Roseanne Barr’s presidential bid has penetrated the veil of media silence so deeply that North Carolina based national polling firm Public Policy Polling has included her in a head to head to head comparison with Mitt Romney and Barack Obama.
Obama wins with 47%, while Romney draws 42% and Barr stands at 6%, with [...]
Green Party Watch
Today is the one year anniversary of Representative Scott Desjarlais’s (TN-04) Republican Congress of chronic chaos that nearly shutdown the government three times, tried to end Medicare, failed to create jobs, and blindly protected tax breaks for Big Oil and billionaires. With so much work to do to get the economy back on track and Americans back to work, Desjarlais is spending his one year anniversary on vacation — only working 6 days in all of January.
In this first year for Desjarlais’s Republican Congress, their partisan extremism has protected the ultra wealthy at the expense of Medicare for seniors, tax cuts for the middle class, and creating jobs for American workers.
“The first year of Representative Scott Desjarlais’s Republican Congress is marked by extreme partisanship and unbending protection of Big Oil and the ultra wealthy,” said Jesse Ferguson of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “Desjarlais and House Republicans have spent this first year in chronic chaos — failing to protect the middle class or create jobs — and are now off on vacation rather than putting Americans back to work. Middle income Tennessee families can’t afford another year of Representative Scott Desjarlais choosing to blindly protect tax breaks for Big Oil instead of protecting Medicare for seniors.”
According to new polling by Pew Research Center, voters blame House Republicans like Desjarlais for Congress’s failures and give the Republican Congress its lowest approval rating in history.
HIGHLIGHTS FROM HOUSE REPUBLICANS FIRST YEAR
No Jobs Plan for 365 Days: For 365 days, Republicans refused to introduce a comprehensive jobs agenda. (12/2/11)
Voted for Middle Class Tax Increase: Republicans voted four times against consideration of an extension of the payroll tax cut needed to stop a ,000 tax increase on 160 million working Americans from taking effect on January 1st. (Vote 922, Vote 925, Vote 918, Vote 944)
Voted to End Medicare: Three times, House Republicans passed a plan that ends Medicare. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the Republican plan would increase seniors’ out-of-pocket health care costs by more than ,000 in 2022 and by nearly ,000 in 2030. (Vote 277, Vote 382, Vote 606)
Voted to Slash College Aid: The Republican budget slashes funding for Pell Grants, which make college affordable for millions of students each year. The Republican budget cut the maximum Pell Grant by 45% to the lowest level since 1998. (Vote 277)
Voted to Protect Big Oil: Republicans voted seven times to protect taxpayer subsidies for Big Oil — even while they’re making record profits. (Vote 153, Vote 109, Vote 277, Vote 293, Vote 313, Vote 676, Vote 810)
Voted for Tax Cuts for Millionaires: Making reducing the deficit harder, the Republican budget provides 0 billion in additional tax cuts for the 300,000 people who make over million a year. (Vote 277)
Voted Against Leveling the Playing Field with China: Republicans voted against a bipartisan effort to crack down on unfair Chinese currency manipulations that are currently costing nearly 2.8 million American jobs. (Vote 780)
Voted to Repeal Health Care Reform: Republicans voted to repeal the new law allowing millions of young people (those up to age 26) to receive health insurance coverage by remaining on their parents’ health plan, to repeal new prohibitions that stop insurers from denying coverage to children with preexisting conditions, and to increase prescription drug costs for millions of seniors. (Vote 14)
Voted Against Protecting Social Security and Medicare Benefits from Privatization: Republicans voted against a proposal to prohibit funds from being used to privatize and cut Social Security, or from being used to cut Medicare and turn it into a voucher program. (Vote 178)
The Best of the Christmas Season to All.
Fed up with the partisan bickering, demonizing of the opposition and ad hominem personal attacks that have become so prevalent in Congress, in 2006 Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver II, a centrist Missouri Democrat and Methodist minister, founded the Civility Caucus.
Cleaver admits that the initiative has proven a tough sell in a legislative body that rewards straight party-line votes and verbal pugilism. Some colleagues have rebuffed Cleaver’s initiative as starry-eyed while others have questioned his mettle. “We haven’t had to hire any new receptionists to handle all the phone calls and applications to join,” he has lamented. Yet Cleaver, a former city councilman and Kansas City’s first black mayor, has made civility a signature issue. To date, the task force has attracted one other member, Shelley Moore Capito, a moderate Republican from West Virginia’s third district. Cleaver and Capito have staged “civility hours” on the floor of the House, debating subjects such as health care, the Iraq War and tort reform.
As members of Congress, what’s your definition of responsibility?
Capito: Making law that provides opportunity for our constituents back home and around the country.
