US House Of Representatives

Significant Food Safety Legislation Passed By Senate!

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In a very important move, the US Senate today passed significant Food Safety legislation by a vote of 73-25, a rare case of support by both parties! 🙂

The most extensive reform in this field since the 1930s, the legislation would allow the Food and Drug Administration to have new powers to force recalls, to increase inspections, oversee farming production, and hold companies accountable for their practices!

Action could be taken to prevent people from getting sick, rather than reacting after the fact of food poisoning!

Also, food imports would be monitored by the FDA, something not possible before!

While the House bill passed last year is stronger, the thought is that they will accept the Senate bill to insure that greater regulation can take place, even if it is not a perfect piece of legislation!

56 Democrats were joined by 15 Republicans and two Independents to pass the bill! The earlier Senatorial privilege delaying the bill that was initiated by Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma was, thankfully, overcome! 🙂

The one disappointment is that 25 Republicans voted No, including John McCain, Lindsey Graham and John Thune, among others! What kind of way to justify a No vote can only be imagined! 🙁

A Tragic Betrayal By The Republican Party On Crucial Issues In Lameduck Session! :(

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The nation is seeing how hard hearted, lacking in compassion, mean spirited, and narrow minded that the Republican Party of 2010 really is on so many issues in the lame duck session of Congress! 🙁

It seems unlikely that there will be an extension of unemployment compensation to desperate people who have no source of income, in a time of the worst economic conditions since the 1930s! But meanwhile, the GOP is standing firm to continue tax cuts to the wealthy, adding to the national debt over the next ten years! 🙁

The possibility of giving children of illegal immigrants an opportunity to have a decent future in America and move toward citizenship via the DREAM Act proposal sadly seems to be failing also to gain adequate GOP support! 🙁

The movement toward the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in the military also seems about to fail, despite Pentagon backing! Sadly, Senator John McCain is leading the fight against change, although in the past, he was supportive of the possibility of ending discrimination against gays in the military! 🙁

And despite the appeal of Republican Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana that his party back the START Treaty with the Russian government, as a way to promote the cutting back of nuclear stockpiles and make a safer world, it also seems unlikely to gain enough Republican votes to make it through the Senate by the two thirds majority needed for a treaty! 🙁

The Republican Party of 2010 seems ready, now with a majority in the House of Representatives next year, to continue the total obstructionism that marked their performance in 2009-2010! 🙁

This is a gloomy foreboding of the next two years–that nothing will be accomplished, with the only question being who will be blamed in 2012 for this sad state of affairs–the GOP, the Democrats, or Barack Obama!

The Dangers Of Extreme Income Inequality! :(

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At a time when millions of Americans are unemployed, and millions are facing the loss of their homes, all of this caused by Wall Street, the banks, and the powerful corporations, we get news that the corporate world has seen its best quarter of economic growth and profits in the sixty years since such records have been kept! 🙁

While the elite flaunt their wealth and arrogance in the face of the “little people”, who they have helped to exploit and put into dire poverty and desperation, the country faces a social crisis of massive proportions, and yet it is the corporate wealthy who spent extreme amounts of money to put their Republican allies back into power on Capitol Hill in the House of Representatives! 🙁

Against any regulation or reform of the Obama Administration, the intent of the super rich is to continue the exploitation of the masses that they have been engaged in during the past decade! 🙁

No amount of arrogance seems to be enough, as no matter how much profit these corporations make, and no matter how much personal materialism the super rich gain, it is never enough! 🙁

The level of selfishness and greed is unlimited, but there are signs that the social tensions that are rising as people become cornered and desperate might reverberate on all of us in increased bloodshed and violence by victims who see nothing to lose! 🙁

The situation we face is extremely scary, as constant exploitation could lead to violent revolution and destruction of the entire society, all because of the small percentage of the population who possess no ethics, no conscience, no morals in their pursuit of personal gain! 🙁

What a sad commentary it is that the American capitalistic system could be sowing the seeds of its own destruction through unwillingness to realize limits in the public interest! 🙁

South Florida Gains Two New Controversial GOP Congressmen! :(

Ronald 1 Comment

In the recent midterm Congressional elections, South Florida saw two new GOP Congressmen elected, both of whom are bound to make news, but probably not in a positive way! 🙁

David Rivera is the new Congressman for the 25th Congressional District in Miami, who has been accused of domestic violence against a woman years ago, and was involved in a car crash into a truck carrying fliers accusing him of domestic violence, even though he denies the whole story. But the Miami Herald has done investigation on this and claims that Rivera is covering up on this matter! 🙁 So the matter is not likely to go away anytime soon!

