State Legislatures

The Republican “War On Women” Continues: The Blunt Amendment Revived, And The War On Planned Parenthood!

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Missouri Republican Senator Roy Blunt has become infamous for promoting an amendment to the health care law, which would allow employers to decide what kinds of health care their employees should be denied, based on their own completely arbitrary definition of what is “immoral”! The Blunt Amendment was defeated in the Senate, but has now been revived in the House Appropriations Committee. It is, without question, part of a “War On Women”, as well as a war on health care for all employees, both female and male!

The war on Planned Parenthood, which utilizes only three percent of its funding for abortion services, continues, as the desire to redefine rape, and to fight to prevent contraception, continues, The fact is that contraception helps to avoid pregnancies for women who do not want more children, and will be impoverished by such pregnancies, and could prevent abortions altogether if contraception was not being utilized as a political “football” by the Republicans, including the Republican women in Congress, who as stated in earlier entries on this blog, seem to be an alien force from outer space!

It is beyond normal behavior to understand why the Republican Party has chosen to continue the “War On Women”, when it can only further alienate the female population, already a majority Democratic. And the fact that the men, and even the women in the party apparatus, both in Congress and the state legislatures, are willing to attack the rights of their mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters is beyond comprehension!

Boehner Debt Ceiling Bill Dead On Arrival With Its Demand For Balanced Budget Constitutional Amendment For Later Raising Of The Debt Ceiling In 2012!

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The Debt Ceiling proposal of Speaker of the House John Boehner barely made it through the House of Representatives yesterday by a vote of 218-210, with 22 Tea Party radicals voting against the proposal.

It has already been defeated in the Senate by a motion to table it, and the President has already indicated that he would veto it were it to pass the Senate.

And there is good reason to defeat it, as it requires another vote in six months on the extension of the debt ceiling, in the midst of a presidential campaign, and would guarantee further economic turmoil while the economy is in such a deep recession. It is reckless and irrational to complicate the economic recovery, and the Democrats are right in demanding an extension of the debt ceiling for 18 months until after the Presidential Election of 2012.

But beyond all this, there is another element to consider, and that is the demand under the Boehner legislation that the Congress MUST pass a balanced budget constitutional amendment, or else the debt ceiling will NOT be raised at all, six months from now!

This is economic terrorism at its worst, and it is, of course, impossible to accomplish!

Realize there are 240 Republicans in the House of Representatives in the 112th Congress, and 47 Republicans in the US Senate.

To accomplish the passage of any constitutional amendment and send it on to the states, a two thirds vote is required in both houses, which means you need 290 votes in the House if everyone is voting, and 67 Senators.

This would mean that at least 50 Democrats in the House of Representatives and 20 Democrats in the Senate would have to support such an amendment, and that simply is NOT going to happen under any circumstances!

And the irony is even if such an occurrence came about, there is almost no chance that 38 state legislatures (three fourths of the states) would pass such an amendment by a majority vote in both houses!

All that would be needed is to have one house of the state legislature by a one vote margin of defeat in 13 states kill the amendment, and one must recall that the proposed Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s reached 35 states, three short of the required 38, and then died.

So the possibility of a constitutional amendment under the so called “best circumstances” to be added to the Constitution is less likely than that we are going to send astronauts to Mars in the next decade!

In other words, the odds are absolutely ZERO!

Time For Reality Check On Balanced Budget Constitutional Amendment And Third Party Potential For Success In Presidential Elections

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Unfortunately, many Americans, probably a vast majority, live with a false set of facts about American government, as it stands under the Constitution. There is a major need for a reality check!

Many people, including Republicans in Congress, seem to think that a balanced budget amendment will solve our economic problems, when there is absolutely no chance of that occurring! Any constitutional amendment required a two thirds vote of the House of Representatives, followed by a two thirds vote of the US Senate, and then a majority vote in each of the two houses in three fourths or 38 of the 50 states, with the only exception being Nebraska, which only has a one house or unicameral legislature.

