The final march for ruination
I have so much fun with the e-mails from Organizing For Against America. Now they’ve undertaken a week-long “Final March for Reform” with steps their minions are supposed to take in order to achieved their desired result of Obamacare.
Step 1 was yesterday, where participants were supposed to “get the facts out.” So here are some of their so-called “facts”:
As the President has made clear, Americans deserve a final up-or-down vote on health reform. And the House is now expected to hold its final vote as soon as one week from today.
Yet House Democrats are scheming to avoid this. From CongressDaily yesterday:
House Rules Chairwoman Louise Slaughter is prepping to help usher the healthcare overhaul through the House and potentially avoid a direct vote on the Senate overhaul bill, the chairwoman said Tuesday.
Slaughter is weighing preparing a rule that would consider the Senate bill passed once the House approves a corrections bill that would make changes to the Senate version.
Undaunted, Obama’s flunkie David Plouffe pressed on:
As we speak, insurance-industry lobbyists are gathering at the D.C. Ritz-Carlton to stage a last-minute blitz to block reform — even as they jack up premiums by as much as 60% for small businesses and families across the country.
You know, I doubt you can get the Ritz-Carlton or any other major venue at a moment’s notice. This meeting was set up months in advance and besides, I thought we were supposed to have this last summer anyway.
Plouffe wraps up on this class-envy, “us-versus-them” note:
We’ve put together a simple summary of the President’s proposal, a fact sheet to show friends and co-workers how the plan will specifically help them, posters to display, Facebook notes to post, and much more.
(snip)
Today, it’s time to show the insurance lobbyists that no smear campaign cooked up at a posh hotel can match the power of millions of regular citizens who are ready for change and committed to the truth.
Yep, that’s grassroots all right. You have your talking points, we have this: Nancy Pelosi wants the bill to pass so we can find out what’s in it. Seems like it’s too late then, unless they want things to be hidden.
Here’s the real truth. This bill was of the special interests, by the special interests, and for the special interests. They don’t have the votes and they know it – hence the “Slaughter solution.” OAA has presented its case and lost in the court of public opinion.
By the way, here’s the Day 2 instruction, with OAA’s Mitch Stewart the flunkie of the day:
President Obama has called for the House to vote to move health reform forward as early as next week. Your representative, Rep. Frank Kratovil, stood with the President to create as many as 3.9 million jobs with the Recovery Act, and deserves our thanks. Now, it’s important to make it clear that the voters back home stand with President Obama and want health reform.
Yes, he pointed out Kratovil’s most glaring failure to date, voting for the porkulus bill, If Frank doesn’t hew to his word and vote against Obamacare, he may as well pack now. Kratovil can run to the right all he wants with his budget proposals and crackdown on illegal immigration, but a vote for Obamacare is his political funeral. And I’m sure he knows that.
So the battle lines have been drawn, activist vs. activist. I suspect there’s more of us than there are of them, and right is on our side. If they need to resort to trickery and deceit to pass their bill, well, there may not be much we can do about that now but certainly we can defeat this in other venues too. Just ask the commonwealth of Virginia.
Staying and fighting
Running for governor of your state is a task which takes a full-time effort, particularly if you’re not well-known around your state. That’s the situation Rep. Nathan Deal finds himself in as he strives to become the next governor of Georgia.
To that end, Deal had planned on resigning his House seat next week in order to concentrate on his run for statewide office. Instead, GOP leaders persuaded him to stay and made the hurdle for passing Obamacare that much higher. With a death and two earlier resignations (all Democrats who had voted for the bill previously), the nominally 435 member body was down to 432, requiring 217 votes for passage. Had Deal left as planned Nancy Pelosi’s job would have been made easier by cutting the majority number down to 216 and eliminating a sure “no” vote.
While the conventional wisdom is that the Senate and their reconciliation process is where the bill’s fate will be decided, they conveniently ignore the fact that President Obama and Democratic leaders could double-cross the House by promising them fixes to the Senate bill they’d pass – but as soon as the House passes the Senate bill (with the pro-abortion language, “Cornhusker Kickback” and “Louisiana Purchase” included) you better believe President Obama is going to find the pens to sign it.*
This is why many observers feel the whole battle over reconciliation is a red herring, a feint to distract anti-Obamacare supporters from the real important vote in the House. No wonder Frank Kratovil is making the news a lot more these days.
