While President Biden sends FEMA to deal with his self-inflicted illegal immigration crisis at our southern border, CD-5 Congressman Josh Gottheimer voted last week to ensure Biden’s already-disastrous policies are protected by a rubber stamp Congress that seems hell-bent on making us less safe and less rational.
Very few Americans, whether Republican or Democrat, are in favor of offering non-citizen felons a pathway to citizenship. And yet our Congressman voted against a common sense measure that would have disqualified undocumented gang members from receiving welfare or the privilege of becoming an American. The measure would have also placed these individuals at the front of the line for deportation, where they should be.
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One could be forgiven for asking why such a reasonable measure would not be supported by someone who has made a political career by claiming he is reasonable. It seems a daily occurrence that Congressman Gottheimer goes on MSNBC to remind people he is a member of the Problem Solvers Caucus. But with a solution to a dire national security problem staring him right in the face, he cowardly chose to look the other way.
For those who have been paying close attention, this is nothing new. This has been the Congressman’s modus operandi after two dominant re-election victories that have allowed him to amass more money and political power than he is worthy of possessing. And it’s a shame we have let him get away with it.
Josh Gottheimer doesn’t want us to pay attention. He knows that if we do, we will quickly realize his entire Congressional career has been one unprincipled hypocrisy after another. His campaign signs promised lower taxes; our taxes continue to rise. He promised us COVID relief when the virus was at its worst last year; he must have forgotten about the counties in his district that didn’t vote for him. No relief went to Sussex or Warren in the first stimulus, when it was most desperately needed. Not a single dime.
That’s because Josh Gottheimer’s tenure has never been about working on behalf of the people he is charged with serving. Political survival is his only motivation, and he has shown time and again that he will do what is necessary to salvage his political ambitions—even if it means selling out the district or the nation.
In the Marine Corps, integrity was everything. I learned quickly in Iraq and Afghanistan that serving your country requires you to put yourself last and your duty first; to be guided by unwavering principle; to do what is right, even if it may be difficult or unpopular; to never forget why you raised your right hand in the first place.
Josh Gottheimer has forgotten. For six years, he has used us to better himself when he should have been in the trenches fighting on our behalf.
Washington has enough self-serving hypocrites. Congressman Gottheimer has proven himself unfit for duty, and it is time for him to go.
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NICK DE GREGORIO served nine years as a Marine Corps infantry officer and is a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He is a recent graduate of Georgetown University’s MBA and international relations programs. A Bergen County native, Nick lives with his wife Emily in Fair Lawn.
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