We are not ever going to bring about 290 out of 435 votes in the House of Representatives and 67 out of 100 votes in the Senate for such an amendment! Only 36 proposed amendments have EVER achieved this two thirds vote, and the number of failed amendments is in the hundreds over our history!

But notice, even with 36 amendments making it through the Congress, we have only 27 amendments, telling us that NINE amendments failed to gain a three fourths support of state legislatures. Another way to put it is that IF there is a one vote majority in one of the two houses of the state legislatures against an amendment in just THIRTEEN states at a minimum, the amendment fails to be added to the Constitution.

There is no realistic possibility of a balanced budget amendment EVER making it into the Constitution, no matter what politicians say! And were it to happen, it would create a strait jacket, paralyzing us in a time of economic collapse, war, or natural disaster, no matter what limitations are put into such an amendment. It is time for serious minded people to give up the idea that such an amendment will EVER pass, and instead, take responsibility for the fact that the federal government IS necessary, and that we are all going to have to pay more taxes, whether we like it or not, and that it is PATRIOTIC to pay our fair share, including the super wealthy being thankful for their good fortune, and paying the tax level they used to pay from the 1940s through the 1970s, and certainly at the least, the levels of the Bill Clinton years in the White House!

It is also time for “dreamers”, who have the view that a serious third party movement could lead to the election of a President, to get a reality check as well!

Our electoral college system, which can only be changed by a constitutional amendment, which is not going to happen either, prevents a third party candidate from winning, with Theodore Roosevelt performing the best as a third party candidate of the Progressive Party in 1912, but only winning six states and 88 electoral votes, about a third of what is needed to win the White House. The only reason even he did that well was that he was a former President and extremely popular. Such a scenario will NEVER happen again, particularly with the 22nd Amendment, which limits Presidents to two complete terms in office, something not existing in 1912, when Theodore Roosevelt ran for what would have been a third, but non consecutive term as President.

Even if such a thing could happen, a third party candidate without major party backing would have an impossible situation gaining support to govern effectively, as indeed, independent Governor Jesse Ventura of Minnesota discovered in his term from 1999-2003!

For good or for bad, we are stuck with the two party system, and we will be electing a Democrat or a Republican for the Presidency for the long term future!

So forget the constitutional amendment route for a balanced budget, and ignore the thoughts of a third party movement electing a President, and instead accept the reality of the American future–we need to work within the system and just pick better people for public office, as we always have the right to do by voting and organizing, and stop hating our government, which with its faults, is still essential and necessary in our daily lives, as much as we would wish otherwise in our dreams!

The False Promise Of The “Balanced Budget” Constitutional Amendment

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Tea Party activists and conservative Republicans, led by Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina, are touting the idea of a constitutional amendment to force a balanced budget on the nation in the future.

This is nothing new, as it was proposed in the past by Republicans in the 1980s and 1990s, and never went anywhere.

These political leaders seem to forget that a constitutional amendment requires a two thirds vote of the House of Representatives and a two thirds vote of the Senate, and then would need 38 states (three fourths) out of 50 to put it into the Constitution.

If this had been easy to do years ago, it would have been accomplished.

The fact is that the idea of such an amendment is preposterous, and will NEVER happen!

Who can see 290 House members and 67 Senators agreeing to such an amendment, and no more than 12 states rejecting such an idea?

Who cannot understand that a one vote margin of defeat in one of the two houses of the state legislatures in no more than 13 states will kill such an amendment, if it ever made it through Congress?

This is a political ploy which will go nowhere, and were it to become part of the Constitution, it would create many crises whenever an emergency arose, whether war, natural disaster, or another economic downturn.

There is no way for anyone or any government to plan precisely on what emergencies will arise, so the amendment would cripple a government’s ability to respond.

So chalk the discussion up to political posturing, and nothing else!

The Wrong Message Being Sent About Education In America!

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One would think that most Americans would believe that education is the ticket to success in America, that it is the major means of social and economic mobility.

