REPUBLICAN REGULATION NONSENSE

 

For more than one hundred years the theme song for all Republicans running for public office from the dog house to the White has been “less government” “lower taxes.”  The chorus of that song goes something like this:   “And we will abolish those intolerable, inherently bad regulations that impose cost on the job creators and kill jobs.”

 

On January 9, 2014 300,000 people in West Virginia were ordered not to drink or use their water for cooking, baking, cleaning or bathing. Their water supply had been contaminated when 10,000 gallons of MCHM chemical, used to treat coal, spilled into the Elk River. The chemicals had spilled from a storage tank owned by Freedom Industries located about a mile-and-a-half upstream from the sole intake for the region’s water utility. 

 

There are NO STATE OR FEDERAL REGULATIONS RELATING TO THE STORAGE OF CHEMICALS AND THE CHEMICAL THAT SPILLED IN THE WEST VIRGINIA WATER SUPPLY IS ONE OF MORE THAN 80,000 SUBSTANCES NOT REGULATED UNDER THE TOXIC SUBSTANCE CONTROL ACT.

 

On January 10, 2014 one day after thousands of people in West Virginia had been forced to live with chemically polluted water flowing in the pipes of their homes, their businesses and their schools the Republican controlled house, over the opposition of 129 public interest groups, by a vote of 225 to 188, mostly along party lines, with all but 4 Republicans supporting the bill, passed a bill entitled “Reducing Excessive Deadline Obligations Act” which gutted the federal hazardous-waste clean up law.

 

On January 14, 2014 John Boehner Speaker of the House said “we have enough regulations on the books” when ask about regulations for chemical storage companies.

 

Did Boehner’s receipt of $600,025.00 from the coal industry have any influence on how he will vote on regulations for the safe storage of chemical used to treat coal?

 

According to a study by Marshall University Center for Business and Economic research the economic cost of the West Virginia chemical spill was estimated at $61 million.

 

On January 17, 2014 Freedom Industries filed for bankruptcy and will avoid paying for the $61 million damages caused by its chemical spill.

 

After the West Virginia chemical spill there were articles about the corporate shenanigans and safety shortcomings in our national regulatory system such as the Cheney 2005 Halliburton loop hole exempting fracking operations from the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974.   Bloomberg Business reported that in 2011 there were 1,374 separate facilities who reported they had leaked 194 million pounds of 287 different chemicals into the land, air and water and in 2013 there were 3,885 chemical spills with 10 companies reporting more than 100 spills each.

 

Senators Joe Manchin and Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia and Barbara Boxer of California have introduced a bill to protect the public from chemical spills such as occurred in West Virginia by requiring state inspections of chemical storage facilities similar to the regulations which currently apply to oil storage facilities.

 

On February 4, 2014 the Senate Environment and Public Works sub-committee held hearings on the West Virginia chemical spill and the Manchin, Rockefeller Boxer bill.

 

Randy Huffman, secretary of the West Virginia Department of Environment Protection, testified at the Senate hearings that West Virginia had identified around 1,000 chemical storage tanks near drinking water supplies.

 

Erik Olson with the Natural Resources Defense Council testified at the Senate hearing there are likely hundreds of water companies using surface water that cannot deal with a significant spill, release or other major pollution in their watershed.

 

Will your Republican Congressman from Arkansas with John Boehner and the Republican controlled House vote against the Manchin, Rockefeller, Boxer bill to make your drinking water safe while repeating the100 year old Republican mantra and singing the 100 year old Republican song regulations “kill jobs.”  The song they were singing on January 10, 2014 when they voted 225 to 118 to gut the hazardous-waste clean up law.

 

One of every four people living Arkansas depend on 27 community Water systems of the Central and Mid-Arkansas Water Alliance to provide them safe drinking water.

 

Do you or your Congressional representative know how many chemical storage tanks there are near enough to dump chemicals into your water supply?  West Virginia has 1,000.

 

WITH NO REGULATIONS PERTAINING TO THE STORAGE OF CHEMICALS NEAR YOUR WATER SUPPLY WHAT WILL YOU DO

 

As responsible citizens will you support regulations which make your water supply safe and will you elect and support politicians who have the courage to vote for regulations to make your water supply safe or will you vote for and support politicians who allow “job creators” to pollute your drinking water.

