Dave Ribar, Applied Rationality

What does Rep. Howard Coble have against mothers and Mother's Day. On Wednesday, the House considered H.Res. 1113, "celebrating the role of mothers in the United States and supporting the goals and ideals of Mother's Day?"

The resolution expresses a straightforward and uncontroversial sentiment. It also seems like the type of matter that the House could address quickly. The House does after all have many other important issues to consider, including two wars, an oil shortage, a ballooning deficit, a foreclosure crisis, and a faltering economy. In fact, just a week earlier, President Bush had criticized Congress for not acting on economic and energy legislation, complaining that Americans are "looking to their elected leaders in Congress for action. Unfortunately, on many of these issues all they're getting is delay."

Today, North Carolina Representatives Patrick McHenry, Virginia Foxx and Howard Coble opposed strengthening the highly successful Head Start program, which gives almost 20,000 disadvantaged children in North Carolina a better chance to succeed in school.

The bill passed with strong bipartisan support, with only 32 members opposing the measure and 381 Republicans and Democrats supporting it.

“Our children are our state’s most important resource, and we should invest in their future by offering them the best early education possible,” said NCDP Chair Jerry Meek.

“But today, Republicans tried to make it harder for every child in North Carolina to get a better education, voting against the Head Start program which improves teacher quality and helps raise kids’ achievement in school,” Meek said.

Reps. McHenry, Foxx and Coble opposed the Improving Head Start for School Readiness Act Conference Report (HR 1429).

NCDP Chair Jerry Meek today applauded North Carolina’s Democratic Congressional Delegation for keeping their promise to make our communities safer and more secure. This week, Congressional Democrats voted to implement the 9/11 Commission’s recommendations-- something Republicans like Richard Burr, Howard Coble, Virginia Foxx, Sue Myrick and Patrick McHenry, who voted against the bill, refused to do for the last three years.

In July 2004, the 9/11 Commission announced its recommendations for how to avoid a future terrorist attack in the United States. For three years, Republicans put their partisan loyalty ahead of our nation’s security, first by resisting Democratic efforts to appoint the bipartisan Blue Ribbon Commission in the first place, then by joining President Bush in ignoring the Commission’s recommendations.

But this week, Democrats in Congress voted to send a long-overdue bill that finally implements the 9/11 Commission recommendations to the President’s desk. The bill would tighten screening of air and sea cargo, strengthen transit security, improve oversight of our intelligence and homeland security systems, and allocate $3.3 billion to help communities improve communications among first responders—a major problem during both the September 11 attacks and in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

“Republicans have fought us every step of the way,” said NCDP Chair Jerry Meek. “But Democrats scored a victory for the American people today by sending the 9/11 Commission’s recommendations to the President’s desk. The time has come for Republicans to stop standing with the President and start standing up for the people of North Carolina.”

A report issued this month by the nonpartisan Citizens for Tax Justice awarded North Carolina Democrats in Congress high marks for defending tax fairness and fiscal responsibility. The yearly report card grades members of Congress on their votes on several bills based on whether they voted to make our tax system fairer for hard-working North Carolinians. Unlike North Carolina Democrats, all North Carolinians in the Congress received a pathetic 0% score for an overall "F" and were designated an "Enemy of the Taxpayers."

The report noted that many of the members who claimed to be taxpayers' heroes were often the ones leaving North Carolinians to foot the bill for their fiscally irresponsible policies. Reps. Taylor, Hayes, Foxx, McHenry, Coble, Jones, and Myrick and Sens. Dole and Burr voted time and again to increase budget deficits, for tax breaks for the few, and to set our nation on a course towards fiscal ruin.

Yesterday, the Do-Nothing Republican Congress tried to solve a problem that doesn't exist. The U.S. House, by almost entirely a party-line vote, passed a bill that would disenfranchise thousands of voters by requiring them to obtain and produce government issued photo ID proving their citizenship before they could vote.

Laws like this one have been ruled unconstitutional by courts in Missouri and Georgia in the last week.

All North Carolina Republicans--Representatives Charles Taylor, Robin Hayes, Virginia Foxx, Patrick McHenry, Walter Jones, and Howard Coble--supported this attempt to disenfranchise voters.

As school children across North Carolina return to the classroom, Bush and the Do-Nothing Republican Congress continue to do nothing to improve education.

Each school year, more frightening results of the Bush Republicans' No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law come to light.

