Tina Smith: “as the new year arrived, I looked to coming back to Congress with, frankly, a sense of dread because I knew we were…”

“as the new year arrived, I looked to coming back to Congress with, frankly, a sense of dread because I knew we were entering a political year, a year where the stakes are high, and the President stands for reelection. I knew there would be an awful lot of my work and the work of all of us tied up in partisan gamesmanship. I will confess to my colleagues, I do not much enjoy it. I look at my friend from Nevada, Senator Reid, and I see a great human being. When I look at Senator Feingold, I see another great human being. I love the message of compassion of the Democratic Party. I know where their hearts are. This is not about good people or bad people. This is about competing ideas. But because I had that view--my father was a Republican, and my mother, a Udall from Arizona--I understand good people can differ on these issues. Because of that sort of bipartisan approach to life I have always had, in my former life as a businessman, as candidates for public office would come to our company and ask to meet with us and our employees, I welcomed Democrats and Republicans alike equally. Unfortunately, what I often came away with was the feeling those on the Democratic side loved my employees but they hated employers. That is because they would demand we create jobs and then they would say the way you do that is you raise the minimum wage, increase your regulations, and raise your taxes.”