Tag: Peters

"Gary Peters already lost a statewide campaign and that was before supporting a cap and trade energy tax policy that would effectively put Michigan out of business and ObamaCare which will raise health care costs. It takes a special kind of guy like Peters to ask for a promotion from the very same people that his policies would put out of work.

"If Gary Peters is indeed the Democratic candidate in Michigan, Republicans have a great opportunity to pick up this seat and move closer to the taking majority in 2014."

It should be noted however, that Peters enters with about $800k to start.  Sans a fight in the Democrat primaries, it is likely a sufficient start.  Presumed entrant Mike Rogers' reported $1.4 M would be spent down considerably in an expected multi-candidate contest by Republicans.

An appropriations bill that does not specifically deny USDA funding to conduct inspections of horsemeat for human consumption could allow horse processing to resume in the U.S. The Fiscal Year 2012 Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act (H.R. 2112), or the so-called "Mini-bus Bill," establishes 2012 budgets for the Department of Agriculture and several other federal departments through September 2012.

Prior to 2005 USDA personnel carried out horsemeat food safety inspections at U.S. horse processing plants. In 2006 Congress voted to strip the USDA of funding for horsemeat inspections. USDA personnel continued to conduct those inspections on a fee-for-service basis until 2007 when a federal court judge ruled against the arrangement. The combination of the funding prohibition and the court decision resulted in the decline of the horse processing industry in the U.S.

Language stripping the USDA of horsemeat inspection funding did not appear in the original fiscal 2012 House Agricultural Appropriations bill when it was introduced earlier this year. However, the House Appropriations Committee adopted an amendment prohibiting the use of federal dollars to fund USDA horsemeat inspections. No such provision was contained in the Senate's version of the Appropriations bill.

After passage in their respective legislative houses, both the House and Senate bills were referred to a conference committee. The resulting consolidated bill did not contain the defunding language. The committee recommended the bill for passage, then forwarded to the full House and Senate for vote. On Nov. 17 the full House passed H.R. 2112 by 298-121 vote. The Senate also passed the bill by a 70 to 30 vote. President Barak Obama signed the bill into law on Nov. 18. As a result, the USDA could conduct horsemeat inspections at least until September 2012.

Michigan US Reps. Benishek, Camp, Clarke, Dingell, Kildee, Levin, Peters, Rogers, and Upton voted YES.  Both Michigan US Sens. Stabenow and Levin voted YES too.

If you are from Michigan, have a desire to meet a lot of new people and serve your country, NOW is the time.  A few hard workers with soul are needed in the following districts ... uh  well ALL of the following districts except Congressional District #3 which is occupied by Justin Amash:

"The Budget Control Act trades $21 billion in cuts next year for a debt ceiling increase of $2.1 trillion. That's one penny in cuts for each dollar of new debt. The bill does not seriously address the drivers of the federal government's fiscal crisis. It does not improve entitlement programs.

"It does not include a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. I cannot in good conscience vote for so little reform when so much is at stake.

Again, the Michigan Republican delegation sans one, failed to perform its duty on the most important vote of their lifetimes.  They missed an opportunity to stand for a permanence of fiscal prudence.

MICHIGAN DELEGATION VOTE The complete list here

Democrats
Clarke, N; Conyers, N; Dingell, Y; Kildee, Y; Levin, Y; Peters, N.

Republicans
Amash, N; Benishek, Y; Camp, Y; Huizenga, Y; McCotter, Y; Miller, Y; Rogers, Y; Upton, Y; Walberg, Y.

As for those Democrats who voted no, they wanted even more from Boehner.  However, this president will take whatever rope he has been given and run with it.

Indeed, even the illegals understood that Michigan offered little hope, and was not the place to settle and raise a little anchor family. [cue little house on the prairie theme]

So they packed up their tukes, loaded up the covered wagons, and either returned over the international bridge or moved further south to other more welcoming states, ignoring their queen, our governor's pleas of "just hang on," and "the blown away part is coming."  They left us for greener pastures, in a quest for survival.  Other states host these 'immigrants' quite splendidly, offering both employment opportunities and even sanctuary for those weary travelers who know no international boundaries and respect no rule of law.

And by golly we are sorry to see them ..not here.

Very well done and very powerful.

You can check out the candidate's first official interview, recorded live, HERE.  

And there's MORE...

So much for even the pretense of fiscal sanity.  Yeah, we all chuckled when we heard President Obama speak Tuesday night about the need to cut the federal budget in order to dig into that trillion dollar deficit he just created, but it is still early enough in his term that I'm willing to take the man at his word.

He says he wants to cut the budget... well OK then.  Let's cut the budget.

Apparently the national TV audience were the only ones to catch that portion of his speech, though, because yesterday's action in the overwhelmingly Democratic Congress, only a few hours after the speech, seems to indicate it went right over the heads of folks like Mark Schauer and Gary Peters.

The Ivory Tower reports that the United States House of Representatives voted yesterday, largely along Party lines, to approve a massive NEW spending bill with a full 8% increase over last year's budget.

$410 BILLION total.  And the kicker?  

The bill ... provides sizable increases for a long list of health, education, transportation, housing and other domestic programs. In some cases, the boosts go to items that already got more money in the $787-billion economic-stimulus plan that became law last week.

Lawmakers did make one important nod toward austerity: They froze their salaries for 2010. Most members of Congress earn $174,000 a year; leaders get more. The freeze doesn't affect 2009 pay. Members got a $4,700 cost-of-living raise last month.

Emphasis mine.

Michigan's Congressional delegation voted overwhelmingly to support the massive new spending.  Again.  Every single Democrat, including those in swing districts like Schauer, Peters and Bart Stupak up in the relatively conservative 1st voted to ignore President Obama.  Frustratingly, so did Republicans Fred Upton and Candice Miller.

Not cool, guys.  Not cool at all.

Upton is considered a bit of a moderate and Miller is an uber-hawk for her District and funding that might head its way.  Hardly excuses, but maybe a bit of an explanation.

Props, though, to Congressmen Pete Hoekstra, Vern Ehlers, Dave Camp, Mike Rogers and Thad McCotter for standing up for a healthy dose of fiscal sanity.

Who'd have thought that two months in to Democratic President Obama's first term, only Michigan's five most conservative Republican Congressmen would be willing to listen to what the man has to say and to support him with their votes when he happens to make a lick of sense.

The rest of the delegation, Republicans AND Democrats, might be well served to tune in to Dave Ramsey after session today... never wise to spend money you don't have.  Especially when the check they're going to bounce has that many zeroes.