Letter-Kick Duffy off couch

Dear Editor,

Republican U.S. Representative Sean Duffy, of the 7th Congressional District that now includes St. Croix County, has shown us his allegiances through his acts.

When Duffy chose to bed down on a Congressional couch in January 2011, many Wisconsinites were sleeping on someone else’s couch out of necessity (“14 percent of Wisconsin homes sales in 2010 were foreclosures”, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 2/24/11). The combined number of people staying in emergency shelters rose 56 percent from 2007 to 2010 in Pierce, Polk, and St. Croix counties, while statewide the increase was 10 percent (“In western Wisconsin, homelessness moves out to the suburbs”, Pioneer Press, 10/5/11).

Duffy, however, voted to end assistance programs for homeowners struggling to pay mortgages, including the “FHA Refinance Program”, “Emergency Mortgage Relief Program”, “Neighborhood Stabilization Program”, and “Home Affordable Modification Program” (votesmart.org).

To relate to the financial pressures on one struggling Wisconsin family, Duffy complained that his $174,000 Congressional salary was not enough to live on (“House freshman Duffy tells constituents ‘he’s not living high on the hog’ on congressional pay”, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 3/29/11). Duffy’s $174,000 was about three and one-half times the $49,001 median income of a Wisconsin household in 2010 (“Wisconsin’s median income plummets, Census figures show”, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 9/21/11). More than one-quarter of Wisconsin working families are classified as low-income, with annual incomes below two times the poverty line, or for a family of four less than $46,100 (“More Wisconsinites working two jobs to make ends meet”, Cap Times, 3/6/12).

Duffy, however, voted for the “Ryan Budget”, which raises taxes on low-income and middle-class households in order to cover the cost of new tax cuts for individuals with annual incomes above $250,000 (“’Path to Prosperity’ Is Really A Roadmap to Ruin”, TheMiddleClass.org).

Kick Duffy off our couch -- we can’t afford to have him sleeping in Congress.

Celeste Koeberl, Hudson

Tags: opinion, letters, politics