The Democrats, however, have not been sleeping.  The Saturday before Spring Break we had the first of our long-awaited service projects!  Thanks to Dems Vice President Julio Alicea and Saturdays of Service Co-Ordinator… Julio Alicea for putting this together.  We went into the city and volunteered at Philabundance, the region’s largest food bank.  They split us into two groups; those of us in the warehouse unloaded giant boxes of donations onto a conveyor belt and sorted items for distribution.  We worked at a furious pace and got a lot done.  Neither exploding cartons of soup nor close encounters of the furry kind could deter us.

Thanks to everyone who came out to volunteer!  There’s some good news in the Delco Daily Times recently: Philabundance is going to expand its operations in Chester.  For more information on the organization, click here.

Thank you to Colleen Guiney for passing it along.

H.R.1

Approves $60 Billion in Spending Cuts

Making appropriations for the Department of Defense and the other departments and agencies of the Government for the fisal year ending September 30, 2011, and for other purposes

Meehan: YES

Passed in the House by 22 votes

H.R.1

Bars Salary Financing for the Health Care Law

Rehberg of Montana Amendment No. 575

Meehan: YES

Agreed to in the House by 25 votes

H.R.1

Bars New Regulation of Certain Greenhouse Gases

Poe of Texas Amendment No. 466

Meehan: YES

Agreed to in the House by 35 votes

H.R.1

Eliminates Funding for Planned Parenthood

Pence of Indiana Amendment No. 11

Meehan: YES

Agreed to in the House by 26 votes

H.R.1

To Reduce Funding for Amtrak

Sessions of Texas Amendment No. 43

Meehan: NO

Failed in the House by 38 votes

H.R.1

Prohibits Financing of Net Neutrality Regulations

Walden of Oregon Amendment No. 404

Meehan: YES

Agreed to in the House by 31 votes

H.R.514

Passes 90-Day Extension of Patriot Act Provisions

To extend expiring provisions of the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005 and Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 relating to access to business records, individual terrorists as agents of foreign powers, and roving wiretaps until December 8, 2011

Meehan: YES

Passed in the House by 67 votes

H.R.1

Eliminates the National Drug Intelligence Center

Flake of Arizona Amendment No. 368

Meehan: YES

Agreed to in the House by 46 votes

H.R.514

Temporarily Extends Patriot Act Provisions

To extend expiring provisions of the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005 and Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 relating to access to business records, Casey: YES, Toomey: YES

Passed in the House by 65 votes

Demands Repayment From U.N.

United Nations Tax Equalization Refund Act

Meehan: YES

Failed in the House by 26 votes

H.R.514

To Temporarily Extend Patriot Act Provisions

To extend expiring provisions of the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005 and Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 relating to access to business records, individual terrorists as agents of foreign powers, and roving wiretaps until December 8, 2011

Meehan: YES

Failed in the House by 6 votes

S.223

To Remove Tax Language From the Health Care Law (Levin Amendment)

To repeal the expansion of information reporting requirements under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and for other purposes.

Casey: YES, Toomey: NO

Amendment Rejected in the Senate by 16 votes

S.223

Fails to Repeal Health Care Law

To repeal the job-killing health care law and health care-related provisions in the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.

Casey: NO, Toomey: YES

Motion Rejected in the Senate by 13 votes

S.223

Eliminates Tax Language in Health Care Law (Stabenow Amendment)

To repeal the expansion of information reporting requirements for payments of $600 or more to corporations, and for other purposes.

Casey: YES, Toomey: YES

Motion Agreed to in the Senate by 21 votes

Thursday:

Yes 96, No 1

S.223

On the Amendment

To amend Title 18, United States Code, to provide penalties for aiming laser pointers at airplanes, and for other purposes

Casey: YES, Toomey: YES

Amendment Agreed to in Senate by 47 Votes

Yes 55, No 42

S.223

On the Motion to Table

To limit the application of the Davis-Bacon Act int he case of projects funded under this Act.

Casey: YES, Toomey: NO

Motion to Table Agreed to in the Senate by 6 votes

Wednesday

Yes 44, No 54

S.223

To Remove Tax Language from the Health Care Law (Levin Amendment)

To repeal the expansion of information reporting requirements under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and for other purposes.

Casey: YES, Toomey: NO

Amendment Rejected in the Senate by 16 votes

Yes 47, No 51

S.223

Fails to Repeal Health Care Law

To repeal the job-killing health care law and health care related provisions in the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010

Casey: NO, Toomey: YES

Motion Rejected in the Senate by 13 votes

Yes 81, No 17

S.223

Eliminates Tax Language in the Health Care Law (Stabenow Amendment)

To repeal the expansion of information reporting requirements for payments of $600 or more to corporations, and for other purposes

Casey: YES, Toomey: YES

Motion Agreed to in the Senate by 21 votes

Thank you to our wonderful Secretary Paul Shortell!

“In light of the tragedies in Tuscon, let us take a moment to be inspired by the Rep Gifford’s own words after her 2010 election.

