Where The Rubber Meets The Road (6/28)

As published in last Sunday's Philadelphia Inquirer, here is how Philadelphia-area members of Congress were recorded on major roll-call votes last week.

House

Defense spending. The House voted, 407-19, to appropriate $377.6 billion for the Department of Defense in fiscal 2007. The bill (HR 5631) also provides $50 billion to pay for six months of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan; it now goes to the Senate.

All Philadelphia-area representatives voted for the bill.

This was not another supplemental appropriation, and there were lots of amendments offered to this bill by representatives on both sides specifying how the funds would be spent, presumably in an effort to ferret out corruption; many of them passed. I hope that was more than just election-year posturing but instead due to a reawakening of the realization by members of this body that they are actually supposed to perform an oversight function as opposed to giving Bushco whatever it wants.

Domestic spying. The House defeated, 219-207, an effort to require the administration to conduct its program of domestic electronic surveillance within the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Under FISA, spying on American citizens suspected of terrorist connections must be authorized by a special court of federal judges, although surveillance seen as urgent can be conducted without warrants for up to 72 hours. The amendment was offered to HR 5631 (above).

A yes vote backed the amendment.

Voting yes: Robert E. Andrews (D., N.J.), Robert A. Brady (D., Pa.), Chaka Fattah (D., Pa.), Tim Holden (D., Pa.) and Allyson Schwartz (D., Pa.).

Voting no: Michael N. Castle (R., Del.), Charles W. Dent (R., Pa.), Michael G. Fitzpatrick (R., Pa.), Jim Gerlach (R., Pa.), Frank A. LoBiondo (R., N.J.), Joseph R. Pitts (R., Pa.), H. James Saxton (R., N.J.), Christopher H. Smith (R., N.J.) and Curt Weldon (R., Pa.).

All the Repugs lined up nice and neat for Dubya and Hayden to give them whatever they want. How pathetic is it that Congress has to try to pass a law telling Bush not to act like a criminal? And how pathetic is it STILL that the law failed? I guess that makes the no voters “accessories after the fact.”

And as for Mikey, let’s remind ourselves once again of his bold prediction while he lets Dubya continue to spy on us.

War powers. The House defeated, 262-158, a bid to require prior congressional approval of military acts against Iran, in accord with the Constitution's Article I, Section 8. The vote occurred during debate on HR 5631 (above).

A yes vote backed the amendment.

Voting yes: Andrews, Fattah and Holden.

Voting no: Brady, Castle, Dent, Fitzpatrick, Gerlach, LoBiondo, Pitts, Saxton, Schwartz, Smith and Weldon.

Remember this vote if Dubya decides to do something stupid – again – in the Middle East (though, to be honest, I think his intention with Iran is to play a game of “chicken” with them this election year as part of “Fear And Smear 2006”).

I mean, how silly is it that our elected representatives should want Dubya to ACTUALLY OBEY THE LAW OR CONSULT CONGRESS ON ANYTHING? This is THE IMPERIAL PRESIDENCY, REMEMBER??!!

And the support on this from Brady is a mystery to me, and it would have been nice if Allyson Schwartz had done the right thing also, but I can appreciate how deep-seated the animosity is towards Iran from Israel and its staunchest sympathizers.

Estate taxes. The House passed, 269-156, and sent to the Senate a bill (HR 5638) to exempt all but the "super rich" from federal estate taxes beginning in 2010. The bill sets the tax rate as low as 20 percent and exempts individual estates of up to $5 million ($10 million for couples).

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Voting yes: Castle, Dent, Fitzpatrick, Gerlach, LoBiondo, Saxton, Smith and Weldon.

Voting no: Andrews, Brady, Fattah, Holden and Schwartz.

Not voting: Pitts.

I’ll tell you what; read the text from this link to get some idea of how out-of-control Bushco’s program of “welfare for corporations and the rich” has gotten, keeping in mind in particular the fact that, as this story points out, this country would have an extra $200 billion for funding needed government programs (like FDA enforcement that I mentioned earlier).

