GOP reaction revealed its ties to corporations

Reading the comments in the Watertown Times on the State of the Union Address suggests that anyone wishing to get more insight into the thinking of our elected congressional Republicans needs only to have watched the State of the Union Address and observed their response to various parts of the president's speech. Sadly their response also reveals their ties to corporate sponsors.

They jumped to their feet like a bunch of high school cheerleaders on hearing the words "nuclear energy" but sat on their hands when renewable energy was mentioned. The powerful nuclear energy industry does not want people to know that the repackaging and storage of nuclear wastes must go on for thousands of years, leaving the responsibility for our present energy use and the hundreds of trillions of dollars that it will cost to future generations.

Their smirks and disinterest in health care reform were matched by their indifference to the problem of global warming. Although the numbers for health care and the data on climate change show that doing nothing on either of these problems portends disaster, the well-disciplined Republicans, even those who are intelligent, have traded their brains along with their integrity for support of big insurance, big pharmaceuticals and the fossil fuel industries.

After eight years of failed policies with tax breaks for the rich and unpaid-for wars with their trillions of dollars of indebtedness that have nearly doubled the national debt, these Republicans now try to sound like fiscal conservatives. They now want to stop any stimulus spending. That is like worrying about the water bill when your house is burning down.

James Monroe

Colton