Scare tactics used in re-election announcement

Rep. Tim Walberg has announced that he is running for re-election. In typical fashion, he used unsupported scare words talking about the “… disastrous Biden Administration and radical liberals attempting to turn America into a politically correct socialist regime.” Who are these “radical liberals?”

Perhaps they are the Democrats who want to change health care so we are no longer what Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., called, “… the ONLY industrialized country without universal healthcare.” Or perhaps they want to ensure the right to vote by passing the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. Or maybe they want to actively address climate change. Or possibly they want to have the top 1% pay their fair share in taxes. These ideas don’t sound very “radical” to me.

According to Walberg, “radical liberals” are also trying to make America into a “socialist regime.” Huh? Where does he get this stuff? I’ll bet he cannot name one Democrat in Congress who promotes this idea because none do. It’s a scare tactic. He always seems to come out strongly against socialism, but I think Walberg doesn’t even know what socialism is, at least judging by how he supports it during his photo-op at the opening of the Veterans Administration outpatient clinic in Adrian. The VA is an example of classic socialism — an organization owned and operated by the government. It is socialized medicine. His blatant hypocrisy is appalling. He uses “socialism” to scare people.

Considering the economy, Walberg is always saying how bad it is. Really? According to Business Insider (Nov. 5, 2021), the economy added 531,000 nonfarm payrolls in October; the unemployment rate is 4.6%, down 2.3 percentage points from a year ago; and companies plan to hire 939,300 seasonal workers for the holidays, 11% more than last year. As for the stock market (which Walberg always pointed to in the Trump years but hasn’t mentioned since), the Dow closed at 35,602.98 on Nov. 19 compared to 28,634.88 when Trump left office.

He also misleads us by constantly blaming President Joe Biden for inflation, usually talking about how much food prices are going up, what gasoline costs, and what heating our homes will cost without explaining the causes for the increases, other than it’s Biden’s fault. Is it?

Let’s look at some October prices: heating oil (up 59.1% from a year ago) and gasoline (up 49.6%). What caused the price jumps? According to Robert Rapier at Forbes, “the vast majority of the gasoline price rise can be accounted for by the rise in the price of (crude) oil” both here and around the world. The high cost of crude is also due partly to the collapse of demand during COVID-19 with U.S. producers idling 3 million barrels per day of U.S. oil. Now that we are recovering, the demand is up, but the supply is still lagging. Also, OPEC and Russia are keeping their supplies low while demand and prices are increasing worldwide.

Also, the price of natural gas has increased by 28.1%. Again, Walberg is quick to blame Biden. But according to oilprice.com, “the key reasons for higher natural gas and energy bills have been this year's record American exports amid flattish domestic gas production” and “U.S. (liquid natural gas) exports jumped … 42 percent compared with the first half of 2020.” We are exporting the gas that we need here. Why? Ask Tim. He is on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. He should know.

Walberg also opposes closing Enbridge’s Line 5 under the Straits of Mackinac. During a recent town hall, he claimed that Line 5 is safe saying, “It’s almost a foot thick, solid steel … when that anchor hit, that anchor basically all it did was chip the paint … a foot thick going all the way around.” However, according to Steven Meyer @TakeCareTim, Enbridge states that the thickness of the pipe is actually 0.812 of an inch thick! Walberg lied again. We do not need a liar representing us.

Hank Cetola is a professor emeritus at Adrian College and the founder of Lenawee Indivisible. He can be reached at lenaweeindivisible3@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Hank Cetola: Scare tactics used in re-election announcement