House Dems Want Infrastructure, Transportation Materials Made In US

By Andrea Salazar

The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge may be located in the United States, but parts of it are stamped, “Made in China.”

To combat the loss of manufacturing jobs to China, House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Democrats announced Thursday the introduction of a bill tightening the requirements for investments in infrastructure and transportation.

The Invest in American Jobs Act, sponsored by Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.), would mandate that all materials used in infrastructure and transportation projects funded by U.S. taxpayers be made in the United States.

“Made in China but paid for by American tax payers,” Rahall said referring to the Chinese materials and man-power used in replacing a part of the Bay Bridge. “We are no longer just buying cheap trinkets from China, we are literally buying bridges and major transportation infrastructure, while outsourcing innovation and capabilities that could be fostered and strengthened right here in the U.S. of A.”

Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) echoed those sentiments and challenged Republicans in the House to pass the bill as part of a transportation bill expected in January, warning that otherwise “the jobs that you are going to tout that you’re creating with this bill are going to be created in other countries, not for American workers.”

Representatives from the AFL-CIO, United Steelworkers and United Streetcar also joined Rahall and other committee members in support of the Invest in American Jobs Act at a news conference Thursday.

Rahall told reporters that the bill’s reception has been “not negative,” adding that the bill is important because “when we make it in America, more Americans can make it.”

Dems Propose New Tax On Stocks And Bond Trades

By Lisa Kellman

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Rep. Peter Defazio (D-Ore.) introduced companion bills Wednesday that would prevent high-frequency trades on Wall Street.

The legislation would place a .03 percent tax on non-consumer financial trades; including bonds, stocks and debts.

“We need the new revenue that would be generated by this tax in order to reduce deficits and maintain critical investments in education, infrastructure and education,” said Harkin.

Democrats believe the legislation will not adversely affect Wall Street and argue that it would get the economy back on track by helping reduce the nation’s deficit.

“It starts with getting rid of some of the most agregious and unproductive and volatile of these super high-volume quantitatively driven traders,” argued Defazio.

This act is a simplified version of another speculation tax bill that failed to pass congress in 2007. In an effor to garner bipartisan support, Democrats have reduced the percentage taxed to one tenth of the tax rate previously proposed.

The UK, Australia, Argentina, China  and other countries already have a similar speculation tax, and the EU is currently debating implementing its own.

In the past, members of Congress, primarily Republicans, have argued that companies would move overseas to avoid the added speculation tax. However, because many robust economies now have a simlar tax, the Democrats believe the fears are unfounded.

“They’d have to give up their U.S citizenship to avoid the tax,” argued DeFazio.

Although a detailed analysis of the bills that indicate the amount of new revenues they would yeild, proponents of the plan believe it would add nearly $100 billion annually. 

House Will Strip Antitrust Protection For Health Insurance Companies, Says Pelosi

By Chingyu Wang - Talk Radio News Service

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Tuesday that she and other Democrats in the House will try to pass the Health Insurance Industry Fair Competition Act tomorrow. The bill would remove antitrust protections for the major health insurance companies.

"This bill is about restoring competition, fairness, and choice to the health insurance industry. After 65 years, it is now time for the unfair advantage insurance companies have held over American families and small businesses to end," said Pelosi. "We have set a better legislation. It's about affordability for the middle class, it's about accessibility of many more people to health care, and affordability is central to that."

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said he is optimistic about the bill's chances of passing when it is brought to the House floor tomorrow.

"I'm confident it'll pass, and I surely hope that it passes with a significant bipartisan vote," said Hoyer.

Former insurance executive Wendell Potter viewed the legislation as a major step toward ending what he described as the profit domination of seven major companies in the health insurance field.

"In my view it's a beginning comprehensive reform that will benefit average Americans, working individuals and families more than the big insurance companies," said Potter.

How to drive less: you can't afford the gas

People are driving like a bunch of idiots, and they're driving a million miles an hour. That was the statement of Representative Don Young (R-AK), at the House Subcommittee Transportation and Infrastructure hearing on "Rising Diesel Fuel Costs in the Trucking Industry." His overall sentiment was the United States can never drill the way into total independence, but we can drill our way into more stability. However, Young said, it doesn’t solve the problem. He said that all Congress was doing was sitting around and talking, while we're misusing the fossil fuels we have left. Congress, Young said as he stabbed his finger into the air, needs to stop pandering to the general public because they're not looking at solutions. He said he had a solution to make people change their driving habits: he's going to promote a tax of one dollar on every gallon of gasoline.

The overall message of the hearing is that supplies need to increase, and demands need to change. It’s nice when people are talking about windmills, John Mica (R-FL) said, but we need a long term and short term policy to help this issue. The short term policy: you don’t need to be a Harvard PhD to figure out that we need a short term increase in supply. To do that, we’ll need to tap some of our domestic resources. At some point, Mica said, people are going to say “we’ve got to do something about these costs,” and the only solution is to increase our supply. The people demanding change are going to end up right outside the building, voicing their concerns.

Mr. Tyson Slocum, Director, Public Citizen’s Energy Program, said there are some areas that remain immune, such as the financial companies. There are several variables the influence supply and demand, but there is no question that Congress can take steps to provide relief. Everyone talks about oil industry profits, he said, but in addition, by far the oil companies largest expenditure was buying back their own stock. Comparatively low expenditures were on providing consumers with long term relief, such as exploration.

The "Enron loophole," as it is reffered to, was brought up repeatedly and eventually Chairman Peter DeFazio (D-OR) expressed an interest in regulating the market. Can we do away with the Enron loophole, he asked, adding that speculation seemed a likely culprit in the high costs of gas and diesel prices. He suggested taking the excess costs from the CEO's pensions.