Loading ...Funding the REAL ID Act (National ID). During consideration of the Homeland Security appropriations bill, Representative Brian Bilbray (R-Calif.) offered an amendment to reallocate $150 million of the bill’s funding to provide grant money for assisting states in conforming to the REAL ID Act of 2005. The REAL ID Act requires all states to issue standardized driver’s licenses that would serve as national ID cards. It was supposed to go into effect three years after the enactment of the act, but because of resistance from the states, the deadline has been extended to 2010 for states that request an extension. Once enacted, a federal agency would not be allowed to accept for any official purpose a driver’s license or ID card issued by a state that fails to meet the act’s requirements. The House rejected the Bilbray amendment by a vote of 155-268 (Roll Call 479) on June 15, 2007. The act would effectively create a national ID card. John Tanner voted FOR this bill.110-2 (Source: The New American, December 10, 2007)
Foreign Aid. The fiscal 2008 foreign-aid appropriations bill (H.R. 2764) would authorize $34.4 billion for foreign operations and economic assistance. This amount represents another huge increase over similar House-passed appropriations for previous fiscal years — $21.3 billion for 2007, $20.3 billion for 2006, and $19.4 billion for 2005. The House passed the bill by a vote of 241-178 (Roll Call 542) on June 22, 2007. Foreign aid is unconstitutional.John Tanner voted FOR this bill.110-2 (Source: The New American, December 10, 2007)
Global Climate Change. During consideration of the fiscal 2008 Interior appropriations bill (H.R. 2643), Representative Joe Barton (R-Texas) introduced an amendment to strike from the bill nonbinding language calling for a mandatory program to combat global warming. Specifically, this provision of H.R. 2643 expresses “the sense of the Congress that there should be enacted a comprehensive and effective national program of mandatory, market-based limits and incentives” to reduce global greenhouse-gas emissions. An example of so called “market-based limits” would be to allow companies that want to exceed their allowable emissions output to buy permits or allowances from companies that choose not to use their full allotment. The House rejected the Barton amendment, and thereby kept the global warming language in the bill, by a vote of 153-274 (Roll Call 555) on June 26, 2007. Mandatory limits on greenhouse-gas emissions would harm the economy.John Tanner voted AGAINST this bill.110-2 (Source: The New American, December 10, 2007)
SCHIP. This bill (H.R. 3162) would authorize about $86 billion over five years for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The federal funds are given to state governments to provide healthcare for low-income, uninsured children. However, this expansion would extend the program to others from higher-income families who are already covered by private insurance plans. The House passed the bill by a vote of 225-204 (Roll Call 787) on August 1, 2007. Federal healthcare funding is unconstitutional.John Tanner voted FOR this bill.110-2 (Source: The New American, December 10, 2007)
Agriculture Appropriations. The 2008 Agriculture appropriations bill would provide $90.7 billion for the Agriculture department, the Food and Drug Administration, and related agencies. It would include funding for the food-stamp ($39.8 billion) and child-nutrition programs ($13.9 billion), farm subsidies and crop insurance, conservation programs, rural development programs, etc. The House passed the bill by a vote of 237-18 (Roll Call 816) on August 2, 2007. Federal aid to farmers and federal food aid to individuals are not authorized in the Constitution.John Tanner voted FOR this bill.110-2 (Source: The New American, December 10, 2007)
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance.This bill (S. 1927) would allow warrantless electronic surveillance (eavesdropping) of targets outside the United States regardless of whether they are communicating with someone within the United States. This surveillance had been conducted illegally by the CIA. Under this legislation, communications companies would be required to comply with surveillance requests and would be provided lawsuit protections. The House passed S. 1927 by a vote of 227-183 (Roll Call 836) on August 4, 2007. Warrantless surveillance of American citizens is a violation of the Fourth Amendment provision against “unreasonable searches and seizures.” Although the bill includes a sunset provision causing it to expire after six months, President Bush has already called for making the bill permanent.John Tanner voted FOR this bill.110-2 (Source: The New American, December 10, 2007)