But at a time when we face an education system that has been inadequate to deal with the future of our children, what is occurring is that we are seeing states slashing budgets on what is basically the future of the nation!

Texas will begin the new school year without textbooks for its students, while we are also, all over the nation, seeing schools shut down, summer schools being eliminated or cut back, shorter school years being put into effect, number of school days being cut from five to four in many areas, and teachers and staff being treated by government as the “enemy”, and being faced with having to pay for benefits guaranteed by labor contracts, and often being forced to take pay cuts or furloughs from work!

We are going to see a decline in numbers of young people wishing to go into education as a field, and many veteran teachers will be leaving over the next few years, disgusted with the mistreatment they suffer, and the lack of respect for education demonstrated by state legislatures, city councils, and school boards, with many members of school boards particularly having no clue as to what education is all about!

The greatest loss will be the likelihood of a growing dropout rate by students, and the gaps they will suffer in their education, making them ill equipped to deal with the future, to be good parents, and to be the leaders dealing with the problems that this nation will face with a rapidly aging population.

If we fail to educate our young properly, and encourage the best and the brightest to enter the field of education, the long range prognosis of the country is in great jeopardy!

The Medicaid Cuts Affecting Children And Adults With Disabilities: The Safety Net Full Of Holes!

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It has been shown that children and adults with disabilities often cannot find medical doctors who will see them, and that seeing a specialist who is willing to accept Medicaid is a long drawn out process, even for those with severe health issues.

And state after state is cutting Medicaid access to more disabled people in the name of cost controls, and therefore sending a message that disabled people, supposedly covered under the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, a proud moment in the administration of President George H. W. Bush, no longer matter in the name of tax cuts for the rich and the corporations!

What could be more obscene and disgraceful than to show lack of concern for the health of those among us who are basically being blamed for their disabilities!

What could be worse than to say that their lives do not matter, as long as the almighty dollar stands in the way!

The quality of life of disabled people is something those of us fortunate to have no such disabilities do not experience.

But there is a high level of immorality and indecency in allowing the abuse of those who wish they had no disabilities, and are being told they do not matter, and turning our eyes away!

Two decades after the ADA, we are seeing a major deterioration, with little conscience displayed by America’s governors and state legislatures. This says a lot about the concept of America as a special land better than anywhere else, a total lie if we can choose to victimize the helpless and justify it!

The Lack Of College Education Among State Legislators Is Disturbing!

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A New York Times study, based on research by the Chronicle of Higher Education, reveals that about one out of four state legislators across America lacks a college education, and even any attendance at a four year college or university.

Only six percent of Congress lacks a college degree, while 72 percent of the nation does not have that credential.

Defenders of those without a college degree argue that what is more important than a degree is common sense, experience in dealing with people, and understanding of the issues and the political process.

That may be true, but it would seem that since state legislatures have to deal with educational matters, that a college education should be expected.

California, Virginia, Nebraska, New York and Texas are the top five states in educational attainment of state legislators, while Arkansas, Montana, Kansas, South Dakota, and Arizona have the lowest level of attainment of state legislators.

80 percent of legislators with college degrees have gone to public institutions, and Ivy League attendance is much less likely than in Congress itself.

Of course, Congress in Washington, DC, is a full time position, while in most state legislatures, it is a part time job, and the pay is much lower, so that also keeps educational attainment levels down since there are not major monetary rewards in being a state legislator.

Would It Be Better To Have More Females In Political Power? The Answer Is Yes!

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Because of the Anthony Weiner scandal, on top of the scandals involving John Edwards and Arnold Schwarzenegger and Chris Lee, and further back to Larry Craig, Mark Sanford, John Ensign, David Vitter, Eliot Spitzer, Mark Foley, and Bill Clinton, and many others, the question arises: Would America be better with more female political leaders?

The answer is YES, as history tells us of very few cases of female political leaders misbehaving, at least in a sexual way, as women are wired differently.

It is not saying that women never become involved in sexual liaisons and scandals, but at least in political terms, it seems not to occur very often, with no outstanding cases that come easily to mind.

