Democratic U.S. House Whip James Clyburn made a stop in Oconee County Thursday afternoon to campaign for fellow Democrat Jane Ballard Dyer.
Democrat Jane Ballard Dyer is challenging Republican incumbent Gresham Barrett for the 3rd District Congressional seat and Republican Nancy Harrelson is challenging Clyburn for the 6th District Congressional seat.
“All over this country people feel very strongly that this country is on the wrong track,†stated Congressman Clyburn. “Over 50 percent of Americans polled are now saying that they want to see one party in the White House and one party running the Congress and they want that one party to be Democrat.â€
Yeah, great idea, because the last time one party controlled everything it was just swell, you know?
It’s good that Barrett has opposition because every race should be contested, but this is not a race anyone needs to pay much attention to. Barrett has nothing to worry about.
The Senate as you are well aware by now passed a sweetened version of the bailout Tuesday evening. The House voted again today and complied, as I suspected they would. So the dirty deed is now done. Bear in mind that this bill was rife with waist added by the Senate on Tuesday night that had nothing to do with the economical turmoil.
$2 million tax benefit for makers of wooden arrows for children
$100 million tax break to benefit auto racetrack owners
$192 million in rebates on excise taxes for the Puerto Rican and Virgin Islands rum industry
$148 million in tax relief for U.S. wool fabric producers
$49 million tax benefit for fishermen and other plaintiffs who sued over the 1989 tanker Exxon Valdez spill.
People, are you not outraged? If so, ask yourself why you might be going to the voting booth in November to return the same people to office who just voted for one of the largest Federal power grabs in American history and threw almost a trillion dollars of money we don’t have down the toilet. Are those of you in South Carolina prepared to give Lindsey Graham another six years? Think twice. He’s one of the culprits. Richard Burr also voted for it on behalf of North Carolina. Senators Jim DeMint (R-SC) and Elizabeth Dole (R-NC) opposed the measure. Additionally, both Presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama voted for the bailout as did VP candidate Joe Biden.
I can’t get the vote information from the House yet. The Web site must be getting swamped with traffic because it’s timing out on me, but I’ll post it as soon as I have it available.
Update: I now have the House roll. Sue Myrick and Gresham Barrett flipped on this, voting for the bailout today, whereas they voted against it before.
U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett said his vote against the $700 billion financial rescue plan was the biggest he has ever cast in his career.
He was the only one of South Carolina’s six congressmen to oppose the bailout, and he said Tuesday he is confident Congress will get back to work and pass something different — and better — soon.
Why do we need a different plan? Why do we need a plan at all? Remember Black Monday in 1987? How did Reagan handle that? He did nothing. There was no government bailout, no intervention whatsoever. Wall Street recovered and ended up having the longest term of economic prosperity in American history in the decade following.
Update: This post referenced the first House vote taken on the Federal Bailout. When the bill came up again for a second vote and the House passed the bailout, Barrett voted for it.
As I’m sure you have heard by now, the $700 billion bailout failed to pass the House of Representatives today by a mere 13 votes. I was opposed to this bailout, so I am rather pleased, for now. They’ll try something again. I just have a huge issue with this theory that corporations can privatize all of their gains but socialize their losses. That just doesn’t seem quite right to me.
This video pretty much sums up my thoughts.
So how did your representative vote? Did they vote to use your tax dollars to bail out Wall Street fat cats or did they vote to save your tax dollars?
Voting for the bailout were:
Bob Etheridge (D-NC-02)
David Price (D-NC-04)
Mel Watt (D-NC-12)
Brad Miller (D-NC-13)
Henry Brown (R-SC-01)
Joe Wilson (R-SC-02)
Bob Inglis (R-SC-04)
John Spratt (D-SC-05)
Jim Clyburn (D-SC-06)
Voting against the heinous bailout were:
G.K. Butterfield (D-NC-01)
Walter Jones (R-NC-03)
Virginia Foxx (R-NC-05)
Howard Coble (R-NC-06)
Mike McIntyre (D-NC-07)
Robin Hayes (R-NC-08)
Sue Myrick (R-NC-09)
Patrick McHenry (R-NC-10)
Heath Shuler (D-NC-11)
Gresham Barrett (R-SC-03)
Boy, the South Carolina delegation sure sucks a nut. David Price is no surprise. He loves using your money to give special favors to all of his corporate friends. Same with Henry Brown. I expected Watt to be on the yea list as well because he is a Socialist. Overall it looks to be just about split down the middle. Now you know who is on your side and who is pining for the Rockefellers.
