Jim Himes at DFA

Last Updated on Saturday, 20 February 2010 13:55 Written by John Hartwell Wednesday, 17 February 2010 22:41

Congressman Jim Himes spoke at a special DFA meeting on Monday, February 15th.  You can see Jim Dean's introduction and Jim Himes' opening remarks by clicking on this link.

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Here are notes from the meeting by Kate Tepper and Scott Kimmich.

February 3^rd MeetUp with Congressman Jim Himes

Jim Dean, Chair of Democracy for America opened the February 3^rd MeetUp by saying that as primary spokesperson and fundraiser for DFA, he travels to all 50 sates promoting the goals of the organization.  As the nation's largest grassroots progressive political action organization DFA has over a million members nationwide with branches in almost every state and works for political change from the bottom up. On his travels Jim meets with progressive candidates, organizers, party leaders and activists providing campaign training, organizing resources, and media exposure that gives DFA members the power to support progressive issues and candidates.

Jim said that he was proud indeed to introduce another Jim who was also working for progressive change Congressman Jim Himes.

Congressman Jim Himes answers questions from Democracy for America

Q. What does the Massachusetts election and the Supreme Court Citizens United decision mean for Democrats?

A. Jim commented that while the Scott Brown win in MA is disappointing and a wake up call for Democrats, the Supreme Court decision is by far the more disturbing because it recognizes corporations as “people” thereby equating “money” with “speech.”  Corporations have far more resources to spend on political speech than any other entity and this does not bode well for progressives since large corporations tend to be conservative.

Q. What can be done about this decision?

A. In addition to working for a constitutional amendment, some of the actions being considered were to make campaign contributions non-tax deductible for shareholders or company executives, requiring shareholders to vote on the expenditure and requiring those for whom political advertising is sponsored to declare their personal approval of any advertising.

Q. Is this a do-nothing congress?

A. No, it is one of the most hardworking in recent history.  Despite the disastrous problems that the Obama administration inherited, considerable progress has been made. Equal pay for women became law with the Lilly Ledbetter Act. A credit card “bill of rights,” has been enacted, there have been massive efforts to restore financial stability and a greater focus on developing science, infrastructure and education that will benefit the next generation were all accomplished despite Republican obstructionism.

Q. What is tops on your agenda?

A. Jobs. Although painfully slow, the stimulus is helping to create jobs nationwide.  In Connecticut for example, stimulus money has helped to keep teachers in the classroom, provided training for workers in ‘green’ jobs, expanded the Norwalk Community Health Center and provided $30 million in federal money for upgrading the Metro North Danbury to South Norwalk rail line.  On the subject of funding Jim noted that Connecticut is not doing enough to obtain many of the federal funds to which it is entitled.

Q. Frank Luntz (the current Republican spinmeister) is very successful at getting the Republican message out and getting them to stay on message. Why haven’t Democrats produced a more effective progressive message?

(Many present felt that for Democrats back down at the mere threat of a Republican filibuster showed a severe lack of backbone and that this submissiveness would cost the Democrats dearly in the November elections.)

A. Democrats have done a poor job of selling the positive achievements of the Obama administration. Better and more combative efforts to communicate have to be instituted to counter the obvious conservative bias of many major media outlets. Jim touched on other areas where Democrats are failing to adequately inform the public about their work and stressed that Democrats from city, state, and federal offices need to make more effort to “sell” their progressive agenda, ideas and accomplishments. They need to be attending every public meeting possible. In passing he also noted the of Commerce of commerce as been less than helpful in supporting progressive ideas.

Q. What about health care reform?

A. Health care reform has been a particularly messy and contentious issue and the bill containing the “public option” and anti-trust provisions that Jim voted for and was passed in the House became a political football in the Senate. The Senate bill deleted the public option and, along with several other reforms enacted in the House version failed, to remove the anti-trust exemption for medical insurance corporations.  Jim expressed his own frustration at both Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats who demanded so many negative concessions in the Healthcare Bill that it failed to come to a vote.  In his opinion, not passing any healthcare reform law will be a political disaster and reconciliation to pass the law with 51 votes may be the only answer to the Senate gridlock.  Although this is a “last ditch” measure, that would necessitate some parts of the healthcare reform to be dropped, Jim noted that both Presidents Clinton and Bush had used this procedure.

