Peter Roskam’s Posturing on Iran Unhelpful

On June 29, 2009, in Barack Obama, Foreign Policy, Iran, Peter Roskam, by RSR
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This past Thursday, June 25, Peter Roskam spoke on the House floor in favor of an ammendment to H.R. 2647, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010. The text of Roskam’s press release is here.

First off, I think Dan Conston got mixed up about what Roskam had to say:

“This is an Administration that has said that Iran has legitimate nuclear ambitions, no they don’t. There is no legitimate pursuit of nuclear power in Iran. It is all for an evil and despicable purpose. This is an Administration that got it wrong on the Iranian dissonance and has, sort of, back peddled over the past several days and recast their support of the dissonance when they really missed the mark.

…[Iran] is an aggressive regime that ought not to be coddled. This is an effort to make sure that all of us are safe, and this is a sacred duty.

I’m pretty sure we heard Peter talking about dissidents in the video, but I could be wrong.

More importantly, I think this kind of overblown rhetoric is decidedly unhelpful. The President didn’t get it wrong. Bush and Cheney and Roskam and their neo-con faction did. Their hostile rhetoric and their bungled invasion of Iraq put us into the dangerous position we are in relative to Iran today.

Roskam’s hostile language will not help Iranian dissidents. It only feeds the perception of an outside threat which helps Ahmadinejad maintain a precarious hold on power. Its terrific political theater for Republicans pandering for votes among a population that has largely rejected their platform but it is lousy foreign policy and can only make things more difficult for President Obama as he strives to deal with a very delicate situation. Roskam should shut up.

Nicholas Burns, who lead the Bush administration’s tardy efforts to negotiate with Iran on nuclear issues has praised President Obama’s handling of the Iran situation. Speaking in an interview on NPR’s Morning Edition on June 16, Burns had this to say (thanks to Greg Sargeant’s The Plum Line):

“President Ahmadinejad would like nothing better than to see a very aggressive series of statements by the United States that would try to put the U.S. in the center of this,” Burns said. “And I think President Obama is avoiding that quite rightly.”

“This is not a dispute for the U.S. to be the center of,” Burns said at another point. “It’s up to Iranians to decide who Iran’s future leaders will be. He said he respects Iran’s sovereignty. I think it was important to do that.”

Burns said that Obama was right to refrain from throwing the U.S.’s weight around while giving props to reformers. He praised Obama for being “low-key” while saying he’s concerned about the plight of reformers and inspired by them, which Burns called a “balancing act.”

Even creepy John Negroponte, Bush’s first ambassador to Iraq, has praised Obama for his conduct of foreign policy. Speaking at a review of foreign policy under Obama hosted by the French-America Foundation on June 23, Negroponte said that he had a “high level degree of confidence” in the Obama team, which got “an extremely good start to foreign policy.”

Roskam’s assertion that the President supports Iran’s nuclear ambitions is a gross distortion based on a much more nuanced remark Obama made this spring. Roskam has a bright future ahead as a commentator for Fox News once we replace him in 2010.

The ammendment that Roskam rose to speak for, and which bore his name failed. It’s point was to restore $1.2 billion in cuts to spending on missile defense over 2009 levels. Missile defense has been an article of religion  for arch-conservatives like Roskam since Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative was launched. Programs have cost billions with limited success. The ground-based mid-course defense that Roskam’s ammendment refers to has failed 6 out of 14 intercept tests since 1999. This is a program that is a boon to defense contractors like Boeing, having cost over $30 billion to date, but offers no increased security to this country in the near term. Missile defense programs like these are certainly not a substitute for effective diplomacy in resolving what threat may be posed by Iran. Roskam should let the grown-ups manage foreign policy.

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Anti-Labor Peter Roskam Abandons Air Safety in Favor of Union Busting

On May 27, 2009, in Air Safety, Organized Labor, Peter Roskam, by RSR
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Peter Roskam has, from time to time, styled himself as an advocate for air safety. You may recall how in late 2007,  Roskam sent a much-publicized letter to the FAA’s Henry Krakowski, expressing  concern about the adequacy of staffing levels in the air traffic control system in the light of a couple of then recent near misses in the skies surrounding O’Hare Airport.

Roskam was correct in his assertion that there have been staffing issues . Those problems are a legacy of his own Republican party’s union busting activities.

