| (HIGHLANDS, September 29) – Republican congressional challenger Anna Little – responding to today’s House vote to adjourn Congress before holding a vote to enact legislation blocking planned tax hikes – this afternoon sharply criticized her opponent, 22-year incumbent Rep. Frank Pallone, for casting the deciding vote to adjourn Congress before acting to prevent a massive tax hike.
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HIGHLANDS, September 28) – Republican congressional challenger Anna Little – responding to further news reports indicating that Congress will likely recess without first holding a vote on whether or not to extend the current tax rates – today urged voters in New Jersey’s 6th Congressional District to hold her opponent, 22-year liberal incumbent Frank Pallone, accountable.
“Congress is being run by an irresponsible majority right now,” said Little. “There’s just no other way to say it. And Frank Pallone is a huge part of the problem.
“This year, for the first time since the Budget Act was passed in 1974, Congress didn’t even pass a budget,” continued Little. “And now, it appears the liberals who run the Congress are planning to go home to campaign before they pass a bill to extend the current tax rates.”
“If they don’t pass a bill to extend the current tax rates, New Year’s Day is going to bring with it the biggest tax hike in American history – all because the liberals who run the Congress are more concerned with keeping their own jobs than they are with helping their constituents create jobs for themselves and their communities.”
“I cannot think of anything that would be more irresponsible,” said Little. “Yet, shockingly, that appears to be precisely what they’re going to do.”
“The ability to hold our elected leaders accountable with regularly scheduled elections is one of the hallmarks of American democracy,” Little continued. “But that only works if our elected leaders actually vote BEFORE the elections on crucial issues. By waiting until after the election to engage in significant legislative action, our elected leaders are in essence hiding from the public. That’s just wrong, and it’s just one more reason we need to change Washington.”
“But the simple fact is, you cannot change Washington without changing the people in Washington.”
“The good news is, there’s an election in 35 days. And then the people will have a chance to make their voice heard!”
By Art Gallagher
Frank Pallone is preventing H. Con Res. 198, a resolution recognizing Pediatric Acquired Brain Injury as the leading cause of death and disability in the United States for children and young adults from birth until 25 years of age and endorsing the National Pediatric Acquired Brain Injury Plan to develop a seamless, standardized, evidence-based system of care universally accessible for all of these children, young adults, and their families, regardless of where they live in the country from being referred from the committee he chairs and getting an up or down vote from Congress, according to Patrick Donohue, father of Sarah Jane Donohue and founder of The Sarah Jane Brain Foundation.
110 members of congress from both parties have co-sponsored the resolution.
Donohue’s organization has developed a comprehensive plan for the prevention of and treatment for brain injuries among children and young adults up to the age of 25. The program would cost approximately $930 million and would be funded through several federal departments under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the $787 billion dollar “stimulus” package passed last year.
Pallone refused to discuss the resolution or his reasoning for preventing a congressional vote on it, according to Donohue. Maybe Pallone doesn’t like it because ACORN is not involved or because labor unions will not be putting members to work with “prevailing wage” compensation. Or maybe it is because Donohue is a New York Republican fundraiser with close ties to former NY Governor George Pataki.
It can’t be because Pallone is suddenly a fiscal conservative. After all he wants to spend $400 million to count fish.
UPDATE: Yesterday on his facebook page Pallone had an announcement that his committee had moved a bill for veterinary care. Imagine that, pet care before pediatric brain care!
Posted: September 23rd, 2010 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: Pallone, Patrick Donohue, Pediatric Brain Injury | Tags: Frank Pallone, Patrick Donohue, Pediatric Acquired Brain Injury | 7 Comments »From the Washington Examiner:
» Obamacare won’t decrease health care costs for the government. According to Medicare’s actuary, it will increase costs. The same is likely to happen for privately funded health care.
» As written, Obamacare covers elective abortions, contrary to Obama’s promise that it wouldn’t. This means that tax dollars will be used to pay for a procedure millions of Americans across the political spectrum view as immoral. Supposedly, the Department of Health and Human Services will bar abortion coverage with new regulations but these will likely be tied up for years in litigation, and in the end may not survive the court challenge.
