Why not "occupy" Wyden?
If we were organizing a camp-in against the 1%, our local target would be Sen. Ron Wyden. Here's a guy who's been in Congress for 30 years -- the 30 years in which the middle class has gotten completely shafted. His net worth is something like $5.4 million. He stonewalled tax reform and bears major responsibility for extending the Bush tax cuts, which have saved him and his wife hundreds of thousands, if not millions. He opposes the estate tax. He opposes single payer health care. He opposes a public option in health care. When it comes to money issues, he's basically a Republican.
Perhaps the reason he's not being "occupied" is that his office is on the MAX line over by Lloyd Center. There are too many stray bullets flying over there for safe camping.
| Posted at 12:26 PM | Permalink |
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Comments (11)
Agreed...
Posted by dean | November 7, 2011 12:58 PM
That, and does the guy even visit Oregon anymore?
Posted by Attorney At Large | November 7, 2011 1:50 PM
Walked thru the diagonal sidewalk at Occupy Portland just after 1:30 p.m. today. Kind of a reverse Potemkin Village in my eyes: they're pretending to create community where none exists.
There are still several tents at T.S. Plaza, with Federal Officers seemingly waiting for a green light to clear them.
Posted by Mister Tee | November 7, 2011 2:54 PM
As I recall, he also said he would help with the benzene in our air...he indicated in five years? I remember being appalled that we would not get any action before five years, I expected our NW delegation to take care of the matter much much sooner than that!!How many years ago was that, and what exactly has been done?
Not good enough in my book, but then why should he care, if he wasn't here to breathe it?
Posted by clinamen | November 7, 2011 2:56 PM
And all he says on Nat Security is that they are spying on us with secret rules they wrote for themselves but he can not tell us what they are.
Well Bloody Helll Ron , what good are you , throw your seniority into it , muscle them back , you are a US Senator, if you can not fix this then the country is done. We are just like the russians and we will live in fear of the secret police.
Does The Land Of The Free go down on your watch , Ron ?
Posted by billb | November 7, 2011 3:40 PM
It's classic Wyden. Try to win points by telling you something's wrong, but then do nothing to fix it. With taxes and health care, rather than joining with the House, he pulls his "I have a better idea" routine. It's always a better idea that has no support and is going nowhere. End result: no reform. Time after time.
Posted by Jack Bog | November 7, 2011 3:42 PM
I know you dislike Wyden and have written about him many times, but do you always make up stuff about him when you write about him? This time you sure did.
Wyden voted against extending the Bush tax cuts. There is no grey area here - he voted against them when Bush was in office and he voted against extending them.
I think you are right that he didn't vocally support single payer, and I doubt he is personally a fan, but I heard him speak on behalf of public option at a town hall in Washington County. He was also pretty clear and vocal about Oregon and other states using his state option proposal to do single payer or public option state by state.
One more note - KATU reported that OWS was demonstrating in SUPPORT of a Wyden-Blumenauer action against the Keystone pipeline and alleged State Department wrongdoing.
So Wyden agrees with the business community sometime - so what? There are a few thousand better targets for the left than the senator.
Posted by Desari Strader | November 7, 2011 3:53 PM
No, you are wrong. When the Democrats had 60 votes in the Senate and it was time to do away with the Bush tax cuts, Ron wheeled out his goofball "bi-partisan tax reform" plan and refused to throw his weight behind the House bill that would have done what Obama promised us he'd do.
Ron never supported single payer, vocally or otherwise. His public option was not a public option at all, but instead a state-sponsored tent show of private health insurance plans.
Wyden's smokescreens are quite effective, however, on people who don't listen carefully. And the Occupy people don't listen at all.
Posted by Jack Bog | November 7, 2011 4:33 PM
Ron also spent thousand sof dollars on fixing his teeth. (I know his periodontist. It was such a huge job he needed a really good specialist.)
Isn't it nice that the Republican from NY was able to afford 4 years of periodontal work with his nice fat health insurance while the rest of us get ill fitting dentures at best or have nothing at all.
I am sick of him!
Posted by Portland Native | November 7, 2011 5:10 PM
I think it's way past time for someone to check out Wyden's so-called residence on a daily basis to see if he actually ever occupies it, much less spends a night there. If there is a period of say 180+ days or more without him even setting foot in the place , it should be made a point in any future political race he enters. Just remember video surveillance camera systems are very cheap now; and solid state recording devices can hold months of video footage.
Posted by Dave A. | November 7, 2011 5:29 PM
Wyden bought a new house in Eastmoreland recently. Members of Congress are usually in D.C. quite a bit, but in Wyden's case the interesting angle would be how much time he spends in New York City, where his wife and children live.
Posted by Jack Bog | November 7, 2011 5:35 PM