In 1981, Republican President Ronald Reagan fired the majority of  U.S. air traffic controllers during a strike of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) for better pay and working conditions and a work week more conducive to safety.  Because so many of the current population of controllers were hired at the time of the PATCO strike, a large number are now approaching retirement age.

In 2006, under Republican President George Bush, the Bush FAA  further complicated the matter.  When an impasse developed in contract negotiations with the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (the successor to PATCO), the Bush Administration imposed a new contract that included staffing cuts and lower starting pay for controllers. The Bush intervention prompted a surge in retirements that caught the FAA unprepared.

As in many areas of government, the Obama administration and the Democrats in Congress are now left to clean up the mess left by the Republicans ideological misadventures.

This past week, the House voted on H.R. 915, the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act of 2009. The bill provides funding for the FAA’s operations and for for improvements to the air traffic system through 2012. According to Rep. Jim Oberstar, Chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure,

The bill contains several provisions critical to improving air safety. It directs the FAA to increase the number of aviation safety inspectors, creates an independent Aviation Safety Whistleblower Investigation Office within the FAA, provides funding for runway safety programs, calls for additional inspections of overseas aircraft repair stations, and requires the FAA to study and update its regulations regarding flight-crew fatigue.

The bill also attempts to rectify the unfair treatment that air traffic controllers have received at Republican hands. Again, according to Rep. Oberstar:

It is extremely important that there be a fair resolution of the controllers’ concerns. The best technology in the world will not improve our air traffic control system if the workforce operating this technology is distracted by resentments over unfair treatment. H.R. 915 mandates a new dispute resolution process, patterned after Postal Service regulations, to make it clear that labor-management disputes between FAA and its organized employees are governed by a fair and impartial process, including binding arbitration. This new process would apply to the ongoing dispute between the controllers and FAA. The Obama administration has announced that it will begin negotiations with Air Traffic Controllers to resolve this dispute. I am hopeful that this will begin a process leading to a new contract acceptable to both parties.

H.R. 915 also amends the Railway Labor Act (RLA) to clarify that employees of an “express carrier” shall only be covered by the RLA if they are employed in a position that is eligible for certification under FAA’s rules, such as mechanics or pilots, and they are actually performing that type of work for the express carrier. All other express carrier employees, such as truck drivers and baggage handlers, would be governed by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). This change would remove the disparity in current law that Federal Express drivers are governed under the RLA, which requires organization for collective bargaining on a nationwide basis, while drivers for UPS and other express carriers are governed by the NLRA, which permits organization on a local basis.

The provision in the RLA that Oberstar refers to is apparently a result of FEDEX’s past efforts to thwart organization of its employees.

H.R. 915 passed the House on Thursday 5/21 by a vote of 277-136, mostly along party lines. The bill must now be considered by the Senate.

Peter Roskam voted against H.R. 915.  The strength of his ideological stance against organized labor trumped whatever concern for air safety he may possess.

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Worried and Confused, Peter Roskam Adopts Obama as Running Mate

On October 21, 2008, in Congressional Elections, George Bush, Peter Roskam, Presidential Race 2008, by RSR
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I haven’t found much time for blogging lately. I’m transitioning to a new role at work and when I haven’t been working I’ve been transfixed by the Presidential contest and our rapid descent into recession or worse. But when I saw this little ad on the Huffington Post today it shocked me into activity. Yes, Peter Roskam, desperate for your vote in what appears will be a Democratic landslide year, is attempting to ride Obama’s coat tails into a second term. And yes, this is the same Peter Roskam who is serves on John McCain’s Illinois leadership team. I nearly aspirated my Diet Pepsi when I saw this.

Apparently Roskam is not sure his nasty campaign of of character assaults against Jill Morgenthaler is going to fail in much the same way that John McCain’s nasty campaign against Obama is failing. Roskam would like you to believe that voting for both Barack Obama and himself would be a reasonable thing to do. It would not. Here’s my “voter guide” to explain why.

