Congressman Wm. Lacy Clay (D-Mo.) has often made impassioned pleas on behalf on the poor and under-served of America that go largely ignored. While the Republican budget reconciliation package that slashed $12 billion from Medicaid passed last week, it barely passed.
In fact, conservative GOP members had to surrender drilling for oil and natural gas in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to get the needed votes from fellow Republicans. The moderate wing of the GOP made its stand, and Clay’s speech was riveting.
He called the bill “fiscally irresponsible and morally offensive” and a “pathetic attempt to disguise the Republican leadership’s real intentions to pass another bloated windfall for the wealthiest Americans.”
All Americans – and Missourians – should remember that Clay was one of few House or Senate members with the guts to vote against rushing to war in Iraq.
Now, even Republicans are admitting to the folly and miscalculations that will leave the U.S. bogged down in that nation for years to come.
In 2001, Clay was painted as unpatriotic. Now, it has been proven he was correct.
Today, the GOP is ignoring pleas to not balance the budget on the backs of the poor. The political party of President Bush is not listening, but this time voters can speak so loudly they cannot be ignored in November 2006.
Congressmen and senators like Clay, who never wavered under the onslaught of the Republican’s power frenzy, should be remembered as true guardians of what is right in America.