Senator Responds to Publisher’s Column

To The Editor:
I was disappointed to read the opinion piece by the publisher of this paper last week. More and more people across America have come to believe the worst of their elected officials, but the accusation from Hall that those of us who represent New Jersey in Congress are out of touch and do not care about the people we represent is unfair, ill-informed, and, frankly, insulting. Disagreement on issues is healthy in a democracy, but questioning the motives and integrity of those with whom we disagree is just plain wrong.
I know what New Jerseyans are feeling; I grew up in a tenement in Union City with parents who worked hard and struggled to make ends meet, and it informed my life and my career in public service as a mayor, a Congressman, and now as a United States Senator. It gave me a unique perspective on the issues and made me realize that the business of government is people, their lives, hopes, and dreams.
That’s why I have tried to do all I can to help create jobs and boost the economy of Cape May County. Since shore communities rely on the beach and the ocean for jobs and economic activity, I have helped to secure more than $34 million in direct federal investments over the past three years to nourish beaches, protect waterways and boost fisheries.
I I authored the provision to save 1.7 million New Jerseyans from a surprise tax hike that would have totaled more than $3.5 billion under the Alternative Minimum Tax. We have passed significant business tax incentives, including the recent tax credit for businesses that hire or purchase equipment. And I authored the law that creates a tax credit for solar equipment manufacturing to spark manufacturing jobs and the burgeoning clean energy economic sector.
Finally, it seems that much of Hall’s perception of our work on health care is based on his personal beliefs about health insurance reform. Despite the health insurance industry spin, skyrocketing health insurance costs are, in fact, a prime reason for our “financial straits.” The 40 percent insurance rate hike in California is proof of that.
The purpose of health insurance reform is not to spend more money — in fact the completely impartial Congressional Budget Office has estimated that it will reduce the deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars and provide cost savings to a vast majority of families. The purpose of health insurance reform is to ensure that your insurance will be there for your family when you need it the most instead of bankrupting you. Good health coverage should be a right, not a privilege for the wealthy. We want to stop insurance companies from denying coverage based on “pre-existing conditions,” dropping coverage arbitrarily and imposing limits on coverage while ensuring that 1.5 million additional New Jersey residents get coverage, providing 854,000 New Jerseyans with tax relief to purchase coverage and covering the entire Medicare Part D prescription drug shortfall for 227,000 New Jersey seniors. These are vital health issues, and they are vital kitchen-table economics issues.
Had Hall called me or my office or visited menendez.senate.gov prior to writing, he would have understood the scope of my work to help families prosper, he would have understood that Cape May County has been the recipient of many vital federal investments, and I believe he would find himself to be a supporter of many of our efforts.
I look into the eyes of the families I meet and know we have to do all we can to turn this economy around, fix our broken health care system, and make sure that the excesses of Wall Street that caused our economic problems will never happen again. Though Hall and I may have healthy disagreements on how to get it done, neither of us should question our commitment to doing what’s right for New Jersey.
SEN. ROBERT MENENDEZ (D-NJ)
Trenton