The Fighting 29th

All about New York's 29th Congressional District

The Star-Gazette has coverage of Massa's press conference. Massa's not backing down:

I stand by my words. My politics, when it comes to being independent, come from people like Amo Houghton and, frankly, Ronald Regan [sic] and Franklin Roosevelt.

Reader Tom tells me that Massa was on the Brother Wease radio program this morning. Rochester's Channel 10 also covered the story yesterday.

The only local news outlet covering the "voting against the interests" story was 13-WHAM. WHAM also has a story on healthcare-related campaign donations.

Mustard Street thinks he's caught Eric Massa saying something out-of-bounds, specifically "I will vote against the interests of my district".

The remark is taken out of context. Massa was being asked whether he'd vote for a single-payer bill, even if sentiment at town hall meetings was against it. His final answer is "I will vote against their opinion if I actually believe it will help them."

Anyone who's watched Eric Massa for the last 4 years knows his position on healthcare: he supports a single-payer option. If you don't know that about Massa, you're not paying attention. He won the election espousing that position. It's no surprise that he'd say that he'd vote for single-payer, no matter what people say at town hall meetings.

But don't trust me, watch the video or read the transcript. It's pretty clear that Massa's responding to a specific, hypothetical question.

A reader tells me that the Massa Town Hall meeting in Olean last night was heavily attended (over 300) and long (over 4 hours).

Eric Massa is one of eight lawmakers who have signed on to a letter to FEMA asking for a disaster declaration for ten Western New York counties. Cattaraugus County is one of the ten counties on the list, and the only one in the 29th district.

Update: WIVB has a short report on the Olean meeting. They peg attendance at 150.

Dr. Denny at Scholars and Rogues takes Eric Massa to task for accepting corporate PAC money.

Rochesterturning has posted a full index to the video they took of Massa's first town hall meeting. It's clearly a lot of work on their part, and a good public service.

Eric Massa has weighed in on the crisis of the day: $200 back-to-school grants for "children across the state whose families are on welfare, receiving food stamps, or whose parents are unemployed". Massa thinks that the money is spent without accountability.

In case you've been under a rock, this story has been all over the national, regional and local news. Because the money was dispersed into food stamp accounts rather than as vouchers for back-to-school items, there was chaos at local grocery stores. Also, a local Wal-Mart reported a "run" on high-end electronics.

Though I agree with Massa that this could have been done better, I have to laugh at the agida over this relatively minor, and completely stimulative, expenditure.

The press on this was golden. Is it really a front-page story that some poor people have bad financial judgment? What's next, a treatise on the sun rising in the East? (And please let me know which "high-end" electronic device can be purchased for $200, at a Wal-Mart.)

This little controversy was also a classic New York political moment. It begins with a David Paterson fuckup. It involves Maggie Brooks bitching about welfare allocation. And it ends with Dean Skelos saying that the money could be better spent on STAR tax rebates. Even wicked George Soros got involved, by having the gall to chip in $35 million on this giveaway. The only thing missing was Pedro Espada, but I'm sure he's involved somehow.

The Corning Leader covers Massa's appearance at a Chamber of Commerce event. It was all about -- what else -- healthcare reform.

Jane Sutter at the D&C reports on a telephone conversation with Massa.

The Hornell Evening Trib reports on a well-attended two and one half hour meeting in Canisteo.

The NRCC is targeting Massa because he supports closing Guantánamo. Apparently Leavenworth isn't strong enough to hold terrorists, even though it has housed Nazi spies, gangsters, and serial killers.

Finally, the Star-Gazette has a Massa/Reed story on healthcare. I don't think this bodes well for Reed:

Reed said he took a quick look at the bill on the Internet and decided not to waste his time reading it because health care that is run and controlled by the government is philosophically the wrong direction for the nation to go.

When you're running against a guy who believes (with some merit) that he can outwork anyone, saying you didn't bother to read the bill leaves a big hole for an attack, especially when your take on the bill (that it is government-run healthcare) isn't what the bill says.

According to this WETM story, Tom Reed doesn't like the Cash for Clunkers program. Reed says that "the program is artificially interjecting the government into the economic model and he doesn't think that's money well spent in the long term".

This raises an interesting question: is Reed against stimulus in general? After all, the point of stimulus is to "interject" government money "into the economic model" during a severe downturn, because private spending has fallen off. If he is, then he's way out of the mainstream of economic thinking about recession economics, and he needs to explain why he opposes something that almost every economist supports..

If Reed isn't against all stimulus, I don't see why Cash for Clunkers is so objectionable. Unlike almost every other stimulus provision, Cash for Clunkers gives the government a little leverage. For every $4,500 the government spends, someone buys an automobile, worth on average $28,400. This means that Cash for Clunkers will inject far more than its $3 billion pricetag into the economy -- that's a heck of a lot better than paving roads or building bridges.

Also, unlike the tax rebates of the last recession, every dollar in Cash for Clunkers will go into the economy. Consumers won't have the option of banking their $4,500, as they did with their rebate checks. And unlike the SUV tax credit of the last administration, Cash for Clunkers encourages buying vehicles that will decrease pollution and lessen our dependence on foreign oil.

I'm sure there are many little details about Cash for Clunkers that can be criticized, but it seems a hell of a lot more reasonable than spending millions to pave remote airports in Alaska, for instance.

Eric Massa's office has released an updated town hall meeting schedule. Two meetings have different (and presumably larger) venues. If you're thinking about going to a town hall meeting, the schedule section of Massa's website has the latest news on town hall meetings.