Gibson's fake jobs vote ~ a Guest Post by Mark Berger, Nassau Democratic Chairman

Last week my wife received a mailer, sent at taxpayer’s expense, from Congressman Chris Gibson. I guess he doesn’t consider male Democrats as part of his constituency.

Since jobs are issue number one in our country, Gibson leads off by saying he voted for “creating jobs by removing impediments to growth.” Did he vote for a jobs bill? No, he did not. After 4 months control of the House of Representatives, the Republicans have yet to put forth a single jobs bill.

The phrase “impediments to growth” is Republican code for regulation. In this case, the Republicans want to require a job impact study before the EPA adopts any environmental regulation. Their goal is to stifle the EPA by pitting employment against environmental protection. This is not a jobs bill, because it will not have any impact on the level of unemployment we are experiencing.

Gibson’s vote has nothing really to do with jobs, and, from my perspective, it has everything to do with making the Koch Brothers and Carl Rove happy. Rove and the Koch’s are absolutely opposed to the EPA. Remember, they poured over $600,000 into campaign ads that attacked Scott Murphy, which helped Gibson win. Might he owe them one?

If the Republicans were interested in keeping America competitive in the world economy they would be supporting the president’s green economy and education initiatives. But they are not.

Gibson and his fellow Republicans keep marching out their bogus claim that regulation is what’s hurting American businesses. The truth is some regulations work and others don’t. But one thing is certain: without regulation, we get toxic waste sites, unsafe work places, and unsavory financial products. Think Dewey Loeffel, think black lung disease, think climate change, think the financial meltdown of 2008, the savings and loan collapse of the 80’s, and the Great Depression.

After the worldwide financial collapse in 2008, free market guru and Bush’s fed chair, Alan Greenspan admitted he was wrong to believe that the directors and managers of the large banks and investment houses would honor their fiduciary responsibilities and, thus, would never back worthless securities nor push marginal mortgages. His philosophical position of free trade did not work in the real world where organized greed and a hands-off policy on regulation nearly brought on the second great depression. Did the real world conform to Greenspan’s philosophical viewpoint, no, it did not and we are still picking up the pieces of this misguided political philosophy.

Back to Gibson. In his mailing, he points to his vote against the use of “un-elected” agency czars as if that is something that matters. As he knows and so do we, we do not elect agency heads, we elect the president and he makes appointments with the advice and consent of congress. Bush appointed so-call czars for homeland security and drug enforcement and so has Obama. With all the serious problems that confront our country why waste time on this?

Ironically, the one place where Mr. Gibson can control federal spending is in the running of his office. Here I expected big cuts, just like the Republicans are calling for all over the place. Yet all Gibson was able to cut was 5% of his office budget. Is Congressman Gibson realizing that running an efficient and responsive government office costs money? Does he realize that making across the board cuts often creates more problems than it solves?

I hope Chris Gibson takes the time to learn history’s lessons rather than becoming a victim of a philosophy which fails in the world in which we live

Guest Post - Gibson lies about the EPA

We snagged this post from DailyKos and got permission for the author to post it here. 
 

NY-20: Gibson lies about his lie, 'That's a fact' 

(click to see post at DailyKos.)

by devtob

Tea party Republican Chris Gibson has a wholesome image -- clean-cut, well-spoken, church-going Catholic, veteran, Ph.D., hometown hero, family guy, etc. -- but he has become quite the shameless liar in his first few months in Congress.

Like every Republican, Gibson repeats the Boehner talking-points Big Lie that the Ryan Republican budget does not propose a voucher plan in place of Medicare and will not affect current Medicare recipients.

And Gibson lies about federal spending -- when challenged at a recent town hall to explain why the only federal budget surplus in decades occurred when income tax rates for billionaires were higher in the Clinton administration, he ignored the question and told a whopper about the EPA budget.
 
Here's the video, courtesy of the GibsonWatch website of Democracy for the Greater Glens Falls Area, an active DFA outfit:

The video catches Gibson in another BIG LIE:

"This level of spending is something we can't sustain.I'll just give you just one example, the Environmental Protection Agency, that budget went up, from 2008, it went up 131 percent. That's a fact."

Well, no, it's not.
Not. Even. Close.
 
The EPA budget was $7.2 billion in FY 2008, it went up to $10.3 billion in FY 2010, then down to $10 billion in FY 2011. The Obama EPA budget for 2012, which Gibson and other tea party radicals in the House will surely slash away at, proposes $9 billion.