Even more controversial is the new Congressman for the 22nd Congressional District in Broward and Palm Beach Counties, and one of two newly elected African American Republican Congressmen. Allen West was a lieutenant colonel in the US Army who retired under fire for his tactics in Iraq in 2003, and he is seen as one of the most right wing members of Congress, similar to Michele Bachmann in using loose rhetoric! He had a motorcycle gang as a security detail, and briefly hired right wing talk show host Joyce Kaufman, a Fort Lauderdale radio celebrity, as his Chief of Staff until she backed out two days later, after her fiery speech during the campaign advocating using the Second Amendment if the election results were unsatisfactory! 🙁

These two Florida Congressmen will give the GOP leadership headaches in all likelihood, and will not follow the old line that freshmen are seen but not noticed! 🙁

Barack Obama’s Strategy To Deal With The Opposition Republicans: Should He Compromise And Alienate His Liberal Base? NO! :(

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The midterm elections of 2010 have set up a difficult situation for President Obama, as he faces the next two years with a split Congress, only the eleventh and twelfth years since 1900 that this odd situation has occurred!

There are those who say he should follow the example of Bill Clinton who compromised with an opposition Congress on some issues, and yet was trashed by them in a very vicious way over the six years of their shared relationship!

Or he could fight with the opposition Congress, as Harry Truman did in 1947-1948, giving them “hell”!

Of course, both these Presidents had opposition in control of both houses, so really, comparing Obama to Clinton and Truman is not a precisely similar situation!

Rather, Obama’s situation is similar to William Howard Taft from 1911-1913; Herbert Hoover from 1931-1933; and Ronald Reagan from 1981-1987. But actually, there is no precise comparison to these Presidents either, as all three had a Democratic House of Representatives and a Republican Senate, the opposite of what Obama faces in 2011-2012!

History tells us that both Taft and Hoover had unhappy years under a split Congress, and both lost re-election in a landslide, so they are not good models!

The Ronald Reagan comparison is more relevant, and went on for six years. Reagan had his principles, and while not always able to gain his agenda, he never really wavered in promoting his goals, and this was seen as making him a man of honor and principle!

Whatever Obama does is a tough choice and will affect his rating in history, but it seems to the author that he came in wanting to be a “transformational” President, and the only way to do that is to stand up and fight, stop caving in to GOP opposition, recognize that they wish him failure and have said so, and unite his liberal base by insisting on doing whatever can be done to advocate political, social and economic reform, along the lines of his very productive first two years, the most accomplished since the Great Society of Lyndon B. Johnson!

We do not need another Jimmy Carter or even Bill Clinton; we need another Lyndon B. Johnson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, or Woodrow Wilson who will fight his opponents and challenge the nation to greater goals!

Obama should use the powers of his office through executive orders, not give a damn about his conservative critics, and remember that he was elected by the American people to bring change, not just muddle through and waste his mandate of 2008!

If conservatives and Republicans wish to continue to be negative, so be it, and they will bring down on themselves the wrath of the American people in 2012 and beyond!

Their negativism, lack of care for the average American, and insistence on favoring the wealthy and the corporations will lead to a reaction in two years against them, and they will be repudiated, as they will be seen for what they are–obstructionists who do nothing to make the American economy improved!

Obama should wage a “war on the GOP”, and gain the nickname “Give them hell, Barack”, just as Harry Truman gained the nickname of “Give them hell, Harry”!

Darrell Issa: Is He The New “Witch Hunter”? :(

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California Congressman Darrell Issa, soon to be the head of the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, is likely to be one of the most controversial leaders of the Republican party in the next two years, as he has indicated plans to engage in extensive investigation of the Obama Administration.

The Southern California Republican, the wealthiest member of Congress, with assets of at least $300 million, has issued statements that he plans to investigate the executive branch on numerous issues.

Issa has said he wants to hold hundreds of hearings, form new subcommittees, and has asserted that he wants seven hearings a week for forty weeks a year! 🙁

Issa wants to investigate the stimulus legislation, health care reform, the bank bailout, and some think each cabinet member under Obama who has made controversial statements or authorized contentious actions!

