Monroe County Republican Committee

Thrown Under The (School) Bus Rep. Greg Snowden

Thrown Under The (School) Bus Posted 1/21/2009 10:26 PM CST on clarionledger.com The House of Representatives appears poised to throw Mississippi hospitals under the bus. The school bus, that is. As you recall, the 2008 Legislature adjourned knowing full well that the state had a $90 million Medicaid shortfall built into the budget, which resulted wholly from a change in Federal regulations as to how the state calculates the Medicaid match for hospitals. Upon adjournment last spring, everyone assumed the Medicaid division and the Hospital Association would agree on a formula to replace the $90 million match that the hospitals themselves collectively had paid in past years. That didn’t happen, and the ensuing stalemate led to an expensive and fruitless special session. At the eleventh hour, surprise one-time Federal money (the details aren’t important) bailed the state out, and the Legislature put off until 2009 the inevitable day of reckoning. The clamour from the McCoy House last year was that in requiring hospitals to resume paying the tax they’d always collectively paid, the Medicaid division (i.e., Governor Barbour) sought to tax "sick people," and that the state instead should raise the cigarette tax to pay the $90 million for the hospitals. The hospitals may naively have believed House Democrats virtuously waged this partisan fight for their (the hospitals’) own benefit. If so, they were wrong. The whole fuss was always about forcing Gov. Barbour to agree to a higher cigarette tax; something he already said he’d not oppose if his tax study committee recommended it (which it finally did last fall). In the 2008 special session standoff, the hospitals were simply the tool which House leaders wielded to embarrass the governor. It (the cig tax fight) was always about Haley, and never about the hospitals at all. The $90 million hospital Medicaid deficit still exists as 2009 dawns. But, nearly everyone (the governor included) now acknowledges that the cigarette tax should and will be raised. You’d guess the hospitals are happy, huh? New tax money will be available to defer the $90 million they’d otherwise have to pay themselves. Surely Mississippi hospitals can finally breathe a sigh of relief? Negatory. The worm has turned. With the national economy (and the state’s general fund revenues) decidedly in the tank, the House Democrat leadership has other ideas for the new tax revenue. According to HB 1383, passed by the Appropriations Committee Wednesday and scheduled for a vote before the full House on Thursday, $68 million of the projected new tobacco tax revenue would be used not to defray the hospitals’ Medicaid share, as legislators were told was so desperately needed in 2008, but rather to restore a 3.49 percent cut in this year’s MAEP funding made necessary because of the economic downturn. (Most other state programs were cut as much as 5%). The hospitals necessarily are left to fend for themselves -- they’ll either provide the $90 million state match on their own, or the unmatched Fed Medicaid funding will disappear, thereby deepening their plight. In any event, the hospitals’ erstwhile House friends ("Don’t tax sick people!") evidently have forsaken the cause. In fairness, there are two big variables at play here. First of all, there is the optimistic assumption among House Democrats that the new Obama administration is going to bail out the states, and that as a result, massive new "stimulus" monies will be flowing into state coffers, and that those expected millions can be used in part for Medicaid. That’s a lot of assuming, but maybe they’re right. Certainly this (a huge bailout for the states) has been proposed in Washington. I suppose the Federal taxpayer will have to weigh in at some point on the fiscal wisdom of using limitless Federal dollars (they print bills when it suits them, you know, and simply charge it to your grandchildren) to rescue state governments from any responsibility to exercise budgetary discipline. Regardless, however, this expected bailout is still very much in the planning stage; Congress has not approved it, and we don’t have any of the money yet. Furthermore, it also is a fact that the "new" tobacco monies are not in hand yet either. The scheme embodied within HB 1383 baldly assumes that the Senate will join the House in adopting a total new $1.00 cigarette tax, and that Gov. Barbour will sign this tax hike into law. Fat chance on both counts. In reality, most observers at the Capitol expect no more than roughly one-half (50 to 60 cents) of the House $1.00 cig tax proposal to ever actually become law. That would mean, of course, that HB 1383 grossly over-estimates the money available to restore MAEP funding. The bottom line is that HB 1383 is much more about posturing certain House members as loyal "pro-education" advocates than doing anything realistic or productive with respect to the budget. This essentially meaningless "feel good" bill likely will pass the House, and then die in the Senate, as it should, but with plenty of partisan chest-thumping all around in the meantime. You’d think hospital administrators at least will open their eyes and look around to wonder where their late friends all have gone. Obama had better come through for the hospitals, or they’d better come to a quick agreement with the Medicaid division, because it is painfully obvious that as far as Billy McCoy’s House is concerned, the hospitals will have to crawl out from under the (school) bus on their own.

