Friday, Nov. 19, 2021 | 2 a.m.
View more of the Sun's opinion section
Quick, name something the Republican Party has done to get the supply chain moving again.
Nothing comes to mind? OK, how about the GOP’s solutions for inflation?
Still drawing a blank?
Well, don’t beat yourself up for not knowing, because the Republicans have offered nothing constructive on either issue. They’ve taken no action, have refused to talk, refused to legislate, refused to cooperate and brought no ideas to the table.
Infrastructure? Same story. Only 13 House Republicans voted in favor of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and their lives were threatened from the right as a result.
Job creation? Ditto. Except for the jobs that will be created by the infrastructure package, which only those 13 GOP members supported, Republicans haven’t participated in any meaningful level in legislation to create jobs.
Social improvements? Only for the 1% is the GOP mantra.
High drug prices? The Republicans universally fight in favor of Big Pharma to the detriment of the American people.
Improving Medicare? Um, Medi-what? They act like they’ve never heard of it.
Sensible climate action in the face of wildfires, rising seas, drought, worsening storms, floods and imminent mass extinction? Oh, that’s just weather, they say. But regardless of what form of climate change denial they subscribe to, they take no action.
The re-industrialization of America? Forget it. The GOP is on the side of outsourcing jobs and manufacturing.
This goes on and on and on.
It’s malpractice committed by a major party. The GOP has abandoned real Americans and only works for a very narrow group at the top.
What they’re good at is flying to Cancun, giving tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans and simply refusing to govern.
In other words, they’re not doing their core job. If Congress were a road construction site, they’d be the ones standing and pointing while their co-workers did the digging and paving.
Remember all those Infrastructure Weeks when the GOP controlled the House, Senate and White House? The Republicans controlled everything. They never got a fix for our infrastructure done. Everything the nation needs has to wait until Democrats come into power.
GOP leaders are making no effort at governing to the benefit of the American people — if they were, they’d be engaging with their Democratic colleagues to solve the very real problems that Americans are dealing with. These are things like climate damage, crumbling infrastructure, the economic hardship related to the offshoring of manufacturing, high health care and child care costs, and so on.
On these and other critical issues, the Republicans’ refusal to govern just means we wind up in a spiral of worsening times because one party won’t show up with ideas, a willingness to compromise, and a concern for the American people.
Everyone needs to remember this heading into 2022.
Fortunately, Southern Nevada’s congressional delegates have been strong on these key issues. All five — Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen, and Reps. Dina Titus, Susie Lee and Steven Horsford — voted for President Joe Biden’s infrastructure framework and are poised to approve the social spending act currently under consideration.
They’ve been stalwart supporters of the Affordable Care Act and reproductive health care, job creation for Nevada and other regions, climate policies, social improvements like expanded funding for Head Start and pre-K programs, stimulus funding that helped families weather the pandemic, and more issues that affect Nevadans at the kitchen-table level.
Contrast this to Nevada’s only other leader in Washington, Republican Rep. Mark Amodei of Northern Nevada. Amodei voted against the infrastructure package, which was simply astounding given that its $4 billion-plus of funding for Nevada will help repair and modernize our roads and bridges, shore up our water supply and bolster our wildfire protections, among many other improvements. The next time Northern Nevada chokes from wildfire smoke or has to evacuate like they did this summer, they should remember Amodei’s vote.
In fact, next time you hit a pothole on Nevada’s roads, thank Amodei. He’s pro potholes and crumbling bridges, and anti-Nevadan.
He not only rejected the last coronavirus stimulus package but called it the “bill from hell.” So much for caring about Nevadans who were facing the all-too-real hell of lost jobs, foreclosure and homelessness, food insecurity, and so on.
Amodei has been a typical GOP soldier, meaning he’s nowhere to be found when it comes to his main duty of working in the best interests of Nevada voters. Amodei appears to view Democrats leading the House and Senate as an excuse for a two-year vacation at taxpayer expense: Put your feet up on your desk, do nothing, have a nice cigar, let lobbyists buy your expensive dinners and simply say, “I’m against everything.”
Worse yet, Republican candidates who’ve stepped forward for Congress and the governorship have signaled that they’ll follow this same path of serving a tiny slice of Nevadans but refusing to do the work of governing for the vast majority.
Nevadans can’t afford to elect more of these people. It’s against our interests to send any reinforcements to a party that won’t that won’t govern to help their fellow citizens.
