U.S. Congressman Andy Harris (R-MD) joined 59 Republicans and 108 Democrats today in opposition to H.J. Res. 48 “Further Continuing Appropriations Amendments, 2011, otherwise known as the budget compromise worked out by President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner last week.
The final vote on the fiscal 2011 budget deal was 260-167.
In a press release, Congressman Harris said, “I thank Speaker Boehner for his leadership and efforts to reduce spending, but because President Obama and Senate Majority Leader refuse to honestly and seriously confront Washington’s spending addiction, this budget just doesn’t go far enough to build an environment for long-term economic growth and job creation.”
Eric says
I tatally agree with Congressman Harris except on one point. Speaker Boehner is a weak leader who caved in under pressure. I hope Mr. Boehner realizes that the conservatives that voted in the majority of the Republicans in November aren’t going to forget the broken promise he made and I am a conservative Democrat saying these things. I feel he should step down as Speaker. We need a strong Speaker and my vote would go to Andy Harris.
stellaL says
Wow, so is the “tea party” wagging the dog’s tail or is the “tea party’ the dog? How i miss Wayne and
his pragmatic approach to representing this district. Perhaps the Democrats
who voted against this bill did so because of the Planned Parenthood attachment. Maybe” the right “seem to
think that conception begins with erection and women have no reproductive rights. If so, they are wrong.
Steve Payne says
I don’t agree with most if not all of the right wing positions but the sure have their act together. They are likely to lose their jobs next go round but it seems they’re willing to go down flaming.
Daniel Menefee says
well if the Dems don’t start fighting, they’ll go down flaming, they’ve been giving everything away to the Tea Party for long enough. For the Dems to support any part of this budget is beyond comprehension. They’ve hurt a lot of folks with the cuts they’ve gone along with. Nearly 18,000 Marylanders are about to lose coverage due to cuts in the WIC program- as the top two percent are being showered with our hard earned cash in the extension of these unnecessary tax cuts.
THE DEMOCRATS ARE ASLEEP AT WHEEL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
When you put your tax payment in the mail on Monday, just remember where it’s going— Filthy rotten Wars and tax cuts for the rich.
Bernie Sanders and/or Russ Feingold in 2012. The Dems need to re-embrace the New Deal and stop apologizing for it.
Daniel Menefee says
Actually, Stella, the right wing believes conception starts immaculately, that’s why they’ve tried to inject their brand of morality in this budget. Many Tea types believe that the bible is the best birth control. My twist on the religious angle is that we were implored to be good stewards of the land. I’m hoping this meant, in part, that controlling the size of one’s family is a moral responsibility in a society with finite resources, and therefore should be adequately funded.
Steve Payne says
Daniel, The dems are starting to fight a little. Up until recently when one of the newbees made a “mistaken” statement at a hearing or on the floor nothing happened. Now they often get called out immediately. Obama’s speech Wed. was pretty strong I think.
Steve Payne says
He voted today for the Ryan 2012 Budget Proposal which includes Medicare privitization and tax cuts for the highest income earners.
Cynthia McGinnes says
Adequately funded by whom? The government has no money…it only spends money that it takes from people who work hard to produce it. If they wish to give a portion of their hard-earned money to fund Planned Parenthood, that is their choice. You would like totake an individual’s money and spend it on something that is someone else’s choice.It comes down to the position that liberals feel all money belongs to the govt and should be spent by majority decision. Our country was founded by people who believed in personal freedom and the right of people to keep the property that they had earned by their hard work. It’s simple…government control or personal choice…not too hard to understand.
Daniel Menefee says
Cynthia,
The government has no money because we keep wasting it on wars and giving the rich special favors through the tax code and bailouts. Even before the Bush tax cuts, the tax code was engineered to put most of the burden on the middle class. It’s funny that I rarely hear conservatives complain when the money is being transfered upward. The very rich are the first to want a government handout and never have to pay for THEIR bad choices, whether it be derivatives or betting against their own investments.
We have an unnecessarily huge defense budget, and we are involved in three unnecessary wars. Never before in our history have we enacted tax cuts during major conflicts. This is the primary cause of the mess we’re in.
Just as we have to maintain our roads, we have to maintain the health of our citizens, and don’t forget that most people seeking medical care through Planned Parenthood are the working poor. They are not lazy or unwilling to work, which is they way many clients of PP have been often characterized.
If you want to make funding Planned Parenthood optional, would you also apply your bedrock principles to funding our schools, fire and police departments? Should my house burn down because I forgot to turn off my coffee pot? Should the police not investigate a burglary at my house because I left a window unlocked? What about the local dog catcher, should we let dogs run lose because some people abandon their pets? We can use mistakes and bad choices to deny funding almost anything, but reality says we need to look out for each other to some degree, and this requires funding.
