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Tuesday, November 2, 2010
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In 2009, Chester County State Senator John Rafferty came in third for the most bills introduced! He had 62 bills introduced.
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Click on one of the articles below:
| By Congressman Joe Pitts |
“They’re all bums.”
“There’s no difference between Republicans and Democrats.” “One vote
isn’t going to make any difference.” “I don’t have time.” These
are the most common excuses for not voting, and none of them hold
any water.
Elected officials are not all bums. There is a tremendous difference
between the parties. A handful of votes can sometimes decide an
election. If it’s a priority, you’ll make the time.
I’ve served in Congress for a few years now. Prior to that, I
served in the Pennsylvania General Assembly. Some of the most
honorable people Ive ever met were politicians. Even in Congress,
there are plenty of men and women who only want to serve and to do
the right thing. Admittedly, they usually aren’t the ones you see
on television.
The difference between the two parties may be hard to discern from
the distance of your living room, but let me tell you it is hard to
mistake in Harrisburg or Washington. They represent two entirely
different philosophies of government. It isn’t even going too far
to say they represent two opposite conceptions of human nature. How
different would America, and even the world, be today if Jimmy
Carter had beaten Ronald Reagan in 1980? How different would our
ideas about taxation and welfare be if Republicans hadn’t taken
control of Congress in 1994? The difference is truly a stark one.
Can one vote make a difference? Yes. When I first ran for the
Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1972, I won the election
with a margin of 16 votes. If eight people had changed their minds,
I would still be a schoolteacher. In 1998, Jon Fox won an election
for Congress in Montgomery County by only 84 votes. In 2000, George
Bush won Florida, and thus the election, by only 537 votes.
You always have time to vote. Your polling place is in your
neighborhood and is open from 7:00 in the morning to 8:00 at night.
If you will be gone the whole day, you can vote in advance with an
absentee ballot.
Four years ago, in the last election that included the same races on
the ballot this year, 33.1 percent of the voting age population in
Pennsylvania turned out to vote. That’s less than a third. That
means that in a theoretical race won with 51 percent of the vote,
less than 17 percent of adult Pennsylvanians chose the winning
candidate.
It is literally true that thousands of our forefathers died on
battlefields to defend our right to choose our leaders. Women and
African Americans struggled for decades and centuries to have that
right long after white, male landowners first won that right in the
War for Independence. How strange it is, then, that such a small
percentage of us choose today to exercise that right.
Voting is more than our right; it is our duty.
In 1988, as cracks at last began to appear in the Iron Curtain, a
Czech playwright named Vaclav Havel had this to say: “God—I don’t
know why—wanted me to be a Czech. It was not my choice. But I
accept it, and I try to do something for my country because I live
here.”
Today, the author of
that humble statement is the President of the Czech Republic. In
1998, 76.7 percent of voting-age Czechs turned out to vote, more
than double the percentage of Pennsylvanians who turned out that
year.
God wanted Vaclav Havel to be a Czech. He wanted us to be
Americans. We don’t know why, and it was not our choice. But we
should accept it, and do something for our country because we live
here.
Vote. |
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| The following is adapted from Representative Samuel Rohrer’s (R-Berks) speech to Chester County Action
made on May 5, 2007. |
Today, the cry is for reform. People want a change in the way
government, and those in it, have operated.
They are tired of arrogant public servants who appear to line their
own pockets at the expense of the taxpayer. They
want servant leaders who make decisions based on duty and
responsibility, not opportunity and self interest. The
voters have weighed in and made clear changes in Senate
leadership—fifty new Pennsylvania House Members and
dozens of congressmen. The new Pennsylvania Speaker of the House
created a Speaker’s Reform Commission on
which I serve. Much good has happened, but much more needs to be
done.
However, I say that the real challenge is not so much reform, as it
is renewal. I believe that we must have
renewal in two fundamental areas: a renewal of values and a renewal
of vision.
Not all values are the same. Values are the distinguishing marks of
people and parties. When it comes to the
two organized parties, I believe that the Democrat Party has totally
rotted from within; as a party, it is now
impossible for them to renew themselves. Having repudiated almost
every core moral and patriotic value once held
by “rank and file Democrats,” the Democratic Party has become a nest
for Socialists and Al Gore alarmists. As a
party, they have rejected the traditional family unit in favor of
non-procreating arrangements under the guise of
personal liberty. For a long time, the leaders of that party have
supported and defended the killers of the unborn.
