This weekend, U.S. Representative-elect Allen West (R-FL) made some comments on Meet the Press that were incredibly frustrating in their inaccuracy and divisiveness. He was responding to a question from anchor David Gregory about Bush-era tax cuts. Here’s part of the transcript from NBC:
MR. GREGORY: The — Congressman, the — on the issue of tax cuts , do you buy the president’s argument, “Look, let’s extend those Bush -era tax cuts for the middle class first, then we can come back and do the upper earners, or at least have that conversation”?
REP.-ELECT WEST: No. I think that we need to extend those tax cuts permanently across the board. Look, I come from a — an area down in South Florida where unemployment is at 13 percent, foreclosures are absolutely high. We are seeing closed upon closed storefronts. But yet, when you walk around here in Washington, D.C., you don’t see people getting laid off, you don’t see, you know, anyone suffering, you don’t see the foreclosures. There is a belief that things are not going well down on Main Street, and they need to be heard. There is a belief that it has to start from up here with the right type of cuts in the spending, the right type of cuts in the growth of government.
So, the Congressman doesn’t see anyone suffering when he walks around D.C. I wonder how much he has walked around the District and where, exactly, he’s walking. Has he walked around Ward 8 where the unemployment rate is 26.5 percent? Has he walked past the new IHOP in Columbia Heights where 500 people – many of whom were overqualified – applied for jobs? When he’s walking, is he talking to any single women who are caring for their families on less than $29,900/year – the median income for this family type, according to our new report 2010 Portrait of Women & Girls in the Washington Metropolitan Area?
I get what the Congressman is trying to do – sort of. He wants his constituents back in Florida to think that he’s coming up here and bucking the system. He’s the one in D.C. who understands them. He’s going to show those wealthy, out-of-touch fat cats a thing or two about the real America. He’s representing Main Street inside the Beltway. But what he and many other politicians don’t seem to get is that Washington, D.C. stretches far beyond Capitol Hill. This is a city that struggles with unemployment and foreclosure and a shrinking middle class – just like the rest of the country. To imply that we don’t have these problems is insulting and shows a frightening myopia. These things are happening all around you in D.C. Open your eyes. We’re not different – we’re a microcosm of what’s going on in your home state.
So to Rep. West, the incoming Congressional class, the seasoned members of Congress, and journalists (come on David Gregory! You should have said something about the inaccuracies mentioned on your program – this is your city, too.), I’d like to extend an invitation for you to learn more about the city that you inhabit for a good part of the year. Yes, this city is set up so that you can breeze in and out and go about your business without ever seeing the need – but is that really what a public servant is supposed to do?
You can get started by reading The Women’s Foundation’s new report 2010 Portrait of Women & Girls in the Washington Metropolitan Area. In it you’ll find a comprehensive look at the lives, strengths and needs of women and girls in this region – and I guarantee you it will look familiar. The challenges that local women and girls face are very similar to those of women and girls around the country. And the idea that you can improve an entire community by increasing the economic security of women-headed families is universal.
Next, I’d like to take you on a walk that will have you leaving Pennsylvania Avenue and meeting some of our 150 Grantee Partners – organizations that are fighting the very issues that Rep. West claimed D.C. isn’t struggling with. Hopefully he and others can recognize that the work of these incredible nonprofits isn’t in vain.
If you’d like to learn more, you can reach me at mcraven@wawf.org or 202-347-7737, ext. 207.
