The telephone “town hall” with Rep. Scott Tipton was a waste of time. The one-hour time limit ensured that only a few questions would be posed, most of them softballs.
Given a chance, I would have asked:
How was your vote to allow coal companies to dump toxic mining waste into the nation’s waterways of benefit to your constituents? You agreed with a coal miner on the conference call that regulations were responsible for putting him out of work, but how does eliminating this rule put miners back to work?We know that 75 percent of Americans and 49 percent of Republicans want Donald Trump to divulge his tax returns and other details of his investments (which he continues to control through his sons). Why didn’t you sign on to the recent resolution to force President Trump to do just that?Republicans spent $10 million to convene eight “investigations” into the attack in Benghazi. Will you support an investigation into the hastily planned attack in Yemen (which was casually approved over dinner at Trump’s Florida resort) that left one American soldier dead and 30 civilians, including children, dead? Will you support allocating $15 to $25 billion dollars to build Trump’s border wall? If so, are you concerned about the seizure of private land that will necessitate?If there is $54 billion for increasing the military budget, will you also find $400 million to fund PBS and the National Endowment for the Arts?How can you spend $12 million per month to fly President Trump to Florida every weekend but have no money left to subsidize health care for the needy?Will you pledge to uphold national monument status for Bears Ears?Do you support de-funding the EPA?When will you convene an in-person town hall in or near Durango?I remain hopeful that I can get a straight answer to these questions, but I am not holding my breath.
Larry A. Bollinger
Durango