If the House somehow gets the Senate bill through, the game is over and we are stuck with Obamacare. Well, more precisely we are stuck with the taxes and regulations included therein – the so-called benefits don’t kick in for several years. And what entitlement have we overturned in the last seventy-five years since Social Security?
The ballgame is in the top of the ninth, and the American people need to be the ace closer who gets the save. Let’s get out and win this one!
* I’ve read past practice is that, on ceremonial bill-signings like Obamacare would surely be, the President signs his name one letter at a time with a different pen so that each of those who helped get the legislation through have a memento of the significant event. Talk about your poison pens.
Electoral toast
Update 9:30 a.m. – A new AP story by Erica Werner quotes Kratovil spokesman Kevin Lawlor, who says that Frank won’t vote for the Obamacare bill if it’s similar to the first one. Apparently there’s not enough carrots dangling out there for him yet.
Perhaps this is wishful thinking from the Associated Press and writer Charles Babbington, but Frank Kratovil is listed as one of ten House Democrats who may be open to switching his vote on the health care bill in order to pass it. Technically the article says he’s not stated a position or is undecided, and it may well be he’s not stating.
But his vote may be the one which makes the bill sink or swim because, of the 220 votes Nancy Pelosi got to pass the bill the first time through she’s likely to be missing four due to death, resignation, and the slim chance Republican Joesph Cao would make the mistake of voting ‘yes’ again without language restricting abortion.
So Kratovil is between a rock and a hard place for sure. With it out in the open that he may be amenable to changing his vote, the White House may dangle all sorts of bribes for his support - think help for his re-election campaign or even a cushy Administration job if he loses come November. On the other hand, First District voters might see to it the latter happens if he doesn’t maintain his stance against it and he would truly earn the moniker ‘flip-flop Frank.’
Perhaps this is why Kratovil has been attempting to burnish those conservative credentials he does have like talking up fiscal conservatism and getting tough on illegal immigrants.
But that may be too little too late as First District voters may decide why have conservative-lite when they can have the real thing?
Upping the ante
Well, isn’t this conveeeeeeeeenient (spoken in a Church Lady voice).
Last week I talked about Organizing For Against America wanting 1 million volunteer hours to spread the lies about Obamacare – no surprise they got that goal, which I thought was a little weak considering there’s 13 million on the e-mail list. Here’s their breathless announcement:
In just the last 3 days, OFA volunteers like you have pledged an incredible 4,000,000 (and counting!) hours to support members of Congress and candidates who fight for real health reform.
We can prove to Congress that health reform is good policy and good politics, but we need to go as big as possible. So today we’re setting a new goal: 5 million hours pledged.
If we hit it, the country will know. We’ll be running an ad with the final tally in USA Today, the nation’s largest newspaper. And to make sure your voice is heard where it matters most, we’ll run radio ads in critical states and districts, featuring local voters announcing the pledge total from their area.
(snip)
Beginning soon, we’ll talk to voters state-by-state, district-by-district, about why it’s important to stand with those who fight for progress and reform — and reject those who stand with big insurers to protect a status quo that is devastating our economy, families, and businesses. (Emphasis in original.)
We can rewrite that last sentence to say: Beginning soon, Organizing Against America will go back to lying like a rug to promote our takeover of 1/6 of the national economy by wiping out private health insurance companies.
That and I’ll be listening for those radio ads around here since we’re represented a Democrat who’s been reticent to join the rest of his party, believing (correctly) to do so would be political suicide.
Bet the TEA Partiers can log 10 million hours, but we’re not going to pay for an ad in USA Today to crow about the accomplishment – we’re just going to get to work.
Hit back twice as hard!
Well, well, well…even the folks at Organizing For Against America sound worried about election prospects. Think our side has an effective strategy going or what? Mitch Stewart must:
As we head into an election year, the new strategy for killing reform is claiming that members of Congress who vote for it will suffer at the polls.
For months, our opponents have spread lies about reform to scare voters away. But the simple truth about what reform would actually do — save jobs, guarantee all Americans affordable, stable coverage, and significantly reduce the deficit — is something most Americans strongly support.
The question is, come November, will the voters know the facts?
OFA supporters have asked for a way to show every member of Congress that if they fight for reform now, we’ll back them up this election season.
That’s why we’re launching “You fight, we’ll fight” — a volunteer pledge bank where you can commit your time to back up candidates and officials who fight hard for health reform.