The U.S. Senate today overwhelmingly sent President Bush a spending bill of $634 billion to keep the government “operating beyond the current budget year.” If only that were the case. This budget passage, as every other, consisted of a hogfest of a Congressional pen of pigs in starched white shirts feeding from the trough that you and I provided. This thing is stuffed with thousands of earmarks in addition to $25 billion of taxpayer funded loans to help bailout the automakers. The bill was presented in its final form from the House to the Senate as H.R. 2638, Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2008, sponsored by none other than our very own Representative David Price (D-NC-04).
How did our representatives vote? As usual, in the Senate Jim DeMint stood up and vocally opposed the legislation. Lindsey Graham joined him in voting against it. Richard Burr made a rare and unusual move, voting Present, Giving Live Pair. What this means is that somebody else who not present at the vote and knew they wouldn’t be who planned on voting the opposite way Burr was made a deal with him to vote present so that the outcome wouldn’t be altered by their absence. In other words, for the sake of argument, let’s say Burr was hypothetically going to vote No, but John McCain was absent and was planning to vote Yes which would cancel out Burr’s vote anyway. McCain would ask Burr to vote Present then so that the same result is produced. As I said, this is just a hypothetical. Burr may have intended to vote Yes and made a deal with an absent Senator who wanted to vote against it. And we can’t forget Liddy Dole who as usual voted for her pork.
In the House we had the following voting for the waste:
The Main Street USA Energy Security Act of 2008 would allow drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and increase domestic refining capabilities. It would allow the U.S. Department of the Interior to grant oil and natural gas leases, assist nuclear plants in expanding their domestic manufacturing base and enable the Department of Energy to enter agreements with up to six coal liquefaction projects.
The bill also provides an eight-year extension of the 30 percent business investment tax credit for solar energy and fuel cell projects and gives the Department of Energy another bioenergy research center.
Barrett says that enacting the legislation would be costly, but says it’s a necessary investment in the future.
It’s not a bad bill. The Federal Government needs to lift restrictions on drilling for oil in our own territory. It’s asinine that we are relying on enemy nations to provide us with our energy when we can drill in Alaska and off the Pacific and Gulf coasts. We also need to build more nuclear plants and use the vast resources of coal we have in the northeast.
This bill won’t pass, however. Most of the Democrats and some Republicans are beholden to the extreme environmental lobby. It’s amusing to listen to people blame Bush for gas prices when the fault partially lays in the hands of those currently controlling Congress.
SENECA — With his fall election opponent known, Gresham Barrett made the rounds of the 3rd Congressional District this week, saying he looks forward to a good debate and hinting that this campaign may be his last … at least for congress.
The three-term Republican incumbent said Democratic challenger Jane Dyer of Easley called him this week before filing her candidacy in Columbia.
“I had a wonderful conversation with her and wished her luck … not too much,†he quipped. “She’s a first class lady and I assured her there would be nothing negative. It’s going to be all positive and about the issues.â€
The talk circulating through the rumor mills is that Barrett may be planning a gubernatorial run in 2010 since Sanford will not be able to run again due to term limits. Barrett would be a terrific governor with his conservative fiscal sense of mind.
While all six of the state’s congressmen face challengers, none of the races will be repeats as the all the major party losers in the general election of 2006 did not file to run for Congress again.
Fifth District Congressman John Spratt went the longest without a challenger. Republican Albert F. Spencer didn’t file to run against the 13-term Democrat until Saturday.
Spencer and Spratt have met before. In 2004, Spencer got 37 percent of the vote. A much better financed and supported Republican challenger in 2006, Ralph Norman, received about 43 percent of the vote against Spratt.
The 5th District stretches along the state’s northern border and rural Pee Dee areas - from Newberry and Cherokee counties more than 130 miles east to Dillon County.
