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Dispatch Endorses Steve Stivers for Congress
Date:
Sunday, October 3, 2010 For Congress: Stivers would stand for fiscal common sense
Sunday, October 3, 2010 03:00 AM
The Columbus Dispatch
Opinion surveys consistently show that American voters are profoundly dissatisfied with the Obama administration and with Congress. Jaw-dropping annual deficits that dwarf those of the Bush administration, an expensive stimulus that barely made a dent in private-sector unemployment and an unsustainable and deeply unpopular overhaul of health care have created what promises to be a tsunami of backlash.
Although they were elected to address the 2008 economic collapse and get Americans back to work, President Barack Obama and the Democratic majority in Congress have failed to do so, succeeding only in massively expanding the cost, reach and intrusiveness of government. The American people have made abundantly clear that they believe the country is on the wrong track. The only way to correct the nation's direction is to end one-party dominance in Congress.
To that end, The Dispatch endorses Republican Steve Stivers, for the House districts that include the Columbus area.
• Steve Stivers, of Columbus, is running again against Democrat Mary Jo Kilroy in the 15th Congressional District, which includes Union and Madison counties and the western half of Franklin County. Rep. Kilroy narrowly won the district seat in 2008, thanks to Obama's intense but short-lived popularity and the fact that the conservative vote was split by two minor-party candidates.
Kilroy, who put personal political interests ahead of taxpayers' interests when she was a Franklin County commissioner, most obviously in her favoritism toward unions, has been equally disappointing as a House member.
She has marched in virtual lockstep with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, voting with her 98 percent of the time as she and her party drove annual deficits and the national debt to historic highs. Kilroy defends the health-care overhaul that 65 percent of Ohio's likely voters oppose.
She was willing to subject her constituents to further punishment by voting for a cap-and-trade bill that would drive up energy costs, impede economic development and kill Ohio jobs. Fortunately, this bill is stalled in the U.S. Senate.
In these ways, she has shown that her allegiance is to Pelosi and to Obama's reckless policies, not to her constituents.
Stivers, a former state senator and Iraq veteran, is a moderate Republican who understands that deficit spending does not create prosperity. Stivers would replace the health-care overhaul with legislation to expand the use of health-savings accounts, to give incentives for healthy lifestyles and to reform medical-malpractice law. The aim would be to keep the cost of health insurance affordable for individuals and small businesses.
Although he supports financial reform on Wall Street, Stivers faults the recently passed measure that Kilroy supported for ignoring Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the quasi-governmental mortgage agencies whose loose-credit policies helped to precipitate the recent economic collapse. Kilroy has vilified Stivers for his work in the banking industry, but this background ensures that Stivers understands something that Kilroy does not: that ledgers must balance and that red ink is destructive.
Most central Ohioans are not political ideologues. They want a reasonable amount of government at a reasonable price. They don't want their nation bankrupted and their children and grandchildren burdened with massive public debt. Stivers understands this. He is thoughtful, open-minded and willing to consider new ideas, but with an eye to their practicality and affordability. This is why The Dispatch strongly urges voters in the 15th District to elect Stivers.
By voting for Stivers, central Ohio residents can ensure that they have moderate, practical and responsive representation in Congress.
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