We’re shooting for 1,000,000 hours pledged to spread the word to fellow voters. And if we get there, we’ll publish the total hours pledged in USA Today, so there will be no doubt that health reform is both good policy and good politics.
(snip)
President Obama has made it crystal clear that he has no intention of walking away from health reform — and this movement has made its desire to fight on just as clear.
And many members of Congress are already working hard by his side to get the job done. But for those on the fence about whether or not to proceed, knowing you are there to back up a courageous stand can make all the difference.
Your volunteer hours can have a huge impact no matter where you live. You can make calls into critical districts where health reform champions are in jeopardy, write letters to the editor, volunteer for nearby campaigns, or even just talk to friends, family, and neighbors to help cut through the special interest spin.
We’ll offer lots of ways to get involved between now and the elections in November, and you can decide which are right for you — the important thing right now is to publicly show your commitment to fight for those who make health reform a reality.
(snip)
We’ve certainly faced setbacks in this fight. But as President Obama told OFA supporters last week, that only means we need to work that much harder. (Emphasis in original.)
The problem for Mitch and his gang is that Americans DO know the facts, and they don’t want the significant changes threatened in the legislation. By the way, the legislation won’t save jobs, doesn’t cover everyone (even proponents agree that millions would be left out) and isn’t deficit-neutral because no Congress has the guts to cut Medicare payments to make it even out. Those aren’t lies – sorry, Mitch.
Anyway, I happen to recall that the Organizing Against America database reaches about 13 million e-mail addresses, so they only need a small percentage of them to pledge to reach 1,000,000 hours. Doesn’t really seem like that ambitious of a goal when you compare it to the number of hours TEA Party volunteers and participants have put in. I’m sure it took the million-plus in Washington on 9-12 last year more than an hour to express their views.
But it’s interesting I received this e-mail and it may be because I happen to live in a district where a Democrat went against his party to vote no on reform. I don’t recommend hanging your Congressman in effigy to get the point across, but something in the pro-liberty tactics worked and Frank Kratovil just said no. Naturally he left his opposition open to change based on factors within the bill, but for now he’s on the right side of the issue and the reason is he’s not suicidal when it comes to re-election.
While polls may suggest that Americans want some sort of health care reform, this solution isn’t what they desire. If it were truly popular, why would most of it not be adopted until 2013?
I’m curious to see when the ad will appear in USA Today, although I suspect it may be awhile. But I’ll bet TEA Party activists can easily top whatever the (probably made-up) figure Organizing Against America comes up with. When the Democrats have to come up with trickery in order to pass this bill, the message should be like the new third rail of American politics: touch that “yes” button when Obamacare comes up for a vote and you’re dead at the ballot box.
I can commit some time to helping make sure foes of freedom are defeated in November; how about you?
Kratovil joins bipartisan bid to hold deficit line
I don’t like to space posts so close together, but this is just in… (there’s a fresh post below too.)
217 House Democrats voted to extend the nation’s debt ceiling to $14.294 trillion, but Frank Kratovil wasn’t one of them. I guess that once again he drew the hall pass from Nancy Pelosi to vote no, which was iffy because the measure only passed 217-212. (There were 5 who didn’t vote, which leads me to wonder where the empty seat is. Since 2 of them were Democrats – Gutierrez and Murtha – they would’ve likely had a majority anyway.)
Delmarva was well represented on the bill as all three representatives (Castle, Kratovil, and Nye of Virginia) voted nay. Needless to say, aside from the Republican Roscoe Bartlett, the remainder of Maryland’s feckless Congressional delegation had no problem putting their grandchildren further into debt.
Since the bill passed the Senate earlier (before Scott Brown could be sworn in and possibly create a cloture roadblock) it will soon be on President Obama’s desk.
While it’s good that Kratovil voted as he did and he deserves kudos, the question needs to be raised: if Frank Kratovil (and, for my friend Melody Scalley down Virginia way, Glenn Nye) are now trying to portray themselves as Republican-lite, why not just elect the real thing in November?
The scenario
Originally today I was going to go back and try to wrap up the week of Scott Brown, but instead I think I’ll do that tomorrow or Sunday.
