More Members for Congress?

The Washington Post is discussing if the Congress should have more members. The Last time the membership number of the House changed was 1911. Since we have obviously grown a lot since then should the membership increase? If it does keep increasing when would it become unmanageable?

The Post from Capital Briefing from the Washington Post:

With members of Congress so very popular right now in the eyes of the
American people -- the latest
Gallup poll puts congressional approval at a solid 18 percent -- perhaps the
time is right to give the public more of what it loves.
Whether the voters
actually want it or not, the argument for a bigger House of Representatives is
the basis for a new
article by the California-based research center Miller-McCune. Surveying the latest
scholarly work, the piece makes the case that House districts now cover so many
people that members may not represent their constituents as well as they could,
or should.
When the current size of 435 members was established in 1911, each
House district covered roughly 200,000 people. Now the average district size is
more like 640,000, and the number will keep going up as long as the U.S.
population grows without the House growing along with it. Other western
democracies like Britain and Germany have larger lower houses of parliament than
we do, even though they have far fewer citizens.
So how big should the House
be? One study cited in the
Miller-McCune piece suggests the chamber could grow by about 50 percent, to 650
members. That would knock each district down to a more manageable 430,000 or so
constituents (still more than double the size the districts were the last time
the House expanded).
Now, a bigger House might mean lawmakers would be more
responsive to helping constituents get their Social Security checks. But would
it do a better job on lowering gas prices, dealing with illegal immigration or
any of the other tasks that the public currently thinks Congress does terribly?
And do angry voters really want a lot more lawmakers making $170,000 per year,
airing annoying campaign ads, and finding new ways to become enmeshed in
scandals?
Probably not.
Nor does there appear to be a huge appetite on
the Hill for such a move. In the 109th Congress, Rep. Alcee
Hastings (D-Fla.) introduced a bill "to establish a commission to make
recommendations on the appropriate size of membership of the House." The measure
picked up just one cosponsor and never even got a committee hearing.
On a
selfish level, Capitol Briefing would absolutely LOVE to cover the expansion of
the House. As things stand, congressional districts are re-drawn by each state
at least once every 10 years following the census, giving governors, state
legislators and other political operatives the opportunity to jockey for
advantage. Can you imagine the chaos if all of the sudden there were 200-plus
new seats to play with?
Unfortunately, Capitol Briefing does not have a vote
in the House to help make this happen. Perhaps the 650-member "House of the
Future" could include slots for a few bloggers.

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Watch out: Democrats try to federalize SCHIP and move towards socialzied medicine under the cover of "the economy"

From Newsday,

Democratic lawmakers on Friday cited the slowing economy as a reason that the
House should override President Bush's veto of a bill that would increase
spending on a popular children's health insurance program.

Now there is a creative tactic. Just use a bad economy to change the sucessful childrens health insurance program by moving Kids off of Private insurance onto the public roles. Lets also take the control from States and shift them to the federal government. The democrats have no shame. They will use a bad economy to attack the Constitution and move towards socialized medicine, Forget States Rights and the limited enumerated powers of Congress. Lets also forget that increased Government control over the economy in the form of health care will only harm our economy more. The history of government control has led to lower economic growth and larger recessions. The White House responded with a great quote,

"Ultimately, our nation's goal should be to move children who have no health
insurance to private coverage, not to move children who already have private
health insurance to government coverage," Bush said.

Lets stand up to this attack on our Constitution, Form of Government, and Economic System.

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Bush Finally Targets Congressional Earmarks!

From Roll Call,

The White House may link a possible executive order eliminating thousands of earmarks with a call for reprogramming the funding, perhaps through a direct rebate to taxpayers or by putting the savings into children’s health care or bridge repair programs, according to House and Senate Republicans close to the issue.

It is about time someone starting holding Congress responsible for their pork barrel buffet.