There are conservatives who wish to question Obama’s background and birth, but Issa has declared that is off limits.

Despite that assertion, the feeling has developed that Issa is looking to become the center of attention, and put the Obama Administration’s “feet to the fire”, adding to the burdens of the administration, already under tremendous assault by the opposition party for the past two years, and now having to deal with the reality that with House of Representatives control by the GOP, the next two years might make one look back on the past two years as tame by comparison!

Issa first gained notice when he mounted the challenge for a recall against Democratic Governor Grey Davis of California, which led to the election of Arnold Schwarzenegger as Governor of the Golden State!

Issa is likely to be seen as a “witch hunter” and nightmare for the Obama Presidency! He will certainly be one of the most prominent Republicans over the next two years and will become a “household word” as a partisan attack machine! 🙁

The Lame Duck Session Of Congress: Crucial Issues That Need To Be Addressed!

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The lame duck session of Congress began yesterday, with the Democrats having their last opportunity to control both houses of Congress and get something done, before the Republicans take over the House of Representatives in January!

There is much that needs to be addressed, including:

1. The question of the Bush tax cuts, which if extended to the top two percent of the country, will put America in the hole for $700 billion over the next ten years, worsening the national debt tremendously!
2. Funding of the national government for the present budget year which began in October.
3. Restoration of Medicare payments to doctors at a rate that will keep them willing to accept Medicare patients.
4. Dealing with the issue of unemployment compensation extension to long term unemployed people who will have no income if it is not extended.
5. Passage of the DREAM Act, which would allow children of illegal immigrants who have grown up in this country to have the possibility of attending college or entering the military and avoid deportation to countries they have no memory of, since they left those nations when infants.
6. Abolition of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in the military, an issue which has been dragged around for two years now, but must be repealed by Congress if discrimination is to end for gays.

The problem is that much of this agenda is unlikely to pass other than the first two items, as the GOP has the ability to stall and filibuster everything else, a very frustrating potential scenario! 🙁

Hopefully, there will be progress on the last four topics, but with a turnover to the GOP in the House in January, it is clear that if these issues listed above are not resolved now, they may never be in the next two years! 🙁

Newly Found Opposition To Earmarks! The Hypocrisy Of Politicians!

Ronald 1 Comment

The biggest rage now is for politicians in Washington to condemn earmarks as corruption, and a waste of taxpayer money!

It is precisely the opposite of the above, as earmarks provide improvements in public services to every state and congressional district, and provide jobs and promote economic growth!

It is a demagogic issue, as those now coming out against earmarks are the ones who have been most engaged in advocating it for their entire congressional careers!

People seem to want services for their district or state, but not for other districts or states! This is greed and selfishness, and it is often forgotten that if a Congressman or Senator does not bring home money for projects in their districts and states, they are likely to be defeated for re-election as they have not “brought home the bacon”!

Citizens want projects done, but not where they have to pay for it! They want others to pay, rather than face the responsibility for paying taxes! In other words, they are hypocrites, as are their politicians who now advocate ending earmarks!

To top it off, earmarks are a measly one percent of the national budget! It is a “drop in the bucket” when one talks about expenditures! It is similar to the argument to stop foreign aid to other nations, which is also only one percent of the budget, but citizens are ignorant of the importance of foreign aid to stabilize other nations in our national interest!

The fastest way to cut the budget is to cut unnecessary defense spending caused by corruption in the corporate world, which promotes cost overruns on unnecessary weapons systems, considering that we already have a defense budget greater than the rest of the world combined!

Cutting earmarks will be a fad that will be short lived, as “pork” is part of the reality of politics, and always will be!

The Debate Over Social Security’s Future And The Fiscal Responsibility and Reform Commission

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The President’s Fiscal Responsibility and Reform Commission, headed by Erskine Bowles, Chief of Staff for President Bill Clinton, and former Republican Senator Alan Simpson, came up with a statement last week, three weeks before the Commission’s official report on December 1, calling for radical changes in the way the nation looks at the deficit crisis that the country faces in its future.

The immediate reaction was for harsh denunciation by ideological forces on the left and on the right, condemning any suggestions that were made by the joint heads of the Commission.

There is much to be chewed over about the recommendations, but it was surprising that so much attention was paid to the Social Security portion of the recommendations.