The most crowded race is in the 1st District, which stretches from the Grand Strand to Charleston. Four-term incumbent Henry Brown will face Katherine Jenerette and Paul V. Norris in the Republican primary, while Linda Ketner and Ben Frasier compete for the Democratic nomination.
In the 2nd District, incumbent Joe Wilson will go for his fourth full term. He faces Phil Black in the Republican primary, while Rob Miller and Blaine Lotz are running for the Democratic nomination. That district runs from Beaufort County north into the northern and western suburbs of Columbia.
Gresham Barrett is seeking a fourth term in the 3rd District in the northwest part of the state. He will face Democrat Jane Dyer in the general election.
Fourth District incumbent Bob Inglis is trying for a third term since returning to Congress in 2004. He will face Charles Jeter in the Republican primary, while Bryan McCanless, Paul H. Corden and Ted Christian face off in the Democratic primary.
House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn will run for a ninth term in the majority-black 6th District. He will take on Republican Nancy Harrelson in the general election.
Jane Dyer of Easley, a pilot for FedEx, announced Thursday as a Democratic candidate in the 3rd Congressional District.
Republican incumbent Gresham Barrett of Westminster is seeking re-election.
Also Thursday, Katherine Jenerette filed as a Republican in the 1st Congressional District where fellow Republican Henry Brown of Charleston is the incumbent.
Dyer said her campaign would focus on pocketbook issues and if elected, she would push economic development, improved education and affordable health care.
The political race to see who will become South Carolina’s next governor has entered its initial, hushed phase, though the election itself is almost three years away.
No one has officially declared, but many of the state’s prominent politicians say they are getting a lot of encouragement to consider a bid.
Many potential candidates are looking to see who will join the race and who won’t. Some are weighing family considerations and how the decision to run would affect their current jobs. Others are seeing what sort of support they can get for a race that might cost $8 million or more.
Why not? If they can start the Presidential race two years early is it really so early for governor of South Carolina? Potential candidates already talked up include:
Joe Erwin - Former State Democratic Party Chairman
Inez Tenenbaum - Former S.C. State Superintendent
Gresham Barrett - Congressman, Third Congressional District
A North Augusta man says he is running as an independent against Republican U.S. Representative Gresham Barrett.
Thirty-three-year-old Tommy J. Carson III says change is needed in Washington. He says there should be more average Americans in elected offices and fewer career politicians.
Carson works for Mercedes Benz. This is his first political campaign.
While I agree with Mr. Carson’s message, I like Congressman Barrett and think he does a pretty good job. There is no way Barrett will lose reelection, especially to a non-party candidate.
I couldn’t find a campaign Web site for Mr. Carson, but he does have a MySpace group.
Rep. Joe Wilson voted for it before he voted against it.
Rep. Gresham Barrett voted against it — three times — then said he was glad to see it become law.
Sen. Jim DeMint branded it a shameful example of pork-barrel spending, but Sen. Lindsey Graham said it was crucial to South Carolina’s infrastructure.
The Water Resources Development Act of 2007 will be recorded as the first measure to be enacted by Congress over President Bush’s veto.
The Republicans have absolutely no chance at regaining a majority in Congress if they are not going to practice what they preach. They claim to be the fiscally responsible party and are giving lip service to getting back to those roots, but votes like this horrendous monstrosity of government waste shows they still aren’t serious.
U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett, R-S.C., has introduced a resolution in the U.S. House calling on Congress to enforce immigration laws previously adopted.
Barrett, the Oconee County resident who represents South Carolina’s 3rd District, said Wednesday that members of Congress “need to live up to the laws you pass.â€
“It’s real simple,†Barrett said. “If we say the fence is going to be funded, you need to fully fund it. If it says it needs to be built, you need to build it.â€
Sounds like common sense to me. This is, of course, why nobody believes a word that comes out of the Fed’s mouths when it comes to enforcing our borders and laws and why the vast majority of Americans came out against the “shamnesty†bill. You simply can’t trust Washington on this issue.
Most of South Carolina’s congressmen still refuse to make public their requests to fund pet projects out of the federal budget despite a promise by Washington Democrats to end such secrecy.
These funding requests — called earmarks — can be found with a little work. Yet, the vast majority of representatives and senators in Washington still refuse to publicize earmark requests.
