Posted on 06/14/2011 1:25:21 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Yesterday, the House passed the largely non-controversial Military Construction/Veterans Affairs Appropriations (MilCon) bill for FY 2012. Unfortunately, it is these non-controversial bills which provide a safe haven for meretricious policy initiatives through the rapid fire amendment process. While everyone was focused on presidential politics, the House passed an amendment forcing government contractors to use labor unions on federal construction projects. Oh, and like most bad legislation, this amendment passed by one vote, with the help of 27 Republicans.
In 2009, Obama used his signature power grab tool; an Executive Order, forcing all private companies to sign a project labor agreement (PLA) in order to bid on federal construction projects. PLA’s compel the private contractor to use only unionized workers for the perspective project. This executive power grab is nothing more than an election payback to big labor, which would ostensibly purloin the taxpayer with forced collective bargaining for all public construction projects.
This malevolent executive order would also discriminate against non-union workers. Keep in mind that only a small percentage of private sector construction workers are unionized. As Congressman John Culberson (R-TX) said on the House floor, “So the Obama administration through this executive order is attempting to unionize any private company in America that wants to do business with the federal government.” Then again, Democrats have been paying out their union cronies with the blood and sweat of American taxpayers for years.
Last month, Republicans on the Appropriations Committee inserted language in the MilCon bill to nullify any executive mandate for project labor agreements. Ironically, it was a Republican, union shill Rep. Steve LaTourette, who proposed an amendment to strike out the anti PLA section from the bill. He rounded up 26 other Republicans and helped Democrats preserve Obama’s pro-union discrimination by 204-203!
In addition to fleecing the taxpayers with a union giveaway, 54 Republicans voted down an amendment (Justin Amash- AMDT 413) to prohibit the use of funds to enforce Davis-Beacon prevailing wages. This Great Depression era pro-labor law inflates the cost of public contracts by forcing the government to pay highly subjective “prevailing” wages to those who contract with the federal government. Rep. Amash and others have been seeking to use approps bills to strike out these wage controls from government contracts. Each time, there were enough rouge Republicans to defeat his amendments. The amendment to the MilCon bill failed 178-232, with the help of way too many Republicans.
Yesterday’s “non-controversial” House votes are quintessential examples of the need to shed light on the banal, yet consequential, proceedings of Congress. We simply cannot sit idle and assume that a Republican-controlled House will scuttle pernicious legislation without some “outside help” from the Tea Party. Sadly, this holds true even for those bills which offer handouts to the largest bankrollers of the Democrat Party.
The 27 Republican Socialists that supported this bill need to go in 2012........................
Give us a list of the RINOs!
Steve LaTourette seemed to be the ringleader on sustaining the Obamao executive order. He needs to be primaried next year.
Tell me again why were we so excited about taking the House in 2010? Everyday I feel more and more betrayed.
Those wascally WINOs are at it again!
PING!
Giving weasels a bad name; weasel Steve LaTourette ping.
LaTourette is a member of the REPUBLICAN MAIN STREET PARTNERSHIP. In 2006 LaTourette co-authored the Financial Data Protection Act of 2006, which sought to unify state and federal laws on banking and privacy and ease the burden of patchwork legislation.
On Thursday, March 17, 2011 LaTourette became one of only seven Republicans who voted “NO” on a measure introduced in the US House of Representatives to strip all government funding from NPR. (http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2011/roll192.xml)
In a meeting with transit advocates lobbying for more spending and higher taxes, LaTourette disparaged fellow legislators who stood for lower spending and taxes, referring to them as “knuckledraggers that came in in the last election that hate taxes.” (http://dc.streetsblog.org/2011/03/16/rep-latourette-tells-transit-advocates-to-ask-congress-for-what-they-need/)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_C._LaTourette
Cryboehner also put to the floor a vote to give Wiener a two week paid vacation.
Totally unacceptable.
