Posted on 10/03/2002 11:39:18 AM PDT by BlackRazor
Editorials: Congress
Wednesday October 02, 2002; 09:20 AM
W.Va. needs Shelley Moore Capito, not a big-spending millionaire liberal
THE Democratic Party desperately wants to regain control of the House of Representatives, where Republicans now outnumber Democrats 222 to 211, with two Independents hanging around.
If the House stays Republican, the nation goes one way. If the House goes Democratic, national policies would take on a different character entirely.
The divide is reflected in one of the critical races for control of the House -- the 2nd District race between Republican Shelley Moore Capito and second-time Democratic challenger Jim Humphreys.
Capito has been in the House for 21 months, and she has been part of a family of policy initiatives.
The House passed the tax cut that saved the nation from falling into recession. It passed a carefully crafted, fiscally responsible plan to help needy seniors with prescription drug costs. It passed an education bill that put money into West Virginia schools. It worked quickly after Sept. 11, 2001 to pass national security bills.
The House passed an energy bill that would help make the United States more self-sufficient. The House passed a bill to limit the excesses of the medical malpractice business that now threatens health care in most West Virginia cities.
Humphreys would use a House seat very differently.
Humphreys is a trial lawyer, and a multimillionaire as a result. He is the Democratic candidate because he can pay for the fight for the House seat.
He signed up thousands of plaintiffs in asbestos cases, and saw nothing wrong with taking tens of millions of dollars from their awards as his reward for connecting them to the lawyers who tried their cases.
Humphreys made at least $18.8 million in 1999, and by 2000 had assets of almost $44 million, much of it invested in a nice portfolio of stocks.
He is the candidate of plaintiff's lawyers, and would not vote to restrain the excesses from which he has profited.
He opposed the tax cut that provided relief to all Americans, and he would vote to rescind it. He flat-out wants the more than $1.3 trillion to fund ill- considered big-government programs.
He favors a prescription drug plan available to millionaires and paupers alike with "the lowest possible premium and co-payment." What that would do to the American paycheck can hardly be imagined.
He's also foursquare against putting Social Security on a firm foundation for the future.
Nobody's talking about cutting Social Security benefits for current recipients. Nobody ever has.
Humphreys knows that. But it hasn't stopped him from distorting Capito's concern for the next generation in an effort to spook the elderly into voting Democratic. This tactic betrays a view of senior citizens as stupid, to be herded like so many sheep. It's offensive.
West Virginia doesn't need another big-labor, big-government, cost-no-object liberal in Congress. Heck, that's what's wrong with the country.
Voters of the 2nd District need to elect a person who can take all points of view into account and make responsible compromises that respect the public purse.
The district has that person in Shelley Moore Capito.
OK, then I'll tell you whre you read it! It was in Stuart Rothenberg's article about the Democrats needing an "inside straight" to win control of the House.
I also recently saw poll results from one county in WV-02 (I think it was a county anyway), showing Capito with a 20+ point lead; that particular area was supposed to be the strongest area for Humphreys.
As far as I know nobody's ever put forward a concrete proposal to cut them for future recipients either, except for the raising of the retirement age, which in essence is a cut, and that was some years ago.
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