Mississippi State Senate passes voter ID bill

JACKSON - A bill requiring most Mississippians to show identification to vote passed the state Senate Thursday with a provision the governor doesn't want - an exception for older people.

The bill would require people born in 1946 or later to show a driver's license or other valid ID when voting; people born before then would not face the requirement. Poll books list each voter's date of birth, so precinct workers would know which people are supposed to show ID.

The bill says counties would provide free ID cards for any voter who doesn't have one.

The bill passed 38-12 on Thursday, but was held for the possibility of more debate.

Elections Committee Chairman Terry Burton, R-Newton, said Mississippi needs voter ID to protect the integrity of elections. But opponents say the requirement would place an unnecessary burden on voters and could be used to intimidate older black voters who were once subject to Jim Crow laws.

Opposition to the bill lessened after Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson, persuaded his colleagues to include the exemption for older people. Blount, who worked for former Secretary of State Eric Clark, said providing free ID cards could cost the state up to $500,000 and did not answer his concerns.

"We need a law that respects our seniors, especially those who personally experienced having their constitutional right to vote denied," Blount said.

Burton was among the lawmakers who opposed adding the exemption. He tried to defeat Blount's amendment but couldn't get the votes. Burton said he isn't aware of any age exemptions in voter ID laws in other states.

A voter ID bill that would exempt people 65 or older is pending in the House and has drawn criticism from Gov. Haley Barbour and Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, both Republicans.

"There is no reason or example for excluding people on the basis of age," Barbour said in his State of the State address this week.

Hosemann said in a news release that the House bill has "unnecessary and unmanageable identification requirements that water down the goal of meaningful voter reform."

Sen. David Jordan, D-Greenwood, tried to press Burton for examples of how photo ID could have prevented incidents of election fraud.

"You have not been able to come up with any significant number of cases of fraud involving voter ID," Jordan said.

Under the bill, documents allowed include a driver's license, a passport, a state government employment ID or a military identification card - all of which would have a photo. The county-issued ID would include a person's name, date of birth, height, weight and eye color.

The federal Help America Voter Act has an ID requirement for first-time voters who registered by mail, but it allows forms of identification that also include utility bills and paychecks.

The House bill that includes voter ID would allow people to show some forms of ID with a photo and some without.

President Obama...No friend to Innocent life but defends those that want to kill Americans.

President Obama suspended the Mexico City Policy last week.  Many have asked what does that mean??  Why did we have the Mexico City Policy and what was it?  President Regan was the first to put the Mexico City Policy in place.  The policy simply said that "No United States Tax Payers Money was to Be Spent on ABORTION!!"  Seems like a no brainer to me but along comes President Bill Clinton and he suspends the Mexico City Policy after it had protected the unborn around the world for almost 12 years.  Under the Clinton administration our United States tax dollars were used to kill literally tens of thousands of innocent unborn babies around the world.  If foreign countries wanted our help with food and medical supplies then they had to accept abortion!!  How wicked can you get.  If you want our help with food and medical supplies then you have to agree to American demands to perform abortion on your citizens!!! 

Finally we see the Mexico City policy was reinstated by President Bush and the abortion industry was not happy.  Thank you President Bush for standing up for the unborn around the world.  This one policy saved countless lives around the world.

Last week we see President Obama on his second day in office suspend the Mexico City Policy once again.  Americans should have moral Outrage at this action by Barack Obama.  This move is not only immoral but it will send over $300,000,000.00 (three hundred MILLION) dollars to agencies that provide abortion in foreign countries.  Why are we funding abortions in foreign countries with our tax payers money?????  We have a multi trillion dollar budget deficit and President Obama wants to spend over $300 million dollars on abortions over seas??  Is this the change Obama was talking about.....it is a moral Outrage!!!

On the other hand Obama wants to defend the "Human Rights of known Terrorists" all the while signing the death sentence on countless unborn to be murdered with our tax dollars.  Talking about High Crimes and Misdemeanors...Obama has caused such damage with only one day in the White House.  President Barack Hussein Obama ought to be ashamed of this action!!

