Congressional Check Bouncers

“The bank never notified me.” “There was no public money involved.” “I guess I’m just a sloppy bookkeeper.” “My wife wrote most of the checks.” The members of Congress just don’t seem to get it. The public doesn’t want excuses, it knows why the checks were bounced; it was because the character and values of those leaders of our country are corrupt. In an orgy of denial and arrogance, the members of Congress who wrote the bad checks refuse to accept responsibility for their actions.

I know, and you know, that you cannot write checks for more money than you have on deposit, and yet more than 300 members of Congress did just that.

The fact that this was not a true bank but more like a cooperative credit union convinces me that this makes the stain on the check bouncers worse. Because this was more like an honor system, those who abused the system were violating the trust of those who honored the system.

Speaker Thomas Foley and other members of Congress keep repeating that the country should not be concerned with a small problem such as the writing of these checks; they say the Congress has more important matters to consider such as the environment, the deficit and the economy. Those members of Congress just do not understand. They appear unable to comprehend that writing scores of checks for more than they had in the bank displays an attitude, a set of values and a character that the public believes are incompatible with solving those important problems that the House would prefer the public to focus on.

If I find that my congressmen bounced more that one or two checks, something that a fiscally responsible person might do, he will not get my vote in November.

FRANK WAGNER, Playa del Rey