On the Campaign Trail with Ed Tibbetts

The Quad-Cities’ congressmen, Bruce Braley and Phil Hare, rank near the top of the liberal scale, according to new rankings by National Journal.

Braley, a Waterloo Democrat, ranked 74th most liberal in the House, while Hare was at 80.

The rankings say the two were more to the left on social and foreign policy votes than on economic issues. Braley, in fact, scored a 59 (meaning he was more liberal than 59 percent of his colleagues) on economic issues. He was at 92 on foreign policy.

Hare scored a 69 on economic issues, with an 82 on social issues.

On the Senate side, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin ranked 7th most liberal. Sen. Tom Harkin was 27th most liberal. U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, a Republican, was the 19th most conservative, according to the rankings.

Here’s National Journal’s report. The magazine came up with the rankings by looking at 76 Senate votes and 78 House votes.

Also, the Iowa delegation’s votes put it in the moderate category. Iowa’s congressional delegation is nearly evenly split, with 3 Democrats and 2 Republicans.

Incidentally, there was no ranking given for President Obama, nor for the Republican presidential nominee last year, John McCain.

No matter your politics, the deficit number for 2009 can’t help but stagger the imagination.

At 12 percent of GDP, it’s the highest in generations, the Washington Post says. Reuters puts some perspective on it, noting that the deficit was 21.5 percent of GDP in World War II.

Here’s the Post , New York Times  and Reuters stories.

The Obama administration, which is unveiling its 2010 budget today, says the deficit next fiscal year will be just short of $1.2 trillion.

Obama said the other night that he inherited a $1.3 trillion deficit. Expect this and the new figures to be chewed on all day and into the cable TV night.

Davenport Mayor Bill Gluba’s in Washington, D.C., today to talk up the city’s stimulus projects in a meeting with 60-some other mayors and President Obama.

Here’s what the Times reported he had to say yesterday about the visit:

“Barack Obama got his start in the Quad-Cities and Davenport and Iowa,” Gluba said. “It obviously helps to be involved. When your candidate gets elected, it’s time to call in your chips, and we’re calling them in.”

And being quite subtle about it, too.

Iowa Gov. Chet Culver’s office announced today that contracts for $56 million in stimulus projects were awarded today.

Iowa is wasting no time putting federal stimulus funds to work…” the governor’s office says.

Work will begin as soon as weather permits, the DOT says.

None of the awards announced Friday were for the QC.

The Iowa DOT stimulus money for this area, if approved, would go for resurfacing I-74 from I-80 to the Mississippi River bridge ($3.2 million) and for widening and resurfacing West Kimberly Road from Fairmount Street to I-280 ($1.3 million).

U.S. Rep. Phil Hare on CNN this morning talking about his call for Sen. Roland Burris to resign.

Hare says, “I’ve had enough.” And, he adds, so have the people in Illinois.

Here’s the video:

Hare on CNN

The Hill posted a story last night that quotes unnamed White House sources saying Howard Dean doesn’t have much chance to be the new Health and Human Services secretary.

U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, is seen as one of those pushing Dean for the post (though I can’t recall if Harkin has identified himself in that way). At any rate, the Hill article quotes Harkin as saying the former Vermont governor has healthy support in the Senate.

From The Hill:

“What he did in Vermont as governor shows that he understands how to get children covered and how to do healthcare,” said Harkin, chairman of the Appropriations Health and Human Services subcommittee, in reference to Dean.

“A lot of us are supporting him,” said Harkin, in reference to his Senate colleagues.

U.S. Rep. Phil Hare, D-Ill., has joined the call for Sen. Roland Burris, D-Ill., to resign.
Hare, who only last December praised Burris, said today he’s “deeply disappointed that Senator Burris hid the fact that he attempted to raise money for former Gov. (Rod) Blagojevich at the same time he was lobbying for an appointment to the U.S. Senate.”

“Given this latest revelation, I believe it is in the best interest of all Illinoisans that Senator Burris resigns,” Hare said.

The chrous of voices calling for the former attorney general to step down is growing.

The Chicago Tribune editorial board called for Burris to resign today.

Ousted Gov. Rod Blagojevich appointed Burris to fill President Obama’s vacant Senate seat last December. But he’s come under fire after acknowledging that he’d spoken with Blagojevich’s brother after telling an Illinois House impeachment panel that he hadn’t.

He’s also acknowledged Monday that he tried unsuccessfully to put together a fundraiser for Blagojevich last year.

Burris has defended his testimony.

Last December, Hare called Burris a “distinguished public servant.” But today he said the latest scandal is like a recurring nightmare, given the turmoil over Blagojevich’s ouster.

U.S. Rep. Phil Hare offered his take on the $787 billion stimulus after President Obama signed the bill today.

In essence it’s this: It’s Bush’s fault, we’re cleaning up the mess.

Here’s the full statement:

“By pursuing an ideological agenda of deregulation and tax cuts for the rich, President Bush left our economy in shambles. Today is an important first step in cleaning up the mess we inherited. The enactment of this economic recovery package is a victory for working families. Plain and simple — this legislation will put millions of people back to work. We now must focus on putting Wall Street referees back on the field and stemming the foreclosure crisis so ordinary Americans can stay in their homes.”

ProPublica, the online investigative publication, has done an analysis of the infrastructure spending in the $787 billion stimulus bill President Obama is signing into law today.

It says some of the low-unemployments states are getting a big chunk of the money, while states with the highest rates of joblessness are on the low end.

Iowa does pretty well, placing 13th best in the country at nearly $6,200 per unemployed worker, according to ProPublica.

At the top is Wyoming, at $20,126, whose unemployment rate is 3.2 percent. (Do you suppose they count Dick Cheney in that?)

Interesting analysis, given the complaints Iowa got shortchanged in the Medicaid piece of the bill.

Anyway, here’s the list.

U.S. Rep. Phil Hare, D-Ill., took aim this morning at Wall Street moguls with a bill to put an end to “excessive or luxury expenditures” by institutions that are getting federal bailout money.

Hare’s calling his bill the STOP Act of 2009. That stands for Stop Offensive Taxpayer-Practices Act.

The measure would require the Treasury Department to set up a policy about excessive or luxury expenditures, which Hare says includes entertainment, office renovations, flights or “any other activity or event that is not a reasonable expenditure for any conference, staff development, performance incentive, or other similar activity conducted in the normal course of business operations.”

The bill is aimed at some of the reports of conferences at lavish resorts. Hare, who voted for the bailout package, has been angry about the Wall Street spending for weeks.

“Allowing Wall Street firms to referee themselves is how we got into this mess in the first place,” Hare said.