Letter: Dold not what he makes himself to be

Updated: August 27, 2012 6:04AM

Linda Blaser’s interview of Congressman Dold was an amazing portrait of the man we’d all wish Bob Dold would be. Independent, bi-partisan, a supporter of the environment, Medicare, and Social Security. This is the Bob Dold of the slick postcards he likes to send out at taxpayer expense. But the real Bob Dold is revealed by the votes he makes in the House, as recorded week by week in the Deerfield Review, and that Bob Dold doesn’t fit the face he’d like you to see.

Dold cites The Washington Post as saying he is the “most independent” member of the House, yet that same paper reported that on key votes on the big issues that matter to Americans, Dold voted 100 percent with the Tea Party. He votes, in fact over 80 percent of the time with the Tea Party, which, I suppose makes him an independent in today’s GOP.

He calls himself “bi-partisan,” but fails to cite a single example of an important bill where he reached across the aisle in opposition to his party leadership. He says, “Everything I’ve done has had bipartisan support,” but all that means is that he has never had the courage to work on any but non-controversial bills that have wide support in both parties.

He calls himself an environmentalist; yet, he has voted dozens of times to allow companies to pollute the air and water by voting to repeal environmental restrictions and has voted for the Paul Ryan budget twice, which would defund the EPA.

He says he is for the middle class and wants to create jobs, but he opposes any restrictions on Wall Street’s risky investments, and seems to fail to understand that tax breaks for the very wealthy don’t create jobs, consumer demand does. But, under the Bush economic policies to which Dold and Romney want to return, the real income of the middle class has dropped precipitously and its wealth to 1992 levels, while the top 1 percent has gotten enormously richer. And, while the middle and working classes are struggling to make ends meet, he votes for Paul Ryan’s budget, which would end most social programs, reduce Medicare to a cheap voucher program controlled by the insurance industry, and drastically cut Social Security. During the election, he even suggested handing Social Security over to Wall Street would be a good thing. In short, the real Dold wants to destroy the safety net that people need to keep them out of poverty.

Dold talks middle of the road, but he votes way to the right and ought not to be returned to Congress.

Laurence Dana Schiller

Deerfield

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