MORGAN: Why I stormed Sen. Specter's office

• Article
• Comments ()
• Click-2-Listen
• Videos

By Melanie Morgan

OP-ED:

I went to visit Sen. Arlen Specter to save him from an embarrassing pro-stimulus vote that will damage America's economy and send the nation back to 1970s-style stagflation.

Jim Robinson, founder of FreeRepublic.com, and I arrived at Sen. Specter's office with a group of folks who oppose the $1.5 trillion stimulus package, on this past Monday morning. We asked to see Sen. Specter. The office secretary didn't seem to be happy to see us. I could not blame her. We were there to embarrass her boss. Jim, wearing his Navy cap, asked about the senator's whereabouts, but the secretary wasn't helping. It was distressing to see a wheelchair-bound Navy veteran being treated with such disrespect by a senator's staff.

It is clear that Specter's front-office staff needs to do an internship at Wal-Mart to pick up tips on how to properly work as a greeter. While the staffer told us she didn't know where Specter was, the senator was on Laura Ingraham's national radio program, defending the stimulus bill and snidely calling her "young lady" when she challenged him.

The desk staffer warned me that I couldn't go into the backrooms. It went through my mind that I certainly should be able to walk through the doors because I helped pay for them with my tax money. But diplomacy kicked in, so I yelled some more.

Eventually, Specter's chief of staff emerged and took notes as our group told him how disgusted we were that his boss was favoring a stimulus bill that is overwhelmingly apposed by his constituents.

Liz Colby Harp brought her five homeschooled children so Specter could see whom he is saddling with trillions of dollars of future debts. She was gracious, intelligent and dead on with her remarks.

Here are just a few of the items tucked into the pork bill, as written into the House or Senate versions. (Keep in mind, the Obama administration contends that this bill is to create jobs):

- $300 million for new cars for government bureaucrats;

- $4.8 million for a polar bear exhibit in Rhode Island;

- $3 million in tax benefits for golf carts, motorcycles and ATVS;

- $150 million for honeybee insurance;

- $1.5 million for a water park ride in Miami, Florida;

- $400 million to prevent sexually transmitted diseases.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, said the "American people don't care about pork." Well, as a woman, I recognize ugly fat when I see it. This bill is stuffed with it.

While leaving Specter's office on Monday, I walked past a long line of people wearing ACORN t-shirts. This is the same group that helped get Obama elected. They came to get what the rest of us will be paying for.

Melanie Morgan is chairman of Move America Forward.