Republican Main Street Partnership
Senators
Susan Collins, Maine
Mark Kirk, Illinois
John McCain, Arizona
Olympia Snowe, Maine
Representatives
Steve Austria (OH-7)
Roscoe Bartlett (MD-6)
Charles Bass (NH-2)
Judy Biggert (IL-13)
Brian Bilbray (CA-50)
Mary Bono Mack (CA-45)
Ken Calvert (CA-44)
Dave Camp (MI-4)
Shelley Moore Capito (WV-2)
Charlie Dent (PA-15)
Mario Diaz-Balart (FL-21)
Robert Dold (IL-10)
David Dreier (CA-26)
Jo Ann Emerson (MO-8)
Mike Fitzpatrick (PA-8)
Jeff Fortenberry (NE-1)
Rodney Frelinghuysen (NJ-11)
Jim Gerlach (PA-6)
Chris Gibson (NY-20)
Michael Grimm (NY-13)
Richard Hanna (NY-24)
Nan Hayworth (NY-19)
Lynn Jenkins (KS-2)
Bill Johnson (OH-6)
Adam Kinzinger (IL-11)
Leonard Lance (NJ-7)
Steve LaTourette (OH-14)
Jerry Lewis (CA-41)
Frank LoBiondo (NJ-2)
Thad McCotter (MI-11)
David McKinley (WV-1)
Pat Meehan (PA-7)
Tim Murphy (PA-18)
Erik Paulsen (MN-3)
Tom Petri (WI-6)
Todd Platts (PA-19)
Tom Reed (NY-29)
Dave Reichert (WA-8)
Jim Renacci (OH-16)
Jon Runyan (NJ-3)
Aaron Schock (IL-18)
Steve Stivers (OH-15)
Lee Terry (NE-2)
Pat Tiberi (OH-12)
Mike Turner (OH-3)
Fred Upton (MI-6)
Greg Walden (OR-2)
Ed Whitfield (KY-1)
Frank Wolf (VA-10)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Main_Street_Partnership
Board of Directors at wiki...probably an old list.
R’s who voted ‘Yea’
1. Barton (TX)
2. Biggert (IL)
3. Diaz-Balart (FL)
4. Dold (IL)
5. Emerson (MO)
6. Grimm (NY)
7. Hayworth (NY)
8. Johnson (IL)
9. King (NY)
10. Lance (NJ)
11. LaTourette (OH)
12. LoBiondo (NJ)
13. McCotter (MI)
14. McKinley (WV)
15. Murphy (PA)
16. Petri (WI)
17. Reichert (WA)
18. Ros-Lehtinen (FL)
19. Roskam (IL)
20. Runyan (NJ)
21. Schmidt (OH)
22. Schock (IL)
23. Smith (NJ)
24. Turner (OH)
25. Walsh (IL)
26. Whitfield (KY)
27. Young (AK)
Notice how many IL & NJ R’s voted ‘Yea’.
The lone D who voted ‘No’: Dan Boren (OK)
Let me add a major WTF???!!! with regards to Mr. McCotter.
Bachmann & Paul were at the debate & didn’t vote, but if the POTUS can auto-pen a law, they should be able to absentee vote.
Not Voting MN-6 Bachmann, Michele [R]
Aye TX-6 Barton, Joe [R]
Aye IL-13 Biggert, Judy [R]
Not Voting TX-8 Brady, Kevin [R]
Not Voting GA-10 Broun, Paul [R]
Aye FL-21 Diaz-Balart, Mario [R]
Aye IL-10 Dold, Bob [R]
Aye MO-8 Emerson, Jo Ann [R]
Aye NY-13 Grimm, Michael [R]
Aye NY-19 Hayworth, Nan [R]
Not Voting MI-2 Huizenga, Bill [R]
Not Voting TX-3 Johnson, Samuel [R]
Aye IL-15 Johnson, Timothy [R]
Aye NY-3 King, Peter [R]
Not Voting IA-5 King, Steve [R]
Aye NJ-7 Lance, Leonard [R]
Aye OH-14 LaTourette, Steven [R]
Aye NJ-2 LoBiondo, Frank [R]
Aye MI-11 McCotter, Thaddeus [R]
Aye WV-1 McKinley, David [R]
Aye PA-18 Murphy, Tim [R]
Not Voting TX-14 Paul, Ronald [R]
Aye WI-6 Petri, Thomas [R]
Aye WA-8 Reichert, Dave [R]
Not Voting IN-4 Rokita, Todd [R]
Aye IL-6 Roskam, Peter [R]
Aye FL-18 Ros-Lehtinen, Ileana [R]
Aye NJ-3 Runyan, Jon [R]
Aye OH-2 Schmidt, Jean [R]
Aye IL-18 Schock, Aaron [R]
Not Voting IL-19 Shimkus, John [R]
Aye NJ-4 Smith, Christopher [R]
Not Voting OH-15 Stivers, Steve [R]
Aye OH-3 Turner, Michael [R]
Aye IL-8 Walsh, Joe [R]
Aye KY-1 Whitfield, Edward [R]
Aye AK-0 Young, Donald [R]
Me too on McCotter, can’t believed he voted yea....
It makes you wonder if they actually read it, doesn’t it?
OUR taxes-> to public Union contracts = Rat$ campaign contributions
However, it makes a little more sense after noticing the post just before mine. I see that he is a member of the Republican Main Street Partnership, as are are nearly all of the rest of the R’s who voted for this.
Ron Paul and Michelle Bachmann were too busy campaigning, and are listed as “Not Voting”. The vote passed by 1, so those two helped the bill’s passage.
Just sayin’.
Kevin Brady was a “not voting” and he isn’t running for anything!
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