Thought Crimes. This bill (H.R. 1955), known as the “Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007,” could more aptly be titled the “Thought Crimes Act.” The bill would establish a National Commission on the Prevention of Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism and establish a grant program to prevent radicalization in the United States. However, critics charge that the bill is a thinly disguised attempt to criminalize dissent, based on the bill’s vague and open-ended language that could be used to trample basic rights to free speech and assembly, and turn legitimate dissent into thought crimes. For instance, the bill defines “violent radicalization” as “the process of adopting or promoting an extremist belief system for the purpose of facilitating ideologically based violence to advance political, religious, or social change.” The bill does not define either “extremist belief system” or “facilitating ideologically based violence.” The bill also states that “the Internet has aided in facilitating violent radicalization, ideologically based violence, and the homegrown terrorism process in the United States by providing access to broad and constant streams of terrorist-related propaganda to United States citizens.” The House passed H.R. 1955 by a vote of 404-6 (Roll Call 993) on October 23, 2007. The bill threatens legitimate dissent.John Tanner voted FOR this bill.110-2 (Source: The New American, December 10, 2007)
Peru Free Trade Agreement.The Peru Free Trade Agreement (H.R. 3688) is another in a series of free-trade agreements to transfer the power to regulate trade (and other powers as well) to regional arrangements. Other examples include the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). However, the Committee on Ways and Means Report accompanying H.R. 3688 noted that “the Peru FTA has become the first U.S. free trade agreement to include, in its core text fully enforceable commitments by the Parties to adopt, maintain, and enforce basic international labor standards, as stated in the 1988 ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.” The ILO, or International Labor Organization, is a UN agency. The House passed the bill by a vote of 285-132 (Roll Call 1060) on November 8, 2007. The Peru FTA and other so-called free-trade arrangements threaten our national independence and (as we’ve seen with NAFTA) harm our economy.John Tanner voted FOR this bill.110-2 (Source: The New American, December 10, 2007)
Head Start. The final version (conference report) of H.R. 1429, a bill to reauthorize the Head Start program through 2012, was adopted 381-36 on November 14, 2007 (Roll Call 1090). Head Start provides educational activities and social services for children up to age five from low-income families. The program received $6.9 billion in fiscal year 2007. $7 billion was authorized in the fiscal 2008 omnibus bill, but H.R. 1429 increased funding to $7.4 billion for fiscal 2008, $7.7 billion for 2009, and $8 billion for 2010. The income level at which families are eligible to participate was raised from 100 percent of the poverty level to 130 percent ($26,728 for a family of four). Some members opposed the bill because Head Start grants will not be allowed to faith-based organizations that hire employees on the basis of religious preference. The bill advances the federalizing of the educational system, and federal involvement in education is unconstitutional.John Tanner voted FOR this bill.110-3 (Source: The New American, July 21, 2008)
Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations.H.R. 3043, a bill to appropriate funding for fiscal 2008 labor, health, human services, and education programs, was rejected 227-141 on November 15, 2007 (Roll Call 1122) in a failed veto override requiring a two-thirds majority. Total appropriations would have been $606 billion. The bill included $150.7 billion — $6.2 billion more than for fiscal 2007 — in “discretionary” spending, that is spending the government has not deemed mandatory, such as the big entitlement programs. It also contained more than 2,200 earmarks totaling about $1 billion. Social-welfare programs are unconstitutional.John Tanner voted FOR this bill.110-3 (Source: The New American, July 21, 2008)
Children’s Health Insurance.H.R. 3963, a bill to reauthorize the Children’s Health Insurance Program, was rejected 260-152 on January 23, 2008 (Roll Call 22) when the House failed to get the necessary two-thirds majority of those present to override President Bush’s veto. The bill would have authorized the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) at nearly $60 billion over five years, expanding the program by $35 billion. It also would have put an additional tax on cigarette manufacturers, would have undermined private insurance plans, and would have pushed us further down the slippery slope to socialized medicine. Federal healthcare programs are unconstitutional.John Tanner voted FOR this bill.110-3 (Source: The New American, July 21, 2008)
Economic Stimulus. H.R. 5140, the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008, passed 385-35 on January 29, 2008 (Roll Call 25). It would provide about $150 billion in economic stimulus, including $101.1 billion in direct payments of rebate checks (typically $600) to most taxpayers in 2008 and temporary tax breaks for businesses. Creating money out of thin air and then spending the newly created money cannot improve the economy, at least not in the long term. (If it could, why not create even more money for rebates and make every American a millionaire?) The stimulus has no offset and thus increases the federal deficit by the amount of the stimulus because the government must borrow the rebate money. A realistic long-term stimulus can only be achieved by lowering taxes through less government and by reducing regulatory burdens. John Tanner voted FOR this bill.110-3 (Source: The New American, July 21, 2008)
