Best wishes to Representative Williams

January 10, 2013, 9:01 pm by Phil Schoch

The wonder for most of us is that decent and capable people are still willing to make unprecedented sacrifices to work in an institution where the misdeeds of liars, crooks, tax cheats, philanderers and assorted wingnuts and political swamp creatures has come to overshadow the thoughtful, honest and dedicated members who place responsibility over personal ambition.

We believe Roger Williams, the new Congressman for our new 25^th Congressional district will earn a place of respect in Washington. Our hope is that he will be joined by his colleagues in bringing sanity to a gridlocked institution where political savagery has displaced common sense and reasonable compromise.

It is time for the President and Congressional Democrats – and Republicans also – to stop pushing deceptively simplistic and meaningless "solutions” to the heinous problems of taxes, debt, entitlements and Social Security and Medicare. The public – as well as politicians – has to understand that what worked in 1963 no longer works 50 years later.

There must be real and far-reaching change in the whole broken system of federal taxation, social spending and budgeting and there are ways to do that that will improve our lives rather than diminish them. Just for example, changing the thresholds for Medicare and Social Security benefits onlyfor those a decade away from eligibility will ensure those systems will be there for those retired now as well as for the next generation.

Mr. Williams, with his enviable appointment to the House Budget Committee and to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, is well positioned to be a part of creative and bi-partisan strategies to move us beyond endless political drama and accomplish that goal.

In the weeks following his re-election, Mr. Williams has worked to understand the problems, priorities and ideas of his constituents by listening to his constituents, including those in our neighborhood. It was particularly gratifying to see him in Burnet after little more than a week in Washington.

We owe him our thanks for his willingness to accept a tough and thankless job and for listening to the people of his district.

We also owe him the encouragement to use his own common sense and good judgment to craft ideas and make decisions that will heal the terrible and hostile divide in America and put our country – which two-thirds of its people believe has lost its way – back on track.

Roy E. Bode

President & Publisher