Open Letter to Senator Reid

NN&V Exclusive

Dear Senator Reid,

Last Thursday morning you took to the Senate floor to make a statement.

I had hoped you would be proposing a budget, which the Senate, under your leadership, has failed to do for more than 1,200 days.

I had hoped that you may have discussed any of the several House passed ‘jobs’ bills which the Senate , under your leadership, has also failed to do.

Of course, you could have chosen to discuss many other important matters, of great concern to the public.

• ‘Fast and Furious’ or the leaking of our national security secrets, would have been informative.
• How to avoid wasting $600,000,000 of taxpayer money on other failed ventures like Solyndra or how to avoid wasting $823,000 of taxpayer funded trips for GSA employees, would have shown the taxpayers that the Senate Majority leader cares about how their tax dollars are being utilized or safeguarded.
• The much touted need for tax reform, which both sides of the political aisle seem to believe is necessary to move the country forward, would have been a terrific place to start.

Instead, you chose to discuss the need for Governor Romney to release his tax returns, quoting an anonymous source that the Governor has not paid his taxes for ten years.

Wow!

A current TV commercial shows that Governor Romney reported earnings of $20,000,000 on his last filed tax returns. Using this as a base, even if the Governor had passed every last dime to the US Treasury for the last 10 years, it would not have come close to the amount squandered scandalously on Solyndra, about which, regretfully, you have said very little.

A few days earlier, you publicly stated that Governor Romney’s father would be ‘embarrassed’ by his son.

No, sir. The true embarrassment is the pernicious, vindictive, and McCarthy style of attacks in which you have elected to engage. The standards for common decency on the Senate floor have descended to a new low. The people of Nevada should be embarrassed; your Senate colleagues should be embarrassed; the entire nation should be embarrassed – and you, Sir, as Senate Majority leader should be embarrassed by your conduct.

One must hope the public must see this for what it is, and make a needed change in November, where the country sees new leadership in the Senate, and where the integrity of the institution can be restored.

The taxpaying public deserve nothing less.

Stephen Allott