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Democrats Need To Reciprocate Bipartisanship

To The Reader’s Forum:

John D’Agostino’s article about Claudia Tenney as a potential successor for Tom Reed contained an interesting comment:

“She…seemed to lack…something the current district Rep. Tom Reed took pride in while previously heading the Problem Solvers Caucus: finding common ground.”

Yes, Mr. Reed definitely referred to this caucus in all his political mailings, and it seemed to be his only claim to fame as our representative. I voted for Mr. Reed (mainly because his opponents were always extremists for the socialist agenda), but I was not always happy with his voting record. Last year, I did a spreadsheet of the Problem Solvers Caucus members’ voting record after Tom Reed voted for a particularly horrific piece of Democratic legislation. It turns out, when the Republicans were in the majority in 2017-2018, there was some bi-partisan voting from these members on legislation, but as soon as the Democrats took the majority in 2019, that ended completely.

Even though the (R) members continued to support some extreme legislation from the other side of the aisle, every single vote on a key conservative issue was unanimously “NO” from the Democrat PSC members. What did Reed achieve by reaching across the aisle to “solve problems”?

Absolutely no co-operation from the other party once they gained power. I will gladly support Claudia Tenney if she refuses to “find common ground” because that mindset only seems to work in one direction. If we want to pull ourselves out of this deep pit that the Democrats have dug for us, our representatives need to be strong-willed and determined about the right course of action.

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