Legislating relies on building majorities and often rewards grandstanding, particularly in the House. Where does civility fit in?
Capito: What the American people want is for us to be problem solvers. Essentially, to be like them. I believe we can do this without ripping each others’ character, party or region. We can do it with passion but without derision.
Cleaver: I’m an obsessed animal lover; my family makes fun of me for it. Recently I became interested in stories about bees – it turns out bees cannot sting and make honey at the same time. One of the problems we have in the House is a preoccupation with stinging. As a result we cannot make honey – we cannot get things done. Because of the way we treat each other, we’re not doing what we were sent here to do. Look, we’re human beings. At the end of the day, we can’t sit down at a table and negotiate with someone who’s just called you a dog or some other vicious name.
The Civility Task Force has proven a tough sell among your colleagues. What do you think is driving their skepticism?
Capito: I think a large part of the resistance is instilled by the media. The more hyperbolic you are, the easier you can get on the evening news. And compromise is often portrayed as caving. In the House, there’s pressure to provide “red meat” to the base, the most polarized segment of your party – to be viewed as the one
who’s really giving it to those bad guys across the aisle. I don’t see it like that; I think that to be effective you first have to be able to sit down with a person and negotiate.
Cleaver: Shelley and I could talk about civility all day long and not get an iota of coverage. If we cursed and ranted at each other instead we would be in the headlines, above the fold. Even the language reflects this. Just look at the coverage of the current debt limit debate: “Who will blink first? Who will fold?” Does money factor into the rancor?
Cleaver: Often, when a congressperson goes on a tirade, he or she can pretty much count on raising large sums of money. Some send out fundraising letters right after appearing on the news. Are there colleagues that, for you, personify civility in Congress?
Capito: Soon after I arrived in Washington, Ted Kennedy and John Boehner got together to work on “No Child Left Behind” and got it done. Two extremely different people.
Cleaver: Walter Johnson and Pat Wolf. Hal Rogers and Norm Dicks work extremely well together on the House Appropriations Committee. Ike Skelton was terrific. How do “civility hours” encourage a more respectful tone?
Cleaver: Recently Shelley and I staged two hour-long debates on the House floor about issues we disagree on. We did this to demonstrate to colleagues that it’s possible to disagree without resorting to personal attacks. Vitriol seems to characterize the House more than the Senate. What do you think makes the House of Representatives less civil?
Cleaver: In the Senate, if you’re in the minority, you can still wield a lot of power. In the House, the majority is everything. Also, we’re always in campaign mode.
Capito: Emmanuel is right. Frankly, compared to us, I think members of the Senate are able to take more time to relax and enjoy each other’s company. Is the tone in Congress moving closer to where you think it should be, or are things getting worse?
Cleaver: Things are definitely getting worse. Take a look at Allen West’s recent outburst if you want proof. Have personal experiences motivated your involvement with this issue?
Capito: You may laugh at the answer, but I’m the middle of three children, and growing up I was always the negotiator. Probably some of it is personality driven. I’ve been torn down pretty hard, but I always try to not return fire.
Cleaver: I grew up in public housing – I had a bad temper and was always ready to fight. I still have scars; I wear a mustache to cover up stitches on my upper lip, where I was hit with a brick. In college, when I was captain of the football team, the coach came up to me and told me that if I started another fight on the field, he’d fire me. I went through the rest of the season without participating in a single fight because I learned to control my anger. Somewhere along the way I realized I could do that. Back home, I’m also a minister. As it says in Proverbs 15:1, “A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.”
Alex Halberstadt is the author of Lonely Avenue: The Unlikely Life and Times of Doc Pomus. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, GQ, Salon, New York Magazine, and other publications
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You make 4,000 a year and can’t afford an apartment or room to sleep in, who are you?
Congressional Approved Bed
A United States Congressman
First lets look at job benefits that come with being elected to congress.
The lowest paid Congressman makes 4,000 per year. Those in leadership roles make more. They enjoy good benefits and conditions of employeement. They can retire on a full pension at fifty years of age with 20 years of service. 20 years of service means being re-elected 10 times. Thats not impossible as many reach that goal such as our Congressman Bob Goodlatte and some even double those years such as Charles Rangall of New York.
The requiement of 20 years of service for full retirement explains the lack of interest in term limits. After 5 years of service a congressman receives a reduced pension. Members are eligible at any age after completing 25 years of service or after they reach the age of 62. The amount of a congressperson’s pension depends on the years of service and the average of the highest 3 years of his or her salary, but it can’t exceed 80 percent of final salary.
