Just last April Democrats were excoriating House Republicans asserting they were holding government hostage during the contrived government shutdown debacle. In a tit-for-tat move the Senate Democrats are now the "stonewallers" on keeping the government going by failing to pass the stopgap CR(continuing resolution).
In this latest saga the government is holding disaster relief hostage. Up and down the Wyoming Valley political pundits took jabs at Congressmen Lou Barletta and Tom Marino during the first showdown. It remains to be seen whether they voice the same opinion against the likes of Harry Reid and his cohorts in the Senate. Senate Blocks House Disaster Aid Bill
The Democrats are holding out for funding what they call an "Energy Department Loan Program". Well twist my britches in a knot and send me over the edge. The White House embarassment over the Solyndra bankruptcy announcement after backing it with loans(Obama administration agreed to Solyndra loan days after insiders foresaw firm's failure) this past week and charges it inflated the claim of green jobs (Fly a plane or drive a bus? Then Obama says you've a GREEN job: White House accused of massaging eco-employment figures) shows genuine chutzpah to make this issue a stumbling block to disaster aid.
Administration Defends Half Billion Dollar Loan to Bankrupt ‘Clean Energy’ Firm
Obama administration officials told U.S. lawmakers Wednesday that a contributor to the president’s 2008 campaign played no role in pushing the $535 billion federal loan to the bankrupt solar panel firm Solyndra, Inc., raided by the FBI last week.
However, one Energy Department official did not answer directly when asked whether he had direct communications with the White House over the loan provided through stimulus money.
Emails obtained by the House Energy and Commerce Committee appear to show that Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and Department of Energy (DOE) employees had expressed concerns that the process was being rushed – even as President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Energy Secretary Steven Chu were touting the California-based “clean energy” company as the wave of the future.
The Administration was warned back in 2009 about Solyndra but they threw caution to the wind with taxpayer money.
There's an even bigger problem that has been put on the back burner. Our government has not passed a budget in 900 days making these CR's a necessary evil.
Is it any wonder why this nation is so colossally screwed? Right now party leaders on both sides of the aisle are using this nation as a pawn in their political brinksmanship.
The amount of disaster aid needed to re-fund FEMA is a drop in the federal budget bucket at $ 7 billion when we are racking up multi trillion dollar deficits. Everyone in Washington knows that FEMA is going to get its money so get on with it.
Did anyone tell the leaders that 1 in 4 children in Northeastern Pennsylvania live in poverty?
One in every four children in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre/Hazleton metropolitan area lived in poverty in 2010, a dramatic increase over the previous year that came even as median household income in the region edged up slightly, new U.S. Census Bureau estimates indicated Thursday.
The jump was accompanied by a rise in the number of regional households that received food stamps, according to the American Community Survey, a census sampling of counties with population of at least 65,000.
"We are really talking about a huge portion of residents in Northeastern Pennsylvania who have trouble putting food on the table," said Teri Ooms, director of the Institute for Public Policy and Economic Development, a Wilkes-Barre-based think tank.
Families have lost everything, children are living in poverty, and Washington is quamired. They got molasses in their britches in a time when this nation needs action and compromise. The Democrats know they can't keep spending and the Republicans know that the government still has responsibilities. In that statemen
