The Blue State

Aside from Iraq, this Congress has been a success

When you subtract the Democrats' half-hearted effort to end this war, they actually have accomplished a lot in other areas.  In the two years Democrats have to accomplish their six campaign pledges, it took just nine months for the Democrats to accomplish half of them:

The passage of the student loan bill on Friday is the fourth measureheaded to  President Bush’s desk from the Democrats’ “Six in ’06”campaign pledge. If Bush signs the education bill as expected, three ofthe Democrats’ high-profile legislative promises will have become lawless than nine months into their majority.

So in all, here are the six major promises that the Democrats made during last year's campaign season:

1. Minimum Wage -- Passed and signed
2. 9/11 Commission Recommendations - Passed and signed
3. Student Aid -- Passed and about to be signed
4. Energy Independence
5. Retirement Security
6. Affordable Health Care

Congress passes sweeping changes in student aid

You cannot say this would ever happen under a Republican Congress.  On Friday, the Democratic Senate and House passed legislation that would decrease student loan interest payments:

Congress on Friday approved the largest overhaul of education fundingin more than 60 years, a $20.9-billion program that would boostfinancial aid to students and reduce interest payments on their loans.

Students who enter certain public sector jobs would have their debtserased under the plan, the total cost of which would be offset byslashing government subsidies to lenders. It also calls for a$510-million investment in minority colleges.

The program would have particular impact in California, which has morerecipients of low-income student grants than any other state. Thebill's increases to those Pell Grants are expected to benefit about 5.5million needy students nationwide.

As a recent college graduate who had to deal with student loans, this legislation is incredibly good news.  In many cases what we have happening are people even as old as 28 still paying off college debt, mostly due to all the interest.  The average student graduates with $19,000 in debt.

Specifically, here are the key details:

• Maximum Pell Grant increased from $4,050 to $5,400.
• Interest rates cut from 6.8% to 3.4%.
• All of the changes would take affect by the year 2012.

The Senate passed it by a vote of 79-12, and in the House it was 292-97.  Bush is expected to sign the bill.

GOP lawmaker found dead today

Congressman Paul Gillmor, a Republican from Ohio, was found dead in his apartment today after not showing up for work:

The body of the 68-year-old congressman was found by staff members whowent to his apartment Wednesday after he failed to show up for work,according to a Republican aide who spoke on condition of anonymitypending an official announcement.There was no immediate word on thecause of his death.

Gillmor's office did not respond to a reporter's call.

Gillmor has enjoyed a long career in public service:

Gillmor, who represented Ohio's heavily Republican 5th District in theBowling Green area, was first elected to Congress in 1988.

According to the Cleveland Leader, Ohio Governor Ted Strickland will hold a special election to fill the US House seat.  It is located in a solidly Republican district:

Gov. Ted Strickland will have to call a special election for his seatin the house. The district that Gillmor served is solid territory forthe GOP so Democrats most likely won't have much of a challenge whoeverthe party puts in as a candidate for the seat.

When kind-heartedness becomes indifference

Two years after the mortgage company Countrywide promised to help Katrina victims by suspending their mortgage payments, the company is not remaining true to its word:

According to a class-action lawsuit filed in Louisiana today,homeowners say the mortgage giant is now demanding any deferredpayments be paid up immediately, often with interest and penaltiesattached. Plaintiffs' attorneys say that as a result, many strugglinghomeowners have been sent into foreclosure.

In a goodwill gesture after Katrina hit two years ago, Countrywideannounced it would suspend mortgage payments for hurricane victims forup to 90 days. Homeowners say they were told by Countrywide agents thatany deferred payments would be added to the back end of the loan term,and that no lump sum, interest or penalties would be imposed.

According to the lawsuit, however, homeowners have been notified byCountrywide that they have to either pay the entire deferred amountimmediately or restructure their loan in a way that would cost themthousands of additional dollars.

We write all the time about war profiteering.  This is flood profiteering.  If these Katrina victims don't pay back their loans, Countrywide stands to rake in huge profits off all the interest.  Also, for this to happen on the two-year anniversary of Katrina is insulting.

Please call or email Countrywide and tell them how you feel about their indifference towards Gulf Coast residents, many of which are still trying to put their lives back together.

Also, email your Senators and House Representative, and urge them to investigate these despicable tactics by the mortgage industry.

Bush to veto 6 million children out of health coverage

The House of Representatives voted along partisan lines to pass a health care bill that would cover 6 million more children.  That would mean six million more kids getting regular physicals, immunizations and other preventative care so that down the road many of them won't require pricey emergency procedures that taxpayers usually end up paying for.

