Since the Republican primary started, Billy Long has tried to make the case he is making a sacrifice to go to Washington and serve in Congress for Missouri's Seventh District, and numerous people have picked up the closer we have gotten to election, the more Billy Long whines about it. In the Springfield News-Leader Long said he was feeling some regret for about ten days, and this past week he continued to whine about parting with his auction business saying he doesn't agree with the House rules.
I just wish someone would pull Billy Long aside and ask him to stop whining about it. If this is such a hardship, it is possible for another man more capable and more willing to serve in Congress. I definitely want him to stop this idea that he is "sacrificing" for Southwest Missouri for this opportunity to serve in Congress. He has been making the case that he is sacrificing to go serve in Congress for a little over a year now. An interview on KZRG (November 9, 2009) was the first time I had heard him claim he was going to have to sell his business and create this idea of sacrifice. Notice in the interview how he sets up the sacrifice.
Since then the closer he gets to Washington the more he reminds voters of the sacrifice he is making. From KZRG to the Springfield News-Leader to the Springfield Business Journal and now the national media, Long continues to whine and remind voters of his sacrifice. I am sick and tired of it and let me explain why.
Billy Long has never laced up combat boots and made a real sacrifice for this country. I have. I joined the Army two days before Saddam Husein invaded Kuwait. Yes, the thought of war scared the hell out of me at age 19, but I went anyway knowing I could be sent to Iraq immediately upon completing basic training and AIT in an Army field hospital. I gave up time in my youth with family and friends to ship off to an Army base to sacrifice the comforts of life to learn the basics of becoming a soldier. While Billy Long says he won't even be making close to what the Auction business gave him in income compared to his Congressional salary, a soldier E-2 when I went in, made about $28 a day. Something tells me Billy Long's Congressional per diem is much larger than that and I bet he won't have to eat am MRE on the Hill either.
Across the United States there are three million Americans in the military who make these sacrifices daily. Our country's history is full of men and women who made similar sacrifices to fight for this freedom. Of these men and women, many of them made the greatest sacrifice for freedom by giving their lives during battle.
Billy Long needs to shut up. His sacrifice is nothing--nothing but a flush down the toilet compared to what the brave men and women who enter our armed forces sacrifice. There are far more Southwest Missourians that have given this country and this Congressional district a sacrifice that Long probably will never measure up to. Frankly, I have had enough of Billy Long whining about selling his auction business, his pay cut, and giving up his life work of 30 years. Had Billy Long made a real sacrifice for this country, he would have laced up combat boots rather than go to auction school in the first place.
