Dems Taking a Beating On the House Floor Today

Follow @JamieDupree on Twitter for all the votes but so far here is the list of amendments voted on and their outcome.

House approves second amendment to limit use of federal funds to implement Obama health law; vote was 241-187

House votes to block funds within HHS from being used to implement the Obama health law; vote was 239-187

House votes 249-177 to block the EPA from enforcing rules against six pollutants that cause global warming

House votes to block federal funds from going to Planned Parenthood and its affiliates; vote was 240-185

House blocks funds to implement Education Department's "Gainful Employment" regulations; vote was 289-136

Unlike the Nancy Pelosi led congress the John Boehner led House is actually allowing the Democrats to propose amendments and voting on them. Judging by the vote totals I would say more then a few Democrats are voting both ways depending on the amendment. Something Nancy and the Dems would never allow and for exhibit A look no further then the shenanigans in Wisconsin where the Democrat state senators have fled across state lines to avoid voting on the budget.

Throw The Bums Out

I bet this bit of news from West Virginia won't get near the amount of coverage of that the tossing of Bob Bennett from Utah will get, but the DEMOCRAT voters have tossed longtime representative Alan Mollohan out of office.

Representative Alan Mollohan, a 14-term Democrat, has become the first House member of the 2010 campaign to lose a re-election bid after a West Virginia state senator defeated him.

Unofficial returns from Tuesday's election showed state Senator Mike Oliverio leading Mollohan 56 percent to 44 percent in the primary vote to become the Democratic Party's candidate for mid-term elections in November.

Can't blame the Tea Party for this one. What sort of excuses will the Dems give for this one?

There is a real palpable sense of turning on the incumbents this election year, and it crosses party lines. There is an opening for the Republicans for this seat now, even though the media assures us this is remote, but I am sure some of the "experts" in the hierarchy of Democrat politics are starting to feel the heat. This is shaping up to be one of the most wide open election cycles that I can recall in a long time, even more volatile then the often referenced '94 election that brought Newt Gingrich and the Contract for America to Washington.

In The Reading Room

111TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION H. R. 3962
To provide affordable, quality health care for all Americans and reduce the growth in health care spending, and for other purposes.

I like the and for other purposes part.

For the morbidly curious, here's the entire bill to peruse at your pleasure.

Republicans Pass Cap and Trade Legislation

Image courtesy, shamelessly lifted from Michelle Malkin.com

You read that right. Yesterday afternoon, just before 7 PM EST the House of Representatives voted on the Democrat crafted legislation that imposes the so called cap and trade language and thanks to 8 Republicans they were able to pass it. You can blame the Democrats for crafting this most invasive and sweeping government control of your life, but it is the Republicans who passed it. Without those eight votes the measure would have failed.

I was in a unique position yesterday, being able to work from home. Since all of the so called news channels were in all Michael Jackson all the time mode I put the TV on CSPAN and watched the debate all day long. For those that didn't watch and can't be bothered with what goes on in Washington by your elected officials you deserve exactly what you will get with this legislation if it manages to pass through the Senate. For those of us paying attention, unless this is stopped we will be punished right along with the lemmings.

If it does pass we will be easy to spot since we will all be gathering down at the local unemployment office. Beyond what it will do to our economy, at the end of the debate House GOP Leader John Boehner took to the floor and started reading from the 300 page amendment that the Democrats drafted and dropped on the legislatures at 3 AM, there was literally hundred of items to impose federal control over your life. Here are some highlights.

Want to replace a window? Not so fast. First you must pay for an appraisal of your house to measure its energy efficiency and receive calculations of both before and after the proposed change. Hey, it may be a great excuse for those guys trying to avoid putting in that big bay style window that the missus has been bugging you about.

Are you having a new house built? Back up, Skippy. This bill includes language that tells you exactly where you can put your electrical outlets.

Did you know that for one sort of appraisal service related to determining energy efficiency there is only one company you can use? Yup, it is right in there along with the name of the company. How is it that this one company managed to land the only contract to service 300 million Americans? Who is this company?

I wish I could answer those questions, but all of those provisions and more, Rep. Boehner went on for almost an hour citing them and still didn't get through the whole 300 pages, is not available. You see because of when the Democrats dropped this amendment at 3 AM the text of it is not available. So much for that transparency. The total bill runs on for more then 1500 pages and it controls every aspect of your life, from what type of car we will be able to produce and buy to what type of appliances you have in your house.

