Dems Have 12-Point Lead in House Races, Thanks to Women

From Quinnipiac University: With almost 2-1 backing from women, Democrats take a 51 - 39 percent lead in hypothetical races for the U.S. House of Representatives this year, according to a Quinnipiac University National Poll released today.

Women back Democratic candidates 57 - 32 percent, the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University National Poll finds. Men are divided with 46 percent going Republican and 44 percent for Democrats. White voters are divided with 46 percent for Democrats and 45 percent for Republicans. Black voters go Democratic 78 - 16 percent and Hispanic voters back Democrats 66 - 23 percent.

The key block of independent voters backs Democratic candidates 50 - 33 percent.

American voters disapprove 66 - 27 percent of the job Republicans in Congress are doing and disapprove of Democrats in Congress 63 - 30 percent.

Voters are divided on President Donald Trump's nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to be a justice of the U.S. Supreme Court as 40 percent say the U.S. Senate should confirm the nomination and 41 percent say the Senate should not confirm the nomination.

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American voters disapprove 56 - 36 percent of the way the media covers President Trump, and disapprove 65 - 32 percent of the way Trump talks about the media.

Voters trust the media more than Trump 54 - 34 percent to tell the truth about important issues. Republicans believe Trump more 75 - 16 percent, the only listed group to side with the president. White voters with no college degree and white men are divided.

The media is an important part of democracy, 71 percent of voters say, while 21 percent say the media is the enemy of the people. This is the strongest support for the media since the Quinnipiac University National Poll first asked this question in April.

From July 18 - 23, Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,177 voters nationwide, with a margin of error of +/- 3.5 percentage points, including design effect. Live interviewers call landlines and cell phones.

The Quinnipiac University Poll, directed by Douglas Schwartz, Ph.D., conducts nationwide public opinion surveys, and statewide polls in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Florida, Ohio, Virginia, Iowa, Colorado and Texas as a public service and for research.

On What Planet is the House GOP?

Though the government is scheduled to go into default on Thursday and credit ratings agency Fitch has already placed the United States of America on a "negative ratings watch," House Speaker John Boehner seems powerless to stop the madness within his own party.

Josh Barro at Business Insider remarks, "There is no serious argument for Republican governance right now, even if you prefer conservative policies over liberal ones. These people are just too dangerously incompetent to be trusted with power.

But we're all consumed by the dating life of Julian Stolz.

Onerous 1099 Health Care "Reform" Repealed By BiPartisan House

Whether you support or oppose health care reform, most will agree that its 1099 mandate, scheduled to start in 2012, would wreak havoc on most small businesses. Yesterday, a bipartisan House voted to repeal this requirement, 314 to 112, in what is called the Small Business Paperwork Mandate Elimination Act.

LV Congressman Charlie Dent, who had complained about this provision before the overhaul was enacted over a year ago, explained his vote supporting the repeal. “By forcing businesses to comply with needlessly burdensome tax filing requirements, the 1099 provision would ultimately divert limited resources and energy away from employers’ efforts to grow and innovate.”

In a news release, Dent's Congressional office reports that the The National Taxpayer Advocate, an independent entity operating within the auspices of the IRS, estimates 26 million non-farm sole proprietorships, four million S corporations, two million C corporations, three million partnerships, two million farming businesses, one million charities and other tax-exempt organizations, and likely more than 100,000 federal, state, and local government entities will be impacted by these new filing requirements.

“Unfortunately, the 1099 provision exemplifies many of the misguided elements included in the new law,” Dent explained. “It stands in the way of economic growth and job creation, while doing nothing to decrease the cost of health care in the United States.”

Dent was encouraged that 76 Democrats joined a unanimous GOP. “I hope the strong support for this bill among House Democrats signifies they are willing to admit provisions included in the hastily-drafted health care law will be detrimental to the American economy. I am prepared to work in a bipartisan manner to eliminate or modify additional impediments and enact effective health care reform.”

My only question is why would 112 House members want to keep this draconian provision?

US House Agrees to $1.1 Trillion Spending Plan

Unable to pass any of 12 regular appropriations bills for 2011, or a budget resolution for the first time since 1974, the U.S. House today enacted a $1.1 trillion "continuing resolution" (212-206) to keep the government afloat.

LV Congressman Charlie Dent voted No because, in his opinion, it continues the unsustainable spending policies of the current Congress for the entire 2011 Fiscal Year.

“Rather than displaying a renewed commitment to fiscal responsibility, Congress has prolonged excessive federal spending for an additional year,” Dent said after the vote. “At a time when our national debt continues to increase, it is critical that we work diligently to reduce government spending.”

“While I am disappointed Congress has waited until the 11th hour to fund the federal government, I am certainly not surprised,” Dent continued. “The passage of today’s continuing resolution was foreshadowed by Congress’s failure to enact nearly all individual appropriations bills and a comprehensive budget that established a blueprint for federal spending and revenues in the 2011 fiscal year.”

According to a projection from the Obama administration, the federal government currently borrows 40% of the money it spends.

Son of Stimulus Narrowly Passes House.

The margins of victory are getting smaller.

The final tally last night was 217-212 in support of what has been dubbed "Son of Stimulus," a $174 billion spending measure for "shovel ready" jobs and to bail out state and local governments.

I think they're nuts. As noted in Insanity Defined, the federal government has spent, lent or pledged nearly $13 trillion since December of 2007, when the recession began. That's $42,105 for every man, woman and child in the United States. The net result is that since January of this year, another 3.5 million Americans have lost their jobs, and the unemployment rate has soared to 10%.

Time to fire up those printing presses!

This latest vote could explain why, for the first time, less than half of this country approve of President Barack Obama's job performance.

Lehigh Valley Congressman Charlie Dent voted against this second stimulus because of its misguided use of recovered Troubled Asset Recovery Program (TARP) funds that should have gone to reduce our deficit. Since the first trillion-dollar stimulus has failed to thwart rising unemployment, to say nothing of those 4 million jobs promised by President Barack Obama, Dent believes this would simply be throwing good money after bad.

“I cannot support a ‘Second Stimulus’ when the first one has not yielded sustainable job creation,” Congressman Dent said. “If the majority wants to create jobs there are a number of ways to restore confidence and boost private-sector hiring. But excessive spending on government growth is the wrong way to go.”

TARP was originally enacted as a temporary plan to address an extraordinary crisis in our financial markets as a result of the collapse of financial firms that the government said were ‘too big to fail.’ The Administration has extended the TARP program to October 3, 2010, which has opened the door to efforts by Democrats in Congress to begin spending unallocated and repaid TARP funds for programs unrelated to the financial emergency.

“It is an irresponsible breach of the public trust to treat the TARP funds repayments as ‘found money’ for new spending,” Congressman Dent said. “If we are going to invest federal money, it should be done sparingly and wisely, and this Congress continues to spend excessively and without consideration for long term consequences."

Bucks County Democrat Patrick Murphy joined Dent in voting NO. He told Pennsylvania Avenue's Scott Kraus, "I broke with the Democrats on the spending bill because it uses bailout money to pay for new spending. That is wrong. Any money returned from Wall Street should be used to pay off national debt."
Congressman Dent also voted against another bill increasing our statutory debt limit to $12.4 trillion. He had earlier proposed that Congress should lower the debt ceiling by the amount recovered under the TARP program.