Rep. LoBiondo hasn't fulfilled pledges made

Rep. Frank LoBiondo, R-2nd District, was elected to office in 1994. He was then filled with enthusiasm and a passion to serve his constituents when he took the oath of office to support the Constitution. That is why he signed Newt Gingrich's "Contract with America." Time seems to have clouded the memory of that pledge; Mr. LoBiondo's votes in Congress have achieved the opposite effect. Instead of working toward a balanced budget, he has supported the policies of a president that have turned the largest surplus in our history into the largest deficit, and has voted to increase the national debt a whopping five times. Instead of tax cuts for families, he voted for every tax cut the president has proposed which gives the largest share of the benefits to the wealthiest. Instead of fairness for senior citizens, he voted for a Medicare Drug Plan that contains provisions that guarantee insurance and drug companies' profits while requiring seniors to pay the full cost of prescriptions in addition to monthly premiums while in a $3,000 benefit vacuum. Instead of welfare reform, he voted for cuts to hundreds of social programs such as Head Start, the child subsidy for families with less that $26,000 income and tuition aid to needy students. Instead of common sense legal reforms, he voted for measures that make it almost impossible for average people to file class action suits when harmed by corporations that pollute their drinking water and foul their air. And finally, instead of honoring his pledge to abide by term limits, he is running for an oath breaking seventh term. It seems he has become part of the Washington establishment, and it is up to us to remind him by voting for someone else who will honor pledges made when he or she truly had our best interests in mind. Nick Reina, Milmay - Daily Journal, October 27, 2006