To President Bush and most Republicans, this is a horrible idea.  Since the measure passed the House, it heads to the Senate for debate.  In a statement, the White House issued a veto threat, saying the plan "clearly favors government-run health care over private health insurance."

This bill will likely not make it through the Senate.  Instead, a bipartisan group of Senators support a more scaled back proposal, which increases funding for the program by $35 billion.  It doesn't beat the $47 billion in the House bill -- but it's still not bad.  Bush says he would veto either bill.

What the President wants instead is a bill that only increases federal funding for the program by $5 billion.  But according to columnist Art Levine, Bush's plan guts states of resources:

Bush’s proposed $5 billion increase in funding to the program would still leave nearly 20 stateswithout sufficient funds to cover all those now enrolled. Bush opposesmajor expanded funding for SCHIP because he’d like to link the programwith his dead-in-the-water proposals to offer tax credits or deductionsto help people pay for high-cost, often exclusionary private insuranceon their own.

It is interesting how the Republican Party brags about being for states rights, yet their policies of unfunded mandates actually hurt states and empower the federal government.  No Child Left Behind and the Patriot Act are two perfect examples.

Articles of Impeachment against Alberto Gonzales

In the Blue Radar this morning, I touched on the fact that Congressman Jay Inslee (D-WA) would submit a resolution for articles of impeachment against Alberto Gonzales today.  What I didn't know was that the House coalition sponsoring this bill was extremely diverse in ideology, and almost all of the lawmakers practiced law.

Here is a copy of the impeachment resolution:

Directing the Committee on the Judiciary to investigate whether AlbertoR. Gonzales, Attorney General of the United States, should be impeachedfor high crimes and
misdemeanors.
1 Resolved, That the Committee on the Judiciary shall
2 investigate fully whether sufficient grounds exist for the
3 House of Representatives to impeach Alberto R. Gonzales,
4 Attorney General of the United States, for high crimes
5 and misdemeanors.

On Sunday, Senator Pat Leahy (D-VT), Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said he would give Alberto Gonzales one week to re-clarify his statements from last week's testimony.  Gonzales' statements have already been contradicted by federal documents and the FBI Director.  But as of this morning, according to Newsweek, Gonzales stands by his story.

That means many Democrats will stand by impeachment as the most appropriate option.

Rove Subpoenaed -- adding to very productive week in Congress

The Senate Judiciary Committee today took their biggest step in uncovering the mystery behind the fired US Attorneys.  They subpoenaed White House Adviser Karl Rove and his deputy, Scott Jennings.  Rove and Jennings will be forced to show up at a hearing on August 2nd.  It is expected that the Bush Administration will fight this subpoena.

Here is a quick refresher of Congress' busy week, spearheaded by Senator Pat Leahy (D-VT) and House Rep. John Conyers (D-MI):

• MONDAY: House Judiciary Committee handed down contempt charges against former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and current White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolton.
• TUESDAY: Senate Judiciary Committee confronted Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, as he evaded questions from both Republican and Democrat committee members.
• WEDNESDAY: Alberto Gonzales' testimony the day before was contradicted by federal documents.  Lawmakers raised the concern that Gonzales could face perjury charges.
• THURSDAY: Senate Judiciary Committee subpoenaed Karl Rove and Scott Jennings.

UPDATE (4:00 PM ET): Here is a copy of the subpoena handed down by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The Town Hall Meeting

This weekend, I joined about 200 of the local senior citizens (and a few others) by attending a town hall meeting held by my United States Congressman, Rush Holt (D-NJ).   These public meetings give the Congressman a chance to report what he sees first hand when he goes to work in Washington, and it gives the constituents and chance to voice concerns and ask questions.  The meeting also gives me a chance to see how passionate real live people are on issues and how seriously an actual Congressman takes them. I recognize this pertains directly to my Congressman, who is likely not your Congressman also, so I’ll only comment on the national issues. On many levels though, he does speak for many national Democrats so it should be relevant for most.  Among the wide range of topics discussed were:

• Universal Healthcare: Holt noted that our version of universal healthcare, Medicare, has just over a 1% overhead.  This means that 99 cents of every dollar spent on Medicare goes toward its real purpose – healthcare! This is hardly the case with privatized healthcare. With every person in the US spending at least $6,000 on healthcare per year today, Holt wryly stated that, “we should be able to provide pretty good service for $6,000 a year.”

• Election Reform: I was pleasantly surprised to see the true passion a lot of people had for this issue since it is not something I hear much about otherwise. Several people voiced their complete dissatisfaction with the current electronic voting process and they really worry, rightfully so, if they can trust the outcomes of certain elections.  Holt is a serious supporter of requiring a paper audit trail for all elections.  He summarized the importance of this issue by saying that all of our rights in a democracy derive from our ability to fairly elect our representatives.