UPDATE 1-Israel eyes gas bonanza from large offshore find

By Steven Scheer

JERUSALEM, Jan 18 (Reuters) - A U.S.-Israeli exploration group said on Sunday it has discovered large natural gas deposits in the eastern Mediterranean with the potential to meet Israel's gas needs for well over a decade.

Led by Noble Energy (NBL.N), the group said it found more than 3 trillion cubic feet (88 billion cubic meters) of gas at the Tamar exploration well, 90 km off the Israeli northern port of Haifa.

News of the deposit, which is three times as large as a site already in production off the country's southern coast, sent energy shares soaring in a country anxious to reduce its dependency on foreign fuel.

"This is one of the most significant prospects that we have ever tested and appears to be the largest discovery in the company's history," Charles Davidson, Noble's chief executive, said in a statement.

"Early indications are that the resources identified are very substantial, at least equal to our pre-drill estimated gross mean resources of over three trillion cubic feet. Subject to the collection of additional data, the resource estimate for Tamar could further increase," he said.

Noble Energy owns 36 percent of the site while Isramco Negev (ISRAp.TA) owns 28.75 percent and Avner Oil Exploration (AVNRp.TA) and Delek Drilling (DEDRp.TA) 15.625 percent each. Dor Gas Exploration owns 4 percent. Delek and Avner are units of conglomerate Delek Group (DELKG.TA).

"We are witnessing an historic moment in Israel's energy market," National Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer said in a statement. "If it turns out in a few weeks that the indicators received in recent days are true, then we are talking about the biggest find in Israel's history." 

Obama Prayer Leader linked to Hamas???

Feds Say Obama Prayer Leader Is From Group Linked to Hamas

Ingrid Mattson, president of the Islamic Society of North America, is the leader of a group that federal prosecutors say has ties to terrorists. 

AP

Saturday, January 17, 2009

A Muslim scholar chosen to speak at President-elect Barack Obama's inaugural prayer service Wednesday is the leader of a group that federal prosecutors say has ties to terrorists.

Ingrid Mattson, president of the Islamic Society of North America, is one of many religious leaders scheduled to speak at the prayer service at Washington's National Cathedral.

Mattson has been the guest of honor at State Department dinners and has met with senior Pentagon officials during the Bush administration. She also spoke at a prayer service at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. Mattson, who was elected president of the society in 2006, is a professor of Islamic studies at Hartford Seminary in Hartford, Conn.

But in 2007 and as recently as last July, federal prosecutors in Dallas filed court documents linking the Plainfield, Ind.-based Islamic society to the group Hamas, which the U.S. considers a terrorist organization.

Neither Mattson nor her organization have been charged. But prosecutors wrote in July that they had "a wide array of testimonial and documentary evidence expressly linking" the group to Hamas and other radical groups.

Linda Douglass, a spokeswoman for Obama's inaugural committee, would not discuss the case or say whether the committee knew about it.

"She has a stellar reputation in the faith community," Douglass said Saturday night.

The existence of the court documents was first reported by Politico.

The Islamic Society of North America, which describes itself as "the nation's largest mainstream Muslim community-based organization," is fighting its inclusion on a list of coconspirators in the Dallas terrorism case against the Holy Land Foundation. In court documents, Mattson's group says it does not condone terrorism.

The court documents represent a complicated picture of the group.

Law enforcement agencies have used the organization's annual convention as part of its outreach to the Muslim community. The group has provided religious training to the FBI, according to court documents. Karen Hughes, a former Bush confidant and under secretary of state, called Mattson "a wonderful leader and role model for many, many people."

All this was going on while officials in the law enforcement and intelligence community apparently had evidence that the Islamic Society of North America had ties to terrorists and to the Holy Land Foundation. That foundation and five of its former leaders were convicted at a retrial in November of funneling millions of dollars to Hamas.

Mark Pelavin, director of inter-religious affairs for the Union for Reform Judaism � another organization participating in the prayer service � called Mattson "a really important voice denouncing terrorism."

"Clearly, Dr. Mattson has been welcome throughout the government," he said. "I haven't found anyone anywhere who's found anything Dr. Mattson has said that's anything other than clearly denouncing terrorism in quite explicit Islamic terms."

Pelavin's group has a partnership with the Islamic Society to encourage members of mosques and synagogues to build ties nationwide.