A few days ago, a friend of mine posited a scenario assuming Scott Brown won and the Senate version of Obamacare was forced into the House for an up-and-down vote. I’ll let her do the rest:
Nancy Pelosi is then going to try to force the Senate bill, unchanged, through the House. The problem is, without the Stupak language, she certainly loses Joseph Cao, and she’ll also probably lose Stupak and a few other Dems on conscience alone. She’ll probably lose a few more who had the sh*t scared out of them today, but will hide behind their consciences. That means she has to go back to them Dems who voted no– you know, folks like that guy who “represents” you. I see the dialogue going something like this:
Nancy: I need your vote on this bill.
Frank: If I vote for this thing, I haven’t a prayer of being reelected, and will be hung in effigy in every town on the eastern shore.
Nancy: You are going to lose whatever you do. The only reason you won in the first place is because the GOP was divided. Not going to happen this time. But, if you vote for the bill, when you lose, the administration will find you a cushy job– maybe an ambassadorship somewhere where hanging an ambassador in effigy is enough to get a person locked up. If you vote no, don’t expect any help finding a job.
So, what’s your take— assuming the scenario plays out about like that, what do Kratovil and his ilk do?
Well, this may not happen because Pelosi’s already claimed she can’t get 218 votes for the Senate health care bill, and maybe she’s already had a similar conversation with Frank.
Quite honestly, I don’t think Frank Kratovil would fall for this (perhaps others would) because, in my (admittedly limited) personal dealings with him he doesn’t come across as a smarmy political hack like some other Democrats I’ve met do. I know he’s been involved in politics since his college days, but he’s made at least some attempt at maintaining an independent streak with a couple votes and stance on illegal immigration.
That’s not to say Frank won’t be looking for a federal job if he loses in November – certainly Stevensville isn’t a terrible daily commute to Washington and the Justice Department is always looking for sharp legal minds. (Kratovil doesn’t seem like the lobbyist type, but you never know.) Nor is it out of the question to think a 2010 loss for Kratovil could lead to Kratovil vs. Harris act 3 in 2012.
But I think the Brown victory represented a “come to Jesus” moment for Kratovil as well. The issue where Frank is probably most conservative is illegal immigration, so this week was an opportune time for him to jump on board a House resolution supporting the “E-verify” program, improved border security, and not granting amnesty to illegals already here. In an effort to maintain his job, Frank’s voting record for the rest of the 111th Congress just might be comparable to Roscoe Bartlett’s. Anything to avoid the “liberal” tag.
Since there’s likely not going to be a primary challenger to Kratovil’s left, the true portsiders are going to have to hold their noses and vote for Frank in November. Of course, those on the right will go for presumptive GOP standardbearer Andy Harris, who will certainly be tarred by Kratovil’s supporters as the second coming of President Bush.
That leaves the people in the center, who just happened to be the ones who spoke loudest in Massachusetts. While Kratovil has spent the last year catering to the perception of being middle-of-the-road, I don’t think he can stay there without being run over by either his party’s leadership or the voters of the First District. We know how he voted before the TEA Parties began and once he’s safely re-elected I think he’d travel back down that route.
Then Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama wouldn’t have nearly as much to worry about.
Harris officially in the Congressional race
“In 9 months and 27 days we get America back.”
That’s how Andy Harris termed the 2010 election as he officially confirmed probably the worst-kept political secret in Maryland and placed himself in the running to oust Frank Kratovil as the First District’s Congressman.
After speaking to an audience of 70 in Easton (according to one observer) and earlier stops in Bel Air and Annapolis, Harris greeted over 40 supporters in the metal shop turned announcement location. Observers shivered in the chilly room but were excited by what Harris had to say, interrupting the State Senator with applause several times.
First, though, he was introduced by one of his cohorts.
State Senator Richard Colburn told those present that Harris “knows the Eastern Shore” and would fight to preserve those industries and jobs which define our region – seafood and agriculture. After pointing out some of the half-dozen elected officials in attendance, Colburn praised Andy’s work in the State Senate as well, telling us he would be missed after this session.
After Colburn’s introduction, Harris strode to the podium and told the chilly crowd, “this kind of business is what the election is all about” as it was one directly impacted by federal policy. It was time to put us back on the path to prosperity because people were telling him “enough is enough.”
He recounted the reasons he got into politics in the first place in 1998, as the entrenched incumbent held positions Harris believed were out of step with the district. In contrast, Harris defended his record as one which put families and businesses first.
By the same token, he felt Congress was out to “dismantle” our way of life and make our children worse off than we are. They “attempted to take over” business and health care while “whistling past the graveyard” of mounting deficits.
