The Fighting 29th

All about New York's 29th Congressional District

Today's Massa press conference made the short trip from S-CHIP to rubberstamping and back again.

Massa began by saying that the Republicans are trying to frame the S-CHIP conversation as one about national health insurance, "when in reality it's an argument over the tobacco companies versus toddlers. It's about whether or not kids, no matter how much money their parents make, should be allowed to see a doctor." Massa characterized Kuhl as "two-faced", pointing to the Time magazine article where he said that he's not voting against it, he's actually voting for it.

Noting that Kuhl has been denying that he's a "rubberstamp", Massa said that reminded him of "a child with a baseball bat [...] who says he didn't break the window". Massa pointed to Kuhl's Star-Gazette op-ed, which included a list of votes that Kuhl claimed were against the President. "The vast majority of those votes were supported by the President -- [for example] Raising minimum wage was supported by the President. On every vote that matters, Randy Kuhl is super-glued to George Bush."

Massa said that today's veto of S-CHIP gives Kuhl a choice: "flip-flop or be super-glued to the President. A man who said he'd bring home the bacon is voting against kids in the district."

Massa also pointed out the inconsistency between Kuhl's complaints that Congress isn't getting things done, and his taking credit for things that do get done. "This kind of disingenuousness [...] serves no one."

I asked Massa a couple of questions. First, I asked him what he thought about Kuhl's view that the cigarette tax that partially finances S-CHIP is unfair to the poor. He said that, in his experience, "even people who are hardened smokers say that if the cost of cigarettes are part of getting children to the doctor, they're worth it."

I also asked Massa about his take on New York issuing illegal immigrants drivers' licenses. He noted that Kuhl is only raising this issue because he doesn't want to talk about his voting record, and that Kuhl often responds on other matters by saying that something is a state issue. That said, Massa disagrees with Governor Spitzer. He thinks it is wrong for the government to "recognize status with legal documents". However, "we need true immigration reform. I believe I stand with the Governor on that."

Julie Sherwood from the Messenger-Post, the other person on the call, asked Massa to quantify the number of children in the 29th helped by S-CHIP. Massa said that he didn't have those numbers, but his press secretary is going to find them.

As part of the call, Massa mentioned his appearance in Time and Esquire, which he said surprised him. It also surprised his Mother, who called to ask him why he was in a risqué magazine like Esquire.

Time Magazine has posted an article on the political ramifications of S-CHIP. It leads with a quote from Eric Massa:

Democrat Eric Massa happened to be in Washington last week for a fundraiser for his bid to challenge Rep. Randy Kuhl (pronounced "cool"), a Republican from upstate New York, for his seat next year, and he couldn't believe his good fortune. As his potential opponent voted against the expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Plans (SCHIP), Massa felt like he was watching Kuhl commit "political suicide" for all to see on C-SPAN.

The article also says that Massa is making S-CHIP his top priority.

Today's McClatchy newspapers carry an interesting analysis of the current veto threats issued by the White House. There are 10 domestic spending bills under veto threat by the White House. That's a good percentage of the domestic spending legislation before Congress. So, Kuhl's argument that he isn't a Bush rubberstamp is enabled by the Bush administration's new-found spending restraint.

The story also questions Kuhl's claim that S-CHIP is a "Democrat Bill":

House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, for example, said the proposal was put together without input from Republicans.

That isn't true. Senior Republicans such as Sens. Charles Grassley of Iowa, the senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee and a fiscal conservative, and Orrin Hatch of Utah helped draft the bill, and 18 Republicans in the Senate and 45 in the House of Representatives voted for it.

Moreover, Grassley contests Bush's objections to the children's health insurance bill.

The DCCC has begun running radio ads and robo-calls to publicize Randy Kuhl's vote against S-CHIP. Here's the audio [wmv] of the ad. The DCCC press release says the ads will run for a week, but it doesn't include the size of the ad buy.

The ad says that S-CHIP is "funded by a 61 cent increase in the tobacco tax." It should say partially funded, because that tax increase isn't enough to pay for the entire expansion. Kuhl seems to think that this increase is a negative: one of his blog postings links to an AP article titled "Poor Smokers Would Pay for Health Bill".

