that regard and Rep. Stefanik has proved to be proficient as well.
If you look closely at Rep. Stefanik’s Twitter feed, it is stacked with what is wrong with Democrats and their policies, but it is also filled with information that would not hold up to a second grader’s fact check.
I guess I’m old-fashioned. I remember when members of Congress explained how to fix problems and negotiated with their colleagues on the other side of the aisle to find compromises to help the people instead of constantly attacking each other.
I can’t remember that happening in a long time.
When a new administration takes over, it is actually still using the budget passed by the previous Congress the year before.
A politifact fact check makes it clear that most of the increased spending was approved well before President Biden took office.
I expect Rep. Stefanik knows this since she approved of it.
So is she lying, or just not really sure how government spending works?
Here is the link to the fact check:
President Biden did cancel the Keystone Pipeline, but here is what is left out. The pipeline is only partially built and it never contributed to energy or to lower gas prices because it was never used.
Rep. Stefanik says the reason gas prices are surging is because of Democratic spending, but none of that spending has happened yet. It has all been talk.
In fact, inflation on all goods may get worse, but that is not because of Democratic or Republican policies as much as it is the pandemic. Although, there are some economists who point out that we have not seen the full impact of all the Trump era tariffs and once they kick in, there will be further inflation.
Economies don’t turn on a dime when one administration takes over and the other leaves. Policies take time to implement and their effect felt. Most importantly, presidents don’t have that much impact on the economy.
Rep. Stefanik follows that up with this tweet about $5.5 trillion in spending (speeding?) being bad for Americans.
Unless of course you benefit from the child tax credits, paid family leave and child care provisions.
The price tag on the spending tag is now closer to $2 trillion and that is still a lot of money, but under the previous administration it was the corporations that gained from tax cuts and not regular taxpayers.
Many Americans would benefit under the spending.
What is obvious is that Rep. Stefanik doesn’t talk much about local issues that directly effect her constituents. It would be good to hear how she is working on keeping Lake George and other Adirondack water sources clean and the Adirondacks free of a return to acid rain.
It would have been nice of her to show up at a meeting of concerned Hudson Falls citizens who want the trash plant shut down. Those are issues that really matter.
She did weigh in on several of the ballots measures that New Yorkers will be voting on in November, tweeting that Democrats were “rigging” New York elections by allowing voter registration on Election Day and a absentee voting without an excuse.
She does not explain how that is “rigging” the election. But her hysteria is consistently shocking.
None of this was why this was such a particularly bad week for our country. It is just what Rep. Stefanik chose to focus on.
Rep. Stefanik did not explain in a tweet why Steve Bannon should not be held in contempt by Congress. She did not explain her vote to Capitol police officers who were attacked on Jan. 6.
Rep. Stefanik did not tweet why Republicans in the Senate voted against enhanced voting rights that might be pivotal in saving our democracy.
She also did not tweet about several new studies that revealed the worsening impact of climate change on our country. One chronicled how climate change is impacting our health. Another characterized climate change as posing a national security threat.
I hope she understands her new son will grow up in a world much different from the one she did. But there is no sign she understands that. Certainly no tweets that address it. I’ve come to the point that I hope I don’t have any grandchildren. They should not have to face such a catastrophic future. That is because of opposition to common sense measures that Rep. Stefanik opposes.
World leaders will be meeting in Glasgow, Scotland from Oct. 31 to Nov. 12 to address climate change as a world problem. President Biden will make an appearance. Perhaps, Rep. Stefanik should tweet once or twice about that?
It was a bad week for our country. And Rep. Elise Stefanik contributed nothing substantial to the public discourse. If anything, she continues to make things worse.
Great article, Ken. Elise Stefanik is such a lying, sycophant it's hard to keep up. She does nothing to enhance our lives in NY21. She serves the Orange Menace hell bent on destroying our democracy and herself. It is pretty scary how Stefanik votes, no on voting rights, no on holding vile Steve Bannon in contempt, supporting THE BIG LIE etc. The GOP is certainly not the party of law and order, more like lawlessness! Never offers anything but rushes in to claim credit for things she voted against! She is an embarrassment!
Thank You for calling all of this out Mr. Tingley….unfortunately for the good folks of NY CD 21, calling out Stefanik’s lies could easily become a weekly column…