Instead of properly funding their own legislation, Bush Republicans like Representatives Charles Taylor, Robin Hayes, Virginia Foxx, Sue Myrick, Patrick McHenry, Howard Coble, and Walter Jones have cut education by over $40 billion since 2001, leaving schools to struggle with NCLB compliance, and creating a massive teacher shortage in rural schools.

Because Republicans have failed to provide promised funding for education reforms, 65,751 children in North Carolina have gone without help in reading and math and 39,922 have gone without after-school programs that boost academic achievement and keep kids safe. [CRS, 1/2006] If we want American jobs to stay in America, we have to have more American children succeeding in sciences, math and literacy.

Democrats know that the key to expanding opportunity is to provide every child with a world-class education. We will meet our responsibilities to America's children by ensuring that our schools have the resources they need to help our kids meet high standards.

This summer, as temperatures and gas prices in our state break records, the only people who haven't seemed to notice the importance of environmentalism are North Carolina Republicans in Congress.

In the nonpartisan League of Conservation Voters' most recent Environmental Scorecard for the North Carolina delegation in Congress, North Carolina Democrats scored an average of 87.3; Republicans scored 9.8%. That's out of 100.

"The League of Conservation Voters' National Environmental Scorecard reflects a session of the United States Congress steeped in controversial anti-environment legislation. Many of our core environmental and public health laws were under attack, and much of what we worked to protect for decades was at stake."

Among North Carolina Republicans, Sen. Elizabeth Dole and Rep. Robin Hayes scored the worst with 0%. Sen. Richard Burr scored 5%. Reps. Charles Taylor, Sue Myrick, and Howard Coble scored 6%. Reps. Virginia Foxx and Patrick McHenry scored 11%.

As families across North Carolina were wrapping up their Christmas shopping, Republicans in Washington were putting the finishing touches on a radical plan to pay for $100 billion in new tax cuts for wealthy investors and special interests, by slashing billions from programs that help ordinary Americans. U.S. Representatives Charles Taylor, Robin Hayes, Virginia Foxx, Patrick McHenry, and Howard Coble joined nearly every Republican in the House of Representatives in voting to slash $40 billion from crucial programs, including $12.7 billion from student loan programs, $6.9 billion from Medicaid, $6.4 billion from Medicare, and $2.7 from vital agricultural programs.

Making matters worse, Congressional Republicans failed to act on the one tax cut that could really benefit working families--legislation to keep 17 million Americans from having to pay the Alternative Minimum Tax.

All Democrats from North Carolina voted against the measure and are standing up for working North Carolinians: Reps. David Price, Mel Watt, Bob Etheridge, Mike McIntyre, Brad Miller, and G.K. Butterfield.

Yesterday, the U.S. House passed a measure 308-122 to ban torture and limit interrogation tactics in U.S. detention facilities and setting uniform guidelines for the treatment of prisoners in the war on terrorism.

The language, proposed by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), would prohibit "cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment" of anyone in the custody of the U.S. government. It passed the U.S. Senate 90-9.

Unfortunately, 6 House Republicans from North Carolina didn't agree with prohibiting cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.

Charles Taylor, Robin Hayes, Virginia Foxx, Patrick McHenry, Sue Myrick, and Howard Cole voted against banning torture. All Democrats from North Carolina voted in favor of the ban.

North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Jerry Meek said, "Our strength as a nation is always influenced by our strength of moral character. Cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment of any of God's children is always wrong. Democrats understand this. But North Carolina's Republican members of Congress don't get it. These Republicans are on the wrong side of morality and the wrong side of history."

In a letter sent today to North Carolina's Republican Members of Congress, North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Jerry Meek requested that they follow the lead of fellow Republican Representatives and return tainted money received from Tom DeLay.

Former Republican Majority Leader DeLay, who has given almost $100,000 in campaign contributions to North Carolina Republicans, has been indicted on felony charges of criminal conspiracy and money laundering.

"North Carolina's Republican Members of Congress should return any contributions from DeLay immediately," said Chairman Meek. "He and his fundraisers have been charged with breaking campaign finance laws, so money he funneled to others is tainted as well. Tom DeLay and his supporters in Congress have created a corrupt, pay-to-play system that puts the ill in illicit. North Carolina needs men and women in Congress who will put North Carolina families first, not becoming part of the Republican culture of corruption in Washington. We need a change of direction in Congress."