Stop Tuesday's Bailout Vote AND the Lame Duck Session!
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
Border Presentation by Gary Meinert
From: Gary Meinert
Hello Everyone:
I've been invited to speak at the Wisconsin State Capitol on August 12th. State legislators, their staff, and interested citizens are invited to attend. The invitation was prompted by one of our State Senators who thought it would be of interest to his fellow legislators. The event begins at noon and will last between 1-1/2 and 2 hours. The presentation will be held in room 411-South. I will present a power point program consisting of approximately 225 slides which illustrate the crisis we face at the Arizona / Mexican border. Of course, a dialog will accompany the slides.
You are all invited to attend and I hope to see you there.
Be well and be safe. Gary
Parents’ Rights Amendment Reaches 140 Co-Sponsors
Parents’ Rights Amendment Reaches 140 Co-Sponsors
Effort behind Movement to Ensure Parents’ Rights to Raise their Children Continues to Grow
WASHINGTON, D.C. (August 9, 2010) – A Constitutional Amendment to protect the parent-child relationship introduced by U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Michigan, has reached 140 co-sponsors in the House.
“More and more members of Congress understand the threat to the parent-child relationship by government and foreign organizations,” Hoekstra said. “I am encouraged that we are nearly half-way to the number of votes necessary for passing the bill, and we will continue to press forward until we reach our goal.”
The Parents’ Rights Amendment would state explicitly in the U.S. Constitution that parents have the right to raise their children as they see fit while protecting against abuse and neglect. Such threats to the parent-child relationship include potential U.S. ratification of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Two of the bill’s three most recent cosponsors –Rep. Charles Djou (R-HI) and Rep. Tom Graves (R-GA) – are new to Congress, having won special election races in May and June, respectively. Each signed on to the measure less than 60 days after taking office.
“The trend we’ve seen in the last few weeks is that the American people are already electing lawmakers who support parents’ rights,” says constitutional lawyer and ParentalRights.org president Michael Farris, who helped draft the amendment. “I am hopeful we will see this trend continue through November.”
Intended to protect families from undue government intrusion while continuing protections of children from abuse and neglect, the proposed amendment says:
SECTION ONE: The liberty of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their children is a fundamental right.
SECTION TWO: Neither the United States nor any state shall infringe upon this right without demonstrating that its governmental interest as applied to the person is of the highest order and not otherwise served.
SECTION THREE: No treaty may be adopted, nor shall any source of international law be employed to supersede, modify, interpret, or apply to the rights guaranteed by this article.
For more information on the Parental Rights Amendment, visit www.parentalrights.org.
Congratulations to Zeb Mattos!
On July 15th and 16th, our very own, Zeb, from Milwaukee, was in Washington DC as a result of winning a scholarship from Eagle Forum for the Collegian Leadership Summit. For two days he was saturated with likeminded college age adults with one goal in mind: to help preserve the Constitution of the United States of America. Thanks for praying for him and the others who were traveling!
www.efcollegians.org.
ACTION - Coalition Letter on King's Discharge Petition on ObamaCare
The Heritage Foundation now has a lobbying branch and they are circulating this coalition letter in support of Rep. Steve King’s (R-IA) discharge petition relating to the repeal of Obamcare.
"In the case of the repeal of Obamacare, a discharge petition is the only way that the American people will get a vote in the House-so long as Nancy Pelosi holds the Speaker's gavel. The effort to move a discharge petition will allow the American people to separate the pretenders from those who are truly committed to repealing Obamcare. While individual Members can make this or that argument against signing on as a cosponsor of repeal legislation, a discharge petition puts the question in a different and simpler way: Do you want to repeal Obamcare or not?"
-Rep. Steve King
Eagle Forum has signed on, but they are encouraging each state chapter of Eagle Forum to sign on as well. If you’d like to sign your name on behalf of your EF state chapter, simply email your name and state to Dani Doane with Heritage Action at dani.doane@heritageforamerica.org or phone her at 202-548-5285.
Thank you so much!
Suzanne Bibby
Legislative Director
Eagle Forum
316 Pennsylvania Avenue SE
Suite 203
Washington, DC 20003
(202) 544-0353
(202) 547-6996 fax
suzanne@eagleforum.org
______
From: Dani Doane [dani.doane@heritageforamerica.org]
Sent: Thursday, July 01, 2010 4:20 PM
We are looking to get as many groups as possible on the following letter. We would like to send out the second week of July (when Congress gets back) so if groups could let me know by COB Tuesday, July 13th that would be great.
In a nutshell - we support the King discharge petition due to the fact that while four bills have been introduced to repeal ObamaCare and another 7 or so repeal and replace bills - having legislation is not enough. We need an effort and a procedure that actually will result in action. And that is the King discharge petition. If 218 members sign the petition then Pelosi and Co. will be forced to bring this bill to the floor. That is a tall order I know but in only seven legislative days the petition has garnered over 94 co-sponsors including all of leadership. We hope to show broad based support within the conservative coalition for this effort thereby urging more members to support this effort.
We hope you will sign on - to do so please contact Dani Doane at either dani.doane@heritageforamerica.org<mailto:dani.doane@heritageforamerica.org> or 202-548-5285.
Discharge Petition Coalition Letter
Dear Congressman:
On behalf of the millions of members that we the undersigned organizations represent we request that you sign Discharge Petition #11 to allow a vote on the House floor on the repeal of ObamaCare.
The American people rejected ObamaCare while it was being debated before Congress and have continued to reject it after it became law. It limits choice, increases the deficit, raises health care costs, expands government bureaucracy, discriminates against low-income workers, mandates insurance coverage and stunts economic growth.
Because this law fails to live up to the principles of true health care reform we, the undersigned, think this legislation has to be repealed immediately. However, with a repeal bill unlikely to come to the House floor this year we urge you to sign on to the next best thing, discharge petition #11. As you know if this discharge petition gets signed by 218 of your colleagues then Speaker Pelosi would be forced to bring H.R. 4972 to the House floor for an up or down vote on repealing ObamaCare.
Since Speaker Pelosi exercises near total control over which bills are voted upon in the House of Representatives a discharge petition allows an oppressed political majority to bypass the Speaker's clenched fist. It also provides concerned citizens and grassroots groups a single legislative target to focus their attention.
Americans are growing increasingly concerned as the consequences of ObamaCare become reality and they want a clear indicator their leaders believe in repeal. Signing the discharge petition offers them that commitment. We urge you to join this effort for repeal.
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