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Ted Harvey: Ed Markey right choice for western Massachusetts

Monday, March 18, 2013
(Published in print: Tuesday, March 19, 2013)

To the editor:

Elizabeth Warren has quickly become known as the War Horse of the Senate for her championing the rights of the middle class. Like Warren, Ed Markey fights for what he believes in and will work tirelessly for the people of Massachusetts in the Senate.

How do I know this? His record. Ed Markey has been a champion of finding solutions to some of the biggest issues of our time, long before it was politically correct to do so.

These are the same issues we care about here in western Massachusetts, from affordable health care for all to sensible laws to protect our children from gun violence.

With all that Ed Markey has done in Congress, his work on climate change and environmental issues has perhaps been the most admirable.

Although they may have different letters after their names, when it comes to environmentalism, Ed Markey is the Teddy Roosevelt of our time. For example, Markey voted no on approval of the Keystone XL pipeline and has a 100 percent rating by the League of Conservation voters. We know the disastrous effects of climate change here in Massachusetts, from hurricanes and tornado to October snow storms. We need someone in the Senate who will work to combat climate change. Ed Markey has been leading this charge in Congress and will bring his experience and dedication to working to find a solution to the Senate.

We elected a strong senator in 2012. Let’s do it again this year and support Ed Markey for Senate.

Ted Harvey

Amherst

11th President wrote:
19/03/2013

Markey “will work tirelessly for the people of Massachusetts?” I think Mr. Harvey should do some more homework on Markey’s voting record. Markey has spent a career opposing some of the very issues that Sen. Warren has championed. Let’s start with his May 1998 vote for the Financial Services Overhaul. This bill eliminated the Glass-Steagall Act and the Bank Holding Company Act, enabling banks, insurance companies and brokerages to combine into holding companies for the purpose of entering each other’s business. It passed 214 to 213 making Markey the deciding vote. This legislation helped open the door to the fall 2008 economic meltdown. Markey also voted for the Commodity Futures Modernization Act in 2000. This deregulation bill enabled investors to buy futures contracts on individual stocks. These contracts are the equivalent of bets, or educated guesses, on the future value of a particular stock. At the time of this vote, most future contracts concerned the price of agricultural commodities and stock market indexes. In general, this bill deregulated the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s authority over over-the-counter derivatives transactions. The bill contained the ‘Enron loophole’ which allowed oil futures to be covered by risky derivatives trades. A major reason why we are paying $3.70/gal. for gas today is because of Markey’s vote for this bill back then. How about TARP? Markey voted to give $700 billion of our tax dollars to the big Wall Street banks who used it to pay their top execs lavish bonuses.

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