Nick Jonas testified in front of the Senate Homeland and Government Affairs Committee about increasing funding for diabetes research. Nick was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when he was 13 years old and he shares the story of his diagnosis and continuing treatment. Nick monitors his diet and does the needle stick twelve times a day to check his glucose levels. He uses a pump to self-administer insulin every day (he found the shots too difficult to self-administer). Nick especially thanked Senator Collins for her support for juvenile diabetes research. He is poised and confident: he did a great job. Take a look:
Taxpayers Footing the Bill for Congressional Personal Expenses
Here we go again. Not to be outdone by the British political expense scandal, American lawmakers are expensing items such as expensive cars, tvs and cameras at the American taxpayers' expense. Just like in the British scandal, the expenses uncovered -- so far -- are technically legal. But just as British taxpayers are outraged that they are paying for lawmakers' luxuries, American taxpayers are going to be less than thrilled when they find out what they've been footing the bill for. The Wall Street Journal reports:
Florida Rep. Alcee Hastings spent $24,730 in taxpayer money last year to lease a 2008 luxury Lexus hybrid sedan. Ohio Rep. Michael Turner expensed a $1,435 digital camera. Eni Faleomavaega, the House delegate from American Samoa, bought two 46-inch Sony TVs.
The expenditures were legal, properly accounted for and drawn from allowances the U.S. government grants to lawmakers. Equipment purchased with office expense accounts must be returned to the House or the federal General Services Administration when a lawmaker leaves office.
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But as British politicians come under widening scorn for spending public money on everything from candy bars to moat-dredging, an examination of U.S. lawmakers' expense claims shows Washington's elected officials have also used public funds for eye-catching purchases.
U.S. politicians, unlike their counterparts in Great Britain, can't bill taxpayers for personal living expenses. The U.S. Treasury gives them an allowance to cover "official and representational expenses," according to congressional rules, and the lawmakers enjoy a fair amount of discretion in how they use the funds.
The Senate and House release volumes of the reimbursement requests for these allowances, but do not make them available electronically. A Wall Street Journal review of thousands of pages of these records for 2008 expenses showed most lawmaker spending flowed to areas such as staff salaries, travel, office rent and supplies, and printing and mailing.
But it also turned up spending on an array of products, from the car leases and electronics to a high-end laptop computer and $22 cellphone holder. Rep. Howard Berman expensed $84,000 worth of personalized calendars, printed by the U.S. Capitol Historical Society, for his constituents. A spokeswoman for Mr. Berman, a California Democrat, didn't return requests for comment.
The records show that some lawmakers spent heavily in the final months of the year to draw down allowances before the end of December -- a time when U.S. households were paring their budgets and lawmakers were criticizing Detroit auto executives for taking private aircraft to Washington to plead their case for taxpayer funding.
Rep. Hastings, a Democrat, and Rep. Turner, a Republican, made their purchases in the third quarter. Rep. Faleomavaega, a Democrat, bought the TVs for $1,473 apiece in mid-November. Spokespeople for the three didn't return requests for comment.
House members get a government expense allowance of $1.3 million to $1.9 million a year. Senators get $2.9 million to $4.5 million. The disparity is based on several factors, with lawmakers whose home states are far from Washington, for example, typically receiving more to cover their higher travel expenses.
Not surprisingly, no one wanted to comment for this article. Steve Ellis, vice president of the nonpartisan Taxpayers for Common Sense says that the figures are misleading because the politicians do not have to provide individual receipts and instead lump expenses together. Furthermore, he says that the information is very difficult to find and is not available electronically.
The House of Representatives came to its collective senses and passed
a bill delaying the switch from analog to digital television signals until June, 2009. President Obama is expected to sign the bill soon.
The U.S. switch to digital television signals will be delayed four months until June under legislation that cleared Congress on Wednesday and now goes to President Barack Obama for his signature into law.
Obama supports the delay, sharing concerns that 20 million mostly poor, elderly and rural households were not ready for the congressionally mandated switch.
The bill delaying the changeover to June 12 from Feb. 17 cleared the U.S. House of Representatives in a 264-158 vote and followed Senate passage last month.
About 13 million people hold expired $40 coupons the government was providing to offset the costs of converter boxes needed for older televisions, according to Consumers Union. The government ran out of coupons last month and millions of requests for coupons are pending.
"We believe it is irresponsible to ask mostly rural, or elderly consumers to reach into their own pockets to deal with this transition when many folks, including the federal government, are making a profit," said Joel Kelsey, a policy analyst at Consumers Union.
Airwaves to be vacated by television broadcasters after the switch were purchased mostly by AT&T Inc (T.N) and Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N) in an auction that raised about $19 billion for the U.S. government.
Both companies agreed to a short one-time delay and their licenses will be extended under the bill.
Now those 20 million people will have four months to either find a way to afford cable, or get a converter box so that their old tv sets can read the new digital signal. No word yet as to whether the government will honor the now-expired converter box coupons or if they will just print more coupons. That won't be cheap, because the coupon program ran out of money.
Today the House of Representatives failed
to pass the $700 billion proposed bailout plan, causing the Dow Jones to plunge 778 points. Nancy Pelosi and the other House leaders, such as Republican John Boehner, seemed stunned that the bill didn't pass. Only twelve changed votes made the difference. Opposition to the plan has been growing, with the perception that the plan is bailing out Wall Street and not Main Street. However, President Bush, John McCain, Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and even Newt Gingrich all say the plan is necessary to free up tight credit markets which could leave consumers without access to home loans, auto loans, small business lines of credit.
The House of Representatives delivered a stunning defeat to legislation designed to rescue the nation's troubled financial system, sweeping aside a call from President Bush to "send a strong signal" of confidence to markets at home and abroad.
The 228-205 vote Monday exposed deep unease among rank-and-file lawmakers in both parties with what would be an unprecedented intervention in the private sector. The vote came as turmoil in financial markets widened, prompting the Federal Reserve to inject new capital into credit markets and forcing the government-arranged sale of Wachovia Corp. to Citigroup.
Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 777.68 points, its biggest one-day drop in history. It ended down 7% at 10365.45, down 9.3% since crisis erupted a few weeks ago on Wall Street following the meltdown of Lehman Brothers Holdings. All 30 of the blue-chip indicator's components fell Monday.
The Bush-backed package now faces an uncertain future, though party leaders on both sides of the aisle are sure to consider revising the initiative, which Mr. Bush said Monday is needed to "keep the crisis in our financial system from spreading throughout our economy."
After the vote, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R., Ohio) said there would be an effort to bring back another bill, with further changes. "We've got to find a true middle ground," he said. "We need everybody to calm down and relax and get back to work."
The bailout plan isn't dead yet: it could still be passed. Today's stock market plunge is a 6.98% drop. Just for comparison, The Great Depression began with a 40% drop in the stock market over two months and on October 19, 1987 (Black Monday), the Dow fell 22.6% in a single day. Credit markets are continuing to tighten and the slide in the stock market will hurt people's 401k and other retirement plans. $1.2 trillion dollars in market value was wiped out today.
On Thursday night Sarah Palin will debate Joe Biden: they had both better be ready to discuss the bailout and the economy. Any missteps could prove fatal in an election year when consumers are very jittery about the economy.
The House of Representatives has changed the name of french fries to "Freedom Fries" and french toast to "Freedom Toast" in its cafeterias and restaurants to protest France's decision to oppose a U.S. led war on Iraq. Some restaurants across the United States, including Fuddrucker's restaurant chain, have also implemented the name change.