Harris touched on a number of items he’s planning to work on when elected to Congress:
- Ending the stimulus and deficit spending. America is saying “enough is enough” to wasteful and excessive government spending.
- Patients and doctors making health care decisions, not a one-size-fits-all plan.
- A Constitutional amendment for term limits, similar to one recently introduced by Senator Jim DeMint.
- No cap-and-trade “schemes” since they’ll threaten the area’s agricultural tradition.
- Stopping the “payoff for union muscle” by killing the legislation enabling “card check,” best known by the misnamed “Employee Free Choice Act.”
- No earmarks – “business as usual” in Washington is the wrong way to do business.
- Not voting to maintain Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House.
Perhaps the biggest direct swipe at opponent Frank Kratovil came at a point in Andy’s speech where he spoke about Kratovil’s pledge of fiscal conservatism while spending $250,000 of taxpayer money to send out several full-color brochures to local supporters and other residents. (For the record, I’m not on that mailing list.)
The overriding theme for Harris, though, was one of “bring(ing) back America from Pelosi and company.”
After his remarks, Harris took a few questions from the reporters present. Responding to a question about the election, he termed it “a clear call for changing business as usual in Washington.”
The first thing Harris would do if elected? Co-sponsoring the Constitutional amendment for term limits.
Biggest issue? “Getting our jobs back and preserving our heritage.”
Which Kratovil votes did you object to most? Harris mentioned the vote for the stimulus bill (after voting against it), the partisan vote to install Pelosi as Speaker, and Kratovil’s vote for cap-and-tax, which Harris called, “a jobs bill – for India and China.”
It promises to be an interesting campaign, with the “9 months and 27 days” likely to be full of charges and counter-charges and 30-second commercials mainly sponsored by outside interests. This will be fun.
Update: Maryland GOP Party Chair Audrey Scott also chimed in, describing Harris’s Annapolis stop:
Yesterday was “Andy Harris for Congress Day” across the State and at the MDGOP headquarters, as State Senator, Andy Harris, announced his candidacy for Congress from Maryland’s 1st District. Excitement was high and turnout of supporters and the Party faithful was impressive… the headquaters was packed with enthusiastic, cheering Republicans commited to electing Andy to Congress!
Notable attendees included Former Ambassador Ellen Sauerbrey, and elected officials, Senator Ed Reilly, Delegate James King, Delegate Bob Costa, Delegate Tony McConkey, Delegate Ron George, former Senator Janet Greenip, and County Executive John Leopold, who addressed the crowd in support of Andy Harris. The race is on! Get on the band wagon and help Andy return the 1st District to Republican representation in Congress.
As a general policy, the MDGOP does not get involved in contested primaries. There are many candidates coming forward and those who are not challenged in primaries can count on full State Party participation from the onset. During the General elections, we are supportive of all our Republican candidates.
News conservatives can use
Since, thankfully, Congress is away for a couple more weeks we have an opportunity to catch our breath and assess the situation we find ourselves under.
One such effort was undertaken last week by Americans for Limited Government as they did the research and compiled a quick primer of the voting records of 90 so-called “Blue Dog” and moderate Democrats. It tends to show the revolving door aspect of Democrats voting against their leadership in just such a number to make some votes nailbiters, but not enough to defeat the proposal.
ALG’s Bill Wilson puts it this way:
Americans for Limited Government today released the voting records of some 90 Blue Dog and what it dubbed “so-called moderate” House Democrats on what ALG President Bill Wilson called “some of the most controversial votes of 2009.”
“So-called Blue Dog ‘conservative’ Democrats in the House have long touted their caucus as being fiscally-responsible, but what emerges from an analysis of their voting records is a pack of lapdogs who have voted largely in lock-step with their more radical counterparts in House leadership,” said Wilson.
“In vote after vote, the Blue Dogs have been all bark and no bite. Although they had the votes to do so, they have not stopped a single piece of budget-busting legislation in a year that saw the largest budget deficit in American history: $1.4 trillion,” Wilson explained.
“By over a 4 to 1 margin, so-called ‘moderates’ in the House have voted with the bankrupt Pelosi agenda of Big Government,” Wilson added.
The analysis shows 856 Yea votes and 207 Nay votes, which Wilson said “was not enough to stop anything.”
