Blackbird Cafe is a place where you can always count on good political and current events discussion along with your coffee, home made food, and the welcome smile from Mary Koselke and her entire team. This morning was no different, and it gave us an opportunity for a quick check in with Congressman Joe Donnelly to catch up on some good news related to Northern Indiana.
As I speak to with each of the government representatives, I wanted to find out from Donnelly about folks that are getting along and working together, as those stories don't tend to make the evening news or the morning paper. He immediately brought up his relationship with Fred Upton, Representative from Michigan who had called this morning to talk to Donnelly about sitting down after the election to talk about how to knock out areas of common ground they can work from on the pressing budget situation.
"Uptown shares the one focus that we have, which is to do what is right for the people that we serve. Marlin Stutzman of Fort Wayne is another good example - we are working together to save the A-10 fighter jets," Donnelly said.
Donnelly continued with another example.
“Pete Visclosky and I have worked together very successfully to ensure we continue to invest in the lakefront, and on key projects like funding for the South Shore rail,” Donnelly said. “There are so many examples of regions and parties working together, but they don't play in the media as well as the talking heads yelling at each other on the evening news channels."
Donnelly is optimistic that despite the rancor and mud-slinging leading up to the election, all parties involved are going to sit down after the election and make serious progress on the budget crisis that can have a lasting impact.
"We know how critical it is to create certainty for business, and confidence among the people of this country," Donnelly said. "There is a place for good news in the political arena, and more good is being done than most people are aware of".
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Photos provided by Theresa Potesta of ValpoLife.