Friday, March 30, 2007

Passing a Sensible Budget - Do We Even Have to Report How Gus Bilirakis Voted?

H CON RES 99 YEA-AND-NAY
29-Mar-2007 2:35 PM

QUESTION: On Agreeing to the Resolution

BILL TITLE: Congressional Budget for the U.S. Government for Fiscal Year 2008

VOTE PASSED
Bilirakis - NO
(Bilirakis did vote Yes on the Proposed Ryan Amendment to Cut Medicare and Financial Aid - Vote Failed)


H. Con. Res. 99:
revising the congressional budget for the United States Government for fiscal year 2007, establishing the congressional budget for the United States Government for fiscal year 2008, and setting forth appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal years 2009 through 2012

Friday, March 23, 2007

Gus Bilirakis not only doesn't want to bring the troops home - He doesn't want to pay them either

H R 1591
U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans' Health, and Iraq Accountability Act, 2007

YEA-AND-NAY
23-Mar-2007 12:43 PM

QUESTION: On Passage

BILL TITLE: Making emergency supplemental appropriations for fiscal year ending September 30, 2007, and for other purposes

VOTE PASSED
Bilirakis - NO


An Historic Day

"Benchmarks without deadlines are just words, and,
after four years of this war,words are not enough."
- Speaker Pelosi

Today, the House of Representatives passed the U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans' Health, and Iraq Accountability Act by a vote of 218 to 212. We made a critical choice—a choice to hold the Bush Administration and the Iraqi government accountable, and to set a responsible timeline for the redeployment of U.S. troops.

Our legislation fully supports our troops and ensures they have the tools and resources they need to do they job they have been asked to do. It prohibits the deployment of troops who are not “fully mission capable” – fully trained, equipped, and protected. It also honors the promises made to our veterans, funding our obligation to the new generation of veterans.

By requiring the Iraqi government to meet key security, political, and economic benchmarks that President Bush himself has laid out, we are holding the Iraqi government accountable. Failure to meet these benchmarks will mean the beginning of U.S withdrawal from Iraq and will restrict economic aid to the Iraqis.

The redeployment of our troops will allow us to focus more fully on the real war on terror, which is in Afghanistan. This bill takes giant steps toward putting resources into that war, which has been nearly forgotten by the Bush Administration.

President Bush continues to offer an open-ended commitment to a war that cannot be resolved militarily. Today, the House of Representatives passed legislation that will, for the first time, set a date for the withdrawal of our troops from Iraq and begin to end the war.


Thursday, March 22, 2007

Will Gus Bilirakis be a "troop killer" like C.W. Bill Young?

The vote on the Iraq spending bill is being debated in Congress as I type. I called Gus' office yesterday to find out if he will support the bill, and of course, he hasn't made up his mind yet.

Will Gus be a "troop killer" like local Congressman C.W. Bill Young, who is now famous for ignoring the conditions at Walter Reed in order to save the Bush administration from embarrassment? Young voted against the bill when it came before the Appropriations committee last week, which makes him a "troop killer." Will Gus join him in saying NO to adequate armor, training, and rest for our soldiers?

Stay tuned...

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Want something done in FL District 9? Call Guam.

#438 out of a Class of 439 -

From FLAPolitics.com:

Congressman Gus Bilirakis was ranked last in the House Freshman list of power by Congress.org. (Finishing 2nd to last overall) -


In Florida, (Kathy) Castor was ranked sixth overall with the top six being Democrats (Hastings, Wasserman-Schultz, Wexler, Meek, Boyd and Castor). The top Republican was Bill Young of St. Pete.

But the least powerful congressperson in Florida is (drum roll....) Gus Bilirakis - who placed last in the state, last among all incoming freshmen and next to last out of the ENTIRE HOUSE.

Only indicted Congressman Jefferson of LA was lower. With Bilirakis's overall ranking of 438, it also means that the non-voting Delegates from the Virgin Islands and Guam are bigger players in Congress than Bilirakis.

In any case, congrats to Castor. Good thing for Florida that Castor is as good as Bilirakis is bad.

Thursday, March 1, 2007

Gus votes against workers

Are we surprised? NO!

Gus Bilirakis voted against the Employee Free Choice Act today. What a shock! Here's a link:

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2007/roll118.xml

With this bill, workers will gain the ability to join unions - and unions bring higher wages, better pensions, and health insurance. Unions will be more able to organize workers, leading to higher union density, which in turn raises the benefits of unionization still more.

Forgot to post last week when Gus rode on a Big Brown UPS truck. He was "excited" about it. I'll try to find a link if I'm not too lazy.

If Gus really understood the working class, he wouldn't have voted against the Employee Free Choice Act. I hoped his ride on the Big Brown truck would have enlightened him but I guess not.