They have joined in assaults with the Anti-Christian Litigation
Unit, successfully throwing God out of the public
square and the Ten Commandments out of our schools, while throwing
condoms into our young girls’ purses. And
then, this party waves the white flag of surrender to our enemies
under the pretense of “doing the right thing.” Now
they have just passed the “Thought Crime” Bill in Congress, which
represents perhaps the boldest attack yet on the
very Constitution they swore to uphold.
On the other hand, while the Republican Party leadership in this
state and nation squandered opportunities
in the last ten years, the battle for renewal in this party is alive
and can succeed. Clearly, rather than putting a lid on
the growth of government, these past leaders have just recast the
growth with another name. Rather than fixing
historic problems, in many cases they have created new ones. As far
as the public is concerned, there was not enough
difference to warrant a continuation of the same leadership in
Pennsylvania—out went Senate leadership, out went
fifty House members, and out went a State Supreme Court Justice.
So what values do we, as the Republican party, need to renew?
First, we need a clear recognition that we are one nation—not many
nations—and that we are under God.
Not any God, but the God of our Founders. The God who, as “The
Creator”, has endowed us with certain
fundamentally inalienable, or God-given, rights among which are
life, liberty, and private property. It is the God of
the Bible Who gave us the Ten Commandments to govern our actions and
upon which any successful and free nation
must rest. These are the same commandments that used to hang in our
public school classrooms and still hang behind
the Pennsylvania State Supreme Court bench.
It is a renewal in our commitment to the value of a family
consisting of one man, one woman, and children.
It is the renewal of our commitment as the bedrock of society and
the realization that it is the parent who best raises
children, not the welfare department, not the public school, and not
Hillary’s village.
It is a renewal of the belief that there are things in which we
must believe strongly enough to die for and
more importantly, to live for.
It is a renewal of the belief that we are responsible for our
actions – not our neighbors, not government, not
anyone else. It is a renewal of the concept that we are to make
decisions and cast our votes in view of the impact on
our children and grandchildren, not simply the next election.
It is a renewal of our commitment to truth, not pragmatism, as the
basis for the creation of public policy and
the decisions of life. There is only one concept that the members of
the Pennsylvania House can read and that is this:
“And ye shall know the truth and truth shall set you free.” Only a
belief in absolute truth, that there are some things
that are always right and some things that are always wrong, can
ever set one free. It is only this truth that caused
William Wilberforce to persevere for fifty years until slavery was
abolished and the slaves were set free. It is this
same moral truth that drives me to pursue nothing less that the
total abolishment of property taxes that increasingly
enslave our people and rob them of their fundamental right to
private property.
Secondly, we need a renewal of vision. We must look up and out and
get our eyes off ourselves and the
immediate gratification of self. I read a story about a young girl
who was on a boat ride with her father in South
Pacific. It was a beautiful, clear day with a balmy breeze. With the
sun overhead, you could see all the way to the
horizon. The little girl, putting her hand above her eyes and
looking toward the horizon, said, “Daddy, I can see
farther than my eyes can see.” That little girl expressed the
quality of a leader—the ability to see farther than the
eyes can see.
Let me share another example of someone who had the vision thing
right. Walt Disney was a leader who
spent his life seeing what was not there – and turning his vision
into reality. The Disney entertainment empire is a
tribute to that vision. Soon after his Disneyland theme park opened
in 1955, a woman who worked for the Disney
Studio was walking through Disneyland and noticed Walt on a bench
between Fantasyland and Tomorrowland,
staring off into the sky. She stopped and asked, “What are you
looking at, Walt?”
“My mountain,” he said, pointing to an expanse of empty air.
A few years later, in June 1959, the Matterhorn Bobsleds attraction
opened to the public – a scale model of
the famed Alpine peak.
Disneyland itself began as a vision that only Walt Disney himself
could see. When the project was still in the
planning stages, Walt took his friend, TV host, Art Linkletter, for
a ride out to Orange County. Linkletter recalls:
“We went and went and went and went and went, down through the
orange groves. And finally we came to
the place where it was going to be, and I couldn’t believe my
eyes--- because it was so far from downtown Los
Angeles. And it was so small – the communities in those days were so
straggly. And I thought, ‘My land, to put up a
bunch of merry-go-rounds out in the middle of a cow pasture is
ridiculous!’”
