Here we go again. In a recent visit to New Canaan, Congressman Himes opined that employers “can’t necessarily trust what we hear out of Hartford,” all while acknowledging that the state’s continuing financial woes and unpredictable fiscal policies are both driving employers like GE from the state and hurting Connecticut residents.
Such epiphanies mark the beginning of Mr. Himes’s biannual effort to distance himself from his own party and his own policies to mask the fact that — like the current leadership in Hartford — Mr. Himes is a big borrow, big tax, big spend Democrat who believes in a big centralized government. Mr. Himes’ public policies, and his contribution to the State’s undeniable problems, can not be hidden by another round of election year camouflage.
Indeed, like his Democratic colleagues in Hartford, Mr. Himes continues to support increases in government borrowing and taxation to pay for the gluttonous growth of our federal government’s size and spending. Himes has proudly supported every federal spending and “stimulus” boondoggle along with the related debt imposed on future generations. Indeed, since he has been in office federal spending and our national debt have exploded, while our economy has crept along at under 3% and wages have remained stagnant.
Like his Democratic colleagues in Hartford, Mr. Himes also support a concentration of power away from the legislature and to the executive — as evidenced by his support of President Obama’s reckless deal with Iran, and his support of secretive “fast track” trade agreements that shut out public input from elected representatives and relevant labor and environmental interest groups.
Lastly, and like his Democratic colleagues in Hartford, Mr. Himes continues to support polices that, once stripped of the canned rhetoric, actually hurt our ability to improve our schools and local communities.
Indeed, Connecticut’s citizens send near the most to Washington, get back near the least, and are simultaneously being stripped of their control of local needs and funding — authority that continues to move away from our local boards and officials and to Washington politicians elected in other states. Meanwhile, while the federal government bleeds this state dry, our democratic friends in Hartford squander what’s left.
In the end, the Himes/Hartford big tax, big spend, big government approach has left this district — one of the wealthiest in the country — with too many schools, programs and infrastructure projects that are either broke or broken. After nearly eight years of this approach, Connecticut is losing population, jobs, opportunities and, even more concerning, the ability to correct our course. It simply has to stop.
Talk is cheap, but properly funding schools, infrastructure and environmental protection are not. Yelling “I’m not with them” every two years will neither change these facts nor help improve our communities.
John Shaban is a Republican State Representative from Redding. He is running for Congress in Connecticut’s 4th Congressional District.
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