• 2008: One woman railed about how it is dangerously early to discuss the 2008 Presidency at the rate that our media does today. Holt agreed and said he was basically tired of people asking him who he supports.  He was very concerned that our country is looking for that next great leader to come along and just solve all of our problems, while we should really be taking more initiative to do so ourselves at a personal and at a local level.

• Impeachment: An elderly woman asked where impeachment proceedings stood and if they are realistic (now things heated up).  Holt said that he was glad she brought it up because he planned to ask everyone where they stood on formal impeachment.  Then he did so by a show of hands and about 80% of the room was pro-impeachment as several people shouted Cheney’s name and Bush’s name.  Holt pointed out the obvious problem – if you impeach one you still have the other and he seemed resigned to the fact that it would be impossible to impeach both of them, to which several people responded, “who cares – just do it.”  Holt did seem convinced that Bush had likely committed a high crime by suspending Habeas Corpus and Holt was disappointed and even astonished that more Americans were not completely offended by Bush’s actions here (you gotta love our complacent electorate).  Despite his apparent leaning toward impeachment, Holt seemed quite concerned that impeachment hearings would be framed as partisan bickering and would allow Bush to rally his Party behind him.  I disagree with this. If the President did in fact break a law (something I don’t claim to be able to prove that he did), he should be impeached just as Clinton was.  And if Bush’s Party chooses to buy a ticket on the Titanic, then I wish them well in their next career.

If you have never taken the opportunity to see your Congressional Representative speak in such a format, I really recommend it. It’s easy to read on-line what people think about politics but to see it in person is entirely different and well worth seeing. Hopefully I've expressed that here.

Democrats' new spending rule would balance budget by 2012

House Democrats recently passed a budget bill that institutes a 'pay as you go' rule.  In other words, no spending unless there is budget money available to pay for it.  Similar rules led to surpluses during the Clinton years, but were allowed to expire in 2001 after Republicans took control of both the Congress and White house:

Balancing the budget "is an urgent national priority," Rep. DennisCardoza, D-Calif., said during the debate, and "now is the time" tobring back the rules.

The House budget rules, approved 280-152, bar spending increases forany new program unless spending is simultaneously cut elsewhere ortaxes are raised to offset the cost.

Likewise, any reduction in tax revenues must beoffset by spending cuts or tax hikes in other areas. That change coulddoom Republican efforts to permanently extend tax cuts passed duringBush's first term, most of which expire at the end of 2010.

Some Republicans will complain that this bill raises taxes.  Don't let them fool you.  Nowhere in this bill does it say anything about a tax increase.  The bill simply specifies that spending cannot happen unless money is available to pay for it.

The good news is that Bush is not expected to veto it.  The only question is what will the Senate do with it?  If this thing makes it through, expect for there to be a crackdown on the pork and other wasteful spending that both parties have been getting away with for so long.

The only other obstacle is the farm bill, which will end up being rather expensive.  There are some that want to wave the pay-as-you-go rule in order to get the farm bill through -- but it is unlikely that will happen.

DCCC moves against GOP incumbents early

We are not even one year removed from the previous election, and theDemocratic Congressional Campaign Committee is already moving against anumber of Republican House incumbents.  According to CongressionalQuarterly, the DCCC is launching a major ad blitz around the Fourth of July against certain GOP lawmakers thatvoted against benefits for military families:

Playing off the patriotic themes that will abound during the July 4celebration, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC)will be waging media and mass phone-calling campaigns accusing the GOPincumbents — all of whom have supported President George W. Bush’s Iraqwar policies — of failing to provide sufficient support for members ofthe U.S. military.

“Next week, Republicans are going home to talk up their support forour nation’s troops and veterans. But, their constituents deserve toknow that the Republican record on veterans is all talk and no action,”said DCCC Chairman Chris Van Hollen, a representative from Maryland, ina statement. “America’s troops and veterans deserve more than patrioticspeeches this Independence Day.”

Here is an example of what the radio ads will sound like.

The GOP incumbents that the Democrats are targeting are the following:

• Robin Hayes (NC-08)
• Joe Knollenberg (MI-09)
• Jon Porter (NV-03)
• Jim Walsh (NY-23)
• Don Young (AK)
• Shelly Moore Capito (WV-02)
• Sam Graves (MO-06)

This is great!  Every time the Republicans play the military card and then turn around and vote against military families, let's hold them accountable.  No more being silent like we were.