Norquist causing serious damage

Daniel Olivier, Bullhead City, Ariz.

Saturday, Jan. 7, 2012 | 2 a.m.

What this writer would like to ask is: Just who voted for Grover Norquist? Just when did this election occur? I must have pulled a Rip Van Winkle when the election took place. Oh, you say, he was never elected. Well then, who appointed him as House leader or God? Nobody appointed him to anything. He is just another Washington anti-tax, anti-senior, anti-poor conservative.

Where does he get his power? From controlling millions of lobbyists’ dollars and threatening to withhold support from any House member who votes for a tax increase on the rich.

The issue of money in politics has been expanded by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision, on a 5-4 vote, that allows corporations and other big campaign contributors to give unlimited contributions to support political candidates.

That, and a group of stubborn, uninformed Tea Party members of the House seem to control the country. The Tea Party seems determined to take the country back to colonial days and peel back key social legislation passed since then, including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, not to mention laws protecting the environment, health and safety and overseeing the financial sector.

I am of the age where I personally won’t be around to see the end product of their ill-informed intransigence, but it won’t be pretty.