Issa generous to some, skinflint for others

My apology to readers for another letter, but our local congressman, Darrell Issa just will not let his deceit rest. He continues to cast votes against our veterans and for the oil energy moguls.

The Republican led congress should have approved the giant spending bill before Democrats took control in January, but seem to have lost interest, and turned the unfinished bill over to the new congress. This giant multi-billion spending bill was given a quick tweaking by the Pelosi leadership to make badly needed changes, to add healthcare for veterans, notably those wounded in Iraq, by including an extra $3.6 billion. In addition, the Defense Dept. got an additional $1.2 billion to provide healthcare to active-duty personnel, again including Iraq war casualties.

The bill passed within one hour’s time in the House by a lopsided margin of 286-140 last week. So who voted against this bill? Rep. Darrell Issa. Several times in recent years Issa has voted against appropriations for our veterans. We know Issa is against excessive government spending, but it seems unconscionable for a politician to say he supports the troops, but then votes against providing the medical care they need for war injuries. Surely Issa can cut somewhere else - perhaps in the fraudulent war-profiteering contracts of Halliburton.

It is public information (Congress.org) that Issa has accepted several thousand dollars in contribution from Exxon-Mobil, and that he voted in January against rescinding billions of dollars in giveaway leases for oil drillers. We could forgive Issa’s charity toward needy giant Exxon-Mobil. That is, until last Friday, when we learned Exxon-Mobil racked up an all time record profit of $39.5 billion last year.

It seems Issa has a lot more charity for Exxon-Mobil than he does for our wounded soldiers and Marines.

Joe Howard Crews