As they walked around the property, Walt described in glowing
detail the various lands of this park—
Fantasyland, Adventureland, Tomorrowland, and more. Then Disney
advised Linkletter to buy property around the
park and sell it to developers. “You’ll make a fortune,” said
Disney.
But Art Linkletter failed to grasp Walt Disney’s vision. He said
thanks, but no thanks. Looking back on that
decision, Linkletter calculates that each step he took on that
property was worth about $3Million –money that could
have gone into his pocket, but did not.
A few years later, Walt Disney envisioned another and even larger
Disney theme park. He laid the
groundwork, but died in 1966, almost five years before the opening
of Walt Disney World in Orlando. On the day the
new park opened, a visitor commented to Mike Vance, Creative
Director of Walt Disney studios, “Isn’t it too bad
Walt Disney didn’t live to see this?”
“Oh, but he did see it,” Vance replied. “That’s why it’s here.”
When a leader can see the invisible, his followers can do the
impossible – even when he is gone. And, do
not mistake eyesight for vision. It is not. In fact, some of the
most visionary people in the world are those who can see
nothing at all. As blind-deaf author Helen Keller once noted, “The
most pathetic person in the world is someone who
has sight, but no vision.”
Vision establishes hope. It sets a direction. It creates momentum.
It crystallizes progress. It forms the future.
We must recognize that vision comes from ideas coupled with
passion. Good vision recognizes that not all
ideas are equal. Freedom is superior to slavery. Responsibility is
superior to rebellion. America is unique among
nations.
So let’s not sit back and be part of the crowd who whines and
complains about what is not. Let’s work and
understand that there is no problem that does not also present a
wonderful opportunity. Let’s not forget that there is
no problem so big that it cannot be solved with sound values coupled
with a vision for the future based on superior
ideas. Let’s put forward hope and a vision for the future,
undergirded with passion and a commitment to work hard,
because the alternative is very bad and the rewards are very good.
There is no healthcare crisis too big. There is no property tax
dilemma too complex. There is no Rendell
budget too tempting. There is no impending pension plan collapse too
intimidating. There is no Islamic terrorist too
threatening.
These all have solutions that are common sense and workable, but we
must have the passion and will to do
them.
Today, in Pennsylvania, we have a number of daunting challenges. We
have a burgeoning state budget
proposal and a Governor committed to growing big government even
bigger. The solution? No tax increases, no new
programs, no new borrowing. We have an apparent property tax
dilemma. The solution? Eliminate the property tax,
broaden sales tax that allows everyone to contribute a little, truly
restore home ownership. We have an increasingly
costly healthcare system. The solution? Get government out, don’t
invite more in, and promote free-market options
like HSA’s. Lastly, we have roads and bridges that are
deteriorating. The solution? No new taxes and no selling of
the turnpike to international interests. Increase of funding by
thirty percent by eliminating the costly prevailing wage
law.
What is required of those in office and in the Republican party?
The honesty to truly examine where we are
and why we are there. The commitment to the renewal of core values.
The creation of a vision for the future, the next
generation. The seeking of God’s blessing, and more people who are
willing to remain involved and to get more
involved.
The challenges may be daunting, but the opportunities are greater.
SamRohrer.com
Click here to download as a .pdf |
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| By Mark Gillen |
In the epic battle that is now the time honored measure of overcoming challenging odds, the Hebrew lad David dispatched the giant Goliath with a well aimed stone to the Philistine’s head. That familiar event is worthy of a fresh examination as it has modern parallels in the civic arena today. The world hasn’t changed much since then with challenges coming from men and cultures who would seek to destroy our way of life.
David’s victory was a win for the faith of a people who were at risk against a tide of moral and physical challenges. David’s record of victories against a lion and a bear evidently didn’t make the evening news in Goliath’s home town or the giant might not have ventured onto the field to face David. We don’t have that problem today. The records of the major political aspirants are well known and cannot be whitewashed by media campaigns, party conventions, and press releases. David had a record and he ran to meet the giant in the confidence he gained from his faith.
. . . David marched out to the field of battle hearkening “Is there not a cause?” Indeed there will always be causes worth fighting and dying for, and it is ours to choose in this great nation the leaders who will carry the battle flag.