Attorneys for Mattson's group wrote in court documents that it is not a subject or target of the Holy Land investigation. The group has worked with the Bush administration's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, according to court documents.

According to e-mails filed in the court case, one of the prosecutors seemed willing to ask the judge to remove the group from the list.

"I am sorry for the problems for your clients," Assistant U.S. Attorney James T. Jacks wrote in July 2007. "I hope to get something to you or file something with the court as soon as possible."

The Islamic Society helps certify Muslim chaplains for federal prisons. Mattson leads a program at the Hartford Seminary that trains Muslim chaplains for the U.S. military.

Mattson was one of about three dozen leaders, including former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and two former Republican congressmen, Vin Weber and Steve Bartlett, who developed a report released last fall on how the U.S. can fight extremism in the Muslim world.

Gay Bishop Will Open Inaugural Weekend

CONCORD, N.H. – The first openly gay Episcopal bishop will offer a prayer at the Lincoln Memorial at an inaugural event for President-elect Barack Obama.

The selection of New Hampshire Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson for Sunday's event follows weeks of criticism from gay-rights groups over Obama's decision to have the Rev. Rick Warren give the invocation at his Jan. 20 inauguration.

Warren backed the ban on same-sex marriage that passed in his home state of California on the November ballot.

Robinson said last month the choice of Warren was like a slap in the face. In an interview with the Concord Monitor, he said he doesn't believe Obama invited him in response to the Warren criticism but said his inclusion won't go unnoticed by the gay and lesbian community.

"It's important for any minority to see themselves represented in some way," Robinson told the newspaper for a story in Monday's editions. "Whether it be a racial minority, an ethnic minority, or in our case, a sexual minority. Just seeing someone like you up front matters."

Clark Stevens, a spokesman for the inaugural committee, said Robinson was invited because he had offered his advice to Obama during the campaign and because of his church work. When asked whether Robinson was included to calm the Warren complaints, he said Robinson is "an important figure in the religious community. We are excited that he will be involved."

Robinson, 61, said both Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden will attend the event, and Obama is expected to speak. As for himself, Robinson said he doesn't yet know what he'll say, but he knows he won't use a Bible.

"While that is a holy and sacred text to me, it is not for many Americans," Robinson said. "I will be careful not to be especially Christian in my prayer. This is a prayer for the whole nation."

Robinson said his prayer will be reflective of the times.

"I think these are sober and difficult times that we are facing," he said. "It won't be a happy, clappy prayer."

Robinson's 2003 consecration has divided the church in the United States and abroad. Last month, theological conservatives upset by liberal views of U.S. Episcopalians and Canadian Anglicans formed a rival North American province.

© 2009 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

The Republican Revival Will Start in the States - Haley Barbour

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123154731803469889.html#printMode

 

Weekend Interview with Haley Barbour

The Republican Revival Will Start in the States

Haley Barbour has a message for Republicans still dispirited by the November elections: "We've been in a lot worse shape than this. . . . When I first started working in politics during the Watergate era only 16% of Americans identified themselves as Republicans." He recalls one incident in the mid 1970s when "Mary Louise Smith, the chairman of the party, appointed a committee to change the name of the party. You can't get much lower than that."

That doesn't mean the Grand Old Party will storm back into power in 2010 and 2012. "We shouldn't kid ourselves. Republicans have a whole lot of work to do to win back voters who've fled the party. I think the brand damage is much worse than in 1992," is his sobering assessment.

Mr. Barbour is a political-turnaround artist -- the Lee Iacocca of party rebuilding. He took over the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee in 1993 during another one of those low points. George H.W. Bush had just mustered 38% of the vote and lost the White House to Bill Clinton. Mr. Barbour recounts that the political wise men all agreed that 1992 was a realigning election, that the GOP had become a regional party of the South, that the conservatives were devoid of ideas, and that the era of Reaganism was over.

Not quite. Two years later the GOP stormed back and Mr. Barbour was one of the unsung masterminds of the 1994 Republican revolution. If Newt Gingrich was the four-star general, Mr. Barbour was the field marshal.

As we talk at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C., I can't help noticing that he appears to have shed a few pounds in the last few years. Could it be in preparation for a presidential run? "Hail no," he retorts in his trademark southern drawl. He self-deprecatingly informs me that "the American people aren't likely to ever elect a former Washington lobbyist as president."