Targeting American Oil Companies. H.R. 5351, the $18.1 billion Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax Act, passed 236-182 on February 27, 2008 (Roll Call 84). It would provide tax deductions and incentives for the production of renewable energy (including wind, solar, and ethanol) and for energy conservation. To offset $13.7 billion of the bill’s cost, the domestic manufacturing tax deduction would be taken away from the five largest integrated oil companies operating in the United States. Specifically targeted were Exxon-Mobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and foreign-headquartered Shell and BP. Citgo Petroleum Corp., a subsidiary of the government owned oil company of Venezuela, would not lose its six-percent deduction. Increasing taxes for the largest U.S. oil producers would drive gasoline prices higher and because Congress should not be subsidizing energy development, including renewable energy. The increased tax expense to corporations would simply be passed on to consumers. Targeting the top U.S. oil companies for making record profits is a disincentive to increasing exploration and production; undermines the exceedingly large capital base required to rebuild when Katrina-type hurricanes devastate the oil patch; and is unfair. Other companies and sectors with record profits would be untouched, not to mention foreign oil producers larger than Exxon.John Tanner voted FOR this bill.110-3 (Source: The New American, July 21, 2008)
2009 Federal Budget. House Concurrent Resolution 312, the House plan for the fiscal 2009 budget, was adopted 212-207 on March 13, 2008 (Roll Call 141). This Democrat-drafted, nonbinding budget recommends outlays of about $2.6 trillion for FY2009, with a deficit of $536 billion. The budget would allow some Bush tax cuts to expire or sunset in 2010, thus increasing federal revenues without overtly raising taxes. The House Republican Conference, in opposition to the plan, points out that taxes would increase $683 billion over the next five years, the child tax credit would be cut, the marriage penalty would come back, small business tax credits would be reduced, and dividends and capital gains taxes would be raised. The American welfare state this budget expands is unconstitutional. It should initially be frozen at least and then reduced.John Tanner voted FOR this bill.110-3 (Source: The New American, July 21, 2008)
Global HIV/AIDS Foreign Aid Program. H.R. 5501 would authorize $50 billion over five years to provide assistance to foreign countries for the stated purpose of combating HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. The program was established five years earlier to fill an “emergency” function, but this legislation shifts the purpose (in the words of Congressional Quarterly) “toward a long-term, sustainable plan” including (for example) training 140,000 new healthcare workers. Prior to voting on the bill itself, the House rejected a motion to recommit the bill to lower the cost to $30 billion — the funding level President Bush had requested. The House passed H.R. 5501 on April 2, 2008 by a vote of 308-116 (Roll Call 158). Foreign aid is unconstitutional.John Tanner voted FOR this bill.110-3 (Source: The New American, July 21, 2008)
State Voting Assistance.H.R. 5036, The Emergency Assistance for Secure Elections Act, was rejected 239-178 on April 15, 2008 (Roll Call 188). The act purportedly would increase the security of U.S. elections by reimbursing jurisdictions that voluntarily replace Direct Recording Electronic voting systems with voter-verifiable paper ballot systems in time for the 2008 elections. The bill would grant the Election Administration Commission (EAC) new audit regulatory powers and funding to pay for random vote count audits and hand counts of paper ballots cast in the 2008 elections. The cost could be as high as $685 million. The act would expand an unconstitutional federal power grab to control elections that was initiated through the disastrous Help America Vote Act of 2002 with its establishing of the EAC. That act fostered and financed a huge increase in the use of electronic voting equipment which can be hacked, lacks credible auditing, and vastly increases the potential for wholesale voter fraud. Politicians who caused that problem now seek its remedy through even more federal control and tax dollars. It is better (and constitutional!) for each state to manage and pay for its own elections.John Tanner voted FOR this bill.110-3 (Source: The New American, July 21, 2008)
Farm Bill. H.R. 2419 would authorize the nation’s farm programs for the next five years, including crop subsidies and nutrition programs. The final version of this legislation worked out by House and Senate conferees (known as a conference report) provides $289 billion for these programs, including a $10.4 billion boost in spending for nutrition programs such as food stamps. The House passed the conference report on H.R. 2419 by a vote of 318-106 (Roll Call 315) on May 14, 2008. Federal aid to farmers and federal food aid to individuals are not authorized by the Constitution.John Tanner voted FOR this bill.110-3 (Source: The New American, July 21, 2008)
