Huizenga 'survey' only self-serving

In the most recent Huizenga’s Huddle, U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga asked recipients to participate in a survey. This survey, which asks respondents to select the two most important national budget priorities, suffers from significant bias and methodological flaws.

While it gives off the appearance of seeking public input, the provided response options clearly reflect a predetermined agenda, effectively confirming existing Republican priorities rather than genuinely exploring diverse perspectives. This restriction prevents respondents from expressing alternative priorities and therefore skews the results.

Let’s review the response choices:

• Cutting taxes for individuals, families, and small businesses
• Reducing spending, inflation, and the national debt
• Cracking down on government waste, fraud, and abuse of taxpayer dollars
• Stopping illegal immigration and restoring law and order
• Protecting mandatory spending programs, like Medicare and Medicaid
• Unleashing American opportunity, job creation, and energy production
• Unsure/Other

Beyond the biased response options, the survey contains several other critical flaws:

• The “Unsure/Other” option fails to provide a mechanism for respondents to clarify or specify their alternative priorities.
• Phrases like “Unleashing American opportunity” lack clear definitions, leading to inconsistent interpretations and unreliable responses.
• The use of compound statements such as “Stopping illegal immigration and restoring law and order” forces respondents to agree or disagree with multiple concepts simultaneously, hiding accurate data collection.

These methodological shortcomings comprise the survey’s validity and reliability. It is an unsuitable tool for gauging genuine public opinion of the 774,000 people Huizenga represents. Despite the issues associated with the survey, I fully expect a future “Huizenga Huddle” to associate his votes on the national budget to the results of this flawed survey. (An application of the “mandate” narrative.)

I encourage Huizenga to capture a clearer picture of what his constituents want by writing better surveys and holding in-person town halls.

I encourage residents to complete the survey and contact Huizenga directly via email or phone to elaborate on their national budget priorities.

Adrea Hill
Holland Township

Huizenga is just making excuses

In an interview on News Channel 3, Congressman Bill Huizenga (MI 4) complains that constituents contacting his office are not “representative of the community he serves” and “the organization they are putting behind it, clearly, as it was eight years ago, is getting funded and organized by outside partisans.”

I joined a group of Huizenga’s constituents outside his office last week asking for a town hall. There were no “outside partisans” and I am most certainly not funded by anyone (including George Soros) to show up at the Congressman’s office begging for answers to questions he has failed to address. I have written multiple emails, I have spoken with his D.C. and Holland staff — now, they refuse to answer the phone. I will be outside the office again, asking for an in-person town hall to hear directly from my congressman and fellow constituents.

My questions: Why does Elon Musk need my personal data? Do the kids running DOGE have security clearances, and what guarantees will the Congressman provide to alleviate concern over misuse of my personal data? In voting for the budget framework, it appears the congressman is looking at cuts to Social Security and Medicare — programs I am enrolled in. Should I expect a reduction in my benefits? Huizenga is on the Foreign Relations Committee — does he support Ukraine? To what extent? Does he support eliminating sanctions on Russia? The Russian State media outlet TASS was present in the Oval Office for the Zelenskyy meeting; the White House press office said they were not authorized and should not have been there — is it really possible someone gained access to the Oval Office unauthorized? Will the congressman call for an investigation into this security breach?  

And the most pressing question: When will Congressman Huizenga show up in his district and address the people who put him in office? Does he believe in representation?

Kim Nagy
Jenison

Trump is Putin's most valuable asset

There is no question that Trump is a Russian asset. By that, I mean he is doing what Putin wants him to do:  

l. Withdraw support for Ukraine.

2. Divide America's population.

3. Put a wedge between America and NATO.

4. Create doubt among Americans about the integrity of our institutions and our elections.

5. Tank the American economy and the stock market.

6. Even the possibility of lifting sanctions against Russia and once again doing business with Russia and encouraging American businesses to once again open offices in Russia.

What is not clear is whether Trump is more than an asset but is a Russian agent. Which means, if true, that Trump is working with Putin to achieve his goals. I have no evidence that Trump is a Russian agent but the simple fact he is doing what Putin wants him to do makes one wonder.

Henry Idema
Grand Haven

Huizenga needs to see reality for what it is

Good evening, Congressman Huizenga (or the staffer that actually reads this),

I'm writing in response to your recent comments regarding the public displays of antipathy to your support of the first months of the new administration, DOGE, and most recently the deep cuts to social service programs contained in the Concurrent Resolution currently in reconciliation.

I understand your reluctance to do a public town hall and I'm not here to try and shame you for it. Rather, I am here to point out the fallacy in your statements that it's a "small faction" of residents or its people that are not constituents.

I know that you know better than this, sir. Just like I know you're aware that Ottawa County turned almost two points to the left during this cycle and that I came within a whisper of defeating your former intern, Jordan, in my re-election bid, carrying 6 of the 10 precincts in the district we both call home.

During the course of the 12,000 doors I knocked on between the recall and general elections, I spoke with so many disaffected Republicans that I can't recall all their stories. A lot of us remember the representative you were before the Tea Party rose to prominence. I shared with many of them how you were instrumental in helping me get through the VA red tape to get spousal benefits for my mother after her husband passed.

Hell, I told them how you and your sister taught my wife and I how to dance at her studio on 16th Street and how you presented the story of your great-grandfather's experience in Russia at the Holland Museum when we were running the "Doughboys & Polar Bears" exhibit.

In short, I never dragged you, dismissed you or talked trash about you to any of our shared constituents.

I know you have a demanding job and schedule, sir, so all I'm asking is that you give a moment of consideration to the idea that maybe this isn't a small cabal of 30 angry Democrats in Macomb or Kent County making all this noise. Perhaps it's the genuine concern of the Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians and Independents I spent 13 months getting to know in the 2nd county district, some of whom I know for a fact are your neighbors.

I wish you the best, and hope you get the chance to grab some rest during the upcoming break.

Christian Kleinjans
Holland Township

Huizenga's time is up in the Fourth District

When a congressman refuses to meet in person with his constituents, it might be time to rethink the validity of his local representation. There is no legal option to recall Congressman Bill Huizenga so the only viable alternative is to turn his 55% voter margin in the 2024 election into a 40% voter margin in the 2026 election. 

His new geographical Fourth District now includes Kalamazoo and Battle Creek — not exactly bastions of right-wing extremism.

Congressman Huizenga appears to be supporting hook, line and sinker a president who wants to dismantle our American democracy and isn’t afraid to throw our economy into a recession over his ego centric tariff policies. Who in their right mind would gut our federal workforce in administering Social Security with Baby Boomers coming on full steam. And while you’re at it, let’s gut the IRS workforce so the tax cheats get a home-free card. Make cuts to Medicaid and how many more medical bankruptcies will we see? The list of insanities since inauguration day that caters to oligarchs, fascists and billionaires is so long it is beyond comprehension.

It is time to come down from your ivory tower, Bill. As constituents, we can slip notes under your locked door until we’re blue in the face, but it is time for the Fourth Congressional district to say “you’re fired."

Laura Judge
Holland

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