Letter to the editor: Sending Berg to Senate would just repeat a mistake

Rep. Rick Berg, R-N.D., and his supporters tell us that he wants to move up from the U.S. House of Representatives to the U.S. Senate because he supposedly wants to break the gridlock in the Senate. He wants to push through legislation that the House has already passed when he gets to the Senate. But Berg and his supporters leave details out.

Gridlock in the Senate has been caused by Republican filibusters that regularly bring business there to a halt. Republican leader Mitch McDonnell announced his policy of gridlock when he stated that his No. 1 priority was to make sure that President Barack Obama can’t take any credit for legislation. He has been determined to deny legislative accomplishments to this administration. That is no way to help this country pull itself out of a recession, but that’s not as important to Republicans as their partisan games.

After all, Republicans could stop the gridlock today if they would start looking for issues where they could find agreement with Democrats and then vote on them instead of getting into filibuster formation. Democrats have a majority in the Senate, but not a majority with enough votes (60) to get past the Republican filibusters.

How do Republicans intend to get past the gridlock they have created in the Senate? They are trying to take the place over completely so that they are in total control. Extremists like Berg are leading the charge.

The group of bills Berg refers to that passed the House and that he wants to push through the Senate are extremist. These are the far-right pieces of legislation that tea party types have pushed in the House and that have passed there because of the radical right’s gains in the House in the last election. These are the types of radical changes that America doesn’t want and doesn’t need. These are the kinds of things that pass the House but fail in the Senate when they do make it to a vote because they are extreme. Senate Republicans often won’t vote for them either because they go too far. Electing Berg to the House was bad enough. Don’t let him get anywhere near the Senate!

Ron Franz

Grand Forks

Tags: opinion, letters, politics