Obama: I'm Sure Boehner 'Will See The Light' On Infrastructure Bill 7JUL11

THE gop / tea-bagger hypocrisy goes on and on......government spending is waste unless it is in their districts. Pres Obama and the Democrats need to call them out on this, and to ask them where is all the private investment and where are all the new jobs extending the bush era tax cuts and keeping all the tax breaks for the wealthy and corporate America were supposed to bring???? Pres Obama lost a golden opportunity to slam this home to the American public when Rep john boehner tweeted his question "Where are all the jobs?" Pres Obama's answer should have been "Ask all the wealthy, the wall street financiers and corporate America what they have done with their tax break extension". From HuffPost...
WASHINGTON -- Recent changes in rhetoric from Republicans on Capitol Hill have provided a sliver of hope about the prospects of getting an infrastructure bill through Congress.
Several freshmen House Republicans have either publicly stated or privately pushed for enhanced federal spending in their home districts. The most recent revelation came when Rep. Bobby Schilling (R-Ill.) told a town hall last week that the president's stimulus package -- which he had criticized on the road to election -- would have been better had it "taken a lot bigger chunk of that money and put it into infrastructure."
It was a relatively rare acknowledgment from a GOP member that targeted spending on, say, roads and bridge repair, has a positive economic impact. But it's exactly the type of message that some Republican freshmen have been sending privately.
Rep. Stephen Fincher (R-Tenn.) petitioned the Department of Transportation, for instance, to spend $13 million for a port project in his home district. Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Ohio) asked the department for $4.365 million for airport runway repairs for his district. Rep. Steven Southerland (R-Fla.) wrote a letter to the department encouraging it to guarantee a loan for the company Boldini, S.A. to build offshore supply vessels at a shipyard in Panama City, Fla. Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.) pressed the department to send funds for high-speed rail construction to New York after they had been rejected by Gov. Rick Scott of Florida.
All of these efforts to secure funds were revealed after The Huffington Post obtained the records of communications between freshmen members and the Office of the Secretary at the Department of Transportation through a Freedom of Information Act request. Several offices did not return requests for comment. Those that did -- Fincher's and Johnson's -- both stressed that investments in these specific infrastructure projects were not the same type of wasteful spending that they had wailed against for many months.
"There’s a difference between smart federal spending and the reckless, irresponsible waste of tax dollars the American people are fed up with," said Rep. Johnson's spokeswoman Jessica Towhey.
"Congressman Fincher does support this project," said his spokeswoman Sara Sendek. "He believes government does play a role in creating an environment that attracts private investment and job growth."
Taken individually, one could dismiss these requests as the politically, self-interested doings of lawmakers hoping to hold their seats. Together, however, they demonstrate an under-reported bit of political will to put a package of infrastructure spending together.
"I do think it is an area where there is popularity among both parties," said one top Democratic Senate aide. "It is definitely a candidate for something we'd consider [after the debt ceiling debate]."
Requests for reaction from Republican congressional leadership were not immediately returned. That said, one of the biggest GOP-backing interest groups, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, has been supportive of infrastructure spending. And President Obama, in his twitter town hall event on Wednesday, pitched the topic yet again.
"For us to move forward on a major infrastructure initiative where we are putting people to work right now including construction workers … to put them to work rebuilding America at a time when interest rates are very low, contractors are looking for work, and the need is there, that is something that could make a huge positive impact on the economy overall," Obama said. "And it is an example of making an investment now that ends up having huge payoffs down the road."
"We haven't gotten the cooperation I would like to see [from Republicans]," he added. "But I'm just going to keep on trying and eventually, I'm sure the Speaker will see the light."
The devil will end up in the details. And even though there appears to be a greater appetite to do something on the infrastructure front, it's unlikely that even with a generous Republican caucus lawmakers will pass a bill that meets the country's needs. There is, currently, a service transportation bill making its way through Congress that deals with basic repairs to roads and bridges.
In terms of finding the type of funding needed for comprehensive modernization, "I'm not holding my breath," said the Senate aide.
"They can't get anything through and the stuff we are hearing on infrastructure is small potatoes," concurred a top labor official. "It is not anything we need to deal with our $2 trillion infrastructure deficit."

Republicans Could Save $2.4 Million A Year By Forgoing Their Health Care 23NOV10

ALL SENATORS AND HOUSE MEMBERS WHO RAN FOR OFFICE OPPOSING THE HEALTH CARE REFORM BILL THAT WAS PASSED EARLIER THIS YEAR SHOULD NOT SIGN UP FOR THE TAXPAYER SUBSIDIZED GOVERNMENT HEALTH CARE OFFERED TO ALL FEDERAL EMPLOYEES. BUT YOU KNOW THESE HYPOCRITES WILL AND WILL TRY TO DESTROY THE REFORM THAT MAKES AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE AVAILABLE TO MILLIONS OF POOR, WORKING CLASS AND MIDDLE CLASS AMERICANS.


WASHINGTON -- Some progressive organizations have been making a push in recent days for incoming congressional Republicans to drop their government-sponsored health care on the grounds that keeping the plans would be hypocritical.
The incident started after incoming Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) complained loudly during freshmen orientation that his coverage wouldn't start immediately upon taking office. It took a new turn when Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Penn) and Bobby Schilling (R-Ill.) both said they would, in fact, forgo the coverage. It escalated even further when White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs called out Harris for the "irony," and the municipal workers union AFSCME applied a similar charge to the whole GOP shortly thereafter.
"These Republicans want to repeal health reform, putting the insurance companies back in charge and putting affordable coverage out of reach of millions of Americans," said AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee. "If they enroll in the taxpayer-funded health care system provided to members of Congress, they deserve to be denounced as hypocrites."
There is an apparent double standard with respect to lawmakers trying to reduce health care for American workers while taking a subsidy for health care for themselves. And in a Public Policy Poll released on Tuesday, a full 53 percent of respondents (and 58 percent of Republicans) said that if a congressman is opposed to the president's health care reform law, he or she should decline to participate in government-sponsored health care.
But another cudgel sits there on the sidelines waiting to be used by trouble-making Democrats. If the incoming Republican Congress is so concerned about the use of taxpayer funds, it could start by foregoing taxpayer-funded health care. How much money that would save is impossible to pinpoint with great accuracy. But it's possible to make some reliable estimates.
According to the Los Angeles Times, "the plan most favored by federal workers is Blue Cross Blue Shield, which covers a family for about $1,030 a month." Of that total, "taxpayers kick in $700." So far there are 242 Republicans set to be seated in the incoming House of Representatives (that could only go higher) and 47 Republicans in the Senate. The taxpayer bill for insuring all those members over the course of a single year comes to just over $2.4 million ($700 X 12 months X 289 members).
Chump change? Yes, it is. That said, chump change seems to always at the heart of the most provocative political battles. During the 2008 presidential campaign, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) made a big issue over the fact that $1 million was being appropriated for a Woodstock museum in upstate New York.

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UPDATE: Pete Sepp, the Executive Vice President of National Taxpayers Union -- one of the ultimate penny-pinching organizations in the D.C. area -- calls opting out of health care a "symbolic and not insignificant" gesture for congressional Republicans.
"If lawmakers are looking for ways to say that they feel solidarity with the American people this might be one way to do it," said Sepp. "And, again, if you are looking at dollar amounts that's equivalent or a little more of equivalent to [congressmembers] taking a pay cut of about five percent. And, again, we have heard a lot of pledges to reduce the overall budget of Congress by ten percent. So opting out of health care coverage is one place to start."