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Open letter to Dave Hobson
Congressman Dave Hobson
2346 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington D.C. 20515
(202) 225-4324
July 25, 2008
Dear Congressman Hobson,
Thank you for your invitation to share our opinions with you regarding your Commentary in the July 21st Greene County Dailies, “As the country burns, Washington, D.C. twiddles its thumbs.” Let me start with the notion that this article takes hypocrisy to a new level. Frankly, there may be a few others in Congress who are more of a Washington insider that yourself, but not many, and yet you blame Washington, D.C. for our energy woes.
Let’s begin with your “proud” acclamation that as Ranking Member and former Chairman of the House Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee you “worked to increase our nation’s investment in alternative and domestic energy sources.” Although these leadership positions certainly gave you an opportunity to make a difference, just look at the results. Under your watch as Chairman and Ranking Member of the Subcommittee, we are experiencing high energy prices even more damaging to the economy than in the 70’s, and that does not begin to address the Subcommittee’s mismanagement of the Energy and Water Appropriation leading up to Hurricane Katrina. Unfortunately, during your tenure as Chairman of the Subcommittee, you steered billions of dollars in earmarks, pork and special favors toward your campaign contributors and others as bargaining chips to stay in power.
Furthermore, although I agree that drilling in Alaska and elsewhere could lower the price of oil over time, there are other policies you supported that have as much or more to do with high energy prices. Remember, long ago the U.S. demanded oil importers had to first convert their currency to U.S. dollars to pay for imported oil regardless of the source or world supply. You can’t blame oil producing countries for not wanting payment in cheap dollars, so the simple solution was to raise prices. Strengthening the U.S. dollar will have a much greater impact on lowering the price of oil than increasing supply which is years away, even if we started drilling tomorrow. But why has the U.S. dollar slipped to historic lows? The simple truth is you are to blame as much as anyone.
First, deficit spending, including outrageous earmarks and out-of-control borrowing drive down the value of the U.S. dollar. When you were first elected in 1990, the National Debt was about $3.8 trillion, but has risen to more than $9.4 trillion today. The interest alone on the debt is nearly $1.2 billion per day! In other words, each day when every American wakes up in the morning, he or she pays about $4.00 just to cover the interest on the debt, and that does not buy even one ounce of national defense. From the tone of your article, I don’t think you understand the consequences these horrendous interest payments have on quality of life and security for future generations of Americans.
Trade deficits also beat down the U.S. dollar, and by now even the most casual observer should recognize your relentless support for NAFTA, GATT, Fast Track Trade Negotiating Authority and China’s unconditional entry into the World Trade Organization, all of which contribute to record trade deficits that are well north of $700 billion per year, despite the falling U.S. dollar.
To be sure, out-of-control spending and trade deficits, the “twin towers” that are destroying America’s future, drive down the U.S. dollar. Your earmarks to your campaign contributors are a big part of that. Take for example American Electric Power (AEP), a utility giant that donated more than $18,500 to “Dave Hobson for Congress” when you were Chairman of the Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee. Recall the “Blackout of 2005” when 50 million Americans and Canadians lost power in August of that year. That should have been a wake-up call to Congress to get serious about upgrading the U.S. power grid. Instead of advancing policies to encourage recapitalizing our own power supply infrastructure, you used your power in Congress to steer millions of our tax dollars toward the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, which in turn helped American Electric Power finance a joint venture with China to build a 250 megawatt coal fired power plant in Hainan
Province. While our electric power grid continues to crumble, you sent taxpayer dollars to China to upgrade theirs.
You blame the “Democratic-led” Congress for the current energy crisis, when in truth, the Republicans had control of both the House and the Senate from 1994 until 2006 when you chaired two powerful Appropriations Subcommittees, Military Construction and Energy and Water Development. No Mr. Hobson, we will not allow you to blame others in Washington for our energy crisis when in fact for almost two decades you were driving the train that has our children’s and grandchildren’s future headed straight for the abyss. But why should you worry, you are headed off into the sunset with millions of dollars in your personal bank account, most of it accumulated during your nine terms in Congress.
Yours truly,
John Mitchel
www.reformcongress.com
www.patrioitpressohio.com
(937) 427-8442
Note: LtCol Mitchel, USAF (Retired), serves as a systems analyst supporting U.S.
warfighters. In 2006 he wrote and self-published America at the Abyss: A View
from the Heartland.
Paid for by Americans for John Mitchel