Rep Giffords starts by thanking so many who helped with her campaign – and then at about 1:30, speaks about what makes her campaign unique:

‘There’s a big difference between a crowd and a community.  When you are in a crowd, you are pushing, you are shoving, you are jockeying for position.  But, when you are in a community, you stop for a second. You acknowledge one another. You let the other pass you buy. You realize that if we are all going in the same direction, it’d going to be a whole lot better if we move all at the same pace and help one another. The difference between a crowd and a community, is that In a community, you can disagree without being disagreeable.’

She speaks about her background, and thanks many individuals for their work. She repeatedly refers to all who helped her, including Democrats, Republicans, Indies, Greens (and vegetarians!) in her campaign.

She speaks of finding

‘real solutions to real problems – not fear, not anger – but real solutions’

She talks about why she ‘does this job’  - to protect seniors,to help provide new types of jobs, to make sure that public schools continues to be here for all the young people, for our soldiers, sailors and airmen, the ranchers at the border (so we can finally fix our broken immigration laws).

Rep Giffords is inclusive in her eagerness to work across the aisle, for all of her constituents.

In her closing, Rep Giffords expresses her role in her campaign , and I expect her role in congress -

‘This campaign has been about different voices working on real solutions to extremely complex problems we face in a changing world.’

Finally, and poignantly, she makes a promise:

‘We have got a lot more work to do, and I promise, I will keep standing up for the people of Southern Arizona.’

Let us all work to stand up with determination and graciousness – even in the face of fear – to walk together in a community until Rep Giffords is able to stand with us again.”

It’s too simplistic to blame this primarily on Sarah Palin.  Today’s climate is the end result of a long trend, and you can certainly pin a little blame on the left for our own overheated rhetoric during the last administration (the Bush-is-Hitler variety – I do hope this blog never participated, but as a movement we bear some responsibility).  But threats of violent revolt from prominent political figures have gotten much worse during the last two years.  I’m not so alarmed by Palin’s trigger-happy campaign bravado as I am by Sharron Angle’s attitude, her endorsement of “second amendment remedies.”  Or by Glenn Beck’s nightly fear-, hate-, and revolution-mongering.  Or by the guy who took a loaded gun to a rally a year or so ago (remember that?).  The idea of armed revolt as a legitimate or virtuous response to a political situation constitutes an open invitation to people like Loughner.

And speaking of guns:  Guns don’t kill people; people kill people, and guns kill six people and injure a dozen more.  This man had, according to reports, an automatic or semiautomatic weapon.  He could’ve injured Gabrielle Giffords with another weapon.  But the extent of his rampage owes everything to the fire rate of his handgun.  He had just a few moments to do his damage.  A few moments to kill or injure as many people as possible: that’s the situation his gun was designed for.  If you can think of a legitimate civilian use for that kind of tool, you’re kidding yourself.

Among those secondary victims was this girl.  She was born on September 11th.  The irony is staggering.  On the day she was born our country was united in tragedy.  On the day she died we were as bitterly and brutally divided as we can remember.

And speaking of how things get better, now the Republicans  find that with power comes responsibility.  As P.J. O’Rourke said, “The Republicans are the party that says government doesn’t work and then they get elected and prove it.”  In that case they’re starting off on the right foot with health care repeal.  The Repeal the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act has the content to destroy Republican fiscal integrity for a generation (that goes with a name to kill whatever dignity the chamber’s got left).  According to the CBO (yes, the nonpartisan CBO, not Obama’s OMB) the catchily acronymed “RJKHCLA” will add to the projected deficit.  $145 billion by 2019 and $230 billion by 2021.  Pretty sizeable chunks.

You may ask how this fits in with the Cut-Go plan.  Cut-Go is Pay-Go without the option of revenue adjustments (i.e. it’s an attempt to beat up the budget deficit with one arm tied behind our backs).  But EXEMPT from Cut-Go are just a few minor items.  You know, like an estate tax cut, the Bush tax cut extension for everybody including the mega-rich, and the Repeal the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act.  The things the Republicans want most of all.  So Cut-Go means that Republicans are living up to their promise of strict fiscal discipline by ensuring that it applies only to Democrats.

Jon Stewart said it perfectly last night, though I’ll have to paraphrase: It’s like a groom promising to be faithful, with a small exemption for the people he wants to [get to know better].

But the Democrats can and will win this one.  Republicans can’t kill health care.  I’d love to see them try.  And they won’t score any points for it, because America’s moved on.  Health care reform was like a vaccination: now that it’s over, people have realized that it didn’t hurt a bit.  And the peanut gallery of rogue nurses (the GOP) who were screaming that it would be fatal are now looking a little silly.

So Cohn in the New Republic is right: bring ‘em on.  They can’t rewrite history.  And if House Republicans continue their tantrum instead of governing, then I expect that on Election Day 2012 the American people will give John Boehner something to really cry about.