Ferguson's missteps outweigh achievements
To letter writers Mr. Gwiazdowski (Feb. 23) and Mr. Lipani (Feb. 26), I say this: Yes, it is good that Hillsborough's mercury may be removed, if Nevada will actually take it. That still remains to be seen.
When a congressman finally, after five years in office, gets something done that affects your own backyard, it is natural to feel grateful. However, I would challenge you to look beyond your own backyard and consider other actions Mike Ferguson has taken that aren't so worthy of praise.
Did you know that in his vote to approve President Bush's new budget, he essentially is saying yes to deep cuts in farm subsidies, the receipt of which can make the difference in surviving or not for many small family farms in New Jersey?
During the next five years, Mr. Ferguson's Republican administration wants to "save" $5 billion in farm subsidy programs. Remember, this is still called the "Garden State," but for how long?
Did you know that voting for the budget means huge cuts to funding for student loans and, furthermore, raises interest rates on student loans in general? If your children need assistance with college expenses, you'd better take another job, because the loans will be harder and harder to get.
On another note, do you realize that the companies that handle student loans, and that will greatly benefit from the increases in loan rates, are all major contributors to Mike Ferguson's campaign? No wonder Mike didn't have a problem with this portion of the budget.
Did you know that Mr. Ferguson's support of extending the first-term tax cuts, which won't expire for years and will continue to benefit only the wealthiest Americans, will cost an estimated $1.35 trillion over the next decade? You may not feel the squeeze of that expenditure, but your children certainly will.
Mr. Ferguson's support of the administration's budget "savings" during the next five years is a way of euphemistically saying "cutting" $36 billion in Medicare benefits. Medicare is being shaved to the point of extinction, so you'd better not count on it being there as a real benefit when you and your family members reach what we now consider retirement age.
The same goes for Social Security, which Mr. Ferguson and Mr. Bush wish would just go away to the private sector. In fact, this Ferguson/Bush $2.77 trillion budget will raise the deficit so much that now the debt ceiling must be increased to avoid default.
More and more, we are becoming indebted to foreigners. Their financing of our poor economic habits makes us more and more beholden to foreign countries. Do we really want to increase our financial dependence on foreigners to the point that they can dictate our policies, such as who runs our major ports?
Mr. Ferguson finally jumped on the bandwagon to oppose the proposed control of our ports by the United Arab Emirates-owned company. What else could he do? Not only did New York's Sen. Charles Schumer and New Jersey's Sen. Robert Menendez take the lead in speaking out against the deal, but so did Mr. Ferguson's own Republican Party leaders Dennis Hastert and Bill Frist and a huge percentage of ordinary Americans.
To tout this as a "break" with the administration was a choice of miniscule risk to Mr. Ferguson. He would have seemed un-American had he continued to stand with the deal. Even Mr. Bush agreed to a delay to review the impact on port security after he found out about the deal.
Of special note along this line is the fact that in 2005, Mr. Ferguson and fellow Republicans voted against a measure that would have given $400 million to increase port security. It's interesting that having denied this additional funding to protect our country, he's now on record as a strong advocate. Could this be a flip-flop, or is he just blowing with the prevailing political winds?
Yes, it's nice when your congressman can do something for your community ... like new sidewalks and new fire trucks, even if it's with funds the government can ill afford. Perhaps he should consider using the funds he received from (and refused to return) Tom ("Corruption-with-a-Capital-C") DeLay's political action committee if he wants to present gifts to his constituent municipalities.
Perhaps he could even issue an apology for accepting that dirty money. Now that would be something to write about.
Joan Schell
Tewksbury
Ferguson has yet to defend his vote, and his staff has refused to answer questions about his rationale. Yesterday scores of immigrants and supporters of immigration reform rallied at his office, and according to eyewitnesses the staff refused to come out an meet with the ralliers. But 