Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Bill clears Congress, heads off crisis with expiration of Bush, Obama tax cuts, plus new taxes.
Congressional action late Tuesday night ended months of the nation teetering on the edge of the so-called fiscal cliff, a significant tax increase set to begin Jan. 1 with the expiration of the Bush tax cuts and temporary tax cuts put through by President Barack Obama, as well as new taxes and automatic spending cuts. Many feared that had Congress failed to address the issue, the tax increases and automatic spending cuts would have pushed the nation once again headlong into recession. Politico reported that the bipartisan solution was approved in a 257-167 vote by the U.S. House. U.S. Rep. Randy Hultgren, R-14th District, was one of those voting against the measure. “The lack of spending cuts in this package is indefensible, which is why I…
Saturday, December 8, 2012
The new caucus will concentrate on reinforcing federal investment in research and the national laboratories.
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Saturday, December 8, 2012
Congressman Randy Hultgren has announced the formation of the House Science & National Labs Caucus. Hultgren is joined by Congressmen Chaka Fattah (D-PA-02), Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM-03) and Alan Nunnelee (R-MS-01) who will serve as co-chairs of the new group, with other members of the 113th Congress expected to join next year. The new caucus will concentrate on reinforcing federal investment in research and the national laboratories, as well as raise awareness in and out of Congress about the role they play in long-term economic growth. “These laboratories, much like the rest of the economy, deserve certainty from the government so they can continue their important work with confidence,” Hultgren said. Hultgren, named earlier this year as the …
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
How far have women advanced since Girl Scouts started 100 years ago?
Monday marked the 100th birthday of Girl Scouts. What an incredible accomplishment for a superior organization. All month, I've been thinking about how far we've come. In 1912, women weren't allowed to vote in any but five states. That right didn't come for another eight long years. (Comparatively, eight years is long enough to birth a child who grows old enough to complain how uncool his parents are.) In 1912, women were considered the property of men and relied on fathers and husbands to survive. Employment, if any, was domestic: cooks and servants. Social classes were paramount. The movie Titanic was staged in 1912, lest we forget the scene where the poor Irish mother quietly rocked her two babies to death. At the same time that …
Lou Pierce
1:17 pm on Monday, January 7, 2013
Ken, I hope you're comfortable in your bubble. The line-item veto is an interesting issue, worthy of lengthy debate. However, beware of blindly believing right-wing shibboleths such as describing the various news media as being "mostly left leaning." It doesn't take much investigating to discover that the vast majority of the news media are concentrated in the hands of just a few right wingers or… more ›