How often does Congress vote on spending bills that only impact one congressional district? The answer is almost never. Members of Congress almost always write and vote on legislation that impacts the entire country, not only their own personal district. In fact, the entire reason we have a federal Congress is to pass laws that impact more than one state. If there were no such laws, there would be no need for a national legislative body.
Here is another question: when Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, would it have been appropriate for members of Congress not from the Gulf Coast to vote down all spending for relief and rebuilding efforts, because such efforts disproportionately benefited districts in the Gulf Coast? Should members of Congress from outside the New York and Washington, D.C. metropolitan areas have voted down 9/11 relief effort because their congressional districts did not receive proportional benefit from the aid? Should we not have declared war on Japan in December of 1941 because they only attacked Hawaii?
And here is another question: did Congressman Eric Massa serve in the Armed Forces only because he thought such service would disproportionately benefit New York's Southern Tier? And when Captain Massa ran for Congress, did he refuse all contributions from people living outside his district, including help from the DCCC and other groups which are not based in his district?
And when 8,100,000 American families are facing foreclsoure over the next four years, is it appropriate for a member of Congressto vote against a housing bill because his district is facing only 7,048 foreclosures, which is less than 1 out of every 435 of all foreclosures? As I discuss in the extended entry, this is not a hypothetical question.
The reason I ask these questions is because, last week, Congressman Massa voted against a housing bill that he believed would help prevent foreclosures because, according to his press release, Massa "didn't think the Housing bill delivered a proportionally fair amount of relief to the families of my district" and was instead "largely targeted to States like California, Nevada and Florida." He believes there is a "housing crisis" (his words), and that the bill would "benefit" people facing foreclosure (again, his words). However, because the housing crisis is more severe in other congressional districts than the NY-29 (which is true), and thus the bill would benefit those areas of the country hardest hit by the housing crisis, somehow the housing crisis is not his fraking problem?
This is simply inappropriate behavior for a member of Congress, a legislative body which is supposed to be working for the common good. It is also inappropriate behavior for a Democrat to argue that legislation is bad only because is helps people outside of your own demographic group. Conservatives have successfully attacked government programs for decades by arguing, or at least regularly implying, to white people that the government programs disproportionately benefit non-whites. Massa employs nearly identical reasoning here, looking out only for his own people rather than working toward a common good. Government spending that disproportionately impacts "other people" is labeled as waste, while spending that helps "your people" is considered necessary.
We--Americans--are all in this one together. One region of the country is not going to recover from our current economic mess while all others languish behind. Without a national recovery, there will be no recovery at all. Can someone explain how one region, one state, or one congressional district will avoid an economic catastrophe affecting all other regions, states and districts? I can't. Once we stop looking out for the common good, and start adopting an attitude of "everyone for him or herself," as Congressman Massa did here, then even any hope of national recovery is lost.
Congressman Massa's vote on the housing bill was pretty bad, but his reasoning for his vote was even worse. If he doesn't consider people facing foreclosure in California, Nevada, or Florida to be any of his concern, he better hope that people from California, Nevada, and Florida don't feel the same way about Western New York. Once it becomes everyone for herself, the only way this ends is when everyone is ruined.
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