Where is Congressman Bart Gordon?
February 20, 2009 by Truman Bean
Filed under Politics
An issue has arisen that voters in Tennessee’s Sixth Congressional District should inquire and investigate. Has Congressman Bart Gordon gone on a luxurious European junket on the taxpayer’s expense, right smack in the midst of a employment waning recession?
Is Bart Gordon Travelling to Europe on Taxpayers’ Dime?
In these tough economic times many Middle Tennesseans are struggling to make ends meet. Layoffs, home foreclosures, bankruptcies, high electric bills, and high taxes make it hard for ends to meet. In this environment, I question why Bart Gordon apparently travelled to Europe this week at taxpayer’s expense. Is it a reward for voting the party line on the wasteful spending bill our President signed into law on Tuesday? Can we afford to pay for vacations for our elected officials?The article stated that ‘on Saturday, Rep. John Tanner (D-Tenn.), chairman of the House delegation to NATO’s parliamentary assembly, and his wife will lead a delegation of 13 lawmakers — plus 10 spouses — on a fine nine-day jaunt starting at NATO’s headquarters in Brussels’. The same article identified our own Bart Gordon as one of the 13 lawmakers accompanying Tanner to Europe.If this is true, the question is: Why did Bart Gordon make this trip? And the follow up question is this: if Bart Gordon has made this trip, he’s stopping off in Brussels, Paris, and the Bavarian Alps. I’m wondering how many jobs Bart is finding for Middle Tennesseans while skiing down the Bavarian Alps?
Michael Patrick Leahy adds the following comments and questions to this story.
A series of volunteers have phoned Bart Gordon’s Washington D.C. office asking for simple confirmation of Gordon’s participation of the trip, and the hapless staffers responding to the questions have stonewalled their responses, saying they are not authorized to disclose where he is.
Such stonewalling, of course, plays right into Evans’ game plan of criticizing Gordon for being aloof and out of touch. Plus, we might add, there is probably some sort of Congressional or Federal rule, law, or regulation which requires a Congressman’s office to publicly disclose where he or she is when conducting official business at taxpayers’ expense.
Gordon’s website happily touts every speech or public appearance he makes in the district that promotes his own visibility. Oddly, no public statement has been forthcoming to date from his office even confirming whether he is or is not currently in Europe on “taxpayer funded business.”
Evans is playing it smart by asking for a public statement from Gordon that addresses two issues:
1. Is he travelling to Europe now at taxpayers’ expense ?
2. If he is in Europe, what possible justification does he have for wasting taxpayers’ money to fly him over there and pay for his meals and lodging ?
Blue Dog Cooper holds tough, Lincoln Davis not so much
January 29, 2009 by Truman Bean
Filed under Taxes
Kudos to Congressman Cooper for standing fast and voting for his professed fiscally sound principles.
Dogs in our state voted….Lincoln Davis. (aka Gubernatorial candidate).
I hope Tennesseans note how one of the other Blue
Dogs in our state voted….Lincoln Davis. (aka Gubernatorial candidate).
Cooper, Blackburn vote against Obama’s stimulus package
Amy Griffith GraydonNashville U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper is one of just 11 Democrats who voted against new President Obama’s proposed economic stimulus plan, which passed Wednesday in a definitive 385-to-35 vote.
“I think everybody knows I’m for Barack. Everybody knows I’ve been reforming Congress. I think this is a very consistent vote,” Cooper told The City Paper Wednesday. “I’m disappointed we weren’t able to persuade enough others to give the bill another editing.”
Cooper is part of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog coalition, and has publicly voiced concerns about the package prior to the vote. Other Tennessee Blue Dogs voted in favor of the package, including Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Murfreesboro; Lincoln Davis, D-Pall Mall; and Rep. John Tanner, D-Union City.
The package, Cooper said, relies on borrowed money. He raised questions about the lack of a plan for paying the sizeable annual interest expenses he believes will be associated with it.
Referring to the bill as a “pork festival,” Cooper blamed members of Congress — and particularly the members of committees of jurisdiction — for transforming Obama’s original proposal into a bill Cooper could not support.
“I love Obama, but I’m disappointed with Congress for its business-as-usual attitude. The bill is loaded with pork. Half of it had nothing to do with stimulus. Only 5 percent has to do with the infrastructure projects that most people in the public think is in the bill. It was the largest bill in American history, by far, and one of the most wasteful,” Cooper said. “It’s likely it will only get worse when it goes to the Senate.”
All House Republicans from Tennessee cast votes in opposition to the plan, including Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Brentwood).
Blackburn on Wednesday called the program a “spending bill,” rather than stimulus. Big portions of the bill should have been considered through regular order, she said, including $3 billion for prevention and wellness, immunizations and grants, as well as $600 million for the federal government to buy “plug-in cars.” Only 10 percent of the bill would be spent this year, she said, with the rest to be spent between 2009 and 2019.
“A stimulus is to be short-term. It is to be focused. It is to be precision spending, and immediate,” Blackburn said Wednesday. “I think there was bipartisan opposition to this plan because it is a bad plan.”
