From the office of Rep. Andy Harris:
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The following is a statement from Rep. Andy Harris regarding the possibility of a government shutdown:
“We shouldn’t need a government shutdown. At the same time, Marylanders sent me to Congress this year to end Washington’s spending spree in order to get the economy moving and build an environment for positive job growth.
Nearly 50 days ago, the House of Representatives passed a reasonable budget that would reduce the federal spending this year by a mere two percent. I believe those in charge, the Senate and the President, must work with the House of Representatives to control spending. The American people expect us to solve this problem, and we must deliver.”
Cutting the budget is good. It needs to be cut, but what about those 40 – 50 “riders” that Representatives like Mr. Harris attached to that reasonable budget? I don’t think anyone sent Rep. Harris to Congress to shutdown the Government in order to stop the EPA on from doing research on global warming.
Unfortuantely, many did send Representative Harris to Washing to defund the EPA. Those same people do not believe in global warming anyway. I find it ironic that many people concerned about leaving a deficit for their children and grandchildren so not care about leaving them clean air to breathe and safe water to drink.
Congressman Harris, as one of your constituents, I would like to know if you were one of the hold outs for a compromise over the funding of Planned Parenthood.
Tom Myers
Fallston
Also a constituent of Harris…I would like to know the same thing.
You can’t legislate morality. And if abortion is illegal, it doesn’t go away; it simply becomes more dangerous for the poor and more inconvenient for the rich.
If anyone one wanted to cut the budget they could start with Medicare fraud. It has been reported many times 50 billion dollars is paid out to fraudulent claims. I am shocked what Medicare pays for my C Pap equipment. There are two groups I do not trust: doctors and auto mechanics. They both bill for services not needed or overcharge.
Defunding Planned Parenthood doesn’t make abortion illegal, it keeps us the taxpayers from funding it. Maybe we should fund Patient First with tax dollars too.
If you libs are this upset with the small cuts made so far, you are going to be a mess over whats coming next.
Oh I think you’ll be quite surprised at just who is “going to be a mess” when the real budget battle ensues. This recent debacle was a joke, if you really think this even takes a chunk out of our problem your fooling yourself. The real “nose the grindstone” work will come when we decide to take on Medicare/Medicaid along with Social Security, and ENTITLEMENTS. If you’ve been listening closely you will see the Democrats are borrowing a ol’ trick recently from Republican playbook during President Obama’s healthcare push. They are actually now demonizing Congressman’s Ryan’s budgets proposal as “pulling the plug on grandma”…lol (hilarious). Sound familiar and an example of hypocrisy at its best. Now the real question I would like to know is if those in the Tea Party who enjoy medicare and Plan B (one of the worse fiscal plans in recent years) are ready for common sense folks like Ryan to stop the leaking faucet. I would gladly loose what I have put into social security today as a 33yr old, if the Govt would set a cutoff age and do away with the system. Those of a certain age are grandfathered in, the rest of us…stay out of my wallet and let me put it away. Medicares biggest problem is if you look at what an eligible candidate puts into it and what they actually get (coupled with longer life expectancy and greater disease control) its like scale with an anvil on one side and feather on the other. I’ll let you guess who is the feather.
Both parties basically take turns making millions for themselves via special interest whenever they get majorities. Some try to ride the morale values train while others push a more social based agenda..its a big game and every couple of years we just trade out jerseys based on who we feel has the best sound system and stadium view. To say the conservatives today are actually conservative is like saying arena football is the NFL (no offense sports fans).
Defunding Planned Parenthood does not change funding for abortions. The Hyde Amendment took all federal funds out of Medicaid funding for abortion in the 70’s, except in cases of rape and incest. It does, however, remove the funding from family planning that keeps women from the need to have abortions. I don’t understand the reasoning behind that.
The House Bill ends the federal Chesapeake Bay cleanup initiative. Way go go Andy on your consistency in voting to kill the bay between your time in state and federal office. I’m sure my eventual three-eyed grandchildren will thank you for your courageous stand.