Editorial: Oh, to be a Republican extremist for just one day : Stltoday

Editorial: Oh, to be a Republican extremist for just one day : Stltoday

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How nice to be, say, Jason Smith of Salem, Mo., elected to the United States House of Representatives this year right before his 33rd birthday. How great to be young, Republican and represent the 11th-poorest of America’s 435 congressional districts, 30 counties across south and southeast Missouri. What a great day Sept. 19 must have been, to join 216 of my GOP colleagues (including the five other GOP members from Missouri) in voting to whack $39 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program program over the next 10 years. Never mind that 1 in every five families in my district gets food stamps.

Even better than cutting food stamps from these wastrels would be the knowledge that you preserved subsidies for big agriculture in the process. How freeing it must be to be Rep. Vicki Hartzler, R-Harrisonville, and preserve farm subsidies for her family while taking food from the poor people of her district. It’s not that we oppose government handouts; it’s that we want the Right People to get them. Makers, not takers. Job-creators. Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge.

What would it be like to be Ted Cruz for only a day, and to spend that day standing on the floor of the United States Senate, railing against the Affordable Care Act? To be a United States senator from Texas, just like Sam Houston and Lyndon Baines Johnson.