Where The Rubber Meets The Road (2/6/09)

As reported in last Sunday's Philadelphia Inquirer, here is how Philadelphia-area members of Congress were recorded on major roll-call votes last week (and I also posted over here)...

House

$816 billion stimulus. Voting 244-188, the House approved an $816 billion package consisting of $541 billion in new spending and $275 billion in tax relief, with most of the stimulus injected into the economy by the end of 2010, starting almost immediately with personal tax cuts in the form of credits or reduced payroll withholding - for middle-class households. The bill (HR 1) was backed by all but 11 of Democrats who voted and opposed by all 177 Republicans who voted.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Voting yes: John Adler (D., N.J.), Robert E. Andrews (D., N.J.), Robert A. Brady (D., Pa.), Chaka Fattah (D., Pa.), Tim Holden (D., Pa.), Patrick Murphy (D., Pa.), Allyson Y. Schwartz (D., Pa.), and Joe Sestak (D., Pa.).

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

Even though this passed the House, we should all heed the words of Paul Krugman here who tells us the following (God willing, our Senators will pull out their collective thumbs and pass this, at which point it will probably come back for a House/Senate committee before it goes to Obama)…

It’s hard to exaggerate how much economic trouble we’re in. The crisis began with housing, but the implosion of the Bush-era housing bubble has set economic dominoes falling not just in the United States, but around the world.

…

So what should Mr. Obama do? Count me among those who think that the president made a big mistake in his initial approach, that his attempts to transcend partisanship ended up empowering politicians who take their marching orders from Rush Limbaugh. What matters now, however, is what he does next.

It’s time for Mr. Obama to go on the offensive. Above all, he must not shy away from pointing out that those who stand in the way of his plan, in the name of a discredited economic philosophy, are putting the nation’s future at risk. The American economy is on the edge of catastrophe, and much of the Republican Party is trying to push it over that edge.

And in case anyone was wondering where our corporate media was lining up on this (why should you have a question?), this is food for thought (h/t Eschaton).

Republican stimulus plan. Voting 170-266, the House defeated a Republican alternative to HR 1 (above) that proposed a stimulus comprised almost totally of personal tax cuts for all brackets, wide-ranging business tax cuts, and extended jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed. The amendment sought to strip the bill of most of its spending programs other than unemployment benefits.

A yes vote backed the GOP substitute.

Voting yes: Dent, Gerlach and Pitts.

Voting no: Adler, Andrews, Brady, Castle, Fattah, Holden, LoBiondo, Murphy, Schwartz, Sestak and Smith.

As long as Castle, LoBiondo and Smith voted against the stimulus, you would think they’d have the guts to at least go on record in support of the GOP’s idiotic non-alternative.

Amtrak funding. Members refused, 116-320, to strip HR 1 (above) of $800 million for capital improvements at Amtrak, the federally subsidized rail passenger service.

A yes vote backed the amendment.

Voting yes: Pitts.

Voting no: Adler, Andrews, Brady, Castle, Dent, Fattah, Gerlach, Holden, LoBiondo, Murphy, Schwartz, Sestak and Smith.

I guess as far as “Pancake Joe” is concerned, the "choo choo" doesn’t pass through PA-16.

Lilly Ledbetter Act. Voting 250-177, the House gave final congressional approval to a bill (S 181) making it easier for plaintiffs to file pay-discrimination suits under the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act then became the first bill that President Obama signed into law, The bill would permit claims to be filed within 180 days of the latest incident of pay discrimination, nullifying a 2007 Supreme Court ruling, in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., which required claims to be filed within 180 days of the first infraction.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Voting yes: Adler, Andrews, Brady, Fattah, Holden, Murphy, Schwartz, Sestak, and Smith.

Voting no: Castle, Dent, Gerlach, LoBiondo and Pitts.

Lots of good stuff about this which I alluded to last week here (and if you want to give yourself a headache for some reason, conservative quota hire Christine Flowers of the Philadelphia Daily News took her typical cheap shots at it today).

Digital TV delay. Voting 258-168, the House failed to reach the two-thirds majority needed to pass a bill (S 328) that would delay from Feb. 17 to June 12 the national deadline for converting over-the-air U.S. television signals from analog to digital. An estimated 6.5 million households still have not installed converter boxes on their sets. Already passed by the Senate, the bill is likely to be considered again under rules requiring a simple majority for passage.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Voting yes: Andrews, Brady, Fattah, LoBiondo, Murphy, Schwartz, Sestak, and Smith.

Voting no: Castle, Dent, Gerlach, Holden and Pitts.

The deadline was eventually pushed back by a vote a couple of days ago, as noted here (interesting vote by “Democrat” Tim Holden, by the way).

Senate

Secretary of Treasury Geithner. Voting 60-34, the Senate confirmed Timothy F. Geithner, 47, the head of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, as the nation's 75th Treasury secretary. Geithner drew opposition mainly over his admitted failure to pay $42,702 in back taxes and interest until after President Obama selected him for the post.

A yes vote was to confirm Geithner.

Voting yes: Thomas Carper (D., Del.), Bob Casey Jr. (D., Pa.), Ted Kaufman (D., Del.), Frank Lautenberg (D., N.J.), and Robert Menendez (D., N.J.).

Voting no: Arlen Specter (R., Pa.).

And by the way (as noted here), Specter flip-flopped on the vote, first saying he would support Geithner before opposing him; usually at this point I say “Screw you, Arlen” for a vote like this, but I’ll be honest with you – I have to admit that I’m concerned about Geithner a bit, based on this (another h/t Eschaton…simply put, the message is to do what TARP was originally supposed to do, and that is to round up the bad assets, get them off the books of these institutions, and then have we taxpayers foot the bill for fair value, and I’m not at all sure that that’s what Geithner has in mind).

Children's health insurance. Voting 66-32 against, the Senate sent to conference with the House a bill (HR 2) expanding State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) coverage from 6.6 million children to about 11 million children. The bill would renew SCHIP for five years at a cost of $60 billion, up nearly $35 billion from current levels, and raise federal tobacco taxes from 39 cents per pack to $1 per pack to pay the added costs.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Voting yes: Carper, Casey, Kaufman, Lautenberg, Menendez and Specter.

Roe v. Wade. Senators rejected, 39-59, an amendment to HR 2 (above) to write into law a Bush administration regulation for the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) that defines life as beginning at inception. Under Roe v. Wade, a fetus does not gain viability until approximately the third trimester of pregnancy. Backers called the amendment necessary to protect life, while foes noted that SCHIP already covers pregnant women.

A yes vote backed the amendment.

Voting yes: Casey.

Voting no: Carper, Kaufman, Lautenberg, Menendez, and Specter.

I communicated with Casey and asked him to support the Freedom of Choice Act, and he said he would not. I recognize that this is a good-faith difference of opinion, though, and I would be inclined to support this as part of being “pro-life” if I trusted the anti-choicers to NOT use it to chip away at Roe v. Wade with the ultimate goal of criminalizing women and healthcare providers for seeking and/or performing abortions. And of course, I don’t.

Update 2/7/09: And by the way, speaking of Casey, kudos to him and Byron Dorgan for this (to be fair, though, KBR has profited from Democrats also, notably Lyndon Johnson years ago).

This week, the House debated $400 billion in fiscal 2009 appropriations, while the Senate took up the nearly $900 billion economic stimulus package.