As we know, the “pie,” so to speak, is only so big, and when the rich keep taking bigger pieces, there is obviously less for the rest of us (welcome to Doomsy’s Kitchen Table Economics 101).

And if the Repugs had their way, all we’d have left would be the crumbs (and by the way, a great big “middle digit raised on high” goes out to all of the “yes” voters on this one, including Mikey and Crazy Curt).

Line-item budget controls. The House passed, 247-172, and sent to the Senate a bill (HR 4890) enabling presidents to ask Congress to rescind individual spending items or narrow tax breaks from appropriations bills. Both chambers would have to vote to approve the presidential requests.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Voting yes: Andrews, Castle, Dent, Fitzpatrick, Gerlach, LoBiondo, Saxton, Smith and Weldon.

Voting no: Brady, Fattah, Holden and Schwartz.

Not voting: Pitts.

The thought of giving Dubya the line-item veto scares me (the thought of giving Dubya anything, including a chew toy, scares me actually), since God only knows what he would do. However, since this guy has not vetoed a single bill in his entire term of office, it’s anyone’s guess what would happen.

I’m going to save my ire on this because there is a larger principle involved. President Clinton was given the line-item veto in 1995, but it was taken away by the Supreme Court in 1998 because they didn’t think it provided enough of a means for Congress to respond to the President’s decision. This new bill has supposedly been crafted in response to that.

If this passes the Senate and Dubya gets to sign it into law, I’ll just sigh and muster my resources to fight other battles (and just keep reminding myself that, barring impeachment, this empty vessel will depart the White House on 1/20/09).

Senate

Minimum wage. In a 52-46 vote, the Senate failed to reach the 60 votes needed to advance a bid by Democrats to raise the minimum hourly wage from $5.15 to $7.25 over 26 months. Congress last raised the base wage in 1997. A yes vote backed the Democrats' wage plan.

Voting yes: Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D., Del.), Thomas Carper (D., Del.), Frank Lautenberg (D., N.J.), Robert Menendez (D., N.J.) and Arlen Specter (R., Pa.).

Voting no: Rick Santorum (R., Pa.).

Memo to Bob Casey, Jr. – Here’s your next campaign TV ad.

GOP wage plan. The Senate defeated, 53-45, a Republican bid to raise the hourly minimum wage to $6.25 over 18 months while reducing the number of companies required to pay it. A yes vote backed the GOP minimum-wage plan.

Voting yes: Santorum and Specter.

Voting no: Biden, Carper, Lautenberg and Menendez.

$6.25, huh? What big spenders! What a laughable scheme (this week’s “Arlen Two-Step” was threatening Dubya on the signing statements and then lining up like a good little Repug on this one).

Defense budget. The Senate passed, 96-0, a $467.7 billion budget for the military in fiscal 2007, up 6.1 percent from the comparable 2006 figure. The bill also authorizes $50 billion for six months of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. The bill (2 2766) now goes to conference with the House. All Philadelphia-area senators voted for the bill.

(My comment to the similar House action applies here also.)

Iraq withdrawal. Senators defeated, 60-39, a nonbinding Democratic amendment to S 2766 (above) urging major troop withdrawals from Iraq to begin this year but leaving it up to the administration to set a timetable. A yes vote backed the withdrawal measure.

Voting yes: Biden, Carper, Lautenberg and Menendez.

Voting no: Santorum and Specter.

Well, at least it wasn’t 93-6. The numbers are slowly turning in our favor.

Withdrawal deadline. The Senate defeated, 86-13, a binding Democratic amendment to S 2766 requiring the pullout of most U.S. troops from Iraq by July 2007. A yes vote was to set a troop-withdrawal deadline.

Voting yes: Lautenberg and Menendez.

Voting no: Biden, Carper, Santorum and Specter.

The MBNA Twins prove yet again why, when push comes to shove, no one takes them seriously.

As reported in the Inquirer, this week the House will take up fiscal 2007 appropriations bills, including a possible vote on the minimum wage. The Senate will take up estate tax relief and a constitutional amendment to prohibit flag-burning (and we know how that turned out, don't we - kudos to Pat Leahy in particular).