Dear Gov. Cox:
Lately I’ve been receiving unsolicited emails from you, and I’m probably not the only one. The subject of your most recent correspondence, “Standing up to the federal government,” was filled with bombast and far-right political rhetoric, but it sounded more like a campaign letter and was hilariously ironic.
According to you, we are being “bombarded by bureaucracy and burdensome regulations from the federal government.” You are miffed, and you referenced a long list of the letters you have sent to Washington, D.C. to demonstrate your miffness.
You don’t want the feds to oversee Utah’s environmental practices, and you hope we will agree with you. (Do you also hope we won’t look out our windows at that thick layer of smog coating our valley floor? I should be satisfied that our environmental practices are first rate, right? OK, thanks! I can breathe easy.)
You also don’t want the feds to limit new oil and gas development on federal lands in Utah, because there is money to be made from that development and there is plenty of room in our air for even more pollution. Besides, asthma and lung cancer are a small price to pay for economic development. You are angrily opposed to all environmental oversight and I should be too, because Utahns don’t want Uncle Sam looking over our shoulders. We are fiercely independent, by God, and don’t need interference from “them.”
While you talk tough, Gov. Cox, I notice that you are careful not to bite the hand that feeds you. Utah received $26.5 billion from that same federal government in FY 2022. Hill Air Force Base, defense/military contractors, Social Security and Medicare, highway maintenance, building construction, research and education, and therein lies the irony in your message. While your right hand is clenched in rage, your left hand is outstretched, holding lots of federal dollars and begging for more. You can’t have it both ways, governor, and if you try, you’re a hypocrite.
My spam folder is full, so please unsubscribe me.
Mike Dunn, Draper