George Voinovich Is At It Again

Once again, when there is a Democratic President who wants to spend money on people as opposed to giving tax cuts to the wealthy, George Voinovich becomes a "deficit" hawk. We saw this before during the Clinton and Bush administrations.

When Clinton was President, George Voinovich talked about the need for a balanced Federal budget. Although interestingly enough we don't remember a lot of praise for Clinton from Voinovich when the Clinton administration left a surplus for his successor to squander.

But when Bubble-Boy became President and wanted to pass his reckless tax cuts in 2001and then again in 2003, where was Voinovich? Well, ol' deficit hawk George was right there with him, agreeing to his cuts in 2001 and 2003. Now in 2003 the deficit hawk is given credit for helping to cut Bush's tax cuts in half, although half of budget busting tax cuts is still half too many. Ol' deficit hawk George, however, then voted to extend the expiration date of tax cuts which had the effect of undoing his work in 2003.

By this time you may be wondering why in the world we are ranting about George Voinovich on Martin Luther King Day. Let's face we could be ranting about the Massachusetts special election or talking about what King meant to America, why are we ranting about George?

Well, it is because we read this article in the Plain Dealer about how George is trying to cap off his career by helping create a budget commission to control Federal spending. Once again the PD is acting like the public relations officer for George's Senate office and telling us how great George is for caring about deficit and the Federal budget.

Although, come to think about it, at least in this article the reporter does point out how Voinovich supported Bush's tax cuts. That is something new for the PD, acknowledging, however obliquely, the hypocrisy of Voinovich on budget deficits when Republicans are in power.

Hey, no matter what happens in the race for the U.S. Senate seat from Ohio, at least we won't be treated to the PD creaming their jeans for Voinovich anymore. (See, and you probably thought this article was going to end on an angry note.)

Senate Supports Cloture in Fair Pay Act

On Thursday, Jan. 15, 2009, considered the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009. There was a motion to invoke cloture and cut off debate. The vote was 72 to cut off debate and 23 to allow debate to continue. Fourteen Republicans voted for the motion and all the votes not to cut off debate came from Republicans. The question is whether the change in the Presidency led to 14 Rs deciding to vote for cloture on this legislation?

If you look at what states the Senators who voted against cloture came from, a pattern emerges. Only two Senators who voted against cloture came from states carried by Obama. On the other hand, seven Republicans who voted in favor of cloture came from states that Obama carried. Those seven Rs include both Republican Senators from Maine, one from North Carolina, one from Florida and Ohio's own George Voinovich.

Although this vote may not get the attention that the Senate's refusal to block the second part of the bank bailout, it is a good sign that progressive legislation won't always be blocked by Republican filibusters. Republican Senators have seen their ranks decimated in the 2006 and 2007 elections. Not all of them want to join the ranks of their fellow elephants.

Voinovich Only Shows Guts Where Dems Are Involved

We were never wild about the choice of Tim Geithner for Treasury Secretary. His background seemed to be that of a person too close to the financial services industry to suit us. One of the big problems in the financial services industries is that the people who run it are too infatuated with their own brilliance to suit us. They also possess an arrogance that only comes from being able to control huge sums of money that others have earned. They seem to think that the rules don't apply to them.

The revelation that Geither didn't pay all his taxes only reinforces our opinion. He comes across as a guy who believes that he the rules don't apply to him. So if his nomination was defeated, we wouldn't be heartbroken.

Having said that, however, we find the attacks on him by Republicans like George Voinovich to be just a tad off putting. When the Bushies were lying about weapons of mass destruction, allowing Americans to die after Hurricane Katrina, passing tax cuts that plunged us into huge deficits, where was Voinovich?

As a member of Bush's own party, his criticisms would have carried some weight. Yet, while he was somewhat critical of Bush's tax cuts, he voted for them. He voted for the war in Iraq and voted against resolutions to end the war. He was a typical Republican "moderate" voicing concerns about Bubble-Boy's policies, but, in the end, enabling him by voting his way in the House or Senate.

Now, though, that's there a Democrat in the White House, Georgie has found his voice. Now, he is unafraid to speak truth to power. Pardon us for not being impressed.

George Voinovich's Votes to Cut Off Debate in 2008

MCDAC examined Senator George Voinovich's votes on motions to invoke cloture in 2008. A motion to invoke cloture is when the Senate votes to cut-off debate so that legislation can proceed to a vote. It has become the GOP's preferred method of obstructing Democratic sponsored legislation. By preventing bills from coming to a vote, they have avoided putting Bush in the position of vetoing popular legislation. Such votes also mean that so-called "moderates" like Voinovich don't have to go on record on votes. Votes in which they would face the Hobson's Choice of either voting against popular legislation and ticking off the public, or voting for such legislation and ticking off the right-wing base of the GOP.

Our examination consisted of going to the Senate's official website at www.senate.gov and examining the votes that were identified as being votes on motions to invoke cloture. We found that in 2008, there were 49 such votes. On those votes, Voinovich voted with the winning side in all but four votes.

On only two of those four votes, did he vote different than the way a majority of the Republican caucus voted. On one of those votes he joined 17 Republican Senators. On that vote, which took place on September 29, 2008, 27 Republicans voted to cut-off debate. On another vote, which took place on June 26, 2008, 39 Republicans voted against cutting-off debate while Voinovich voted to cut-off debate. On the other votes, Voinovich voted with the Republican caucus.

We think that this shows that while Voinovich likes to talk a bi-partisan game, he really doesn't vote on a bi-partisan basis IF the Republican caucus is voting against the Democratic position.

Barack Obama will be putting forth legislation in the 111TH Congress. Legislation designed to turn around America's economy. A lot of this legislation will go against the pro-business, anti-regulation attitude of the Republican party, but will be what a majority of Ohioans want. It will be interesting to see, with two years to go until his re-election campaign, if Voinovich keeps supporting the right-wing position of the GOP Senate caucus.

Voinovich Bucks the GOP and the Shrub

In the past this blog has criticized Senator George Voinovich when he backed the party line in the United States Senate even though such actions hurt Ohio's working class families. Therefore, we owe to him to note that when the cloture vote came up in the Senate on June 26, 2008, he voted to end the Republican filibuster of the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008. The cloture vote failed by two votes, 58 to 40. As a result there is the possibility of a 10% cut in physician fees paid by Medicare.

Interestingly Bush promised to veto the bill if it would have got past the filibuster. John "McSame" McCain was not present when this vote took place. Only two Senators missed this vote. One was Ted Kennedy, who has brain cancer, and the other was McSame, who is running for president.

Apparently McSame hasn't been around for a Senate vote since about April of this year. Apparently he thinks that running for President means he doesn't have to represent the people of Arizona in the Senate. Note, however, that Obama, who is also running for President was in the Senate and voted to end the filibuster. We wonder if the mainstream media will ever decide to examine Obama's and McSame's voting record for 2008 to see how often each of them was in the Senate. Now that would be a interesting story.