GOP principles are disconcerting

David Chung writes in his Sept. 22 column 'Nothing wrong with party-line voting” that he votes party-line Republican 'precisely because (he) supports principles over party.” He will vote a straight ticket based on principles. But what are those principles? We all know the Republican mantra for small government and low taxes, but what about the principle of governing for the common good?

Is it in the public's interest that the Party of 'No” refused to pay our debts or to shut down our government twice? Was it 'principled” to waste Congress's time by voting 79 times to repeal the Affordable Care Act? Clearly, according to the GOP, no government is better than good government - that will explain why, thanks to the Tea Party Republicans, this recent Congress was the least productive in history.

What is 'principled” about refusing to support a minimum-wage increase? What is 'principled” about disenfranchising thousands of voters in order to ferret out the one or two voters who might vote illegally? Republicans advocate defunding the Environmental Protection Agency when our air, land, and water are being degraded daily. Republicans dismiss 97 percent of the world's scientists who have shown that human use of fossil fuels causes climate change. The GOP advocates increasing their use. Are those principles or merely self-interest?

James Conger

Iowa City