I am shocked that Cleveland.com does not have updates on H.R. 1 on the front page every day. This first bill of FY11, passed in the House of Representatives just before dawn on February 19th, proposes to cut $80 billion dollars in spending that would eliminate thousands of jobs & decrease hundreds of federal programs in the Greater Cleveland area.
Rep. Steven LaTourette voted YES to CUT funding & services to the poorest of our nation & world. He wants to eliminate or deeply cut AmeriCorps, HIV/AIDS relief & prevention, Pell grants, most of the EPA & IRS, food inspections, MediCare, the National Parks System, and National Public Broadcasting.
If H.R. 1 passes the Senate, Clevelanders would lose NPR on WCPN, drug prevention programs like Weed & Seed, and AmeriCorps programs like Northeast Ohio Literacy Corps. Major cuts in scientific research would result in piles of pink slips for researchers in our many health care & biomedical institutions.
Low income individuals would have little to no federal support to access higher education. We would see increases in hunger, poverty, and illness due to significant cuts in WIC, HEAP, AIDS/HIV protection, EPA regulations, and much more.
Rep. LaTourette showed his true colors in this very first bill. Imagine: our Representative working hard until the wee hours of the morning to fight bitterly over a bill that will never pass the Democratic-run Senate and would certainly receive a VETO from President Obama.
This fairy tale play-acting merely shows what Rep. LaTourette doesn’t want to pay for: jobs for Clevelanders, feeding the hungry, educating our children, and investing in the future of science. Our Representatives should be spending their time doing something that will positively impact their constituents. Unfortunately, Rep. LaTourette chooses to sit on the D.C. stage in the middle of the worst of Washington theatre.
Oh, and he also voted to decrease funding for the Office of Government Ethics. What a waste of money that would be!
While H.R. 1 is a joke, the budget is not. Cuts are coming, and action needs to be taken to preserve programs that work to positively impact our region’s economy, health, and standard of living.
Please join me the afternoon of Friday, February 25th 1:30-4:30pm in a visit to Rep. LaTourette’s District Office at One Victoria Place #320, Painesville, OH 44077. Share with him exactly how you feel about his vote on H.R. 1. My signs will say “DO YOUR JOB. KEEP OUR JOBS.” and “REAL PEOPLE NEED REAL POLICY.”
View the list of proposed program cuts online at: http://republicans.appropriations.house.gov/_files/ProgramCutsFY2011ContinuingResolution.pdf
Here’s a list of some of the key amendments & their results:
http://politics.nytimes.com/congress/bills/112/hr1/amendments
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