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October 29, 2005

Does Oregon have ANY Democrats in Congress???

Congressman David Wu has made several votes over the last couple or so years that have raised eyebrows in his district. Earlier this year he voted for the anti-family, anti-veteran, anti-poor bankruptcy bill. Now we learn that he has again voted for corporate interests over citizens. I'm focusing on Wu because he is my representative. But, he has had plenty of company in Congress.

NewsHog first alerted me to this story and Cernig has more details there. But, here's the gist of it:

The Federal Housing Finance Reform Act of 2005, which passed the House of Representatives yesterday by a vote of 331-90, contains a provision that establishes a national fund for developing affordable housing, by skimming 5 percent off the profits of the government-sponsored home-finance companies Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.

The funding would be a boon to the nonprofit housing sector – worth up to an estimated $1 billion within two years – but it comes with strings attached: nonprofit organizations would not be able to tap into the fund if they have recently engaged in activities that encourage people to vote. - The New Standard

As always, context is everything. In 1993, the year before the so-called Republican Revolution, Congress passed the National Voter Registration Act. The Act, initiated and passed by Democrats, requires nonprofits across the United State to provide voter registration services in order to receive housing and other social services money. This new Bill effectively guts that provision. In so doing it overtly sides with corporate fatcats over the poor in America.

The Final Roll Call vote results tell the tale of the tape:

• 209 GOPers vote for and only 15 vote against. Kudos to Rep. Ron Paul of Texas for demostrating once again that common sense and a conservative world view aren't necessarily mutually exclusive.


• 122 Dems vote for and only 74 vote against. Every single Oregon Democrat vote FOR this bill.

I would like to suggest yet once again that this pattern of Democrats voting in favor of corporate interests and against fundamental access by citizens is part and parcel of why folks like Howard Dean and Paul Hackett are perceived as such a threat by the powerbrokers in the Democratic Party. The reality is that Ralph Nader was telling the truth when he described the Democrats (as a party) as Republican-lite.

In this case there was a substantial minority of Congressional Dems who refused to rubberstamp this heinous piece of legislation. But at the end of the day they were a minority and as such are not reflective of the majority.

Posted by Kevin at October 29, 2005 12:59 PM