MoveOn.org: Congressional budget will devastate Florida

 Make Florida for the living, too. Call Senator Bill Nelson

Heads up: Congress is debating a budget plan that would be devastating to Florida. Will you pass this along?

Senators Bill Nelson and Marco Rubio need to hear from all of us about it right now, before they cut a deal in the next few days.

Please spread the word about all of these proposed cuts to Florida:

• $64 million would be cut from federal funds for clean and safe water in Florida.
• 6,100 Florida children would be immediately cut from Head Start, which provides comprehensive early childhood development services for at-risk children ages zero to five.
• $368 million would be cut from Pell Grants, affecting all 565,000 higher education students with those grants in Florida.³
• Job training and employment services would be effectively eliminated for 5,700 dislocated workers, 6,000 low-income adults, and 15,000 youths age 14 to 21.
• $9.6 million would be cut from law enforcement assistance, taking cops off the beat.

It's especially galling when the same budget protects tax breaks for corporations like GE and the very rich.

Just last night the news broke that Congress may be close to striking a deal on the budget. Now is the only time we can influence the outcome. 

Can you call Senator Nelson and ask them to oppose these cuts in the budget? You can pick one of the cuts in this list to highlight in your call.

Senator Bill Nelson
Phone: 202-224-5274

You can try the other Florida senator, too. Good luck!

Senator Marco Rubio
Phone: 202-224-3041

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GOP Rep. Sean Duffy whines about his $170,000 Congressional Salary

Mar 29, 2011

Another GOP empty shirt, Sean Duffy

Representative Sean Duffy (WI-07) complained about his $174,000 Congressional salary to constituents at a townhall meeting in Amery, Wisconsin even though his salary is nearly four and a half times more than what the average Wisconsin family earns annually in his district.

Representative Duffy told a constituent who identified as an out -of-work builder and bus driver, “I struggle to meet my bills right now…at this point, I’m not living high off the hog.”

The reality is that Representative Duffy has consistently earned more than double what working Wisconsin families make even when he was a District Attorney.

Representative Duffy received a salary of more than $90,000 in 2009. In addition, Representative Duffy claimed that he hadn’t taken a salary for seven months during his campaign, but he took a taxpayer funded salary as District Attorney for the majority of campaign for Congress, which spanned nearly a year.

During the seven months he campaigned without a taxpayer-funded salary, Duffy reimbursed himself over ten thousand dollars for everything from mileage to miscellaneous expenses.

Duffy’s exchange with a constituent at his townhall meeting in Amery Wisconsin follows:

Constituent: I’m a builder. I haven’t been building too many things in the last couple years with the economy down. My wife is a teacher. I’m fortunate enough to take a bus driving job. Love it. Just love it. But it’s not very much money of course. It’s working for us.

I’m just wondering, what are Congressman’s, Senator’s wages? My wife is going to have to take a cut if this bill goes through and I’m just wondering what your wage is and if you guys would be willing to take a cut?

Duffy: So the question is, what is my wage? And I’ll answer your question and I’ll get to it in one second. I was the Ashland County DA and uh I decided to run for Congress. And as this race heated up in the first part of June, I resigned as the Ashland County DA because I didn’t want to campaign on your tax dollars and so I didn’t and I resigned.

I have 6 children and I’ve gone for roughly 7 months with 6 kids and no paycheck. It was worth it for me to do that because I believe in what I was doing. I get the Congressional salary is 174 thousand dollars. I didn’t vote on that . I got there on January 5th. I came into it without a play in it.

Constituent: But a hundred and seventy-four thousand, that’s three times — that’s three of my family’s — three times what I make.

Duffy: Well our budget…I moved to cut by 5 percent. I did. You know what, I have no problem..let’s have a movement afoot. I walked into this job 6 weeks ago..um that I worked incredibly hard for. And I can guarantee you or most of you, I guarantee that I have more debt than all of you.

With 6 kids, I still pay off my student loans. I still pay my mortgage. I drive a used minivan. If you think I’m living high off the hog, I’ve got one paycheck. So I..I struggle to meet my bills right now. Would it be easier for me if I get more paychecks? Maybe, but at this point I’m not living high off the hog.

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ONN: The 212th Congress deems Incomprehensible Shouting Official U.S. Language

Incomprehensible Shouting Named Official U.S. Language

The 212th Congress has deemed yelling and screaming as the nation's official mode of communication.

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212th Congress is a mess on day 68

 The symbol of the 212th Congress

After two months in office with no action to create jobs and plans that would destroy over 700,000 of them, House Republicans have turned over a new leaf on their job creation efforts.

According to Roll Call Newspaper, House Republican "leaders have recently begun inserting the word 'jobs' into talking points, floor statements and press conferences."

Last week, House Republicans continued their 10th straight week without focusing on creating jobs -- this time they focused on divisive investigations.

According to the running clock at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s website, http://www.whenarethejobs.com/, Republicans have done nothing to create jobs for 68 days, 17 hours, and 1 minute.