Perhaps not, but that didn't stop him from winning two terms as governor of Mississippi and from racking up a successful record of achievement. He's cut taxes, put the state budget in Jackson on a diet, passed one of the boldest tort reform laws in the nation, and helped bring thousands of new jobs into the state that ranks by many measures as America's poorest. He gets universal accolades for his handling of Hurricane Katrina, which obliterated whole regions of Mississippi. In contrast to Louisiana, which captured all the media attention because the botched recovery effort there, in Mississippi the reconstruction and relief efforts were a case study in government professionalism and, as he puts it, "harnessing the power of the private sector in a time of crisis."

"I am a small government, rational regulation, low tax, free market capitalist. And I'm going to be one even if I'm the last one!" Mr. Barbour declares.

He then offers a sobering fact of political history: "We need to understand that only once since 1896 has a party that took the White House not held on for at least two terms, and that was when Reagan beat Jimmy Carter. So the odds are stacked against us." Message: Brace yourself for eight years of President Barack Obama.

One of his biggest worries is that voters have lost confidence in Reaganite free-market principles. "The last few times that we've lost elections, it has not been because voters changed their mind about our policies, it's been because they changed their mind about us," he explains. "They decided that we hadn't adhered to the policies and principles that they had thought they were voting for during that election."

That was certainly true after George H.W. Bush raised taxes in 1990 and then in the 2006 bloodbath, when Republicans were punished for their reckless overspending.

Now the problem may be deeper: "Right now a lot of people that have voted for us repeatedly are not so sure about free-market capitalism. They're scared. They don't know if they're going to have to work until they're 80, they don't know if they're going to send their children to college, they don't know if they're going to lose their business or job." So he fears that "right now the only answer they know is government. The only place they know to turn that can help them is government."

This seems overly pessimistic to me, but we both agree that Republicans haven't exactly done much to disabuse voters of this sentiment. In 2008 the GOP became the party of federal bailouts and other socialistic solutions to the financial meltdown. Most voters don't fully understand why the stock market and economy collapsed this year, says Mr. Barbour, "but they do know it happened on our watch, and so we get the blame."

As with any rehab process, the first step for a Republican comeback, he argues, is to "come clean and admit we did a lot of things wrong." Like what? He quickly rattles off the misdeeds: "Corruption, out-of-control spending, enormous increase of the national debt under a supposedly conservative administration, no vetoes of spending bills that Ronald Reagan would have hit with a hatchet." He adds that the war in Iraq remains highly unpopular even among many conservatives. "Americans simply don't like long wars," he says.

There's a temptation after a loss like this, he continues, "to purify our party by running off the people that aren't with us 100% of the time, or the people who aren't social conservatives, or the people who aren't this or the people who aren't that." He says party purges like that would be catastrophic. "This is a time for the party to be figuring out how to multiply. Politics is about addition and multiplication, not division and subtraction." He fumes that efforts to evict moderate Republicans in primaries is counterproductive.

Wait, I say, aren't the big spending Republicans who act like Democrats -- people like Ted Stevens of Alaska or Jerry Lewis of California -- the people contaminating the GOP brand? His view is that Republicans need to elect a lot more moderates from the Northeast to regain operating majorities.

Mr. Barbour is fanatical about the need for the GOP to "to do the hard work to build strong and self-reliant" state and local chapters of the party that are in such disrepair. "Now is our chance when we're out of power to build back up from the bottom, to have a participatory, inclusive process for letting people get involved in our party. Barack Obama proved something that I've seen time and time again: if you'll give people a chance to participate in politics they'll knock your door down. And the Democrats did a whole lot better job of that than us this time."

Another worrisome trend he mentions is the youth vote. "We've got young people who voted for Obama by better than a 2-to-1 margin. The data is very clear, that when people vote in their first two presidential elections for the same party, more than 80% of those people are going to stay with that party for the rest of their life, barring some big event that changes it."

This gives the GOP four years to learn to communicate with the iPod generation. The party, he says, must figure out how to tap new media and new messaging to reach out and touch 20-somethings.

