Protesters at a Wednesday Minnesotans for a Fair Economy rally outside Wells Fargo’s Minneapolis office donned huge puppet masks bearing the faces of Reps. Michele Bachmann, John Kline and Erik Paulsen, claiming they’re killing jobs and refusing to give up their “piece of the pie.”
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chair issued a subpoena Monday for all documents, including emails and phone logs, related to a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decision that Boeing opened a non-union factory in South Carolina to punish union workers in Seattle. The subpoena, by Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA), also covers at least ten previous requests to the agency from congressional Republicans — including one from U.S. Rep. John Kline of Minnesota.
U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum called it a “terrible bill” that hurts the economy.
Dan Powers, a former small business owner from Burnsville, announced his campaign for Congress on Monday in an open letter to Rep. John Kline, who he will challenge in 2012. “You represent the worst in politicians,” Powers wrote. Powers briefly ran against Kline in the 2010 election, but lost the DFL primary to former legislator Shelley Madore.
At CIA headquarters in Virginia today, Rep. Michele Bachmann viewed photos of the late Osama bin Laden who was killed in a U.S. military raid in Pakistan and confirmed his identity. “I am convinced that this was Bin Laden,” she said, according to the Star Tribune. “We got our man.”
The U.S. House approved a measure Wednesday that repeals part of the year-old Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and would, among several provisions, ban tax subsidies for private health insurance plans that include abortion as a covered service; prevent citizens from deducting abortion as a medical expense unless it was the result of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother — and invites the potential for the Internal Revenue Service to investigate how women who had abortions became pregnant and how they paid for their abortions.
Minnesota’s congressional delegation, as well as its likely presidential candidates, responded to last night’s news that al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has been killed in an American surgical raid near Islamabad. Reactions ranged from thanks to the military and calls for continued vigilance against the terrorist threat to rare kudos for President Obama from former Gov. Tim Pawlenty.
DFL Rep. Collin Peterson is joining with Republican Reps. Michele Bachmann and John Kline in strongly urging the District of Columbia to act quickly in implementing a ban on publicly subsidized abortions in the city. As part of the continuing resolution passed last week, Washington, D.C. has to halt paying for abortions under its programs for low-income women. Peterson, Bachmann and Kline were among several dozen Congress members who issued a letter on Tuesday that also asks D.C. for detailed reports about the new ban.
Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin introduced the Republican budget proposal on Tuesday, a budget that would spend $6.2 trillion less than President Obama’s budget, repeal funding for the Affordable Care Act, phase in a voucher system for Medicare, and cut $700 billion from Medicaid over the next decade. Minnesota’s political leaders were quick to respond to the proposal, with reactions falling along partisan lines.
A bill to continue a defunct school voucher program in Washington, D.C., passed the U.S. House on Wednesday afternoon by a largely party-line vote. Reps. Michele Bachmann, Chip Cravaack, John Kline and Erik Paulsen voted for the measure while Reps. Keith Ellison, Betty McCollum, Collin Peterson and Tim Walz voted against the bill. The controversial program has been criticized as ineffective and essentially a tool to funnel taxpayer money to religious schools. President Obama stated on Tuesday that he opposes the measure.
Do you know where to vote on Election Day? Do you know what to bring with you? Get comprehensive voter information for your state here.
