It is time to pass along the word about how the majority of our Congressmen and Senators in South Carolina do not support active and retired federal employees with their votes. They give us lip service at home and go to Washington and forget us.
In the last Congress five issues were identified by NARFE (National Active and Retired Federal Employees) of interest to these employees and the four Republican congressmen (Henry Brown, Joe Wilson, J. Gresham Barrett and Bob Inglis) voted against all except one (three of them voted to over ride President Bush’s veto of legislation that would prevent a cut in Medicare physician payments and increase payments to physicians). Mr. Barrett even voted against that one, so his NARFE rating is zero. The other three Republicans have a 20% rating having voted for the NARFE position once in five efforts.
The two Democratic congressmen (John Spratt and James Clyburn) voted favorably on all five issues identified by NARFE, 100 percent of the time.
In the U.S. Senate, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham voted against the NARFE position two out of three times and in the third instance did not vote. Republican Senator James DeMint voted against the NARFE position two out of three times and supported it once (a motion to invoke cloture and cut off debate on an amendment.)
All Congressmen and Senator Graham are up for re-election in November and it is time to hold them accountable for their votes…and at a minimum they ought to be asked to explain them when they are campaigning around the State.
More details are at www.narfe.org. Copies of the October NARFE magazine, that contains the details of these votes may be found in local libraries and at meetings of NARFE Chapters in your area.
