Maintenance, Update

The maintenance man came by Monday morning, and took about three minutes to fix the dishwasher.

William F. Clinger, R.I.P.

Monday’s Washington Post includes an obituary of William F. Clinger, dead at ninety-two, who was for a number of years my Congressman, representing a district in Pennsylvania that included State College, where I grew up and later attended graduate school. I met him once, when he was visiting campus, and, if I recall correctly, participating in some kind of panel discussion. He recognized my name because I was an involved citizen who had written letters to him about public issues of the day.

He was concerned about the budget deficit, and I remember that he introduced a bill to build a deficit clock, showing how much money the federal government was borrowing each second, and how large the accumulated national debt was. He also introduced the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995, which Bill Clinton signed into law, implementing part of the Republican Party’s Contract with America; in those days, I was a Republican.

The last paragraph of the obituary reads: “In 2016, he was among 30 GOP former elected officials who signed a public letter urging Republicans to not vote for presidential nominee Donald Trump. He signed a similar letter before the 2020 presidential election.”

Let us remember the Honorable William Floyd Clinger; today’s GOP could use more men like him.