Today, Governor Mitch Daniels wrote a letter to Indiana House members to reject Health Care legislation. See the Governor gets it and understands what it will do to our country and state!
I am proud of my congressman, Rep. Dan Burton (IN-5) for rejecting this as well as Rep. Mike Pence (IN-6), Rep. Mark Souder (IN-3) and Rep. Steve Buyer (IN-4). It is the others that need to listen and take heed! Reps. Carson, Hill, Ellsworth and Donnelly are you listening????
Here is the letter that Gov. Daniels sent to the members of the Indiana Delegation
Read more after the leap
The Indiana Fair Tax was pretty pleased today to announce the addition of Congressman Mark Souder to list of Hoosier Congressman already supporting H.R. 25, also known as The Fair Tax. Congressman Souder joins Congressmen Dan Burton and Mike Pence as supporters.
Congressman Souder praised the consistent and persistent efforts of grassroots volunteers and voters who ensured that their support for The FairTax was noticed.
Dan Higgins, State Director of FairTax Indiana, said “The current state of the economy and the need to ensure American competitiveness in the World is causing many to re-examine and embrace The FairTax as the best and most fair reform plan before Congress.”
While it’s a long shot to pass in the Democrat controlled House and Senate (seriously, when have the Democrats ever sought to bring fairness to the tax code…unless by fairness you mean redistributing wealth) the Fair Tax movement has been gaining steam.
Here’s hoping that the Fair Tax gains enough momentum even during this Congress to gain serious attention in the following congress when, hopefully, Republicans are in control.
Read the full press release after the leap.
There were quite a few highlights during Saturday’s health care debate. But before the outcome was determined, Congressman Mark Souder took the time to put a sappy Nancy Pelosi in her place.
(H/T – @daltonsbriefs via Gateway Pundit)
Todd Young being the other former Lugar staffer currently running for Congress.
This one is Phil Troyer, a financial services lawyer (previously of Washington, now of Fort Wayne), who intends to announce a primary challenge to Mark Souder on Tuesday:
Phil Troyer to Announce Candidacy for Congress
(FORT WAYNE) Phil Troyer, a Fort Wayne attorney, will announce his intention to challenge incumbent U.S. Congressman Mark Souder in the 2010 Republican Primary during press conferences to be held at the following times and locations:
Chestnut Hills Clubhouse (off U.S. 14) in Fort Wayne – Tuesday, November 10, 2009 @ 8:00 a.m.
Goshen Public Library – Tuesday, November 10, 2009 @ 4:00 p.m.
Troyer, a former aide to U.S. Senators Dan Coats (R-IN) and Richard Lugar (R-IN) and campaign manager for Rick Hawks’ 1990 congressional challenge race, brings considerable political experience to the race. “Frankly, I had no intention of returning to politics,” said Troyer. “Working on Capitol Hill was a tremendous opportunity for someone who grew up in small towns like Etna Green and Shipshewana. However, I decided to move back to northeastern Indiana to concentrate on raising a family and building a career outside of government.”
Troyer currently serves as General Counsel for a national financial services firm whose parent company was recently named the 2nd fastest growing privately-held company in the country by Inc. magazine. “I have a great job and was not looking to change careers,” noted Troyer. “However, when Congressman Souder voted in favor of the $700,000,000,000.00 bailout of Wall Street, I decided someone needed to do something.”
I am not thinking that “worked for Dick Lugar” is going to be a big selling point with conservative Republican primary voters. It’s certainly not what a smart, conservative candidate would want to start their resume with or list as their first qualification in a campaign announcement press release (unless he’s either not smart, or not conservative, or both).
Also, let me get this straight. Troyer work as a lawyer for a big national financial services company. So big that he doesn’t mention its name in his press release, but important enough to his resume that he mentions it anyway.
And, since he works in the financial industry, he’s basing his campaign on complaining that Mark Souder voted to bail out the financial industry.
What?
Wow.
Pot, meet kettle.
Anyway, Troyer’s challenge to Souder will be the third Congressional primary for Republicans in Indiana, after the 5th District and the 9th District (the latter having probably just gotten considerably less interesting and more, well, over).
Democrats have been trying to claim that abortion isn’t federally funded in the health care bill. This is despite the fact that there are two amendments that attempt to strip federally funding from abortion (although, let’s be serious, only one does that and it’s the Stupak/Pitts amendment and not the Ellsworth amendment which as been proven to do nothing to change the course).
In the following clip, Mark Souder breaks through the health care bill’s double speak to prove it provides for federal funding of abortion.