Months have rolled by and the American people are getting tired of waiting for the Republican majority to focus on creating jobs yet today they answered that call with a pledge to say ‘jobs’ as often as they can,” said Jesse Ferguson of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “House Republicans’ answer to the running 68 day clock without any effort to create jobs is to start using the word more often. It may come as a shock to the House Republican leadership, but they can’t create jobs just by talking about them. The clock continues to tick away as House Republicans push an agenda that would make the problem worse and try to spin their way out of it.

68 Days of the House Republicans’ Jobless Agenda

• Jobs Spin. “GOP leaders have recently begun inserting the word “jobs” into talking points, floor statements and press conferences.” [Roll Call, 3/13/11]

• GOP spending plan would cost 700,000 jobs, new report says. “A Republican plan to sharply cut federal spending this year would destroy 700,000 jobs through 2012, according to an independent economic analysis set for release Monday.” Mark Zandi was an economic advisor to Presidential candidate John McCain in his 2008 campaign. [Washington Post, 2/28/11; Wall Street Journal, 7/13/2007]

• Republicans focus on everything but job creation. “Republicans won sweeping victories last November by taunting Democrats with "Where are the jobs?" Democrats are now throwing those taunts back, saying it's Republicans who will knock thousands of Americans out of work with their demands for deep cuts in federal spending. The attacks have caught Republicans at an awkward moment, as they shift their chief emphasis from creating jobs to reducing the size of the government and its deficits.” [AP, 2/17/11]

• Republican Leadership Dismisses Job Losses. At a press conference earlier this week, House Speaker John Boehner said “so be it” in response to questions about the potential job losses from the draconian cuts proposed in the Continuing Resolution to fund the federal government. [TPM, 2/15/11]

• Republicans Broke Pledge to Cut Budget. In their Pledge to America, Republicans pledged to cut at least $100 billion in their first year. In fact, Republicans ended up offering cuts of only $32 billion from agency budgets. [A Pledge to America, 9/22/10; Washington Post, 2/03/11]

• Republicans Ignored Their Own Rules Package. Republicans ignored their recently adopted rules package, which included a requirement that all legislation be made publicly available three business days before a vote. [CQ Today, 1/07/11]  

Rightardia ran a Gallup article that showed congressional approval at 18 per cent.  Zogby shows  Congress as a whole continued to slip, and its approval is now at 25%, a seven-point drop since Feb. 24.

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DCCC: Republicans 's bad budget choices

Feb 27, 2011

The 212th Congress is a real horror story

Republicans across the country have been taking heat for their bad budget choices but they’re now the outrage is boiling over for making the middle class sacrifice for spending reductions while protecting taxpayer funding for special interests like Big Oil.

Everyone knows we need to cut spending and reduce the deficit, but the closer American families look at the priorities in the Republican Continuing Resolution, the more they find the wrong choices.

GOP budget cuts put NREL jobs in jeopardy [KWGN]
The news of the appropriations bill with $61 billion in budget cuts, passed before dawn Saturday morning on the strength of the new GOP majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, has been trickling through the laboratories and work rooms at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory this week, as employers here realize their jobs, never mind their mission, are on the chopping block. […] At stake here are far more than the 600 new jobs at NREL, but those created in the private sector as a result of NREL's research and a burgeoning industry of new energy manufacturers, providers and installers.[KWGN, 2/23/11]

Barletta’s votes on clean air draw fire [Pocono Record]
“Tom Jensen, director of Public Policy Polling, said the votes threaten Barletta's future in the predominantly Democratic district he won last November. ‘For Rep. Barletta this was definitely a risky vote,’ Jensen said during a telephone news conference. ‘This is definitely one of the votes that could make Rep. Barletta a one-term congressman.’” [Pocono Record, 2/24/11]

NH-Maine bridge funding could be budget casualty [AP]
“WMUR-TV says New Hampshire's two members of the U.S. House of representatives, Frank Guinta and Charlie Bass, voted over the weekend in favor of eliminating several economic recovery gr114Shareants, including the one for the bridge.” [AP, 2/24/11]

Looming Federal Cuts Could Impact Brookhaven National Laboratory [The Southampton Press]
“Threatened cuts to the federal budget could gut Brookhaven National Laboratory, a research facility run by the U.S. Department of Energy in Upton, by potentially forcing officials to slam the doors on large-scale research facilities and axe 930 employees—a third of the lab’s staffing.” [Southampton Press, 2/23/11]

Parents march to Buchanan’s office to protest Head Start cuts [Herald-Tribune]
“A group of two dozen parents loaded their babies into strollers Wednesday and pushed them a mile down Orange Avenue to Congressman Vern Buchanan's office to protest cuts to Head Start.  In Sarasota County, cuts recommended by the House of Representatives would likely mean 140 fewer children receiving federally-funded day care and 32 workers losing their jobs… Later, staffers from Buchanan's office issued a statement defending the cuts as necessary to curb deficit spending and create jobs.” [Herald-Tribune, 2/23/11]

