Forty-nine of fifty-one Republicans in the United States Senate receive annual salaries of one hundred and seventy-four thousand taxpayer dollars (President pro tempore Chuck Grassley and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell each get $193,400.00 per year) plus Senators’ Official Personnel and Office Expense Account (SOPOEA) payments of three to five million taxpayer dollars per year per senator.
These honorable men and women “work” (advocating and legislating) a few hours a day a few days a week a few weeks a year.
They spend much of the rest of their time on the phone and in meetings with oil and gas donors and lobbyists talking about how much money they can get to enact laws that will benefit the special interests of those donors and lobbyists (according to a Drexel University study published on July 19, 2018, lobbyists spent well over $2 billion between 2000 and 2016 to defeat legislative efforts to ameliorate the potentially catastrophic effects of climate change).
Oil and gas donors and lobbyists have given millions of dollars to Republican senators like Mitt Romney from Utah, John Cornyn from Texas, Ted Cruz from Texas, and others like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell who, in addition to snatching millions of taxpayer dollars throughout his nugatory political career, has pulled in more than $3,000,000.00 in contributions from gas and oil donors and lobbyists.
Anyone who may still have doubts about what Republican senators really care about should ask why they’ve consistently ignored a Defense Department report on Security Implications of Climate Change sent to Congress back in July 2015 that advised, “Global climate change will aggravate problems such as poverty, social tensions, environmental degradation, ineffectual leadership and weak political institutions that threaten stability in a number of countries”?
The question that should be asked by every person thinking about voting for any of these folks is this: Since Republican senators have consistently put contributions from oil and gas donors and lobbyists ahead of the obvious urgent need to confront the negative effects of climate change, do they deserve my vote?
Isn’t it time to elect senators who actually care about us, not just the money?