George Bush used reconciliation to pass his massive tax cuts that mostly benefitted the very wealthy! Those tax cuts are scheduled to expire this year and, despite opposition it is likely that the President will allow this to happen.

Q. What about financial reform?

A. The Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009 (H.R. 4173.) that Jim worked on contains strong measures to restore consumer confidence, increase transparency - particularly in the area of derivatives trading, and exerts stronger control over dangerous Wall Street excesses.  Jim was passionate about making sure that the American taxpayer will never again have to bail out irresponsible private companies.  Being “too big to fail” is not only dangerous, it defeats competition he said.

Q. How about education?

A. As he did throughout his election campaign, Jim emphasized that the future belongs to that nation which best educates its children.  Right now, he said, the U.S lags behind on just about every education measure from early math and science to high school graduation.  In particular, there must be a focus on early childhood education.  The most intelligent investment this country can make is to bring the best and the brightest into the teaching profession, support them while they are there, and hold them and the system accountable for results.  Jim told the audience, that he is working closely with President Obama’s team to enact legislation that will help high-quality early learning programs to serve more kids and begin erasing the achievement gap once and for all.  The legislation would target funds to school initiatives that show results and commit resources to turn around low-performing schools, not punish them.

Q. Where do you stand on Afghanistan?

A. Regarding increased troops for the Afghanistan war, Jim admitted that despite three public meetings on the subject he still found it a difficult question on which to take a definitive stance.  While extremists may still be operating in Afghanistan, their numbers are notably decreased and the Afghans appear to be losing patience with both the Taliban and Al Qaida.  The question must be asked do these extremists warrant continued war and occupation with its consequent death and injury on both sides or can we now negotiate a more peaceful resolution to extremist terrorism?  Perhaps most importantly Jim said is that supporting a troop increase will cost roughly $100 billion in taxpayer money.  He asked “should that funding come from increased taxes, increased debt, or cuts to other programs?” He also noted that the present Pentagon budget is the biggest in history and represents a large percent of the nation’s budget.

Q. What about the Israel/Palestine conflict?

A. Although a strong supporter of Israel, Jim is pessimistic regarding any near term resolution of that conflict. He did, however, say that Israel must lift its blockade of humanitarian aid to Gaza and that he had written a letter – published in local newspapers – publicly stating this opinion.  Many members of the audience told Jim that they believed Israel’s treatment of Gaza and the Palestinians to be both illegal and draconian.

Q. What about the increasing tension with Iran?

A. Iran’s admitted uranium enrichment problem certainly complicates any diplomatic efforts for the United States. Of greater concern is Jim’s fear that unless Iran makes more concessions on the enrichment issue there was a strong possibility that Israel might attack Iran in the not too distant future! (This raised eyebrows around the room.)

Q. What about “Don’t ask, don’t tell?”

A. This is no longer the hugely contentious issue that it had been and Jim expected considerable positive progress in the fairly near future.  Homosexuality should no longer be a reason for dismissal from the armed forces.

Q. What about mortgage reform?

A. Jim favors lowering mortgage rates wherever possible to enable people to stay in their houses but was against the suggestion of individual borrowing from future Social Security payments in order to avoid foreclosure. He remarked that in any event lowering mortgage payments would hardly be helpful to those who suddenly found themselves without a job and therefore income.

Q. What is being done to abate congestion on I-95?

A. Jim sees no immediate solution.  Changes in the federal gas tax (originally imposed for public road and transport upkeep) are likely to adversely affect the finances of ordinary Americans, but unfortunately the current federal gas tax is inadequate to keep up with road and transport needs.

Q. Has the Obama administration and Democratic Congress failed in their mandate?

A. Jim reminded the audience that the Obama administration came to office facing – among other things – the worst financial problems since the Great Depression, two wars, and a broken healthcare system. Democrats, he said, have done a great deal to begin reversing the damage caused by eight years of Republican domination and mismanagement and they’ve don so in spite of total partisan opposition on every issue. In closing Jim said he is very proud to be part of that effort and looked forward to continuing his work for Connecticut’s 4^th district following the November elections.