Letter to the editor: Didn't Rouzer know what he voted for? Brunswick Beacon

Brunswick Beacon, 07.17.25

In his Pulitzer Prize book “Profiles in Courage,” President Kennedy said, “a true democracy” will elect people who “represent their views ably and faithfully and exercise their conscientious judgment.” He should have added: “will read legislation before they vote for it.”

Congressman Rouzer describes his failures as successes. In his latest email, he boasts about “Protecting North Carolina Tobacco, the bedrock of North Carolina’s agriculture and manufacturing economy” for “more than two centuries.” 

I don’t think “protecting” means what he thinks it means. Rouzer and every other North Carolina Republican representative voted for Trump’s Big Bad Budget Busting Bill. Among its many faults, it eliminated the tobacco duty drawback, established in 1789. For 236 years, it has allowed farmers a refund of duties and taxes they pay on imported materials used to manufacture products they then export. Its purpose is to save farmers from double taxation and encourage American manufacturing and exports.

North Carolina is home to over 800 tobacco farms and the headquarters of three major U.S cigarette manufacturers. Nearly 200,000 local jobs were jeopardized by Rouzer’s vote. 

Rouzer admits he got an earful from NC’s farmers about his ill-considered vote: “Once included in the House version, agricultural stakeholders uniformly voiced strong opposition to repealing drawback.” Belatedly, Rouzer acknowledged that “the ability to export the product around the world has become critical to keeping our growers in business.” 

Rouzer was forced to write the Senate to “request not including the repeal of the duty drawback incentive for tobacco in the Senate version” of Trump’s bill. He then had the gall to brag about begging the Senate to bail him out!

Which of the virtues JFK described did Rouzer lack? Was he not conscientious about reading the bill before he voted? Was he unable to understand how his vote would hurt NC? Was he simply unfaithful to the people who elected him? My money is on all three.

Kristine Garrity

Calabash