It is not sufficient to follow the speeches of today to discern the positions of a political aspirant. We must scrutinize the totality of the record to unmask the political makeovers that oft run roughshod over reason. The same David who affirmed life as God’s gift when he penned Psalm 139 was consistent in answering the challenge of battle tested Goliath. There is a cause, and only the fainthearted will fail to answer duty’s call and our appointed station in this conflict. David recognized that one individual’s intervention can change the outcome of human history. David had 5 smooth stones in his bag along with a sling and a shepherd‘s staff. His tools were not numerous or compelling but they were sufficient. You have all you need to go and make a difference in this season of political battles. It’s time to reach into your own bag and take out a stone.
Mark Gillen is a friend of Chester
County ACTION and is a great conservative speaker. His resume
includes: PA Certified Public School Teacher, Executive director of
Refugee Outreach, Inc. Committee member of the Friends of the NRA,
Jury Commissioner of Berks County, Chairman of Berks County
Republican Society, Chairman of Republican Committee of Berks
County. |
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| By Skip Brion |
Published: Saturday, December 26, 2009 Daily
Local News West Chester, PA
The Chester County Board of Commissioners, led by Republicans
Terence Farrell and Carol Aichele, approved a budget for 2010 that
calls for no tax increase for Chester County taxpayers.
In Chester County, the Republican administration balanced the budget
without cutting services. Contrast this result with the Democratic
administrations in Philadelphia, Harrisburg and Washington, D.C.,
where they are driving their constituents deep in debt and slashing
essential services.
The difference is that Chester County is governed on sound
Republican fiscal policies. There is no nonessential spending.
Chester County has followed a sound management philosophy.
One of the keys to the balanced budget was the reduction in costs of
borrowing money. This savings came about because of the county's
sound fiscal policies. The county has attained three AAA bond
ratings by internationally recognized rating agencies. Chester
County is among only 24 counties in the nation to have three such
ratings and the only county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Attaining a zero tax increase hasn't been easy, just ask Terence and
Carol. They have been disciplined all year, evaluating requests and
making sure the citizens receive needed services. In recent weeks,
they worked hard and re-examined department budgets to find an
additional $3.9 million in cuts.
All that being said, difficult fiscal decisions will have to be made
in 2010. Only essential positions and staff will be filled when a
vacancy occurs. Contrast this policy with the comments of a
Democratic Philadelphia councilwoman who wanted to save 80 jobs only
because they were patronage positions and not because they added any
value to the residents.
In closing, during these tough times, Chester County families do not
need an extra tax burden. The Republican administration didn't fail
our citizens. They adhered to sound Republican fiscal policies, and
we all should thank Commissioners Carol Aichele and Terence Farrell
for their hard work and dedication to the citizens of Chester
County.
http://www.dailylocal.com/articles/2009/12/26/opinion/srv0000007159665.txt
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Members of Congress use "earmarks" to provide
federal funding to companies, projects, groups and organizations,
which are often in their district. This database in large part seeks
to detail how the recipients of federal earmarks interact with the
federal government through lobbying efforts and campaign
contributions.
The earmark, contribution and lobbying data
displayed below is a joint effort of the
Center for Responsive Politics and
Taxpayers for Common Sense. All earmark data is provided by
Taxpayers for Common Sense
and all contribution and lobbying data is provided by the
Center for Responsive Politics.