Under some of these provisions you won't be able to sell your house. Got your eyes and a quaint little place out the way and off the beaten path? Forget about it. By the time you went through the time and expense to get it up to the new code proposed in this legislation that little place in the woods will resemble something out the Jetsons.

So for those who were at work and getting ready for their weekend, and were simply tired of the wall-to-wall coverage of Michael Jackson, you came just one more step closer to being less free today then you were yesterday. And by the way, Congress has blown town for a two-week vacation. It is hard work turning a Republic into a Socialist state. This must be stopped in the Senate.

My biggest fear now, however, is if the Republicans couldn't stop this, a bill that will throw hundreds of thousands if not millions out of work as the companies they work for go belly up or leave the country and imposed what amounts to a national homeowners association on all of us, what chance do they have of stopping the nationalized health care?

Michelle Malkin had a running commentary on all of the shenanigans that went on yesterday so go to her site if you want a blow-by-blow description of what went on yesterday from the Dems refusing to extend the debate time to their late night early morning document drops.

The other questions I have are what did these eight corruptocrats get in exchange for voting away our futures and the futures of our children? This bill goes far beyond trying to cripple the coal industry as many of the talking heads are still saying.

H.R. 6275 Alternative Minimum Tax Relief Act of 2008

Well that is the name of it. And it is winding it's way through congress.

6/17/2008--Introduced.
Alternative Minimum Tax Relief Act of 2008 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to: (1) increase and extend through 2008 the alternative minimum tax (AMT) exemption amounts; (2) extend through 2008 the offset of certain nonrefundable personal tax credits against regular and AMT tax liabilities; (3) treat net income and loss from an investment services partnership interest as ordinary income and loss; (4) deny major integrated oil companies a tax deduction for income attributable to domestic production of oil, gas, or primary products thereof; (5) limit tax treaty benefits with respect to U.S. withholding of tax requirements imposed on certain tax deductible payments made directly to a foreign parent corporation; (6) require payment settlement entities to report certain identifying information to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) relating to the settlement of payment card and third party network transactions; and (7) extend the applicability of the continuous levy for delinquent taxes on payments due to a vendor to property or services sold or leased to the federal government (currently, applicable to goods or services).
Amends the Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005 to increase estimated tax payments due in the third quarters of 2012 and 2013 for certain large corporations (corporations with assets of at least $1 billion).

Charlie Rangel introduced this bill and you would think by the title some sort of relief was forth coming, but that isn't the case at all. There is no relief, just a change in the level of income at which the AMT will kick in. The whole thing needs to be abolished.

(a) In General- Paragraph (1) of section 55(d) is amended--

(1) by striking ‘($66,250 in the case of taxable years beginning in 2007)’ in subparagraph (A) and inserting ‘($69,950 in the case of taxable years beginning in 2008)’, and

(2) by striking ‘($44,350 in the case of taxable years beginning in 2007)’ in subparagraph (B) and inserting ‘($46,200 in the case of taxable years beginning in 2008)’.

And as far as Chris "Sweetheart Deal" Dodd is concerned, here is how he is going to deflect from the whole Countrywide scandal.

S. 3188: A bill for the liquidation or reliquidation of certain entries of top-of-the-stove...

A bill for the liquidation or reliquidation of certain entries of top-of-the-stove stainless steel cooking ware from the Republic of Korea, and for other purposes.

I guess he got a bad sauce pan from Korea or something, because by golly molly he is going to send the full weight and force of the US government against the stainless steel cooking ware industry. Shady practices by large mortgage companies resulting in a severe impact to the US economy,...Not so much.

Dems Say Nyet to Cooperation With President

Rep Edward Markey (D-MA) introduced a resolution in to the House on May 14th that says Congress isn't going to cooperate with the president. All he has done with this resolution is make it official.

110th CONGRESS

2d Session

H. J. RES. 85

Expressing the disfavor of the Congress regarding the proposed agreement for cooperation.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

May 14, 2008

Mr. MARKEY introduced the following joint resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

JOINT RESOLUTION

Expressing the disfavor of the Congress regarding the proposed agreement for cooperation.

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Congress does not favor the proposed agreement for cooperation transmitted to the Congress by the President on May 13, 2008.

Of course McCain still wants to reach across the aisle, and while we constantly hear about the president's approval ratings, they always seem to gloss over the fact approval ratings for Congress are lower.

Stay classy, Dems!