Let's give a liar a break, and take the EPA's high budget watermark, the $10.3 billion in FY 2010. That's 43 percent more than FY 2008, not Gibson's weirdly precise 131 percent.

And it's less than 43 percent now, and will be even less in FY 2012.

Gibson is not just a liar about EPA, he's also a hypocrite.

While Gibson votes with the radical Republicans to cut EPA even more, he "applauds" the EPA spending federal money to investigate (and hopefully clean up) the notorious Dewey Loeffel chemical waste landfill in his district (Nassau, Rensselaer County).

The EPA budget under Obama has gone up substantially, which makes sense to those who care about the environment and recognize that EPA had been handcuffed under the Bush/Cheney administration.

Gibson could use a truthful number -- 43 percent from 2008 to 2010 -- to make his point, but he decided that telling a lie about a bigger number would impress his low-information constituents about the allegedly awful federal spending problem.

But his choosing to lie about EPA, as an example of "outrageous" federal spending, is essentially absurd, given that the EPA's share of total federal spending is well less than 1 percent. Gibson is a rookie, and gets his budget lies from Randroid Ryan, who is more experienced in Congress, and at lying with numbers.

Indeed, Ryan has been claiming that EPA spending has more than doubled by including stimulus money, about $7 billion over two years.

All of that money, save $20 million for administration and oversight, went to jobs-producing water and sewer projects, cleaning up hazardous waste sites, and reducing diesel pollution. 

So, EPA's basic budget is really up some 30 percent or so from 2008, not the 131 percent Gibson parrots from Ryan.

In repeating House Republican lies, Gibson has become just another Republican who lies on behalf of billionaires to bamboozle his constituents.

And there is nothing wholesome about that.

Guest Post from Nassau Democratic Town Chairman Mark Berger

            March 10, 2011 was an historic day for Nassau. On that day, two separate, but very important and portentous decisions were rendered. We experienced a loss and a win, but the real victory will be a long time coming.

            Let’s start with the loss that is unquestionably a loss. On March 10, a unanimous ruling by the Appellate Court upheld Judge Lynch’s decision which declared the 2008 Comprehensive Plan and its supporting legislation null and void. Nassau has another appeal pending, but our record so far is 0 for 3.

            The terse ruling is available at this link: http://townofnassau.org/content/News/View/27:field=documents;/content/Documents/File/979.PDF.

            Practically speaking, the Appellate Court’s decision means that no recently passed zoning laws apply to the TS&G mining application. If the Town adopts a new Plan and new laws this year or in the future, Troy Sand and Gravel will not be bound by the terms. To underscore this point, in June of 2010, the Town entered into a Stipulation Agreement which said, in part, that if the nullification of the 2008 laws were upheld TS&G “shall be exempt from any subsequent land use regulation that may or will be adopted by the Town Board of Nassau from this date forward.”

            Also on March 10, the United States Environmental Protection Agency, Region 2, added Dewey Loeffel Landfill to the Federal Superfund List. At an information meeting last spring, EPA officials explained the process and heard from the public. According to their news release, which I have attached, adding the toxic waste site to the Superfund List “enables the EPA to initiate and oversee the cleanup of the site.”

            The EPA was “unable to reach agreement on a settlement with General Electric, Bendix Corporation and Schenectady Chemicals” (the so-called Potentially Responsible Parties) and so it will proceed on its own to investigate the landfill and the resultant contamination.

            This coming Thursday, March 24, from 7pm – 9 pm at St. Mary’s Church Parish Hall, another EPA public information meeting will be held to explain and answer questions about what happens next.

            Although I am relieved that the EPA is looking to move forward where the DEC has treaded water for so many years, I am cautiously optimistic about what the EPA will be able to accomplish. Now, Nassau is officially the home of one of the 1200 most toxic waste sites in all the United States and Puerto Rico. For those who still believe that “people should be able to do what they want with their land” and for those who put up signs about “property rights,” I say “Pitch a tent on Dewey Loeffel’s former land and drink a glass or two of the water there as a toast to that outdated idea.”

            I hope we have a good turnout on Thursday with residents of Nassau and Schodack joining together again to hear what is being said and to say what is on their minds. Good government begins with us.

Thanks for listening,

Mark

Town of Nassau Democratic Committee, PO Box 237, East Nassau, 12062: Where your donations lead to good government.