House - Earmarks to
Contributors – Check out your PA Legislator
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Name
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State
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Total Earmarks
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Total Contributions
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Contrib Earmark %
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Earmark Rank
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All Earmarks
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All Earmarks %
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MURTHAJohn P Murtha (D-Pa)
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PA
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$51,650,000
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$42,750
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0.1%
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11
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$92,470,000
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55.9%
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MURPHYTim Murphy (R-Pa)
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PA
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$8,280,000
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$28,550
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0.3%
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263
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$13,535,000
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61.2%
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ALTMIREJason Altmire (D-Pa)
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PA
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$4,900,000
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$10,927
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0.2%
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278
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$12,295,000
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39.9%
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KANJORSKIPaul E Kanjorski (D-Pa)
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PA
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$3,000,000
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$9,400
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0.3%
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223
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$16,306,000
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18.4%
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GERLACHJim Gerlach (R-Pa)
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PA
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$5,600,000
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$5,250
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0.1%
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189
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$19,399,000
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28.9%
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SHUSTERBill Shuster (R-Pa)
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PA
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$3,800,000
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$5,000
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0.1%
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152
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$23,241,250
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16.4%
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SESTAKJoseph A. Sestak, Jr
(D-Pa)
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PA
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$4,800,000
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$4,900
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0.1%
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131
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$25,841,200
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18.6%
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THOMPSONGlenn Thompson (R-Pa)
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PA
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$2,100,000
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$4,900
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0.2%
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286
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$11,936,000
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17.6%
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CARNEYChris Carney (D-Pa)
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PA
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$1,700,000
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$2,443
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0.1%
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205
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$17,779,000
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9.6%
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SCHWARTZAllyson Schwartz (D-Pa)
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PA
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$2,400,000
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$2,000
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0.1%
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259
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$13,683,000
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17.5%
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DENTCharlie Dent (R-Pa)
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PA
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$1,850,000
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$1,450
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0.1%
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177
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$21,112,250
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8.8%
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HOLDENTim Holden (D-Pa)
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PA
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$2,383,000
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$1,300
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0.1%
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260
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$13,667,000
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17.4%
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MURPHYPatrick J Murphy (D-Pa)
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PA
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$2,400,000
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$1,250
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0.1%
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290
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$11,623,000
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20.6%
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DOYLEMike Doyle (D-Pa)
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PA
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$3,200,000
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$500
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0.0%
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155
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$23,038,800
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13.9%
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"Total
Earmarks" refers to the cost of earmarks that the member has
sponsored or co-sponsored for an organization from which he or she
received contributions.
"Total
Contributions" refers to the amount of contributions received by
the member from the from the earmark recipient's PAC, management or
staff.
"Contrib
Earmark %" is the ratio of these contributions ("Total
Contributions") to the earmark cost ("Total Earmarks").
"Earmark
Rank" is the member's rank within the chamber for the total cost
of earmarks sponsored.
"All
Earmarks" is the total cost of all earmarks they've sponsored or
cosponsored including those to recipients from which they have not
received contributions.
"All
Earmark %" is the ratio of the cost of earmarks going to
contributors compared to the cost of all their sponsored earmarks.
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| By Mark Gillen |
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During the British bombardment of Ft. McHenry
in the war of 1812, Francis Scott Key composed the poem, "Star
Spangled Banner." One line is "And this be our motto - 'In God is
our trust.'"
Later, in the early days of the Civil War,
Chief Justice Chase of the Supreme Court wrote the following in a
letter to the Director of the Mint: "No nation can be strong except
in the strength of God, or safe except in His defense. The trust of
our people in God should be declared on our national coins."
After a few options were considered, Chase
settled on IN GOD WE TRUST. In 1865, Congress enacted legislation
authorizing the phrase "In God We Trust" to be placed on coins and
the motto first appeared on the 1864 two-cent coin.
IN GOD WE TRUST has been in continuous use on
the penny since 1909 and on the dime since 1916. In fact,
since 1938, all United States coins have borne the inscription.
(When the motto was left off of a new double-eagle gold coin in
1907, the public’s outcry led Congress to order it restored.)
In 1956, the congress and President Eisenhower
agreed to declare IN GOD WE TRUST the “national motto of the United
States.” The motto then began to appear on paper money also.
This article
was printed in the Lancaster County ACTION summer 2010 newsletter
and information was provided by Coral Ridge Ministries
and
www.indianamilitia.org
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| By Mark Gillen |
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The IRS just released income tax data for 2006, and, as the Wall Street Journal pointed out, it turns out that cutting taxes does increase tax payments. In fact, as the Journal points out, the 2003 tax cuts “caused what may be the biggest increase in tax payments by the rich in American history.” The top 10 percent of income earners paid 71 percent of taxes. In fact, the top 50 percent paid 97.1 percent of the taxes. Interestingly, U.S. millionaires increased from 181,000 to 345,000 just three years after the tax cuts. This proves that when taxes are lowered, the economy grows and with tax rates lower, individuals were less interested in finding tax shelters, meaning tax payments actually increased. This should put to rest the notion that the “rich” don’t pay their fair share. Taxes paid by millionaires increased to $274 billion in 2006 from $136 billion in 2003, all under Republican government.
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