Bowles and Simpson both promoted the idea of raising the amount of income taxed for Social Security, which is presently $106,800, to much higher levels, with Medicare, as it is, having no limits on being taxed on incomes. Also, in the year 2050, the age limit would be 68, and in 2075, would rise to 69, in order to keep Social Security solvent.

All of the above makes sense, as one forgets that in 1983, by bipartisan agreement between Republican President Ronald Reagan and Democratic Speaker of the House Thomas”Tip” O’Neill, and the support of the Republican Senate and Democratic House of Representatives, the retirement age for full Social Security was raised for those born after 1940 to age 66, and for those born after 1960 to age 67.

So what is so radical about the proposals set forth by Bowles and Simpson, but one would think it was extremism, based on the reaction by political forces that seem unwilling to compromise! 🙁

This is the problem today, as compared to nearly thirty years ago, that there is no willingness to compromise in any form by either side of the political spectrum! 🙁

Think about what the above reform suggests: So people born after 1980 will have to wait to age 68 to collect full Social Security benefits, and would have notice FORTY years ahead!

And people born after 2005 would have to wait to age 69 to collect full Social Security benefits, and would have notice SEVENTY years ahead!

And realize that age longevity and health have improved, and anyone could still collect lower benefits as early as age 62!

And if the income limit is raised, Social Security will survive for the long run, and be well funded by these changes!

And in no case, can anyone expect that they will survive on Social Security benefits, so part of the plan for life is to SAVE early and responsibly for one’s retirement in the long run!

This plan is NOT extreme! Instead, it is totally responsible and MUST be adopted if Social Security is to prosper in the long run!

It is time to stop ranting and raving on both sides of the political spectrum, and to recognize the validity of these proposals set forth by Bowles and Simpson!

South Florida Conservative Talk Show Host Joyce Kaufman And Congressman Elect Allen West: Two “Wingnuts” That Will Make News! :(

Ronald 1 Comment

One of the most notable Tea Party Movement favorites who won election to the House of Representatives last week was Allen West, a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army, who was forced to leave the military after inappropriate treatment of a prisoner In Iraq in 2003, and who has been associated with right wing, pro gun groups!

With large amounts of money, including support from Karl Rove associated groups, West defeated Congressman Ron Klein of Boca Raton, in one of the most confrontational campaigns in the country! 🙁

West is a “wing nut” who will make lots of news with his comments and actions, seen by many as an African American male counterpart of Michele Bachmann, Congresswoman from Minnesota, who is constantly making outrageous statements and calling for extremist actions against the opposition party, and confrontation in foreign policy!

It is bad enough that West will be a “nightmare” in Congress, but he has now appointed right wing “nut job” talk show host Joyce Kaufman, who is a South Florida “wannabe” replica of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Sean Hannity on the local level! 🙁

Kaufman has been an outrageous talk show host on WFTL in Fort Lauderdale, spewing poison, hate, and nastiness, calling for violent actions against illegal immigrants, war against Islam, and ridiculing Democrats in despicable language, such as calling Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Debbie Wasserman Schmutz (dirt in Yiddish)! She has used similar assaulting language against other Democrats, including former Congressman Robert Wexler, and other Democrats on the national scene, and has been totally negative in every way toward President Barack Obama!

She will now gain national attention, which she craves, as the Chief of Staff to Congressman West, and she is sure to be a “lightning rod”, drawing controversy by her statements and actions, instead of being a quiet, behind the scenes figure as Chief of Staff!

It is odd for a political figure to pick a media personality to be the leader of his staff! It is also weird that Kaufman, who constantly promotes states rights and hatred of the federal government, will now be a federal government employee and be paid by taxpayers for her work!

Interesting example of total hypocrisy on her part, and it also brings to mind that she somehow expects to be a “correspondent” for her radio station while working for West, which is seen by people on Capitol Hill as a conflict of interest, and totally inappropriate, and possibly illegal to boot!

But then conservatives like to rail against government, and then feed at the public trough as they pursue their agenda to make this country a land of the elite doing everything they can to make the rich richer, the poor poorer, and the middle class slipping constantly down in the direction of poverty!

The voters of the 22nd Congressional District of Florida will eventually realize the blunder they have made, brought about by large amounts of corporate cash without limit, thanks to the Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United case in January of this year! 🙁