He also advises that the party figure out in a hurry how to close the money gap. Democratic money swamped not just John McCain but Republicans in all 2008 races. To counter that advantage, Mr. Barbour insists that Republicans have only one real option, which is to once again tap into the power of the mom-and-pop small donor. "When you're in power a long time, you become dependent on big money -- a few large donors." He again mentions with admiration how Mr. Obama captured the email addresses of a reported four million donors who "are giving $10 a month on their credit card. Republicans are going to have to once again become a party of ideas and then raise money on those ideas, because we're not going to get any access money. We haven't got anything to give anybody access to anymore. . . . You can get a picture with me, but that's worth about a sixpack of beer."

What should a post-Bush Republican foreign policy look like? I ask, because the party now seems incoherent on what it believes in with respect to America's position in the world. "I think, more and more, we're going to decide that there are very, very, strong limits to nation-building. But I think we'll also be for open markets. It's easy to be isolationist in bad economic times, but it's terrible policy. So I see our policy as open markets, internationalist, peace through strength, but caution about interventionism."

Mr. Barbour has been a vocal critic of the Obama stimulus plan. "A lot of this is just crazy," he fumes. "I'll tell you what I told [Obama] in front of 45 governors. Don't give me $400 million of one-time money and make me spend it on recurring expenses. I'm better off not to get it. I'm not sure a stimulus package is going to do much good after all the money the federal government has already popped into the economy." But then he adds: "The idea of long-term capital improvements is a lot better than just giving every state a blank check."

In the end, he advises, Republicans can only win if they rediscover the power and voter appeal of innovative and reform-minded solutions to the nation's ills. "If we're going to have a party that gets the White House back before we fall totally into socialism, we need to persuade voters that our market-based solutions work, and government mostly doesn't. And we're going to have to apply these principles to a whole new set of policy challenges."

The best people to do that, he insists, are the governors. He reminds me that in the 1990s it was governors like John Engler of Michigan, Fife Symington of Arizona, and Tommy Thompson of Wisconsin who led the way on supply-side tax cutting, welfare reform and economic development. I ask him if there are any future Ronald Reagans out there in the states. He mentions Bobby Jindal, Mark Sanford, Jim Douglas and, of course, Sarah Palin. "This has to be a bottom-up rebuilding process," he says. "Republican solutions are going to flow from the states, not from Washington."

Mr. Moore is senior economics writer for the Wall Street Journal editorial page.

Democrat led congress gives themselves a $4700.00 pay raise!!!!

What have the Democrats done??  They are giving themselves a $4700.00 pay raise with our tax dollars in a time of huge deficit spending and economic crisis!!!  This congress is absolutely out of touch with the people.  Did you know the congressmen are paid $175,000 a year?  That does not include the benefits package which is easily worth another $1o,000 to $12,000 a year.  It seems that our congressmen are out of touch with America.  While our families have to tighten our belt to stay within our family budget congress spends our tax dollars on themselves a raise!! 

What happened to our public servants?  Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.......

Congressmen get $4,700 cost-of-living pay increase

The wage hike that went into effect after the 111th Congress was gaveled in on Tuesday raised the average congressional salary from $169,300 to $174,000.

Although it's pegged to a cost-of-living index, the raise has provoked scorn among those seeking to cut federal spending. Some lawmakers - including several Mississippians - also think it's a bad time to get a pay raise.

"It's one of the most ridiculous things Congress is doing right now," said Paul Williams, vice president of policy for Citizens Against Government Waste. "We have people hurting right now financially and they (lawmakers) are sitting down getting a pay raise."

Williams wants Congress to vote to stop the raise but says chances are slim that will happen. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has not indicated she is willing to allow a vote that would stop the raise, nor has Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Yet many lawmakers, perhaps feeling heat from cash-strapped constituents, say they're willing to forgo the raise.

"I just think this is a bad moment for us to take a pay raise," said 1st District Rep. Travis Childers, a Democrat. "I'm not opposed to a pay raise. I'm just opposed to one this year."

Childers is a co-sponsor of a bill introduced by Rep. Harry Mitchell, D-Ariz., that would stop next year's automatic pay increase.

Mitchell sponsored a similar bill last year in hopes it would stop the $4,700 pay raise that went into effect last week.

But that bill drew only 34 sponsors, far short of the 218 needed to propel the legislation to a floor vote.

Things are different this year. Since Tuesday, Mitchell's bill has drawn 63 co-sponsors.

"When our constituents are sacrificing just to make ends meet, I believe this is the wrong time to pad our paychecks," Mitchell wrote in a letter to Pelosi earlier this month. "I believe that working together, members of Congress should stop the next automatic pay increase from taking effect in 2010."