» Obamacare won’t allow employees or most small businesses to keep the coverage they have and like. By Obama’s estimates, as many as 69 percent of employees, 80 percent of small businesses, and 64 percent of large businesses will be forced to change coverage, probably to more expensive plans.
» Obamacare will increase insurance premiums — in some places, it already has. Insurers, suddenly forced to cover clients’ children until age 26, have little choice but to raise premiums, and they attribute to Obamacare’s mandates a 1 to 9 percent increase. Obama’s only method of preventing massive rate increases so far has been to threaten insurers.
» Obamacare will force seasonal employers — especially the ski and amusement park industries — to pay huge fines, cut hours, or lay off employees.
» Obamacare forces states to guarantee not only payment but also treatment for indigent Medicaid patients. With many doctors now refusing to take Medicaid (because they lose money doing so), cash-strapped states could be sued and ordered to increase reimbursement rates beyond their means.
» Obamacare imposes a huge nonmedical tax compliance burden on small business. It will require them to mail IRS 1099 tax forms to every vendor from whom they make purchases of more than $600 in a year, with duplicate forms going to the Internal Revenue Service. Like so much else in the 2,500-page bill, our senators and representatives were apparently unaware of this when they passed the measure.
» Obamacare allows the IRS to confiscate part or all of your tax refund if you do not purchase a qualified insurance plan. The bill funds 16,000 new IRS agents to make sure Americans stay in line.
Posted: September 23rd, 2010 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: Health Care, ObamaCare, Pallone | Tags: Frank Pallone, Health Care, ObamaCare, PalloneCare | Comments Off onCongressman Frank Pallone sent the following plea for volunteers and money out to his email list this morning.
| Dear Friend,
This November, voters across the country will cast their vote to determine the direction we take and whether we continue to make progress in recovering from the disastrous policies of the previous decade under George Bush and the Republican Congress. Over the last two years, we’ve begun the process of repairing the damage and rebuilding a foundation to restore economic opportunity and fairness for all Americans. Tea Partiers, right-wingers, and an extreme Republican Party want to return us to the old status quo rather than continuing to build on the foundation of change we brought to Washington. With only 40 days until the election, will you take 40 seconds and sign up to help me fight back? Election Day is fast approaching and I need your support to get my message out. Everyday, we are building our grassroots team and if you haven’t already, now is the time to join us. With your help, our GOTV operation will be prepared to help Democrats on the local, county, and federal levels. We will also be equipped to fight back against the smears and lies coming our way. Will you commit to 40 hours over the next 40 days to help me contact voters and educate them on all the work we’ve done? The choice before the voters this November will determine whether the progress we’ve made is lost to a Republican agenda that created the vast crisis we have worked to overcome. We need to keep the reforms and regulations in place to protect American consumers and to promote growth and opportunity. We need to stay dedicated to responsible fiscal practices that are fair to working people and economic policies that emphasize job creation. We need to do more to rebuild the country’s manufacturing base and stop jobs from being exported by domestic businesses. We need to continue to support small businesses with the incentives that allow them to grow and to add new workers to their payrolls. We need a comprehensive energy package to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and incentivize domestic renewable energy sources. Each and every day, we are working every day to fix broken regulatory systems, jump-start our economy and give small businesses the tools they need to create jobs. We are putting working families first and ensuring that never again will corporate profits and the whims of the well-connected be put at the top of the agenda. We need your support to finish this important work. Please consider taking just 40 seconds out of your day to sign up and help us get our message to the voters and continue moving America forward. Thank you.
Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. PS – If you’re too busy to volunteer your time, you can offer your financial support by donating $40 today – just $1.00 for every day left in this campaign.
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The Democratic leadership of the State Legislature went along with Governor Chris Christie in capping NJ’s property tax increases at 2% last July with the understanding that they would get to work on and pass the governor’s “tool kit” which enables municipal leaders to responsibly reduce the cost of local government in September.
Rather than focusing on municipal government reform, the Democratic leadership is focusing on the Christie administrations failed “Race to the Top” application for $400 million in federal education dollars. Nothing that the Democrats discover in their “Race to the Top” circus will bring NJ the $400 million the Christie administration applied for. That $400 million is not coming, just as Frank Pallone’s $400 million to count fish is not coming.