Do you also think Congress will put themselves on vouchers for their health coverage? You’re damn-skippy their needs will be funded generously. I’m also pretty sure the wives will get terrific access to reproductive health care services.
This certainly is about CHOICE…, a right of which the Tea Party (mostly in trousers) wants to take away from women. They are not fooling anyone that these cuts to PP are about money. This is clearly an attempt by arch conservatives to demoralize women.
And if my hard earned money has to go somewhere, I would rather fund reproductive health rights, than continue to pay for record prison construction and never ending war. Prisons are where many unwanted children go to be adults….. in case if you haven’t heard..
Cynthia McGinnes says
The fewer layers of bureaucracy there are, the fewer opportunities for waste and abuse. I would recommend that anyone who would like to understand conservatives read Atlas Shrugged. Life will never be fair,or completely secure…those political systems that try to offer cradle to grave security have always failed. We need less federal control, more local control, and more personal responsibility..[.if you can’t afford to raise a child, then don’t have sex.]
Why should the Federal govt decide who gets to keep their hard earned money, and who gets the benefits?
.For example, Md. has just passed a liquor tax so that everyone who buys an alcoholic beverage on the Eastern
Shore will send 3 extra cents to a fund for school construction in PG and Montgomery Counties…we have things right here in Kent Couny that we need to spend those pennies on.
As for the three wars, we were attacked by radical Islamists, and the decision was made to retaliate. The problem is that we are not allowed to win wars anymore…would WW II have ended without the Bomb? Its not easy to answer.
Steve Payne says
I think the pro liberty, lower spending and taxes folks would get more respect if they hadn’t aligned themselves with the pro life, wealthy,oil, defense, etc… people. The TEA party was kidnapped.
Daniel Menefee says
Yikes, Cynthia, you are singing the Fox News National Anthem, But I don’t disagree that we were in fact attacked by Islamic terrorists, but that gave us no justification to go into Iraq, a country that was well contained with forces already in the region. Our goal there was building “Empire” so please don’t kid yourself. We did anything we could to find a reason to invade.
Instead of taking down the Taliban in Afghanistan and leaving, we planted a flag there. There were many more ways to deal with those who wanted to do us harm. The way our government handled everything was catastrophic..
You still didn’t answer my questions.
BILL PARKS says
If only our Representative understood our monetary system, he would know that Sovereign nations can make their own laws, levy their own taxes and ISSUE THEIR OWN CURRENCY.
The United States is a sovereign nation.
Therefore, the United States can issue its own currency.
Government spending is not the problem, borrowing Federal reserve money is the real difficulty. In the long haul, it is very expensive, while issuing American money is free.
How expensive is borrowing Federal Reserve money? In the twenty years between 1991 and 2010 the government borrowed $9.9 trillion while paying $7.4 trillion in interest. Seventy-five percent of the increase in the national debt went to pay the interest on that debt. This year the interest on the nation’s debt will be around $500 billion – more than $5 trillion in the next decade. What logic can justify such a large expense for the benefit of such a small number of our citizens, for these interest payments benefits only the banks, bankers and Wall Street bond traders.
Never have so many paid so much to so few for so little.
The U.S. government can issue all the money we need or want, debt and interest free, without creating any national debt at all.
The government is our only hope of stability. It is the only institution that has the authority, power, and flexibility to create a stable currency necessary to generate a sustainable economy. It can create money by fiat, lend money like commercial banks as a public utility, pass laws to regulate the value of our currency, and it can fine-tune the money supply with taxes. No privately owned institution can do that job.
Daniel Menefee says
I agree that the government has a greater role to play. I believe we are in a time where it is the policy of elected officials to transfer wealth to the ruling class, creating and bolstering a minority aristocracy- Much like taxes go to support the Queen and all the other royalty in England.
The middle class is shrinking in America, and the ruling class will keep taking from us if we continue to let it happen.. To change this we have to vote everyone out of office who has strong corporate ties.
Russ Feingold’s Progressive United has already raised 2 million dollars from average folks to beat back corporate influence in Congress, and there is speculation that he might mount a primary challenge to Obama, or even run as an independent in the general election.
Sanders of Vermont would be the best pick for a primary challenge but he’s not interested. He is the only true independent in Congress, and not just in name only.
Every election has third names on the ballot, and they are the least funded by corporate interests. If we do not start pulling the lever for “other” we will continue to be in the mess we’re in. There is no other cure in my opinion.
in 2012 we can get rid of every one in the House, and half of the Senate, and the Presidency to a third party or parties. Every election cycle we hear, “this is not the time to risk….blah, blah, blah” or “you’re just wasting your vote.” But I see nothing has changed and many things have gotten worse; at this point we have nothing to lose.