The ALG analysis includes votes on the $789 billion “stimulus”, bankruptcy mortgage “cramdowns,” ACORN funding, a $108 billion International Monetary Fund expansion, the Waxman-Markey carbon emission caps, the $2.1 trillion “public option” health system, the $154 billion assistance program for bankrupt states, and the $290 billion debt limit expansion.
According to the Blue Dogs’ website, “In the 111th Congress, the Coalition intends to continue to make a difference in Congress by forging middle-ground, bipartisan answers to the current challenges facing the Country. A top priority will be to refocus Congress on balancing the budget and ridding taxpayers of the burden the debt places on them.”
“By its own measure, the Blue Dog coalition has not succeeded,” Wilson noted. “The House of Representatives this year alone has voted to spend more than $3.6 trillion, to nationalize the health care system, to strangle the nation’s access to energy, and to bankrupt the Treasury—and yet the Blue Dog and so-called ‘moderate’ Democrats have done nothing to stop the profligate financial catastrophe unfolding at the nation’s Capitol,” Wilson said.
Wilson pointed to the record national debt which currently stands at over $12 trillion, as placing an “insurmountable burden on the next generation of Americans.” The total debt is projected to top the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2011 at over $14 trillion. By 2020, it will top $20 trillion.
Wilson said that if entitlement spending is not reined in, it will soon half of the entire budget. According to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), entitlement spending as a percentage of budget outlays will continue to increase over the next decade. In 2019, OMB projects that entitlements spending will stand at $2.482 trillion (45.93 percent of outlays totaling $5.403 trillion).
According to the National Center for Policy Analysis, by 2050 entitlement spending “will consume nearly the entire federal budget.”
“While the nation is going bankrupt, House Blue Dogs and ‘moderate’ Democrats pretend that their support for these terrible pieces of legislation is ‘deficit-neutral.’ They have done nothing to stop the madness, which will only bankrupt the Treasury, destroy the dollar, and saddle American taxpayers without a debt that cannot be paid.”
Obviously I’m most interested in the record of one Frank Kratovil, and while he’s somewhat better than the about 4:1 yea/nay ratio exhibited by these “centrist” Democrats, a Republican would’ve voted for few if any of these budget-busting, big-government items. Aside from voting with his party for the repressive House rules Democrats put in place, Kratovil changed his mind on the stimulus once his price was met, voted for national service (which included a call to make 9-11 a “day of service”) and voted for cap-and-tax before feeling the heat of his constituents and turning into a fiscal hawk late in the game, after the horse had escaped the barn. If you believe today’s Daily Times article on Kratovil by Greg Latshaw, it appears Kratovil will pursue that “independent” fiscal hawk strategy leading up to the 2010 election.
It may be a prudent idea for Kratovil to portray himself as a fiscal conservative, but I’d rather have the real thing in there.
Scoring the locals
As most of you are aware, one of my late-spring tasks over the last couple years has been the monoblogue Accountability Project, where I go through the vast amount of items our General Assembly somehow manages to dream up in just 90 days and sift it down to about 30 or so of what I consider “key” votes on items which make it to the floor. At that point I work out a numerical grading system based on 100 and rate all 188 members accordingly.
After the 2008 election, I thought it would be a good idea to track local Senators and Congressmen in a similar manner. I admit that part of it was partisan because I thought Andy Harris would’ve been a fine Congressman whereas voters picked a liberal in sheep’s clothing.
But people really should know what their elected officials are voting on and how they address issues. It’s just quite time-consuming for one person to do so, even if you limit the universe to a total of 13 members of Congress (counting both Maryland and Delaware delegations – after all, what’s three more when you’re doing 10?) I know how long it takes me to do 188 people times 30 votes for Maryland, but once the middle of April passes they vote on nothing else the rest of the year unless a Special Session is called. Congress doesn’t work that way.
So I’ve decided on a compromise measure of sorts. Obviously I can track individual federal votes through THOMAS (among other sources) but making a compilation could be a full-time job. And, unlike Maryland, where only a few groups bother to compile votes in a similar manner as mine, dozens of groups create Congressional scorecards based on their pet issues. Thus it makes sense for me to put together a spreadsheet similar to that I use for Maryland but with only 13 representatives on it, then group particular issues of interest together. For example, an NRA scorecard would be lumped into a section devoted to the Second Amendment along with any pro-gun control groups. Instead of doing the work to record each vote and reinvent the wheel, others can do the work and I can act as a clearinghouse.