  1. Roskam is helping to lead John McCain’s campaign in Illinois. He wants John McCain to become President. He wants this because he and John want to do very different things than Barack Obama. They would like to see less rather than more regulation of the financial institutions that got us into such trouble during the “anything goes” Bush years. They want to privatize Social Security, turning what’s left of your retirement funds over to Wall Street, not because it’s good for you, but because its good for Wall Street. They want to abolish the minimum wage and regulations providing equal pay for equal work. They don’t like government regulation generally and would work against rules protecting workers from hazards in the workplace or protecting our environment for our children and our  children’s children. They want to continue the trend of redistribution of wealth that has taken place during the Bush years – taking more and more from the middle class and transferring it to the very wealthy. They will do this through regressive taxation – relieving large corporations and wealthy individuals of the obligation to pay their fair share, transferring that burden to the rest of us. They continue to embrace the failed “trickle down” theory of Ronald Reagan in spite of it’s obvious failure. They want to appoint extremist judges to the Supreme Court and take away every woman’s right to chose, banning abortion even when the life of the mother is at stake (you heard McCain say it in the last debate). They want to continue to undermine the religious freedom that we enjoy in this country by further eroding the wall of separation that has existed between Church and State since the foundation of our nation. They want to continue to allow big oil companies to grow richer at our expense by continuing our dependence on fossil fuels rather than implement strategies to conserve and develop alternative sources. And they would continue the Bush pattern of military aggression aimed at controlling the world’s scarce resources rather than engaging in cooperative action with other nations to solve the serious problems the world faces.
  2. Peter Roskam has not raised a single objection to all the many abuses of the Bush administration: the lies that were told to justify the ridiculous war against Iraq, the torture and illegal detention of prisoners, the illegal domestic spying, the outing of Valerie Plame, the politicization of the Justice Department, the Abramoff scandal, the looting by government contractors in Iraq, and on and on. By his silence, Roskam bears moral responsibility for all of them. Roskam is without a moral compass.
  3. Peter Roskam has done nothing in Congress except obstruct the efforts of the majority to tackle our problems. He has consistently used his vote to set up roadblocks to Democratic eforts to tackle problems such as the health insurance crisis, high energy prices, global warming, the shrinking middle class, and the plight of the poor. In order to succeed in office, President Obama will need legislator who will work cooperatively with him. Hyper-partisan Peter Roskam is not such a person.
  4. Roskam is insensitive to the needs of the poor and the middle class. He has consistently used his vote to aid the wealthiest americans and large corporations at the expense of the rest of us. On the basis of his voting record, Roskam was awarded the grade of F by themiddlelass.org and the grade of D by the Sargeant Shriver National Center on Poverty Law.
  5. Rather than use his vote to address the needs of his constituents, Roskam consitently votes for the benefit of large corporations. He has vote the U.S. Chamber of Commerce position 100% of the time. In return the the Chamber is running false adds, like the one below, claiming that Roskam is fighting for better health care. In fact, Roskam has voted multiple time against the expansion of the Children’s Healthcare Insurance Program and against parity in mental health benefits. Peter Roskam is an enemy of efforts to provide better healthcare to all Americans. He has demonstrated by his votes that he is only interested in protecting the pocketbooks of his corporate sponsors.

I urge Obama voters who might seriously consider voting to re-elect Roskam to take a close look at his voting record. There’s lots of links here that can help you do that.Even the solidly Republican Chicago Tribune has endorsed Roskam’s opponent. Roskam has used his office to serve special interests rather than to serve the majority of his constituents. He does not deserve to be returned to Washington.

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Peter Roskam’s Vote for Pay Cut to Du Page County Physicians

On August 2, 2008, in Healthcare, Medicare, Peter Roskam, by RSR
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Summer has been busy and I haven’t had time to write as much as I’d like. Some important votes have slipped by without comment. One that I think is of particular interest is the vote on June 24 on H.R. 6331: Medicare Improvement for Patients and Providers Act of 2008. Medicare recipients and the physicians who care for them should take special note.

On July 1st 2008, physicians participating in the Medicare program were scheduled to receive a 10 percent cut in reimbursement. An additional 5 percent cut was to take place in 2009. These cuts, if enacted, could have been devastating to both physicians, who are struggling to maintain the solvency of their practices in the face of reimbursement reductions by state, federal and private payers, and to Medicare recipients, who are faced with increasing difficulty in finding physicans willing to treat Medicare patients. According to the American Medical Association, as many as 60% of physicians would have been forced to limit their services to Medicare recipients under the proposed cuts.

