GET THE FACTS
News you shouldn't miss about the issues that matter most, from the desk of Jim McDermott, U.S. Congressman, Washington State District 7: http://www.mcdermottforcongress.com/
September 2007
Volume 3, Issue 1
A CALL TO ACTION
Greetings Friends,
As we head into a pivotal autumn, I want to reconnect with you via this newsletter. It’s important to me you get an overview of what’s been going on in DC and how that affects us here at home.
The United States Constitution is in jeopardy. The Bush Administration — and most blatantly, Vice President Cheney— continue to disregard our civil liberties. Over the past few months I have come to the decision that legislation to impeach Vice President Cheney is necessary. I have co-sponsored a bill in the US Congress to that effect (Read the bill).
Important issues we face continue to need addressing:
- As the casualty count in Iraq and Afghanistan rises, so too does the Bush Administration’s resistance to ending this needless and relentless war;
- Homelessness is on the rise;
- Accessible healthcare has become a luxury unaffordable to more Americans everyday;
- Global warming not only threatens our children’s futures – it affects us here and now.
These issues are bigger than any one of us. I say this not to instill fear, but to call you to action, to remind you that YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE. My responsibility is to bring your concerns, ideas and voices to Washington as your elected representative. Please use this newsletter as a forum and give me your feedback. Your voice is vital to the democracy we hold so dear. Together we can responsibly change the perilous course our current administration has put us on.
As always, I thank you for your support in our efforts to restore sanity to government.
Sincerely,
Jim McDermott
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Welcome to the “Best of McDermott – 2007” version of our e-newsletter. Pour a cup of coffee, sit down and take a read through a collection of speeches, video highlights, news stories, blog entries and yes – even poetry from the Floor of the House.
END THE WAR IN IRAQ!
HUMPTY DUMPTY A short Floor speech I recited recently.
Bush, Cheney and others had a great call--
Remake Iraq, it will be such a ball.
Now all Bush's troops and all daddy's men
can't put Iraq back together again.
Our soldiers keep dying, day after day.
So why put up with more endless delay?
Let's just acknowledge what everyone knows:
Bush didn't and doesn't have any clothes.
He broke it, can't fix it, doesn't know how;
Mission impossible: out of Iraq now.
House of Representatives
May 07, 2007
WHITEWASH FROM THE WHITE HOUSE
“There is no credibility left whatsoever in the White House. None. The White House cannot whitewash the truth any longer. The American people are exasperated by a Commander in Chief who is blind to what is happening in Iraq…” (Read the whole speech)
House of Representatives
July 11, 2007
A QUOTE FROM DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER
“ Mr. Speaker, a man from Kansas said,
‘Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, and the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.'
- Dwight David Eisenhower, April 16, 1953.
I ask that the rest of my time be in silence for those who have died in Iraq, Americans and Iraqis.” (watch this speech)
House of Representatives
July 26, 2007
Call to Action: End the War
Look at the truth about this war:
IMPEACH VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY
THE VICE PRESIDENT SHOULD RESIGN OR FACE IMPEACHMENT
“The time has come for the Vice President to go. Our Nation and our national security interests at home and abroad cannot afford to have this Vice President one heartbeat away from the Presidency. As it stands now, the Vice President's damage to U.S. interests, security, system of government and our position at home and abroad will take years to overcome.” (Read the whole speech)
House of Representatives
June 28, 2007
Call to Action: Impeach Vice-President Cheney
- Read Slate: Impeach Cheney: The vice president has run utterly amok and must be stopped, By Bruce Fein, June 27, 2007
- Read the Legislation I co-sponsored with other members of the House...
HEALTH CARE FOR ALL AMERICANS
PROVIDING FOR THE COMMON GOOD HAS BEEN A CORE AMERICAN VALUE
This is an Op-Ed piece I recently wrote for national newspapers:
Winston Churchill once said that you could always count on Americans to do the right thing after they tried everything else.
Well, we have tried everything else to “fix” health care except the solution that will work: single-payer, universal health-care coverage. It’s the right time to do the right thing.
Single-payer would cover every American and use this vast “risk pool” to reduce prices and deliver better care. When we all work together, we all benefit. That’s what the common good is all about.
With single-payer, health-care costs would be financed by the public sector, but health-care services would be delivered by the private sector. It’s efficient and effective. (Read the whole article)
CHILDREN'S HEALTH AND MEDICARE PROTECTION ACT OF 2007 (S-CHIP)
“Mr. Speaker, the debate comes down to this: Do you favor big tobacco or children? Do you favor big tobacco and insurance company profits or seniors? We come down on the side of children and seniors, and that's what this bill is all about.”
House of Representatives
July 11, 2007
Call to Action: Health Care
- Read HR1200
- I have seen Michael Moore's Sicko and am impressed with how such a complex and pressing issue has been documented - I recommend you see this film. Sicko
- Become familiar with your health coverage
- Have a discussion with your parents about their health coverage
OUR ENVIRONMENT - TODAY & TOMORROW
A FLOOR SPEECH REGARDING THE RENEWABLE ENERGY AND ENERGY CONSERVATION TAX ACT OF 2007
“We live in a Nation addicted to oil, and we simply can't afford it anymore. It's too expensive for the American pocketbook; it's too adverse for American security, and too perilous for the Earth's atmosphere. But the key to any and every part of the energy solution lies here in the Congress in its political will to change what we can change for the good of the American people and the Earth.” (Read the whole speech)
House of Representatives
August 4, 2007
WHAT’S A GRIBBLE and WHAT DOES IT HAVE TO DO WITH THE VIADUCT?
A Gribble is an underwater creature that has been found boring into the Seattle Seawall that holds up the Alaskan Way Viaduct. Gribbles and their equally destructive pals Toredos have increased the seawall's vulnerability to an earthquake more than previously thought. I obtained funding for a critical Seattle seawall study being conducted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Why? I believe a study will prove without doubt that the federal government should play a role in restoring the seawall.
Call to Action: Our Environment
- Read more about Gribbles, Toredos and the Seawall Study
- Read Legislation I am co-sponsoring – HR 2776
- How about taking the bus this week instead of driving? Use King County Metro’s Trip Planner to get you where you need to go.
HOMELESSNESS
NATIONAL HOMELESS YOUTH AWARENESS MONTH
Here’s my speech proposing making November National Homeless Youth Awareness Month:
“Mr. Speaker, as we walk around our hometowns and cities, who thinks about the young people we pass hanging around in front of a store or a park or street corner? Some people simply avert their eyes and walk a bit faster, focusing on something else. Others, they quickly step by and try to get by them.
Can we tell which of them are begging, borrowing or stealing to eat? Do we stop and consider if these kids are selling drugs or their own bodies in order to buy food or pay for shelter?
Too few of us are willing to ask whether these young people might be homeless, and the fact is too many of them are homeless on the streets of our hometowns. As many as 2.8 million kids are homeless right now, right in front of our eyes, if we choose to look and see.”
House of Representatives
July 11, 2007
Call to Action: Poverty and Homelessness
- Check out the Mockingbird Times - a newspaper written and produced by homeless youth in King County.
- Watch Jewel deliver testimony in the House of Representatives
- Here’s a great list of suggestions from King County’s Coalition to End Homelessness
BY THE PEOPLE
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