Finally, Kuhl's office also posted a short video of Randy's one-minute floor speech last Wednesday. The topic is New York State drivers licenses for illegal immigrants (a topic I covered here). Kuhl made this speech during the "one minute speech" portion of the House's daily calendar. Video after the break:

Randy Kuhl has an op-ed in today's Elmira Star-Gazette where he disputes the "rubber stamp" characterization. He claims that he's voted against the Bush administration 45 times in the last 3 months, and lists a number of bills he's supported despite the President's opposition.

Reader Rich sends a Finger Lakes Times clipping [pdf], which announces the appointment of a new district director for Randy Kuhl's Bath office. Unlike the Star-Gazette story, this one identifies the new director, Pete Ellis, as the son-in-law of State Senator George Winner, the man who has Randy Kuhl's old seat in the New York Senate. Winner is the head of the Investigations Committee, which is investigating "Troopergate".

S-CHIP is clearly causing some pain at Kuhl HQ. In the past couple of days, his office has made two new (to him) claims about the program, all in an apparent attempt to dodge the contention that he voted against America's kids.

The first claim is a press release which says that Kuhl actually voted for S-CHIP, because he voted for a continuing resolution that funded S-CHIP at its current levels. That near-unanimous vote was stopgap measure to prevent expiration of the current program while Congress and the President went through the veto-override-redraft cycle with the new version of the program. Kuhl did vote for it, but the headline ("Kuhl votes to Extend Childrens Healthcare with SCHIP") is extremely misleading -- the "extension" that everyone (but Kuhl) talks about is the real bill, not this temporary measure.

The second, and more interesting, argument concerns S-CHIP eligibility in New York State. The New York income limit for S-CHIP is 400% of the poverty line, which is a little over $80K for a family of four. Randy makes much of this in a recent blog post, and it is a real issue. The Water Buffalo Press has an in-depth examination that's worth reading. It includes a look at the eligibility requirements versus the stated rationale for S-CHIP. Realistically, most people at 400% of poverty have health coverage through their work. It's worth asking how raising the limit that high in New York will benefit low-income families who can't afford insurance.

Though this is the first time that Kuhl has raised this objection, it's a common Republican talking point. I asked Eric Massa about it three weeks ago. In essence, his response was that the issue comes down to the bottom line of how we distribute health care in this country. That's true, and it's a discussion we need to have. Unfortunately, the S-CHIP discussion is now at a soundbite level. Judging from Kuhl's various attempts to spin his S-CHIP vote, the Democrats' soundbite (Republicans vote against children) is sticking.

Randy Kuhl's latest blog post adds some facts to his contention that this Congress is slow. Kuhl claims that the current count of bills signed into law (82) is too few, and that too many of those bills (36) merely name post offices.

Absent from Kuhl's post is some important context. Let's compare the current Congress' numbers to the first session of the Republican-controlled 109th Congress. As of September 29, 2005, which, like today, was the day before the end of Congress' work that month, 76 laws had been signed by the President. Here's the last bill Bush signed on that day.

As for the issue of Post Offices, a little over 25% of the laws passed by the 109th Congress had to do with naming federal buildings.

The use of statistics without context is a classic, and annoying, political tactic. Nobody, other than an expert, has any idea how may bills the average Congress passes in nine months. Without context, Kuhl can spin a number into anything he wants it to be. With context, it becomes a non-issue. Always doubt a politician who bases an argument on bare numbers offered without context.

Eric Massa is in Washington, DC meeting with Democratic leadership and third-party groups, so there was no Massa press conference today. In possibly related news, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has a little under $20 million in the bank. Its Republican counterpart is a little over $2 million in the hole.

Today's paper Rochester Democrat & Chronicle front-pages yesterday's S-CHIP vote. The story isn't online yet. Randy Kuhl voted against final passage of the bill as amended by the Senate.

The Elmira Star-Gazette reports that a $5 million project in Elmira relies on the HR 1495, the Water Resources Development Act. This bill passed the House with almost no opposition (and Randy Kuhl's support) in May, and recently passed the Senate with a veto-proof majority. President Bush has threatened a veto.