MY Congressman, Mind You
…is already the MVP in these parts. He’s been talking THIS talk ~ and WALKING it ~ for as long as I’ve known him, and you’d experience the same straightforwardness if you ever had a chance to sit through one of his question and answer sessions. Other fancy, non-Redneck Riviera folks are just starting to catch on, like he was somethin’ new.
Jeff Miller could be MVP in Congress
Nothing in life is assured, but Rep. Jeff Miller’s Wednesday eruption against Veterans Affairs officials’ evasion of simple questions about waste and incompetence in their department could mean a prominent place for him in the history books.
…The House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, which the Florida Republican chairs, has now received three wildly divergent estimates from VA of its total spending on such events, ranging from $20 million to $100 million in 2011.
The third VA figure of $86 million was presented at Wednesday’s hearing. Miller’s exasperation was clearly evident when VA’s No. 2 official, W. Scott Gould, couldn’t explain the variation among the estimates.
Instead of merely venting his anger, Miller responded to the VA obstacles by declaring, “The truce is over. Expect much more oversight from this committee.”
Miller was still fuming after the hearing, telling The Washington Examiner’s Mark Flatten that the committee “got the same old crap that VA has been giving us for two years, and I am tired of it.“
Perhaps to remove any doubt about his intention, Miller added that the committee “will be digging in every possible corner that we can for issues that are not being served for the veterans. If you have leadership within the VA that have arrogant attitudes, the veterans are not being well-served.”
I remember one time ~ at a Republican Executive Committee meeting, no less, a fellow stood up, whining about jobs going to China. Now, I KNOW he expected to hear the usual demogoguery of ee-ville firms who leave Americans workers in the street, but you know what he got from Jeff Miller? “Where’d you buy your last toaster?” Of course, the goober said WalMart. “What’d you pay for it and how long did the one before it last?” $13 and about 3 years, if that.
“Jobs,” Jeff said, “won’t come home until YOUR attitude changes. Remember when you paid good money for a quality product, that you took ~ that you COULD take ~ to a shop on the corner, where another fellow made HIS living repairing things? Once people wanted cheap $6 toasters and throw away everything, American manufacturing jobs were doomed. What are you willing to pay a premium for? Until you change THAT mind set, they’re not coming back.“
BOOM.
Nah. We’ve known he was a supah-stah for a long time.
And I pity the fools at the VA.
H/T Instapundit
Military Thingies, People, Politics | tree hugging sister | 
November 30, 2012 9:24 am
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Good on Mr. Miller. We need more like him in Congress. The level of waste in the Federal government is staggering.
And the ignorance of the American public is appalling. He’s spot on about why jobs left the country.
We need more of him in schools to counter the indoctrination process.
My Congressman is Raul Grijalva. I moved from Waxman in LA to Grijalva in Arizona.
Feel my pain.
Don’t give me that “quality” horseapples. Jobs didn’t go overseas because American consumers were disloyal; they went overseas because unions wanted to be paid $10 for $1 worth of work, and nobody bought American because nobody sane wanted to PAY $10 for a $1 product.
That’s a factor, RHJunior, no argument about it.
But people willing to buy crap products at low prices (what’s known as the “throw away culture”) is a major reason (if not THE reason) why.
People stopped buying durable products (i.e., consumer demand declined). Durable products cost more money; they’d rather buy a $10 toaster every couple of years, rather than buy a $50 (or more!) toaster that will last 10 years or longer. Retailers saw this trend, and started looking for cheap goods. Most of which came from overseas where manufacturing costs are much lower.
American manufacturers attempted to compete with this by cutting back on quality, and producing similar goods. Unfortunately, the unions wouldn’t cooperate, and generally (not always, but generally) insisted on even higher wages. American manufacturers couldn’t compete against that here at home, and so the manufacturing went overseas.
The free market reacts to consumer demand. The current unions aren’t responsive to consumer demand. Hence the union impact you note. But that is insult heaped on top of injury, not a root cause.