Wednesday, September 26, 2007

 

SCHIP Picks Up 6 New Votes and Loses One

In an inspiring display of bipartisan government, 12 Ohio members of the House of Representatives voted to insure 4 million more low-income children. The Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act passed the house 265-159 with Representatives Hobson, Kaptur, LaTourette, Pryce, Regula, Ryan, Space, Sutton, Tubbs Jones, Turner, and Wilson voting in favor. These members deserve our thanks for standing up for Ohio’s children. Just click on the names and you will be linked to their contact page.

But the work is not done. The Senate will vote on the bill in the Thursday. Senator Brown supported the bill in its earlier version, but Senator Voinovich was opposed. We are hoping he will be able to support it the second time around.

All indications are that President Bush will use his veto pen for only the fourth time in his presidency to veto this bipartisan legislation for children. And then the fight goes back to the House. The House is 25 votes shy of having the necessary 290 to override a veto. Ohio has five members who voted against the compromise bill. If the president vetoes the bill, the focus will be on maintaining the six votes we picked up last night and urging Representatives Boehner, Chabot, Jordan, Kucinich, and Schmidt to reconsider their opposition. Representative Kucinich said he would not support the compromise bill because it does not include coverage for legal immigrant children.

But for now...on to the Senate!

Monday, September 17, 2007

 

Can I Put That On My Credit Card?

Can you imagine putting $2.9 trillion on your credit card? Well that is exactly what the U.S. Government has done since 2001 when President George Bush took office. Since that time Congress has raised the statutory federal debt limit four times and last week the U.S. Senate Finance Committee approved legislation to raise it yet again. The total limit will now stand at a mind boggling $9.815 trillion. The next time you wonder why the dollar continues to lose value, why the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank is reluctant to lower interest rates, why credit markets continue to tighten I hope you will remember the role that current administration federal fiscal policy – cutting taxes without cutting spending – has and continues to play in producing this fiscal mess. Citizens for Tax Justice has released a paper on this sobering subject.

Oh and by the way that $2.9 trillion dollars is on all of our credit cards, as well as those of future generations, for many, many years to come.

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?