 

 

 

 

 

WHAT IS THE COST OF ELECTING AND MAINTAINING A CONGRESSMAN

 

Last week’s column set out questions sent to Congressman Crawford more than a year ago asking him what he did to earn his pay.  Since Congressman Crawford has not told us what he did to earn his pay please examine the amounts he reported, as required by law, collecting for his Congressional campaigns, the amount of his salary and the amount he collected for staff salaries and expenses.

 

                                       CAMPAIGN EXPENSES

2010 Campaign:

Raised $1,252,638

Spent $1,172,563

Cash on hand $80,076

*Small individual contributors $105,454 8%

**Large individual contributors $687.532 55%

PAC contributors $327,439 26%

Candidate self-financing $62,000 5%

Other $69,614 6%

 

2012 Campaign:

Raised $1,338,446

Spent $1,211,036

Cash on hand $155,982

*Small individual contributors $108,071 8%

**Large individual contributors $610,702 46%

PAC contributions $555,787 42%

Other $63,886

       

2014 Campaign as of September 30, 2013:

Raised $345,214

Spent $194,867

Cash on hand $306,328

*Small individual contributors $25,404 7%

**Large individual contributors $128,212 37%

PAC contributors $191,598 56%

 

To collect $1,252,638 for his 2010 campaign Crawford had to collect $343.19 every day for the entire year and collected $13.43 for every vote he received (93,224) in 2010.

 

Congressman Tim Roemer said “Congressmen spend too much of their time dialing for dollars rather than protecting the dollars of their constituents.”

 

                           CONGRESSMAN CRAWFORD’S SALARY

 

For three years Congressman Crawford receives a $174,000 yearly salary, more than 5 times the median household income ($37,583) for Cleburne County for a total of $522,000.00

 

                            STAFF SALARIES AND EXPENSES

                                                 

For his first three months in office, January, February and March 2011Congressman Crawford’s staff payroll and expenses were $216,000 5^th highest of the 94 freshmen Congressmen. The staff payroll and expenses of Republican Tim Griffin from Arkansas for that period were $192,849 and the staff payroll and expenses of Republican Congressman Steve Womack from Arkansas for that period was $177,824.  9 Congressmen during that period spent less than $145,000 on their staff payroll and expenses and the most frugal was Joe Welsh Republican of Illinois who spent $98,000.

 

All Congressmen have “franking privilege” which allows them free postage.   In his first year in office Congressman Crawford spent $81,548 on franked mailings, more than THREE times the amount spent by the three other Arkansas congressmen COMBINED.  More than TWICE the median household income in Cleburne County. Did you receive the two “franked” slick mailers Crawford sent out, modestly, telling voters, what a great job he was doing in Washington?

 

Add them all up, campaign contributions to September 30, 2013 $2,936, 298.00 salary for three years $522,000.00, staff salaries and expenses for 3 years based on the $216,000 for the first three months in office rounded to $200,000 or $600,000 a year $1,800.000.00 for a grand total of $5,258,298.00

 

Citizens in your district are entitled to know if the work you performed as their Congressman for the past three years was worth the $2,322,000 you received from taxpayers in salary, staff salaries and expenses.

 

Citizens in your district are entitled to know if all the people in your district benefited from the $2,936,298 individuals, corporations and PAC’s contributed to your campaigns or if only those contributors will benefit from their contributions.

 

Citizens in your district are entitled to know how much time you and your staff spend “dialing for dollars” compared to the amount of time you and your staff spend doing the people’s business.

 

Congressman Crawford will the contributions to your 2014 campaign be more or less than the $1,338,446.00 you collected for your 2012 campaign?  If re-elected will you salary and expenses, and the salaries of your staff be more or less than they were in 2013?

 

The 112^th Congress, January 2012 to January 2013, convened for business 153 days, an average of less than 13 days a month, and was one of the least productive in recent history passing only 219 bills which became law.

*Small individual contributor less than $200**Large individual contributor more than $200