Congress approved a law in 1989 that made the yearly increases automatic and pegged the hikes to the Labor Department's Employment Cost Index.

Congress has rejected the automatic increase only six times since then. The latest was in 2007, when Democrats used their new majorities in Congress to block the pay hike to retaliate for GOP inaction on a minimum wage hike. This year's pay raise will cost taxpayers $2.5 million.

Second District Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Democrat, said he "would support an effort on an up-or-down vote without a problem."

He said pay raises were voted on when he was a Hinds County supervisor, and he would be "very comfortable" if Congress adopted the same practice.

Some lawmakers say they need the pay hikes to keep up with cost-of-living increases, especially in the nation's capital, where prices for housing and other necessities are high.

Lawmakers also say their jobs require them to pay for two residences, one in Washington and one in their home states, stressing family budgets.

But 3rd District Rep. Gregg Harper, who was sworn in to office Tuesday, said he would have supported efforts to stop this year's pay raise had he been in Congress last year.

"If it comes up again, I'll vote against the increase," Harper, a Republican, said.

Mississippi's other congressional members - 4th District Rep. Gene Taylor, a Democrat, and Republican Sens. Thad Cochran and Roger Wicker - could not be reached for comment.

Contact Ana Radelat at aradelat@gns.gannett.com.

Global Warming? Atmosphere cooler now than eight years ago

Atmosphere cooler now than eight years ago

Pete Chagnon - OneNewsNow - 1/7/2009 7:20:00 AM

An author and skeptic of manmade climate change says George W. Bush will leave office on January 20 with the earth's temperature cooler than when he took office in 2001.

Chris Horner is a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the author of Red Hot Lies: How Global Warming Alarmists Use Threats, Fraud, and Deception to Keep You Misinformed. He says despite the media and the left accusing Bush of inaction on climate change, Bush is leaving office with the earth cooler than when he started.
 
"We put up satellites in the atmosphere to measure the lower troposphere. We did this 30 years ago because of the global cooling panic. So we're measuring where we would find the cooling or warming signal, which is in the lower troposphere," he explains. "And we don't see either; there has been a slight cooling in the last few years. The warming of two decades stopped in 1998."
 
But Horner contends that global-warming alarmists are finding it difficult to switch their hysteria back to global cooling, so they created the so-called "climate change" crisis.
 
"And now, there is $300 million dollars from sources unknown [that has] been given to Al Gore to push a climate crisis rebranding campaign," he adds. "And that's what you'll see in 2009, coordinating with an effort to impose what's called a cap-and-trade rationing scheme."
 
He believes global warming became a "totem in the anti-Bush struggle," and that many people are going to wake up confused on January 20 when they cannot blame Bush anymore.

Governor Barbour lists top issues for '09 session

Governor lists top issues for '09 session

Posted: Jan 5, 2009 05:39 PM

Updated: Jan 5, 2009 05:47 PM

By Jon Kalahar - email

JACKSON, MS (WLOX) - Mississippi's legislative session opens Tuesday, and it's only the beginning of what could be a fiercely debated 90 days.   

Facing a poor economy and lower than expected tax revenue, Governor Haley Barbour laid out his priorities Monday for the legislative regular session. Job growth and protecting current positions statewide is number one. But with nearly 20,000 jobs lost since last spring, the trickle down effect will hurt in other areas as well.

"We should anticipate there's going to be more beneficiaries between now and the end of the fiscal year, and it's going to be very hard for Medicaid to stay within the amount appropriated," said Barbour.

The Governor is once again pushing a hospital assessment tax to fill the $90 million the state needs to draw down federal funds. It's a tax state hospitals paid from 1992 to 2004.

"Because of the way the Medicaid system works, for every dollar they pay in, they get back six. I'll do that with the IRS till the cows come home," said Barbour.

That draws a clear line in the sand between the Governor and many democrats in the legislature. They'd like to see Medicaid funded with a $1 cigarette tax. Barbour favors that revenue going to the general fund to be used as lawmakers see fit.

"That's why we got a legislature. Look, put it in the general fund and let's spend it according to the process based on priorities as we see them, and do it on an annual basis," said Barbour.

Voter identification, workforce development, and job training are on Governor Barbour's list of priorities. So is a health insurance exchange program he's developed to give small businesses a chance to provide employees with health benefits.

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