In an effort to prevent these cuts from taking place, Democrats in the House, led by Rep. Charles Rangel, introduced H.R. 6331. In addition to to stopping the physician pay cuts, the bill provided for a number of modest improvements to the Medicare program to aid beneficiaries including:

  • Coverage of additional preventive services
  • Elimination of late enrollment penalties for the part D drug benefit
  • Coverage of pulmonary and cardiac rehabilitation
  • Elimination of higher co-payments for mental health services

Prior to the vote, President Bush threatened to veto the bill because it would have reduced payments to Medicare Advantage plans – private health insurance plans that offer alternatives to traditional Medicare under contract with CMS. Such plans currently receive, on average, about 12% more than the cost of services for recipients in traditional Medicare. Outside the Administration, there is widespread feeling that these plans, which are supposed to reduce costs through careful medical management, should be receiving reimbursements at a level lower than the costs of traditional Medicare, although insurance companies argue that the cuts will increase out-of-pocket costs and decrease options for Medicare Advantage recipients.

When the bill came to a vote on June 24, Peter Roskam voted no, siding with the Bush administration in its desire to allow the pay cuts to take effect. The bill passed but was vetoed by the President on July 15. That veto was quickly overridden by the House and Senate and has become law.

Physicians and Medicare recipients in the 6th district should ask Peter Roskam why he voted to support pay cuts for Medicare physicians. Roskam can be reached at his Washington office at (202) 225-4561 or in Bloomingdale at (630) 893-9670.

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Peter Roskam Unveils Plan to Aid Troubled Oil Companies

On July 20, 2008, in Energy, Environment, Gas Prices, Peter Roskam, Peter Roskam's Corporate Agenda, by RSR
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Big Oil has been having a tough time lately. Since George Bush took office, gasoline prices at the pump have more than tripled, forcing the oil companies to absorb huge windfall profits and causing whining, irrational consumers and Democrats in Congress to question the large subsidies that the Bush administration and Republicans in Congress have provided to the companies and to ask themselves whether we should be using so-called “alternative” forms of energy.

Now just as things were beginning to look bleak for Big Oil, our own Congressman, Peter Roskam, has unveiled a plan to help the oil companies weather these difficult times. Disguised as a plan to address the high fuel prices that consumers so unfairly complain about, the Roskam plan cleverly nips all talk of renewable, clean, alternative energy sources in the bud, and secures our dependence on fossil fuels into the distant future.

The Roskam plan is stunning in it’s simplicity. It focuses on two major actions: tax breaks to the wealthy and unrestrained domestic drilling.

Under the Roskam plan, residents of the 6th district who are suffering hardship from high gasoline prices will be able to receive a substantial tax credit for trading in their Hummer or Escalade for a smaller, more sensible Lexus or Mercedes. Who said Roskam was insensitive to the needs of the disadvantaged?

For many years now, Democrats and other communists in the environmental movement have successfully thwarted Big Oil from drilling in protected areas offshore and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in the name of protecting the environment. Well screw the environment! Peter Roskam’s energy plan tells these tree-hugging pansies who’s boss. Why drilling in ANWR alone will knock 4 cents off the cost of a gallon of gasoline within 20 years and supply a whopping 3 percent of our nation’s energy consumption no later than 2027. Democrats in Congress have tried to insist that the oil companies must first pursue drilling in the 5,500 oil leases that they currently possess. Roskam won’t rest until Big Oil has it all, tourists and pelicans be damned.

But Peter Roskam is no Johnny-Come-Lately to the cause of Big Oil. Since coming to Congress, Roskam has consistently used his votes to advance the interests of the Oil Companies and ward of threats posed by alternative energy technologies and increased fuel-efficiency standards.

Thank God, in these harrowing times, the oil companies have a friend like Peter Roskam. Remember that when you vote this fall.

Addendum: the pinkos over at Progress Illinois have a post questioning the math Roskam is using to promote his plan. Imagine. Suggesting that a sitting Congressman running for re-election might somehow use fuzzy math to his own political advantage. It boggles the mind.

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Peter Roskam and the War

On June 14, 2008, in Iraq, Peter Roskam, by RSR
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Peter Roskam is fond of telling anybody who will listen that high gas prices are the number one concern among residents of his district. This, of course, just goes to show how out of touch he is with the majority of his constituents. High gas prices are a concern but we haven’t forgotten about the war and all the other crimes committed by the Bush administration for which Roskam shares responsibility because of his silence and his votes.

Walt Zlotow at Heartland Progressive, another of Roskam’s constituents, has posted an excellent letter to Peter Roskam regarding his failure to acknowledge his responsibility for and his constituents’ concern regarding the war. Go read it.

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