Sunday Dec.11,2011

from Joel Tyner posts:
Gibson, Tonko Divide Along Party Lines on Health-Care Repeal" Albany Times-Union Jan. 19th:
http://blog.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/54028/gibson-tonko-divide-along-party-lines-on-health-care-repeal/ ...yes, answer is expanding Medicare to cover everyone-- but Hinchey right here on this]
Miss this one yesterday in the Post Star?....(incredibly, Gibson voted for the REINS Act-- H.R. 10!)...

From http://prospect.org/article/legislative-stranglehold ...
Legislative StrangleholdBEN PECK DECEMBER 8, 2011
Passing the REINS bill would give Republicans the ability to veto any new regulations.
With only four Democrats voting for the measure, yesterday the House passed H.R. 10, "Rules from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny" (REINS). If it were to become law, this radical piece of legislation would prohibit all federal agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Securities and Exchange Commission from minting any new regulations unless they passed both the U.S. House and Senate within 70 legislative days and impacted the economy by more than $100 million. The requirement that regulations be agreed to by both the House and Senate would give the staunchly anti-government Republican majority in the House the ability to unilaterally veto any new regulations by simply refusing to put the legislation to a vote.

Fact: Chris Gibson will be joining GOP state Sen. Roy McDonald for "Disabilities Awareness Day" event at Wilton Mall tomorrow (Sat. Dec. 10th) noon to 5 pm--
Fact: Chris Gibson voted Apr. 15th for the draconian Paul Ryan budget http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/04/15/967406/-NY-20:-Gibson-lies-about-Medicare-vouchers ;
http://www.capitaltonight.com/2011/04/rep-chris-gibson-discusses-budget-medicare/ ]
Fact: The Paul Ryan budget Gibson voted for Apr. 15th abandons people with disabilities, cutting Medicaid by 35% with block grants (by over $700 billion over the next decade), unfairly forcing people with disabilities to live in nursing homes rather than in their own houses.
[see: http://www.thenation.com/blog/160361/eighty-nine-arrested-protesting-paul-ryans-medicaid-cuts ;
http://www.fair.org/blog/2011/05/06/disability-rights-activists-are-even-invisible-getting-arrested-on-capitol-hill/ ]

Gibson refuses to push for a wide variety of common-sense progressive initiatives that have broad populist support, as evidenced repeatedly by many polls-- a statewide ban on fracking (and immediate national moratorium), a liveable minimum wage, Medicare for all, Clean Money Clean Elections campaign finance reform, amending the Constitution to make it clear corporations aren't people, taxing Wall Street, breaking up the big banks, bringing back the Glass-Steagall Act, ending the speculation driving gas/oil prices up through the roof, bringing our troops now from Afghanistan, Iraq, and all over the globe to save $125 billion a year for taxpayers (and redirect $ home to our needs)-- and he refuses to lift a finger to join Sen. Bernie Sanders in seriously challenging the $16 TRILLION the Federal Reserve recently lent out to practically every major financial institution and corporation around.
[ http://www.AMillionFrackingLetters.com ; http://www.FrackAction.com ; http://www.ToxicsTargeting.com
http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=9e2a4ea8-6e73-4be2-a753-62060dcbb3c3
http://www.freespeechforpeople.org/node/75 ; http://www.PetitionOnline.com/FDRagain ;
http://www.thinkprogress.org/2011/05/11/afghanistan-get-out-59-percent ]
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Gibson's allegiance to Grover Norquist jeopardizes national support for farmland protection.
As Rhinebeck resident and Scenic Hudson Senior Vice President Steve Rosenberg noted this morning on WAMC,(Nov 2011) it's crucial that even the small amount of federal funding for farmland protection ($100 million) now in the the farm bill about to be re-authorized be maintained-- the fact is this becomes more and more impossible with Norquist acolytes like Gibson in office who reject progressive taxation.
[ http://www.riverkeeper.org/news-events/news/stop-polluters/pollution-enforcement/outlining-vision/ ]

Gibson voted last month for HR 358-- legislation that "would allow a hospital to deny a woman lifesaving emergency abortion care-even if a doctor deems it necessary. It would also take comprehensive health care coverage away from women and create loopholes that states and insurance companies could exploit to undermine the new requirement that insurance companies provide birth control with no co-pays or deductibles."
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/newsroom/local-press-releases/rep-gibson-votes-deny-lifesaving-emergency-health-care-women-38215.htm

Gibson voted this February to eliminate $300 million in Title X Planned Parenthood funding-- even though "Title X funding can only be used for family planning services including birth control, life saving cervical and breast cancer screenings, HIV counseling and testing, testing and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases, and education. The funding cannot and is not used to provide abortion services. Under the proposal, 48 percent of Planned Parenthood patients nationwide would be cut off from their source of health care for these essential services. Ninety-seven percent of the services provided by Planned Parenthood are preventive, most of which are women's gynecology services."
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/newsroom/local-press-releases/representatives-gibson-hayworth-vote-block-funds-planned-parenthood-would-cut-health-care-milli-36335.htm

Gibson voted last month to kill more American jobs by extending so-called "free-trade" agreements to Korea, Panama, and Colombia-- though we've already lost 5 million jobs from NAFTA.
[ http://blog.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/83832/tonko-gibson-at-odds-on-trade-agreements/ ;
http://www.americanjobsalliance.com/content/new-free-trade-pacts-will-hurt-middle-class ]