Gary Horton wrote an excellent column in today’s Signal (April 22) concerning the danger of electing Mike Garcia to Congress and giving Donald Trump another sycophant who will blindly vote what Trump tells him to do. I would like to expound upon that theme. During the primary Mike Garcia and Steve Knight had a war of words about who would demonstrate the most fealty to Donald Trump. It was Garcia’s contention that Knight was insufficiently loyal to Trump. Mind you, Steve Knight had a 98% voting record for this president, so if that isn’t subservient enough, I sure would like to know what percentage is enough. One thing Knight did vote for was the Republican tax giveaway, which cost folks in this district dearly with the cap on deductions for local taxes. This was the singular “achievement” of the Republican Congress before Americans nationally voted for sanity in the 2018 midterms.
On Garcia’s webpage he has a tab for “issues.” For a man running for Congress, there is a real dearth of issues, but one of the few listed was the typical Republican talking point of budget deficits. Bear in mind, Republicans controlled the presidency and both houses and ran up the highest peacetime deficits in history, despite robust job growth and a booming stock market. How anybody takes Republicans seriously on fiscal policy is one of the wonders of the age. Here is where we start to wander through Wonderland: Garcia wants to make permanent those tax cuts, but wants to restore the local tax deductions we lost from that tax legislation. The truth is the loss to Santa Claritans of those deductions is one of the key ways Republicans paid (partially) for their tax giveaway to the wealthy, and there is no way a Republican-controlled Congress would restore those deductions. Garcia knows this but he is counting on voters to be too stupid to see his math does not add up.
There is nothing wrong with having a robust discussion on taxes and spending. However, there is no way you can seriously reduce spending without taking on military and Social Security expenditures. Garcia in his thin “issues” tab is a proponent of robust military spending, so I guess that leaves Social Security.
Speaking of his “issues” tab, in the midst of a global pandemic, with COVID-19 killing thousands of Americans and wreaking havoc on the economy, there is not a single word about health care. Not one single word. I do believe Garcia when he says he will support Donald Trump totally. And that is terrifying.
Lynn Wright
Valencia