Lets use the lowest salary for 2009 and not increase it for the next 20 years and compute a pension payment. The annual retirement benefit would be .8 X 4,000 or 9,200 per year. That is figured on the minimum level of pay. In real life it would be figured on the three highest years’ salary. Congressmen vote on heir own salary level and raise the amount regularly reguardless of the state of the economy in the country so over the years that 2009 salary level of 4,000 would rise. In 1989, Congress passed an amendment allowing for automatic raises, unless lawmakers specifically voted to reject it. The fiscal year 2004 Transportation and Treasury Department Appropriations bill included Congress’ 2.2 percent pay raise. Congress can hide a pay raise almost anywhere and no longer has to vote on it in the dead of night to get it passed as its passage is automatic unless specifically rejected.
Congressmen can fly around in government luxury jets from a fleet of 24 jets our government keeps for them and other government personnel. Congress has the only job in the country that can set their own salary without regard to performance, profit, or economic climate. With a Trillion dollar deficit, the cost of the war in Iraq and Afganstan, and a stagnant economy, Congress should be curbing spending, not slipping in another pay raise. The 108th congress raised their base by ,400. Since 1990, congressional pay has increased from ,400 to 4,700 in 2003. That was a ,300 jump, a 57 percent increase in only 13 years. In 2009 pay wen up to #174,000 base. Thats another ,000 in increases since 2003.
From 1789 to 1815, members of Congress received only a per diem (daily payment) of .00 while in session. Members began receiving an annual salary in 1815, when they were paid ,500 per year.
House and Senate Leaders are paid more than rank-and-file members.
Both the Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, and Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell, get 3,400. The Speaker of the House, John Boehner, gets 3,500 and a jet airplane. President Obama makes 0,000 per year plus expenses. A cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA) increase takes effect annually unless Congress votes to not accept it.
Now I’ve told you this so I can tell you something else and that is over 30 of these Congressmen can’t afford or won’t pay ,200 to ,800 a month for a place to live and are sleeping in their offices. Congress is getting to be much like a frat house.
Among the members sleeping in their offices, rather than paying for their own apartments or other housing, are 8th District Rep. Joe Walsh, a McHenry Republican, and 5th District Rep. Mike Quigley, 3rd District Rep. Dan Lipinski and 1st District Rep. Bobby Rush, all Chicago Democrats. 33 members of Congress (7 Democrats and 26 Republicans. all men) sleep in their Congressional offices.
These 33 pennypinchers hail from as close to Washington as Delaware and Virginia, and from as far away as California and
Arizona. Five of them represent Arizona districts, reportedly including freshman Rep. Ben Quayle, son of former Vice
President Dan Quayle.
Ben Quayle, writer of articles for a porno website and man who would go to Washington and knock the hell out of the place is sleeping in his office on a cot. Ben is a lot like his old man Dan Quayle. He can’t spell potato either.
Most House members commute from their districts, many of them have the burden of assuming both a house payment and monthly
rent — or in some cases two house payments. They make 4,000 annually, but most maintain their primary residences and
families in their home districts and travel back and forth throughout the year. Some save by sharing spartan apartments near the Capitol. All are aware of the challenges that go with the job when they run for it.
No one knows how many members have their offices do double duty as residences. Neither the Committee on House Administration nor the Office of the House Chief Administrative Officer keeps a list. Nor does the sergeant-at-arms’ office, which might be interested in knowing which offices contained sleeping members if there were an emergency on the Hill.
Outgoing Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) told the Gannett News Service in 2007 that, based on what he saw in the health club each morning, as many as 40 other congressmen sleep in their offices. Members and their office staffers aren’t so keen on giving out names, and no offices would confess to knowing who or how many are asleep near their desks.
Fred Beuttler, the deputy historian of the House, said that, in the 1980s, Democratic leaders advised members to move their families to Washington with them.
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Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia advised Republicans to do the opposite to minimize their footprint in favor of more time spent in their districts. Newt was deeply involved in an exta marital affair at the time so his advice served his interest well.
A number of Republican members are known to sleep in their offices. Among them: Reps. Jeff Flake of Arizona, Pete Hoekstra of Michigan, Denny Rehberg of Montana, Lee Terry of Nebraska and John Sullivan of Oklahoma.
After decamping from a room in a nearby town house, Sullivan sleeps on a mattress in his office. Terry recently graduated
from a succession of air mattresses to a rollaway bed, an aide said.
Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) used to sleep in his office. But spokesman Chris Crawford said Kingston eventually moved out
for the benefit of staffers who got tired of finding containers of ramen noodles around.