We’ve been sold on the idea that the two major parties are our only “real” choices.
I have been a Democrat all my life, as is my family, but I’m starting to believe that Democrats, as a whole, are drifting the right and partnering with GOP to create two societies here in America.
We also have to ignore the media and not allow them to frame the elections. They are actually giving Donald Trump considerable air time as a serious candidate for 2012, and they’re giving him the bull horn to question Obama’s citizenship. The scary thing is that people start to digest this crap and give it meaning.
MBTroup says
“The U.S. government can issue all the money we need or want, debt and interest free, without creating any national debt at all.”
When a rock breaks a window, the glazier is paid to replace it. The glazier then spends the money on things he needs. It can be said that this is good for the economy. If this is good for the economy, then we should all go around town, breaking windows. Or we can address the opportunity cost involved in having to pay the glazier. Bill Parks says we should monetize the debt. Nothing bad can happen. Yeah, about that:
https://articles.cnn.com/2009-01-16/world/zimbawe.currency_1_zimbabwe-dollar-south-african-rand-dollar-note?_s=PM:WORLD
Daniel Menefee says
I think what Mr. Parks is talking about is “quantitative easing,” used successfully in Europe to some degree. And the reason QE is not being used is EXACTLY to give favor to the banks, bankers and Wall Street bond traders. They want absolute control over the money supply. It is what they do to support and bolster the aristocracy they’ve created. The profits then cycle back to political campaigns, which is why we need to vote all of our representatives out of office and replace them with non-GOP and non-DNC candidates.
The problem solely lies in the people we have elected, we have no one to blame but ourselves. We need to keep firing them until they get it right. It is a fantasy to think the Democrats or the Republicans are ever going to fix anything. Look at where we are!
Dieker says
Does anyone even know what us waterman do for you the sacrifices we make and how hard we work? Why isnt any money being spent to help us?
Stephan Sonn says
Dan
It would be much better to stick with Obama. You risk your credibility on the liberal fringe. Just because Feingold is a believer doesn’t make him effective. The Ayn Rand Zombie that rants on this forum has a larger following.
Stephan Sonn says
For those who might be interested.
The thing called Tea Party in the media today is not as planned by the first 21 Century founders. It was taken over by the Zombie group that lurched on cue to the Obama medical reform trigger. They even deny the initial founders any credits for their early work which took on BOTH the Democrats and Republicans formal contraptions.
If you remember the authentic Tea Party was against t Wall Street’s blood sacrifice of Main Street. The current contraption Is more than cozy with those excesses. I know a few high minded and moral Tea Party members… good souls who walk with the Zombies but quote from the Cross of Gold’s moral and humane intent.
So the Tea Parties have initiated a hot class war needlessly and cruelly.
Obama is walking a path that GE finds convenient to future business and jobs. In that world the middle class is not the enemy… GE pays no taxes on profits…And that is the deal… A better deal than the Tea Party offers.
Steve Payne says
I think there were more people today at the Earth Day/ Mutt Strut/Farmers Market than the average TEA Party political rally lately.
Stephan Sonn says
The Kidnapped Tea party works best as spoilers. Paul Ryan, the compassion challenged ” nation’s accountant” has their help but it will have a FOX Media twist. They will be back heckling soon.
Medicare is clearly on the chopping block and that will flip both houses to strong Democrat/moderate control except for the deep South unless the election process is corrupted by goons and other manipulations.
I would not like to be a physician in this era. They hate “Socialist reform” and yet a Medicare Money Cow reduction will promote a gutting of their customer base. Older people without funds simply will live poorly and die sooner without medical funding .
Then healthcare can turn into another commodity business serving fewer people. A downsized America
As KC and the Sunshine Band says:
That’s the way they like it… UH HUH
That’s the way they like it.. UH HUH
Stephan Sonn says
It is nice to have a forum like this here in Chestertown. It actually compliments the print newspaper, but from from a gut perspective.
Cynthia and Dan frame the DOGMA MUTT STRUT. Carl Marx is dead and so is Ayn Rand. So why completely fracture a good country that needs serious adjustments to current realities.Seems to me the issue is maintenance not demolition.
Cynthia would prefer plantation life and Dan dreams of a socialist utopia. Were it not for the dogma agitators on both sides, this country might continue to evolve and prosper.
Cynthia’s philosophy will hurt a lot of people that she does’t give a tinkers damn about, and Dan’s utopia is a model of economic cobbling that will implode the vital capitalist engine.
Time for the adults to step-up before it is too late.
I have had more then my share of time here so it is check-out time for me until a new topic rises to the top…
Maybe Andy Harris, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Jimanee Cricket, may decide to franchise his image to fill the void left by Chatty Cathty.