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Democrats turn on each other

The Washington Post is running this article,

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.) accuses Senate Democratic leaders of
developing "Stockholm syndrome," showing sympathy to their Republican captors
by caving in on legislation to provide middle-class tax cuts paid for with tax
increases on the super-rich, tying war funding to troop withdrawal timelines,
and mandating renewable energy quotas. If Republicans want to filibuster a bill,
Rangel said, Reid should keep the bill on the Senate floor and force the
Republicans to talk it to death.
Reid, in turn, has taken to the Senate floor
to criticize what he called the speaker's "iron hand" style of
governance.
Democrats in each chamber are now blaming their colleagues in the
other for the mess in which they find themselves. The predicament caused the
majority party yesterday surrender to President Bush on domestic spending levels, drop a cherished
renewable-energy mandate and move toward leaving a raft of high-profile
legislation, from addressing the mortgage crisis to providing middle-class tax
relief, undone or incomplete.

Democrats are apparently having problems making the trasition from throwing to stones to having to lead. The problem is the House Democrats have not realized that Americans do not support their far-left agenda. The Senate is acting like it is supposed to. It is cooling the overly ambitious House. Instead of compromising the House is throwing a fit. That would explain why the approval rating of Congress is now far behind that of the President.

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Far Left Fringe Alert: Code Pink attacks the Democrats too, now

From the Washington Times,

The mostly female group — famous for disrupting congressional hearings and its
demonstrators clad in pink T-shirts and tiaras — has applied for a new tax
status that permits political work for its campaigns against Democrats as well
as Republicans, Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin said.
"We felt betrayed
by the very people we helped to put into office," Ms. Benjamin told editors and
reporters at The Washington Times. "We have a particular break with the
leadership of the Democratic Party."

No, they have a break with the American People. The fact remains the anti-america left wing fringe groups want us to lose no matter what the cost is. The fact is troops can not be pulled tommarow without destablizing Iraq. They are not different than the anti-war groups in the late 60's that went as far as to carry Vietcong flags. They are a small group, the "silent majority" of Americans want America to remain strong and finish the job. This is why congress will not change the policy. Later in the story this quote sticks out

"We are disgusted with all of them," Ms. Benjamin said of the Democrat-led
Congress. "We were in Congress today saying, 'Close Gitmo,' and I changed my
sign to say, 'Close Congress.' "

It is amazing that Ms. Benjamin does not get the America Poltical system. Congress is doing its job preventing a small fraction from endagering the country. I hope Code Pink does try to take on the democrats and the Democratic Party shows them just how much of a fringe group they really are.

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Democrats dont look now Baghdad is starting to thrive

The New York Times has the article.

"As a result, for the first time in nearly two years, people are moving with freedom around much of this city. In more than 50 interviews across Baghdad, it became clear that while there were still no-go zones, more Iraqis now drive between Sunni and Shiite areas for work, shopping or school, a few even after dark. In the most stable neighborhoods of Baghdad, some secular women are also dressing as they wish. Wedding bands are playing in public again, and at a handful of once shuttered liquor stores customers now line up outside in a collective rebuke to religious vigilantes from the Shiite Mahdi Army."



What will the Democrats do now. It has become clear that they will only accept failure at any cost, but as the sucess becomes more clear what line will they take. I find this as an indication of why Congress's poll numbers are so much lower than the President's now. While Congress continues to waste time delaying on the war and not handling the real buisness of the nation our Military has been winning. It is time the Democrats got off their soapboxes and did the real work of the people.

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Finally some fiscally prudent measures, President Bush vetos funding Bill

Today President Bush vetoed a $606 Billion dollar funding bill because it contained too many earmarks and pork barrel spending. The Bill restored the $3.6 Billion in discretionary spending that was cut in the proposed budget and then the Congressional Leadership added another $6.2 Billion to put it over the top. It is about time that someone showed some level of fiscal responsibility. Government is growing out of control and congressional earmarking has gotten out of hand. For a President who refused to challenge Congressional Spending early in his Presidency we can only hope that he will stick to his guns and force Congress to be responsible stewards of the people's money.

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Congress Just does not get it: Democrats propose $10 billion in new farm subsidies

Farmers who are currently are making record profits are about to get a windfall thanks to a piece of democratically sponsored legislation. Sen. Richard Durban (D-Ill.), Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), and Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) are the sponsors of the new farm subsidy bill that will give farmers $10 Billion in new subsidies. It is shocking that such a bill would emerge as Farmers are making record profits. This bill, The Food and Energy Security Act of 2007 (S.2302) goes to show that Congress just really does not get what the American people expect out of them.