This way I get the coverage I desire to inform voters without sacrificing the other aspects which make monoblogue such good reading.
So as 2010 dawns and these scorecards for 2009 come out, I’ll begin compiling the federal side of the monoblogue Accountability Project. It should be a good exercise in informing the voters where our local representatives stand just in time for the 2010 elections.
Message to TPX3: don’t forget Delmarva
Having interviewed one of the main protagonists not once, but twice as a result of cross-country bus tours, I probably have a little more insight than the average person on what the goals of the Tea Party Express were and continue to be.
That’s why I’m a little disappointed with the first look at the route planned for next March and April as TPX3 rolls across the country once again. The route covers 27 states and does briefly run through Delaware and Maryland (via I-95) on its way to the final stop in Washington D.C.
But unless they’re planning a whistle stop somewhere in the northeast corner of Maryland they’re forgetting about a vulnerable Democrat freshman who voted in favor of cap-and-tax, and wouldn’t necessarily pass up a chance to support Obamacare and restoring the death tax if certain conditions were met (I refer to them as his thirty pieces of silver – needless to say they come at taxpayer expense.)
With the looping path being taken already, I don’t think it’s all that difficult to spend an afternoon (most likely April 14, the eve of the next major taxpayer rally in Washington, D.C.) traversing the Delmarva because there’s a lot at stake in the 2010 election in our neck of the woods, too. We’ll have two freshman Democrats (Kratovil of Maryland and Nye of Virginia) running for re-election as well as an open Congressional seat in Delaware as Mike Castle tries to move to the Senate – most likely against Joe Biden’s son Beau, the First State’s current Attorney General. The Democrats already have a pretty strong candidate eyeing that Congressional seat, former Lieutentant Governor John Carney. The “Delaware Way” doesn’t have to be the only way.
Perhaps a good way to convince them to work our way is to show them the money. But I’d rather do it through a simple application of logic because we’re not a people of vast means.
They have the opportunity to influence four different races (if you count Maryland’s U.S. Senate seat which is up for election and held by Barbara Mikulski) in a few hours’ work on a peninsula which too often feels shut out of the political process. So that’s my bid and hopefully they’ll listen.
Dying to pass a new tax
Yep, leave it to House Democrats – they must figure there’s no rest for the weary, so no tax relief for the dying.
Yesterday, the House voted 225-200 (with 26 Democrats joining the GOP) to shelve the one-year moratorium on the 45% estate tax currently in place, which was enacted as part of President Bush’s broad palette of tax cuts. Delmarva representatives all voted “no” on the final bill as Mike Castle of Delaware, Frank Kratovil of Maryland, and Glenn Nye of Virginia all decided the tax hike wasn’t worth it.
For Kratovil’s part, he opposed it because:
Rep. Frank Kratovil opposed HR 4154, a proposal to permanently extend 2009 estate tax levels, citing the legislation’s failure to extend adequate protections to family-owned farms. Kratovil also noted that the $3.5 million threshold included in the bill, aimed at exempting smaller estates from the tax, is not indexed for inflation and would therefore put future generations of middle class tax payers at risk from a tax that was never intended for them.
Kratovil then cites his support of an exemption for family farms, provided they remain in the family and devoted to agricultural use.
But there is a trick to this vote, where Democrats who supported the bill can argue they voted for a tax cut. After the zeroing out of the estate tax in 2010, the previous pre-Bush rate of 55% was set to take effect. This bill makes the 45% rate “permanent” (at least until they can sneak in another raise) yet some whined that the reduction will “cost” the federal government $234 billion over 10 years. To which I say, so what! Nor do I care that it currently affects 1/4 of 1% of all taxpayers – it still needs to go!
Let’s be honest here. The game being played by the Democrats who voted for this is one of class envy, and had the bill been amended to Kratovil’s liking he would have been happy to vote for it too. Philosophically I don’t believe he’s opposed to the death tax. However, given the number of Democrats who represent states with high concentrations of agricultural interests that provision may yet be tucked into the Senate bill and make the bill require a conference committee to argue it out.
So those of you who have rich relatives on death’s doorstep probably won’t get the break you deserve – you’ll have to pay the piper as your dearly departed paid during his or her lifetime.
Please note that the opinions expressed on monoblogue are not necessarily those of the Wicomico County Republican Party Central Committee, of which I'm a member. (But they probably should be.)
News from the loony left:
