Tag Archives: John Carney

The Delaware Liberal Tracking Poll

You may have noticed in the center column of the site, we have a poll question regarding the job performance of Governor Markell. Currently, the Governor has a 69% approval rating (27% approve, 42% strongly approve), and a 22% disapproval rating (17% disapprove, 5% strongly). And 9% of you either don’t care, don’t know or are “meh” when it comes to the Governor.

Now, an internet poll is in no way accurate (although, real polls of the Governor’s job performance have similar findings, with approval in the 60’s). We are not dealing with a random sample here. And the sample size is way too small (64 people at last count). Still, I thought it would be fun to have a new tracking poll feature each day that polls the politically motivated and passionate in Delaware. Each day of the week we will poll on a different office holder or candidate.

The schedule will vary week to week, but we will poll most often on the candidates up for election or reelection this year. And all you have to do is register your opinion with your vote. Each day, the poll on a specific official or candidate will be open on the front page for 24 hours, from 7:30 am to 7:30 am, and I will post the results immediately at 8 am after the polls “closed” on a particular candidate. Now, I am sure you are thinking it will be easy to game this poll. Well, not really. Votes are recorded by IP Address, so once you vote on the particular poll, you cannot vote again unless you are using another computer with a different IP Address. And if you do that, well, you’re a loser.

Here is next week’s schedule:

Monday – Insurance Commissioner Karen Weldin Stewart (D)

Tuesday – Lt. Governor Matt Denn (D)

Wednesday – Senator Tom Carper (D)

Thursday – Congressman John Carney (D)

Friday – New Castle County Executive Paul Clark (D)

The Day the Internet Went Black

DD gave us a heads up yesterday that Wikipedia was going black today. If you’ve been spinning around the Internet today, it is pretty dazzling to see the sites that have joined them:

There’s lots more — people are changing their Facebook and Twitter profile pictures in coordinated protest, and circulating a petition from Google asking Congress to stop piracy, not the internet.

I hope that lots of you have taken the time to be a part of this action today — especially targeted at our own delegation. Chris Coons is still a PIPA co-sponsor (while both PIPA and SOPA so-sponsors are dropping like flies), and made his case for being a co-sponsor at an event in Newark this morning:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BB5XhwOrsuo[/youtube]

Did you hear that? Senator Coons is riffing off of the genuine problem (and fear) of cybersecurity to justify a piece of legislation that is meant to crack down on the piracy of intellectual product (basically movies and music). It is sleazy, but counts on you not knowing what the issues are. Cybersecurity is a big problem, but these bills don’t really get to that. Piracy has been a problem forever and content providers simply have not kept up with technology in figuring out how to lockdown their property. Since we are supposed to be in this age of austerity, I’d think that people like Senator Coons would point out to the entertainment industry that they are making more money than the US Government, so they are in a much better position to protect their own property than the Government is.

I don’t know how Carney or Carper think about these bills — but am hoping that all of you are reaching out to all three of them today to ask them to step away from SOPA/PIPA and work on legislation that appropriately combats piracy without breaking the internet.

In Which We Find That John Carney Still Doesn’t Get It

There are still 14 million people unemployed in America and today we find that John Carney is still working on stuff that creates no jobs:

because Rep. Carney’s legislation protects Social Security and allows for public investments by separating the federal capital and operating budgets. It also provides for extenuating circumstances by allowing outlays to exceed receipts in a time of economic recession, declared war, or imminent national security threat as voted on by Congress.

Great. In addition to creating no jobs, this Balanced Budget Amendment does exactly what the other one does. It lets people burnish their budget cred in public. This — much like Coons’ exercise in bipartisanship — is meant to be theater. Because you know something interesting? Budgets originate in the House. If the House cared about producing a balanced budget, they’d get their staff to churn out one. This amendment fetish is just a way to keep one upping people on this budget without having to do the hard work of producing a balanced budget OR in having to do the hard work of selling the amendment to a bunch of states. The federal government is meant to be a different animal than state governments and while I’m killing metaphors here, the federal government budget isn’t like a household budget. So while I’m still astonished that *this* is the Congressman’s priority while 14 million of his fellow citizens are unemployed, I’m starting to be insulted by these guys trying to sell me this balanced budget snake oil for something they could do with a little leadership and discipline.

OK. Except that isn’t about job creation, EITHER. And it doesn’t look to me like Representative Carney is following the travails of this committee. They look like they are heading for failure — the latest deal floated is that the GOP might consider tax hikes if Dems agree to privatize Medicare. Carney boasted of this event on his Facebook page (where you should go to tell him what you think his priorities should be):

I just got back to my office after participating in a bipartisan press conference urging the Super Committee to “go big.” Great turnout from Democrats and Republicans from House and Senate who want the Super Committee to agree on a large deal that is balanced, responsible, and fair.

Notwithstanding the fact that this has nothing to do with employment — and I’m reminding everyone that fuller employment goes someway towards genuine deficit reduction — I want Carney to explain how he thinks there is going to be balanced, responsible or fair from people who refuse to consider raising revenue and who think that privatizing Medicare is a responsible thing to do?

So c’mon, Representative Carney — what we don’t need is more theater. We need serious leadership and governing to get the jobs back. And it doesn’t help that you are actually proud of spending time and energy on symbolic stuff that has not one thing to do with bringing jobs or the economy back.

A Note To John Carney — 14 Million Unemployed Are More Important Than the Deficit

Since Representative Carney is using his time in Congress to sign bi-partisan letters to the Deficit Supercommittee to Go Big in cutting the deficit, I thought I’d use my platform here to remind him of what the genuine crisis is right now.

14 Million unemployed Americans.

Today, I learned that more than half of our out of work fellow citizens are no longer getting unemployment benefits:

Early last year, 75 percent were receiving checks. The figure is now 48 percent — a shift that points to a growing crisis of long-term unemployment. Nearly one-third of America’s 14 million unemployed have had no job for a year or more.

Congress is supposed to take up extending unemployment benefits for at least some of the hardest hit states by the end of they year, but it doesn’t look like they will take up extending benefits beyond the 99 week limit. So what happens if they don’t extend the benefits?

[…]If the emergency benefits expire, the proportion of the unemployed receiving aid would fall further.

The ranks of the poor would also rise. The Census Bureau says unemployment benefits kept 3.2 million people from slipping into poverty last year. It defines poverty as annual income below $22,314 for a family of four.
Yet for a growing share of the unemployed, a vote in Congress to extend the benefits to 99 weeks is irrelevant. They’ve had no job for more than 99 weeks. They’re no longer eligible for benefits.
Their options include food stamps or other social programs. Nearly 46 million people received food stamps in August, a record total. That figure could grow as more people lose unemployment benefits.

14 million Americans going back to work *is* deficit reduction. 14 million Americans back to work means that they are paying taxes and buying stuff like houses and cars. Reducing unemployment means that revenues increase to the government, which helps to reduce the deficit.

This isn’t especially hard, but I am gobsmacked by the persistent and showy hand-wringing and finger-wagging about deficit reduction, with no attendant showy effort on reducing unemployment. Because no matter what the Beltway wonks and special interests tell you, getting Americans back to work is the more vital and important effort.

So please, John Carney — let’s have alot more work on getting your constituents back to work. If you need to pursue the bipartisan fetish, that is OK — as long as the effort to get people back to work Goes Bigger than the effort for deficit reduction. Employment is Priority 1, 2 and 3.

Breaking: Kovach To Challenge Carney

The NJ just tweeted that NCCo Council President will announce formation of a committee to challenge US Rep John Carney. It’s not a surprise to see office-hopping Kovach try for higher office, despite only being in the NCCo Council President job for a year. Really though, what choice does the shallow bench of the Delaware GOP have?

As suspected, Kovach plans to run against President Obama and Ruth Ann Minner. Urquhart got absolutely nowhere with that tactic in 2010, does Kovach think it will work for him? Both Kovach and Castle think 2012 is going to be a “relatively Republican year.” I don’t agree – I think the Occupy Wall Street movement has changed the whole calculation.

Impact of Republican Cuts to Medicare and Medicaid in Delaware

The Democrats on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce have done the work to estimate the effects of implementing the Ryan cuts to Medicare and Medicaid on a congressional district basis. They’ve created an interactive map that will show you a report on the estimated impacts for Medicare or Medicaid.

Delaware Medicare Changes (pdf):

• Increase prescription drug costs for 12,800 Medicare beneficiaries in the district who enter the Part D donut hole, forcing them to pay an extra $126 million for drugs over the next decade.
• Eliminate new preventive care benefits for 142,000 Medicare beneficiaries in Delaware.

If you are 54 or younger (where the most changes would be made):

• Deny 650,000 individuals age 54 and younger in Delaware access to Medicare’s guaranteed benefits.
• Increase the out-of-pocket costs of health coverage by over $6,000 per year in 2022 and by almost $12,000 per year in 2032 for the 141,000 individuals in the district who are between the ages of 44 and 54.
• Require the 650,000 individuals in Delaware between the ages of 44 and 54 to save an additional $32.9 billion for their retirement – an average of $182,000 to $287,000 per individual – to pay for the increased cost of health coverage over their lifetimes. Younger residents of the district will have to save even higher amounts to cover their additional medical costs.
• Raise the Medicare eligibility age by at least one year to age 66 or more for 78,000 individuals in Delaware who are age 44 to 49 and by two years to age 67 for 512,000 individuals in Delaware who are age 43 or younger.

Delaware Medicaid Changes (pdf):

In Delaware, which Rep. John C. Carney, Jr. represents, these provisions could:
• Reduce coverage for 10,800 dual eligible seniors and individuals with disabilities who rely on Medicaid to supplement their Medicare coverage or pay their Medicare cost sharing.
• Jeopardize nursing home care for 2,400 whose expenses are paid by Medicaid.
• Impair the health care of 73,000 children, including 7,800 newborns each year, who receive coverage under Medicaid.
• Cut payments to hospitals for 54,000 emergency room visits paid for by Medicaid each year.
• Cut payments to hospitals for 19,200 inpatient visits paid for by Medicaid each year.
• Reduce jobs and hurt economic growth by eliminating $1.9 billion in Medicaid spending.

You can see where they get their data to make these estimates at the end of each District’s Report. And these two reports for Delaware are worth reading in their entirety (they aren’t more than 4 pages long) to get more information and context for these numbers.

This is a really nice tool from Democrats as a way to really personalize what ending Medicare or Medicaid would mean close to home.

John Carney Wants to Know How You’d Manage the Federal Budget

He is holding 3 meetings on Wednesday, June 8 in conjunction with the Concord Coalition, which is billed as a non-partisan policy organization. Here is the invite from Representative Carney that came in my email:

June 3, 2011

Dear Friends,

Are you concerned with balancing the federal budget and reducing the national debt?

Do you have ideas for controlling the budget that you want to share with me and members of our community?

On Wednesday, June 8, I’m hosting three interactive meetings throughout the state to discuss fiscal responsibility, reducing federal spending, and lowering the national debt. The meetings will be in Georgetown, Dover, and Stanton.

Participants in these meetings will begin by reviewing the spending and priorities in the current federal budget. Then, working in small groups of five to ten, those in attendance will be given the opportunity to draft their own budget proposal which reflects their ideas and priorities for federal spending. The groups will then come back together to discuss the proposals and their decision-making process.

Locations & Times:
Georgetown Meeting
9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
CHEER Center
20520 Sand Hill Rd.

Dover Meeting
1:00 p.m. – 3 p.m.
Delaware State University,
Bank of America Building
1200 North Dupont Highway

Stanton Meeting
6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
DelTech Stanton Campus Conference Center
400 Stanton Christiana Rd., Newark, DE 19713

These meetings are free and open to the public, but seating is limited. If you plan to attend, please RSVP to my office at (302) 428-1902 or (800) 292-9541.

I’m eager to hear your input on how to approach the debt problem, and I hope to see many of you at these meetings on Wednesday.

This is an interesting opportunity, given that many of us have plenty of ideas on how to address the budget and debt issues. Frankly, it would be a good opportunity to ask the Congressman why he is prioritizing Pete Peterson’s project over jobs for Americans. Or when he hosts an idea session on how to get Americans back to work. Or maybe remind him that getting alot more Americans employed would put a dent in the debt on its own.

Are you going? If so, let us know and write up your experience — we’ll publish it here so that everyone can get a sense of this process. Email me and we’ll work out the details.

Congressman Carney Hosts a Discussion on Nuclear Power Safety

This event is TOMORROW NIGHT (Tuesday, 17 May 2011), so try to make plans to go if you are interested. I don’t have anything to add to this, so will just post the entire press release below:

Congressman John Carney to Host
Panel Discussion on Safety Measures in Nuclear Power

DELAWARE CITY, DE – Congressman John Carney will host a panel discussion with representatives from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, PSE&G Nuclear, the Delaware Emergency Management Agency, and the Town of Delaware City, to provide information about the important plans in place to protect Delawareans’ safety. The event will be Tuesday, May 17, 2011 at the Delaware City Fire Hall. It is free and open to the public.

WHO: U.S. Representative John Carney
Mr. William Levis, President and Chief Operating Officer, PSEG Nuclear, LLC
Mr. Bill Dean, Region I Administration, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory CommissionMr. Jamie Turner, Director, Delaware Emergency Management Agency
Mayor John Buchheit, Delaware City
Mr. David Hodas, Professor of Environmental Law, Widener Law School
WHAT: Congressman Carney will be hosting a discussion panel regarding safety measures in nuclear power and the important plans that are in place to keep Delawareans safe.

WHEN: Tuesday, May 17, 2011
6:00 – 8:00 p.m.

WHERE: Delaware City Fire Hall 815 5th Street
Delaware City, DE 19706

This looks like a great effort by Congressman Carney to at least discuss some of the issues that Delawareans may have with nuclear energy.

Delaware Delegation Proposes National Park

This is a bill that’s long overdue.

WASHINGTON — Today, the Delaware Congressional Delegation, Sens. Tom Carper and Chris Coons (both D-Del.) and Rep. John Carney (D-Del.), introduced historic legislation to authorize the creation of a national park in Delaware – the First State National Historical Park Act of 2011. 

Currently, the first state to sign the Constitution, the first state in the union, is the last state to have a national park. If the First State National Historical Park Act of 2011 is adopted, that would change. The First State National Historical Park Act of 2011 would create a park celebrating early American Dutch, Swedish and English Settlements located throughout Delaware, and Delaware’s role in the events leading up to  the founding of our nation. The park will include sites and attractions in each of Delaware’s three counties. The legislation also allows the Park Service to work with other historically significant sites that are not included in the National Park, but can be included in the National Park materials, tours and other related items.

This is the first bill sponsored by Rep. John Carney and with a GOP-controlled House he might not get many opportunities. A national park for Delaware seems like a good idea, but does this idea seem workable?

Mr. Carney Goes To Washington

The good news: for first time in 18 years we won’t have Mike Castle to kick around any more. The bad news: Only nine Democrats will be going to the House of Representatives for the 112th Congress. In late January, Former Lt. Gov. John Carney will be come Representative John Carney, Delaware’s only representative in the Congress’ lower house. Carney will also become part of the Forgotten Nine – the nine freshmen Democrats who will be sitting on the backest of back benches in DC come January.

These will be strange days in Washington, strange days indeed. In a time when it will be difficult to differentiate between a Tea Partier and a Republican as Frederica Wilson (FL) mentioned, Carney said:

“It doesn’t feel much different from what I’ve been used to. I’m comfortable in my own beliefs and skin and with working with people who have a different point of view of the world.”

One of the things I am looking forward to is having a congressman represent Delaware instead of the National Republican Committee as Castle was wont to do.

Cartoons from Election Night

 
Cross-posted at Delaware Punchline.

Last night I was invited to take part in WHYY’s live coverage of the Delaware mid-term elections. I was on set for an hour, and was able to pump out three cartoons (to varying degrees of quality).

The first focused on Republican Christine O’Donnell’s predictable loss to Democrat Chris Coons.

Next, I decided to tackle the race for Delaware’s lone congressional seat between Democrat John Carney and Republican Glen Urquhart. There were many angles to explore, but I thought of a funny idea involving the akward relationship between Carney and former governor Ruth Ann Minner.


Finally, I had about 10 minutes left, so I pumped out my final (and roughest) cartoon of the night, which pretty much summed up my feeling about the evening. Basically, a great night for Democrats, and a bad night for cartoonists (unless Chris Coons suddenly admits a history of witchcraft).

The Speeches From Last Night

Jason330 did a great job taking apart Christine O’Donnell’s “concession” speech last night, but here’s the video (as promised):

My favorite part – “we changed Delaware politics.” So true, she completely cleared the shallow bench. Tom Kovach in RD-6, John Marino in RD-9 and Colin Bonini all can blame their losses on Christine O’Donnell’s negative coattails. I’m also touched by O’Donnell’s concern for the top 2% of income earners.

Chris Coons’s victory speech:

Glen Urquhart’s concession speech:

Yes, I couldn’t resist doing a little victory dance on Urquhart’s loss. I sent him some love on Twitter, since we’re such great buddies. Who’s the extremist now, buddy?

John Carney’s victory speech:

I feel a bit sorry for John Carney. He’s going to have to work in the U.S. House as a member of the minority party. Personally I think the next 2 years are going to be full of gridlock and bullshit investigations but good luck with that Rep. Carney!

New Monmouth Poll Gives 10% Lead To Coons

Christine-mentum?

A new poll released by Monmouth (no internals yet) has Coons lead at 10% – 51% to 41%. This is 11% worse than yesterday’s FDU poll, and represents at 9% loss in Coons’s numbers from the previous Monmouth poll – last poll had Coons 57% to O’Donnell’s 38%. From the NJ:

In what is sure to be a surge of polling data coming at the end of the race, the newest numbers from Monmouth University show Democrat Chris Coons leading Republican Christine O’Donnell by 10 percentage points.

The newest poll, shows O’Donnell with 41 percent and Coons with 51 percent of those polled. The poll of 1171 likely voters was conducted October 25 to 27 and has a margin of error of 2.7 percentage points.

The poll also had Carney with a smaller lead:

Monmouth also polled the U.S. House race, finding Democrat John Carney ahead of Republican Glen Urquhart by 7 percentage points.

My guess for the discrepancy – the Likely Voter screen. FDU stated they didn’t see an “enthusiasm gap” in Delaware. I can’t guess what Monmouth is saying but I assume they have the Delaware electorate as more Republican-leaning than FDU does.

**UPDATE** Tommywonk tweets to me:

Which party would you like to control Congress? Monmouth D 38% R 40% Fairleigh Dickinson D 47% R 37%