Trenton Democrats need to put policy over politics. They can hold hearings on the Race to the Top snafu after they have passed the tool kit. They will get just as much political mileage and just as much money (none) from Race to the Top hearings held in December or January as they will from hearings held now.
Failure to pass the tool kit will lead to massive municipal layoffs and service cuts throughout New Jersey while property taxes increase by 2%. This week, just in Monmouth County, we have seen two clear examples of why the tool kit is necessary. In Belmar a mediator awarded the police department a 15% salary increase while Highlands announced that they might layoff 12 of their 53 employees, including three police officers. There will be literally hundreds of stories like this throughout the state if the legislature doesn’t pass the tool kit legislation before municipal leaders start crafting their 2011-2012 budgets.
Maybe that is what Senate President Steve Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver want to happen. Maybe their focus is on next year’s state legislative elections and they think they have a better chance of keeping control of the legislature if New Jersey’s municipalities are in chaos next year with rising crime and garbage piling up on the streets because only the most highly paid municipal employees are still working while their former junior colleagues are collecting unemployment or moving out of state to take lower paying government jobs elsewhere.
Sweeney and Oliver wouldn’t do that, would they? Will it work if they do? I don’t think so.
Posted: September 22nd, 2010 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: Chris Christie, Legislature, Pallone, Sheila Oliver, Stephen Sweeney, Tool Kit, Trenton Democrats | Tags: Chris Christie, Frank Pallone, Sheilia Oliver, Stephen Sweeney, Tool Kit | Comments Off on Trenton Democrats Need To Get Busy On Christie’s “Tool Kit”By Art Gallagher
It’s official, The Asbury Park Press is in the tank for Frank Pallone.
Phoney Pallone had a press conference in Keyport today where he announced that he is proposing the $400 million Coastal Jobs Creation Act aimed at boosting the state’s commercial and recreational fishing industries mainly by keeping closer tabs on fishing stocks through a research partnership with Rutgers University.
As someone commented on the APP site, $400 million to count fish? I know something about counting fish This bill is a lot of bunker.
This legislation will never become law and Phoney Pallone knows it. Today’s press conference was to give the APP an opportunity to write a Pallone friendly story.
Here’s a list of all the bills that Pallone has sponored in the 111th Congress (the one that is currently in session.) There are 25 bills on the list. One became law, one passed the House and went nowhere from there, one was reported by committee and now Nancy Pelosi has to decide what she needs from Pallone in order to post it. The other 22 bills were introduced and referred to committee. That’s it.
This bill is one of the 22 that is buried in committee. Pallone introduced it on March 23. The House Natural Resources Committee, which Pallone sits on with Rush Holt, held a hearing on the bill on July 27. No further action has been taken.
Why is this news? Nothing happened regarding this bill today, other than Frank Pallone making a phoney campaign appearance.
It took me all of two minutes to find this information about the bill. I wonder if APP reporter Jim McConville bothered to research the bill before writing his story.
I wonder why I wasn’t invited to the press conference. Maybe because I would have asked a question like this,
” Congressman, you introduced this legislation back in March of this year. The House Natural Resources Committee, which both you and Rush Holt are members of, held a hearing on this bill on July 27 and no further action has been taken. Why are you holding a press conference about the bill today?”
That’s a fair question. Right?
Or maybe I would have asked this:
“Congressman, you introduced this legislation in March. Your committee held a hearing on it in July. The purpose of the bill is To promote coastal jobs creation, promote sustainable fisheries and fishing communities, revitalize waterfronts, and for other purposes.
Why didn’t you use your considerable influence as a senior member of congress to get this bill passed so that funds would be available to save the Baykeepers Oyster Restoration Program here in Keyport.
Back in August, Pallone told the NY Post’s Ken Moran that this bill (which will never become law) would save fishermen a $15-$25 license fee that is scheduled to go into effect next year. I might have asked Pallone why the government is going to borrow $400 million to count fish when fisherman can fund the registry with their licenses, if I had been invited to the press conference today.
If McConville asked any questions like these, he didn’t write about it in his story. Maybe tomorrow in the print edition.
More likely, the APP is falling for Pallone’s fish tales, hook, line and sinker.
Posted: September 20th, 2010 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: Frank Pallone, Pallone | Tags: Asbury Park Press, Frank Pallone | 3 Comments »
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