Letter from a constituent

From Catawba's Donna Roulic in Statesville's Record and Landmark:

Since the Hickory Daily Record hasn’t reported this in Thumbs Down, I’m going to go ahead and give a big fat “F MINUS” to N.C. Representative Patrick McHenry (R) for skirting the truth on his vote “AGAINST” the appropriations bill (H.R. 3034) which included $150,000 for the Hickory Engineering Center and $100,000 funding for the Appalachian State University at the Caldwell Community College & Technical Institute (CCC&TI) in Hudson. The CCC&TI funding provides training for local teachers as well as undergraduate education degrees.

Yes, folks, your congressman McHenry - the one who said – “This Center is an ideal coalition of education, manufacturing and community leaders, working together to improve our training and educational opportunities for our region” voted “NAY” on funding for the Engineering Center and the CCC&TI. I feel sure the voters in the 10th District sent McHenry to Washington to work for them not against them. If this is the way he represents us in Washington we really need someone else to drive this bus for awhile.

This Republican rising star is lying-by-omission to his constituents while at the same time taking the accolades from the chairman of the Future Forward Economic Alliance, Mr. Pete Miller. If any one deserves a thank you it‘s all House Democrat’s for their votes in getting H.R. 3043 passed through the House.

No matter how flat you make a pancake it still has two sides therefore I wanted to hear McHenry’s side. I went to his live Monday night telecast and I asked him a very simple question “why did you vote against H.R. 3034 funding?” Of course I didn’t get an answer so I guess no answer is better than “I don’t recall.”

So I ask you - whose interest does Patrick McHenry serve? Is he aloof, out of touch or just baffled like President Bush?

And I see here's another question from the virtual town hall that McHenry didn't see fit to answer.

Hey Aaron Latham, I'm still waiting on your response to my email about the questions McHenry didn't answer that night . . . I think for $60,000 of taxpayer money a year you could answer a simple question.