Schilling on Quad Cities Amtrak route: "I don't believe it's dead".
In his first interview since voting to eliminate a $230 million federal grant to build an Amtrak line from Chicago to Iowa City, U.S. Rep. Bobby Schilling sat down with News 8 to discuss his decision, and how he thinks that rail service through the Quad Cities could still eventually happen. […]Schilling said he's certain when the budget comes back to the U.S. House from the Senate, a lot of the items eliminated from the budget will return. “I don't believe it’s dead,” he said. […] Durbin and [Sen.] Mark Kirk aren't going to let a lot of this stuff flow through, and then it's going to come back and then we break it down on an individual basis," he said. "You know, that's just how the process works."  [WQAD, 2/23/11]

Head Start Program In Jeopardy [WTOV]
“200,000 children's futures hang in the balance as the largest budget cuts in Head Start's history are being debated by members of Congress. Head Start is a program for low-income families who are trying to prepare their child for the challenges of the educational system. There are more than 426 children who will be affected and 161 Head Start staff who stand to lose their jobs within the 1st Congressional District of West Virginia.” [WTOV, 2/23/11]

Gibson’s votes drawing protests in Kinderhook [WGXC]
“Congressman Chris Gibson’s getting his first taste of home turf protests against his Republican majority lockstep votes to date in two separate incidents planned for Thursday, February 24 at his offices in Kinderhook and Saratoga, starting at 12 noon.” [WGXC, 2/23/11]

Parents protest Congressman Farenthold’s office over budget cuts [Valley Central]
“’My kids have learned a lot and if they don't go to Head Start, I'm going to lose my job I'll have to stay at home and who knows what's going to happen.’  Isabel Curiel and several other mothers of kids in head start programs across the valley are taking their concerns to the office of US Congressman Blake Farenthold after learning the House of Representatives, including the Republican congressman, approved a bill which would cut discretionary funds including head start programs.” [Valley Central, 2/23/11]

Former mayor votes to slash city funding [New Hampshire Union Leader]
“Despite requests from Mayor Ted Gatsas and city officials to maintain funding for programs for some of the city's poorest residents, New Hampshire's congressional delegation has given little indication it intends to do so. Recently approved House cuts would reduce the city's $2 million Community Development Block Grant funding by more than half this year. President Obama proposed a 7.5 percent cut to CDBG funds in his recently released 2012 U.S. budget that would result in about $155,000 less for city programs next year. On Saturday, Rep. Frank Guinta, R-Manchester, voted in favor of more than $100 billion in cuts for fiscal year 2011, including a 63 percent cut in the CDBG program. This will slash more than $2.5 billion in requests for state and local aid, and Manchester could lose up to $1 million in remaining CDBG funding.  During Guinta's two terms as mayor of Manchester, the city received more than $7.5 million in federal CDBG funds.” [Union Leader, 2/23/11]

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Republican Affordable Health Care Act Repeal Would Deny Insurance To 30 Million & Add $230 Billion To Deficit

1/6/2011 By Doug Cunningham

Republicans in the U.S. House are pressing ahead with an effort to repeal the Affordable Health Care Act that would bring health insurance to 30 million Americans who don’t have it.

Now the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office says if health care reform is repealed it will cause a big increase in the federal budget deficit - $230 billion over the next decade and $1.2 trillion in the decade after that. The same Republicans who say they are so concerned about the deficit are using their first major vote in the House to make the deficit hundreds of billions of dollars worse.

Rightardia thinks the GOP made a strategic blunder. Jobs should have been their number one concern, not trying to undo ObamaCare which is doomed to fail. The GOP needs a real agenda, not an un-agenda.

Of interest, the GOP changed the House rules so the cost of the "repeal of ObamaCare" won't have to be reflected in the House's deficit reduction calculations.

Rightardia found this incomprehesible graphic (above) on "The Gavel" blog which John Boehner now controls. The Republicans are claiming the Affordable Health Care Act is a job killer. The graphic indicates ObamaCare does cut the deficit.

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POLITICO.com: House freshman throws a party for $2500 a pop

By KENNETH P. VOGEL & MARIN COGAN | 1/4/11 4:28 AM EST

With House Republican leaders anxious to set an austerity tone for their ascendance , the lavish fundraiser scheduled at a trendy Washington hotel to benefit a dozen GOP freshmen is not what Speaker of the House John Boehner had in mind.

Boehner, whose name was featured on the invitation, is nonetheless skipping the event at the W Hotel, where lobbyists, political action committee managers and others paying the $2,500 ticket price for a performance by country music star LeAnn Rimes . . .

The office of incoming Majority Leader Eric Cantor, another featured invitee, was noncommittal Monday night when asked whether he’d attend.

Conservative blogger Matt Lewis said:

If incoming GOP freshmen were hoping to bring fiscal responsibility and ‘family values’ to Washington, they may have gotten off to an interesting start, citing the event’s steep ticket prices, as well as Rimes’s confessed extramarital affair and her recent appearance in a “Sexy Santa” outfit at a gay men’s chorus Christmas performance.

The man behind the event, is Rep. Jeff Denham of California.

Denham, a two-term California state senator whose congressional campaign billed him as “one of the best fundraisers in the California Legislature," could not be reached for comment.

source: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0111/46999.html

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