Give Joe Donnelly and Pete Visclosky credit. These two have four more cojones than Brad Ellsworth or Baron Hill combined. Joe and Pete have done what Baron Hill and Brad Ellsworth can’t stomach doing, so far, during the August recess. And that’s face the constituents on their turf and not in one of these one on one “limited time offer” office visits or some weekend morning phone call or worse yet, just running away back to DC before the August recess is even over.
What about Congressman Andre Carson? Rumor has it, he held an “invitation only” town hall. But a review of Carson’s website doesn’t yet show anything coming up that’s open to the constituents of the 7th district.
So, what of our GOP congressmen? Mike Pence has already held three town halls this month. Dan Burton and Steve Buyer will be holding their own joint invitation only event, but each will be holding town halls which will be open to the public. Congressman Burton will be holding two, while Buyer and Souder will each be holding one.
See this is what real congressmen do. They meet with their constituents. They don’t “duck and cover” to avoid confrontation.
So why are Brad Ellsworth and Baron Hill running scared and refusing to meet their constituents on public terms?
Schedule of upcoming town halls (of the actual meeting with constituents variety and not the hind behind a phone variety):
From WANE:
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) – Democrat Tom Hayhurst filed with the Federal Election Commission to run for the 3rd District Congressional seat. Hayhurst ran a tight race against Congressman Mark Souder in 2006.
Congressman Mark Souder won with 54 percent of the vote. Hayhurst says he wants to make some changes in the third district to help with unemployment.
Two Republicans are running against Souder. Hayhurst is the only Democrat to file.
Hayhurst didn’t come close to Souder in 2006. I’m not thinking that 2010 is going to be a better year for Democrats than 2006 or 2008 were.
If people in the 3rd District didn’t vote out Souder in 2006, when the sentiment was to vote out Republicans to put a check on George W. Bush, they’re not likely to vote Souder out in 2010, when the sentiment will likely be to send more Republicans to Washington to put a check on Barack Obama.
Talk about bad timing.
Yesterday, Indiana State Senate candidate Jim Banks (R – Columbia City) picked up the endorsement of Congressman Mark Souder. Banks, also the Whitley County Republican Party Chairman, is the first person to announce that he is running to replace retiring Sen. Gary Dillion in the 17th District. A point that Congressman Souder made very clear in his endorsement statement was that Jim Banks will work hard to grow Indiana’s economy and bring more jobs to northeast Indiana.
According to the Congressman:
“I am proud to announce my support for Jim Banks for State Senate in District 17. Jim will be a consistent advocate for conservative values in the Indiana General Assembly. I have worked with Jim as a member of the Northeast Indiana Workforce Development Board to put Hoosiers in our region back to work and to train our workforce to obtain better skills in order to attract more jobs. As a State Senator, Jim will continue to be a partner with me for Northeast Indiana to solve our workforce needs and to bring more jobs to our region.”
Those who have watched Congressman Souder over the years know that he is very cautious when it comes to the endorsements that he makes. The fact that Jim Banks could earn that endorsement only adds credibility to what is already a very credible candidacy. I think that what we’ll see emerging in a future Senator Banks is someone who is a workhorse for the 17th District and conservative, Hoosier values and principles. Jim will not a back-bencher who is content to let others do the heavy lifting. It is that kind of willingness to work hard that helps earn the support of leaders like Mark Souder.
Of Indiana’s nine Congressmen, can you guess the four with perfect attendance so far this year?
The answer is after the leap.
The Indy Star has a compilation of quotes from different members of the Indiana Congressional delegation in response to President Obama’s speech last night. It is worth reading (and entertaining in some instances). I want to point out two specifics that I found interesting:
Mark Souder pulled no punches:
President Obama has increased the federal deficit as much in his first year as President Bush did in his first five years. He has also proposed unprecedented takeovers of private businesses and expanded the powers of the federal government far beyond what is necessary to deal with the economic downturn.
The president, in my opinion, has turned a likely serious, but relatively short recession, into a potential depression.
Senator Lugar, on the other hand, continues to make me scratch my head:
President Obama’s address to Congress tonight, and the release of his budget on Thursday, come at a critical time as our economy continues to weaken and our national debt is mounting. The president has initiated work with Congress on these critical financial matters. At the same time, we must continue to be vigilant in addressing our national security challenges and continue to provide American leadership in the world.
I suggest four increasingly interconnected areas in which the United States should not lose focus: nuclear proliferation, global energy security, global food security and climate change. The United States possesses unique abilities to address each of these problems that no other country has. Three of the four — proliferation, energy scarcity and climate change — pose grave potential threats to the United States itself.
I won’t argue with the Senator on much here regarding nuclear proliferation and other items, but it really frustrates me that he has bought into global warming (sorry…climate change) and then procedes to elevate this failing theory to the level of one of the top 5 issues.