Women, of course, are a small part of American political life, although the numbers are growing. According to a Rutgers University Research Center, women hold only one out of every six seats in Congress, about one fourth of all seats in state legislatures, and six governorships and eight mayoralties of the top 100 cities.

Women who run and win office do so, according to research, to accomplish something, while men run to be somebody! According to the research studies, women in the House of Representatives introduce more bills, get more involved in legislative debates, and give more one minute speeches in daily session, in fact double the amount Congressmen give.

The argument is that men in politics are motivated by testosterone induced connections between sex and power, with the thought that powerful men attract women, while powerful women turn off men! Men are more reckless and more likely to feel invincible.

So with the growing role of women in politics, the emphasis should be on them being encouraged to run, and the American people overcoming sexual stereotypes, and start to accept powerful women such as Nancy Pelosi, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Michele Bachmann and Marsha Blackburn as legitimate figures in the House of Representatives, and to see women Senators and Governors and Mayors as qualified for themselves, not to face discrimination because of their gender.

American politics would be far better with more of a balance between men and women, and get rid of the old myth, that in politics as in business, it is a man’s world!

The Wisconsin State Senate Democrats, The US Senate Republicans, And Minority Rights In A Legislative Body

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The Wisconsin State Senate Democrats, 14 in total, have been staying away from the state capital in Madison in protest of Governor Scott Walker’s attempt to destroy collective bargaining for public employees in the state. Without them present, the legislation that Governor Walker wants to impose cannot be accomplished. There are those Republicans and conservatives who are outraged at what this band of 14 is doing, and some have called for them to have their seats declared vacant and hold new elections, or to have their paychecks suspended until they return.

At the same time, Republicans and conservatives have no issue with the Republican minority in the US Senate using the tactic of a threatened filibuster to stop action on legislation or nominations desired by President Obama and the Democratic majority in that body. They talk of the rights of the minority to express their voice, and to bottleneck action, as an element of democracy, even though never before has the use of the filibuster been so abused, as it has been by the Republicans over the past four years with a Democratic majority Senate.

This is all pure hypocrisy, and the Republicans and conservative interests cannot have it both ways–to bottleneck action in the US Senate, but protest and denounce Democrats for the same tactic in the state legislature of Wisconsin, and also for a while in Indiana, as well.

The old saying is: “What is good for the goose, is good for the gander!” When both parties, nationally and in the states, decide the rule of the majority should be honored, without blockage tactics by the minority, then government can best work, and the minority always has the right to try to reverse actions by appealing to the people to overturn the majority party in the next election. And if that does not happen, so be it!

The Crisis Of The States: The Worst Is Yet To Come! :(

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With Republicans taking over the House of Representatives and many state governorships and state legislatures, the center of crisis will descend upon many of the states of the Union! 🙁

A Census Bureau report demonstrates that the Great Recession caused the loss of 30 percent of the states’ revenues in 2009, due to the high unemployment rate, the dramatic rise in foreclosures of housing, and the tremendous investment losses in the state pension funds.

The result is large budget deficits and increasing social service demands. Unemployment benefits, medicaid, and workers compensation needs became dramatically higher.

The year 2011 will be the worst ever in pressures on states, with the need to have tax increases and service cuts to deal with the largest budget deficits ever seen.

Forty states have reported a combined total of $113 billion in deficits, and the federal stimulus aid that the Obama Administration gave in the past year to avoid the loss of jobs and services in the public sector now is coming to an end. The Republicans show no interest in the suffering that will occur, that will cause many more unemployed people and horrific cuts in services, including education, health care, police and fire protection! 🙁

The only rhetoric we hear is that there must be reduction of federal spending and overcoming the federal budget deficits, as no one is thinking about the human costs that will occur across the country! 🙁

The budget gaps are particularly dramatic in California, New York and Illinois, and it will affect not just the general public in these and other states, but also the issue of state pensions and state worker employment.

So the economic crisis is far from over, and will almost certainly be reaching its peak over the next few years! 🙁