The Washington Post reports,

"Sugar beet and sugar cane growers would get a new program aimed at protecting their share of the U.S. market in the face of an expected surge in Mexican imports. The 10-year cost: about $1.3 billion.

Tucked into the measure is good news for the companies that store and handle the South's peanut crop. The bill partially reinstitutes a program that was discontinued in 2006, allowing the companies to bill the government for some costs they incur under the federal price-support program. The CBO has set a $175 million, 10-year price tag on that."

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Rep. Charles Rangel proposes the largest Tax Increase in US History

Chairman Rangel proposed the Largest Tax Increase in the history of the United States last night. He wants to increase taxes 3.5 Trillion over the next ten years. Lets break down how Charles Rangel and the Democrats want to destroy the United States economy and move us towards a Nanny State.

4% Surtax on Americans earning over 150,000 a year and 200,000 for couples

Allow the Expiration of the Bush tax cuts that have spured economic growth

Raise the top Marginal tax rate from 35% to 44%

The details of the proposal make it even worse. The surtax on income is not on taxable income it is on gross income, something that is has never been taxed like this before. It also provides for the worst marriage penalty we have ever faced. Two sucessful spouses will be overly punished just for getting married because if a spouse makes as little as 50,000 a year they face higher taxes.

The joke that the paygo system is, gets exposed in this measure. Rangel insists that he must pay for AMT tax increases that were never inteded to happen. He believes that the 3.5 Trillion of a mistake that everyone agrees the AMT has "accidently created" has to be paid for. Money that has not been collected by the government is not a loss to government and should not have to be paid for. This just shows the shallow thinking of the Democrats. The could never handle not allowing the Government Revenue to increase by unreasonable means. What is the goal of this. Wealth Redistribution! How else do we expect the Democrats to pay for all their unreasonable proposals?

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After the war discussion, the investigation, and the grandstanding Congress still has not done their job

Congress has spent countless hours talking about useless measures and ammendments on the War that dont accomplish their goal of getting out. They have spent even more hours investigating the Bush administration. The remainder of the time has been spent grandstanding on the previous two issues and a myriad of other items. Lost in the shuffle they forgot to do their job. Congress appropriates the money the nation spends. Yet Congress seems to not have found to do their prinicpal job. I for one am outraged they have yet to pass final versions of even one appropration bill and wonder why this outrage is not getting more attention.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/27/washington/27budget.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&ref=washington&adxnnlx=1190923701-IZC+09B4zmA/VlcGjBfsGw

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Obama and Edwards want to change Social Security from a contribution based Insurance system to wealth redistribution system

Presidential Cantidate Barrack Obama today proposed a similar plan to what John Edwards has mentioned to change Social Security. Social Security was set up as a contribution based insurance system to make sure people could live if they lived extremly long lives or became disabled. It was designed as a voluntary system that people could join to gain security. Over time it was shifted to a mandatory system, but they maintained the contribution based system that promises you get back most of what you put in. Now, Obama and Edwards want to change that. They think that those making over 97,000 a year should now be forced to pay payroll taxes on the amount over 97,000. This in fact changes the system form a contribution based system to a new method of wealth distribution. While it seems nice to make others pay it is a further encroachment of our Federal Government, and a step towards the socialization of America. These were not the principles that our country was founded on. We need to look back and decide what America really needs and it is not a method to tax our way to sucess. We must look for creative solutions to fix our problems and make our society better but increased taxes and socilaization is not that path.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=3638710&page=1

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Bush Prepared to veto SCHIP, will derail federal power grab

President Bush is prepared to veto the State Childrens Health Insurance Program reauthorization. This is a good move for America. The Program was designed to give low-income children the health insurance they could not afford. This program has been widely successful. Now Congress has seen its reauthorization to move the country more towards socialized medicine and wants to expand SCHIP to a larger portion of the population. This bill also takes away a lot of the state choices and puts them under federal control. Congress also waited until the program was just about to expire to send the bill to the President. They have essentially help the children of America hostage in order to give more federal control to health care. We should be proud as Americans that President Bush is willing to stand up for what is right and for the constition and veto this bad bill and send it back to congress to reauthorize a good program not try to expand their power.


http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/bush-democrats-prepare-for-schip-battle-2007-09-22.html

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