To the Editor:
Susan Collins has worked hard as our United States Senator for the past 12 years. She has created a bi-partisan voting record as she hastens to remind us, and as a moderate has garnered the respect of her colleagues on both sides of the aisle.
She has come to the aid of many groups and individuals across the state, many of who have stepped up to support her advertising campaigns.
She’s been very busy – we would expect nothing less. As our Senator in Washington it’s her job to support the interests of the people of Maine – and it appears that for some, she has done an admirable job. But she works for all of us, and not all of us are doing well at the moment.
As a result of the economic and energy policies of the Bush Administration supported by Sen. Collins, our state and our nation are in the midst of an economic crisis the likes of which haven’t been experienced in decades.
As if that were not bad enough, we still have the endless, immoral war in Iraq – again supported by Sen. Collins – that continues to carry a staggering human and financial toll. The current price tag: $400 million a day; that is a day.
It’s impossible to imagine such an overwhelming amount of money, unless we set it into another context.
Maine’s portion of the Iraq war spending approved so far would provide 555,902 people with healthcare for a year, create 13,797 affordable housing units, or keep tens of thousands of Mainers warm this winter; unbelievable and unconscionable.
Her superb voting record has cost us dearly and her legislation to require Iraq to foot the bill for its own reconstruction and military costs five years after the fact is too little too late. The massive damage has already been done.
I will be voting for Tom Allen and I hope many others will be inspired to do so as well.
Bettina S. Tucker, Wiscasset
