Reasons Why Walt Minnick is Running for Congress
It should be obvious by now to almost everyone that we have a crisis
of leadership in this country. Put simply, Congress is not doing its
job.
One does not have to look far for examples. Congress used to have rules
in place that it could not pass a law without knowing what it was going
to cost, where the money was coming from, and that it would not increase
the national debt. Those rules have been abandoned and Congress is now
on a spending spree like no other in history.
Another example of our failure of leadership is corruption. In the
last few months, we have had at least six people plead guilty of bribery
at the highest levels of our government, including a congressman, yet
Congress is doing almost nothing about ethics reform. Paralyzed by issues
of make-up and staff, the House ethics committee has not completed one
major ethics investigation in over three years.
A third example is bureaucratic failure. We have spent over a billion
dollars and several years reorganizing the federal bureaucracy only
to turn FEMA into the one of the most inept government agencies of all
time. This despite the fact that Congress has the responsibility for
oversight of our government and should be demanding that each agency
be efficient, effective and accountable.
How do we solve our leadership problem? We can start with what I believe
are the three most important requirements for holding public office.
The first is personal responsibility. We have the right to hold our
leaders to a higher standard. Not one person who runs for office is
drafted. They are all volunteers. That makes it fair to set a high standard
of conduct and performance. We must demand that our leaders be honest,
forthright, and ethical.
The second requirement is accountability. Whether it is war, debt,
gasoline or drug prices, no one seems accountable for our failures these
days. Every politician should be held accountable for his votes and
views and called on the carpet for failures in policy. Not just at election
time, but all the time.
And the third requirement is fairness. Each and every citizen has the
right to a fair and impartial government that protects individual rights
to the fullest extent possible. This includes our obligation to take
care of the less fortunate in our society. If one child goes to bed
hungry or without a doctor when sick, then we are all worse off.
But most importantly, we need to get our country back on track. We need
to rebuild our country and rebuild our reputation among nations. To
do otherwise is to turn our backs on our responsibility to make Idaho,
America and the world a better place to live.
That is why I am running for Congress. We simply cannot continue on
our current course. We must restore balance to our government. And,
I believe that the only way to do that is to send some new people to
Congress who firmly believe, like I do, that public service means just
that: service.
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