One day after voting against extending the same kind of taxpayer-funded health care he himself enjoys to more than four million eligible American children who have no insurance at all, Mike McCaul has found a cause he can support -- condemning the free expression of opinion by a group of citizens during an important national debate.
When Congress gets back to work after its August recess, the first thing lawmakers should do is unite behind a common sense initiative to support our National Guard troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The 'Patriot Corporations of America Act' would require corporations to support U.S. troops by paying the difference between regular salary and military salary for all National Guard and Reserve employees who are called up to active duty, and by continuing health insurance coverage for the Guard member and his or her family.
I had a whirlwind trip through Chicago for Yearly Kos this past weekend, and it was great to be with people who care about changing our nation's direction -- and are willing to work hard to make that happen. I met some truly impressive people from all parts of the country -- local and national bloggers, activists, former Clinton administration advisors, motivated citizens -- and all of them are rolling their sleeves up for positive change.
The Children's Health Insurance Program is that rarest of government creations -- a joint federal-state effort that actually works to reduce the number of uninsured children in our country. No wonder Congressional leaders are trying to expand it -- and the White House is trying to dismantle it.
The question for us is this: will our Congressman join the bi-partisan effort to strengthen CHIP? Or will he stick with the short-sighted ideological opposition of the Bush Administration and leave millions of children without health insurance?
Just four Republican members of Congress had the courage late last week to vote for a bill requiring that U.S. troops stationed in Iraq be deployed by next April. Mike McCaul was not among those showing such courage. Instead, he voted to keep taxpayers' sons and daughters mired in the escalating violence while the Baghdad government continues to enjoy its summer-long vacation.
For Central Texans who have been watching Mr. McCaul put his rubber stamp on the White House's failed public policies for the past four years, his vote last week was no surprise.
Let me first say, I have never met Dan Grant nor do I live in TX-10, but I am a young Texas Democrat who regularly commutes from TX-22 (Friendswood/Houston) to TX-26 (Denton/Fort Worth) for college.
I was just checking the FEC records because, well, I was bored and I noticed the numbers for the Texans who have filed their reports thus far. According to said reports, Democratic challenger for TX-10, Dan Grant, performed admirably.
For a district hovering somewhere in our third tier, $72.7 thousand is not too shabby. However the real amazing part is when this is compared to the Republican incumbent, Mike McCaul.
Ignoring the outstanding debt McCaul's campaign has ramped up, Grant still has more cash. If McCaul were to pay off all of his debt today he'd be $38,624.82 in the hole. This is an amazing advantage Grant has raised over McCaul and I hope the DCCC takes notice.
It is important to note that Grant does have a democratic challenge ahead of him. Larry Joe Doehrty (sp?) who is known for his tv court room drama, Texas Justice, is in the democratic primary as well. While I am personally rooting for Grant due to his efforts in reaching out to blogs, he has posted here on swingstate several times before, it is important that we support whomever wins the democratic nomination next year especially since McCaul won with a pathetic 55% last year.
If you would like to learn more about Dan Grant please visit his website: http://www.dangrantf...
I'm sure donations would also be welcome to keep his momentum going: http://www.actblue.c...
P.S. While I like commenting (have been for almost 2 years), this is my first diary. How'd I do?
The commutation of Scooter Libby's prison sentence wasn't really a surprise. We already knew the President believed in amnesty.
But the silence from our Congressman is troubling. Mike McCaul fancies himself an authority on national security and is a member of the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct.
When Tom DeLay engineered his redistricting scheme four years ago, he was riding high. In control of the White House and both houses of Congress, he and his partisan allies thought they could get away with anything, from a war of choice in Iraq to choosing a new representative to roam the halls of Congress for us.
When I was a 17-year-old high school student in Austin, I volunteered for Congressman Jake Pickle, the legendary Texas Congressman who held the CD-10 seat for 31 years, from 1963 until he retired in 1994. Back then CD-10 was known as "LBJ's District" because a young Lyndon Johnson had held it. LBJ used the seat to lead implementation of FDR's New Deal, and his efforts brought electricity to central Texas.
Congressman Pickle was a worthy heir to the LBJ legacy. His work to reorganize Social Security has kept the program solvent and functioning into the present. He also brought a great deal of research and technology investment to the area, and was a strong and effective advocate for higher education and the University of Texas.
Now I'm running for that seat myself. And though the district has changed dramatically (thanks to Tom DeLay and his partisan allies), the promise of public service I learned in Congressman Pickle's office still holds true today: honor the past and imagine the future.
I'm running for U.S. Congress in the Texas 10th. Why?
Because my district was gerrymandered by Tom DeLay and Karl Rove, and our current representative does not reflect the mainstream values of Houston, Austin, and all the places in between.
Iraq. Katrina. Abu Ghraib. Walter Reed and Guantánamo, Osama Bin Laden at large. Big Pharma writing Medicare plans while Texas seniors lose prescription drug coverage. Big Insurance writing campaign checks while Texans pay twice the national average to insure their homes. Soaring deficits, a demoralized foreign policy - and a capital city so tied up in partisan knots that they have no idea how to get us back on the right track.
