Monday, August 9, 2010

Stop Tuesday's Bailout Vote AND the Lame Duck Session!

From EAGLE FORUM:

Nancy Pelosi knows her days as Speaker of the House are numbered, so she took the drastic step of calling the entire House of Representatives, which had gone into recess last Friday, back to Washington, D.C. to vote on yet another bailout!
The August recess is a necessary time for Members of Congress to return to their districts to hear from their constituents.  Many Democrats are already avoiding Town Hall meetings in August, because they know their constituents are angry with their votes on jobs-killing, big-spending legislation.  Now, instead of spending time with the people they were elected to represent, they are running back to Washington to spend more taxpayer money and to grab more power for the federal government.
There is some good news about Congress coming back to D.C., however.  Before recess, Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) introduced a “No Lame Duck” resolution, urging Democrats to promise that they will not hold a “lame duck” legislative session after election day (when presumably many liberals will have lost their seats and will no longer be concerned about the consequences of their votes) for the purpose of passing hugely unpopular legislation like a national energy tax, more bailouts and the kickback to big labor known as “Card Check.”
Price, who chairs the Republican Study Committee, a Committee of the Conference’s most conservative members, issued this statement:
If the Democrat leadership is willing to bring lawmakers back to Washington in order to pass billions more in “stimulus” spending with tax hikes on job creators, the least they can do is tell the American people that they will not bring law makers back for a lame duck session to pass additional tax increases, deficit spending and special interest giveaways.  This Lame Duck resolution will allow our Democrat colleagues to make it clear whether they plan to govern in accordance with the will of the American people or in spite of it.
We need you to call your Member of Congress today and urge them to send Speaker Pelosi a message by voting NO on the State Bailout Bill, H.R. 1586 and by voting YES on the “No Lame Duck” Resolution!

(Note: H.R.1586 was originally the FAA Air Transportation Modernization and Safety Improvement Act, but the House-passed text of the FAA authorization was replaced in the Senate with an amendment sponsored by Sens. Reid (D-NV) and Murray (D-WA) to include the bailout.) 

Here are a few facts about the State Bailout Bill, H.R. 1586:
  • It contains a total of $26.1 billion in temporary state bailouts.
  • The bill provides $10 billion that states are REQUIRED to use to pay teacher salaries.  States who receive this money must agree to not reduce their budgets below 2009 levels.  This all but guarantees that further taxpayer funded bailouts will be required, because even if states wanted to take responsible action to reduce their spending, they are prohibited from doing so.
  • This bill sets the stage for a nationalized education system by expanding federal government control over education and diminishing the role of parents, teachers and local communities.
  • Democrats claim this money is necessary spending on children’s education.  In reality, this is a blatant payoff for teachers unions, a significant Democrat base, which keeps demanding more money from taxpayers without producing better results for children.  The Wall Street Journal made this point in a July 14th editorial, “School districts have been adding to their payrolls for decades without regard to student enrollment and much to show in academic improvement.  Total education spending grew by 32% between 1999 and 2009, while K-12 enrollment has grown by less than 1% each year over the same time period.  The reality is that districts could economize and trim the bureaucracy without having to lay off as many teachers as they claim.”  But, this legislation would prohibit such economizing!
  • The bill also increases Medicaid spending by $16.1 billion by extending the federal Medicaid matching rate of 6.2% to all states through December 2010, then phasing the matching rate increase down to 3.2% for the first three months of 2011, then to 1.2% for April through June 2011.
  • The legislation includes $9.7 billion in permanent tax increases on multinational companies.  This will absolutely kill jobs and further diminish the United States’ ability to compete with foreign corporations.
  • The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that this bill will increase the deficit by $12.6 billion.

Take Action
Call your Representatives and tell them to vote NO on H.R. 1586 and a YES vote on the “No Lame Duck” resolution.
Congressional Switchboard 1-202-224-3121
 Further Reading:

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