Utah congressman Jason Chaffetz, 41, was sworn in as a member of the 112th Congress. The Republican freshman has since set up his humble sleeping quarters in his office – in a bid to maximise work and save the odd dollar or two. He estimates that in turning his back on a hotel while in Washington he is able to save around 1,500 US dollars a month. Mr Chaffetz, believes his actions should serve as an example to others finding themselves needing to cut back during the recession. Can you say nut job boys and girls?
This is a homeless person and not someone practicing to be a Congressman. He has no other place to sleep and he is not saving 00 a month by sleeping in the box. He probably draws no salary from the government.
ACVDN Bottom Line: If members didn’t want to find housing in Washington, they shouldn’t have run for Congress in the first
place.
If they can’t live on the minimum pay of 4,000 a year they are unfit to handle our nations business. I can think of no other occupation that suffers from such a high opinion of themselves and such a low level of dignity as a politician. Get a life fellas.
John Boehner Can’t Do His Job
House Speaker John Boehner is violating his own small-government principles by meddling in local affairs, D.C. voting rights activists said Thursday morning.
About two dozen protesters held a tea party-style demonstration outside Boehner’s Capitol Hill home Thursday morning. They wore three-cornered, colonial-style hats and chanted, “Don’t tread on D.C.”
House Republicans have proposed a spending resolution that would prohibit the city from using local funds for a needle exchange program and abortions for low-income women.
Boehner shouldn’t be telling residents of a city without full voting rights in the House how to spend their money, DC Vote Executive Director Ilir Zherka said.
“Of course, the Speaker is the Speaker of the House of Representatives because of the Tea Party, and one of the basic tenets of the Tea Party … is that the central federal government should do the things that it is elected to do, and not intrude on the rights of local governments,” Zherka said.
Instead, Zherka said, Boehner and the GOP have tried to federalize D.C. policies.
When they attempted to deliver a letter and a tea bag to Boehner’s door, protesters were ordered off the property.
Boehner did not speak to protesters when he left his home, organizers of the protest said.
Boehner Loses Vote to Tea Party and Democrats
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In a career-defining victory for a young lawmaker, sophomore Rep. Tom Rooney (R-Fla.) corralled conservative freshmen to beat his own party leadership this week, spearheading a pivotal House vote to cut 0 million for a competitive engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
It has been one of Washington’s most intensively lobbied issues in years, and big cuts to defense are among the rarest accomplishments on Capitol Hill, since every single line in the budget has ferocious, deep-pocketed defenders.
ACVDN
Top House leaders – Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and House Armed Services
Chairman Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-Calif.) – were arrayed in favor of preserving the program, in part because the alternative engine is built by GE, a big employer in Boehner’s home state of Ohio.
The vote on the amendment to scuttle the program was 233-198, with 47 Republican freshmen tipping the balance.
The cut was victory for the Obama administration, which like the last Bush administration, sought to scuttle the engine.
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And it was a loss for Republican House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, which has many of the GE engine jobs.
The vote was also seen as a test for how the influx of new budget-minded Republicans would behave, and whether an alliance
with Democrats could help at long last defeat the engine.
The tally on the amendment to strip the engine funds from the continuing spending resolution for this fiscal 2011 year was
233-198. The House still must approve the CR, which it is expected to do yet this week, and send it onto the Senate for
consideration.
While no single vote can ever be counted on to doom a Pentagon weapons program, Wednesday’s House action appears to be
pivotal, since the Senate for the last two years has allowed the House to take the lead on the engine.
Still, GE noted that Congress has continued to support its engine for the last 15 years and pledged to move ahead. “We will continue to press the case for competition as the FY11 budget is finalized and as the FY12 budget debate continues,” said GE Aviation spokesman Rick Kennedy said in a statement.
The GE engine program has enjoyed congressional support for years, riding on a web of parochial ties and a strong endorsement from the House Armed Services Committee, which firmly believes that the 0 billion engine program is so large the Pentagon needs a competitor to Pratt and Whitney to control cost and quality.
The Pentagon has rejected that argument since the last Bush administration, trying repeatedly to end funding for the engine. And this time, Defense Secretary Robert Gates used the full force of his office and reputation, making ending the engine in this fiscal year a major feature of his budget presentation for the new 2012 fiscal year budget and in some circles a “manhood” issue.
Gates, who was on Capitol Hill Wednesday to testify before the House Armed Services Committee, reiterated his opposition.
And Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen weighed in as well, declaring flatly: “We cannot afford to buy the second engine.”
ACVDN Bottom Line: Look for the Republicans with the assistence of John Boehner and Eric Canter to cram this into some bill and find a way to continue this useless program. Republicans are about graft and corruption and pork and they will not be stopped easily. The tea party has a battle on their hands if they are intending to make the Republicans straighten up and fly right. They are begining to understand who the enemy is and thats a good thing.
