Sunday, January 27, 2013
Congressman suggests a way to hold law-makers' feet to the fire.
- GOVERNMENT
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Sunday, January 27
Fourteenth District Congressman Randy Hultgren has a different sort of idea: No pay for Congress until a budget is passed. Hultgren recently re-introduced the Constitutional Congressional Pay Accountability Act for the 113th Congress. Hultgren says he introduced the bill back in 2011, and it fall flat then. The bill is just five pages—small for Congress—and Hultgren describes it as "straightforward." It would require Congress to pass a budget and all appropriations bills by the beginning of that fiscal year. If the budget doesn’t get passed, members of Congress won’t get paid. "It holds everyone’s feet to the fire," Hultgren said. Hultgren says House leadership is supporting the concept and that it is one component of the temporary debt-…
Sunday, January 6, 2013
The 112th Congress strikes out to end their season.
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
What will 2012 ballots in northern Illinois show about President Obama's support at home?
- ELECTIONS
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Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Updated at 3 a.m., Chicago time By Dennis Robaugh After NBC and CNN projected President Obama's re-election, the president sent a message shortly thereafter on Twitter at 10:14 saying simply, "This happened because of you. Thank you." Illinois, of course, was never in play. Our state's 20 electoral votes were stuck in the president's back pocket as far back as his inauguration in 2008. But in 2008's historic election, President Obama carried every collar county in northern Illinois. In 2012, the president narrowly lost out to Mitt Romney in Kane County, Kendall County and McHenry County, with 99 percent of precincts reporting. Voter turnout again was very strong. Local polling places even reported lines at 6 a.m. with voters waiting to get…
Find coverage of the various congressional matchups throughout the Patch network.
- ELECTIONS
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Tuesday, November 6, 2012
While many of northern Illinois' congressional races left little in the way of doubt, a few provided down-to-the-wire drama and competitiveness. Judy Biggert and Bill Foster were in a dead heat as Election Day approached, with Foster emerging victorious, according to unofficial totals. And Joe Walsh and Tammy Duckworth engaged in a bitter mudfest, with Walsh being tossed out by voters. Jesse Jackson Jr. didn't campaign at all, citing health issues, yet won-reelection, and Adam Kinzinger, Dan Lipinski, Danny Davis and Peter Roskam didn't feel they had to. Coverage of the various congressional races can be viewed throughout the Patch network.
Monday, July 9, 2012
President proposes extending Bush-era tax cuts only for those earning less than $250,000.
U.S. Rep. Randy Hultgren criticized President Barack Obama's call to extend the George W. Bush-era tax cuts for people making less than $250,000 a year, while at the same time allowing the tax cuts on those who make more to expire. Republicans, including Hultgren, criticized the refusal to extend the tax cuts for all, citing that many of those who will be impacted will be small business owners, which will affect their ability to expand business and hire new employees. “Unemployment has been above 8 percent for 41 months now. U.S. Census data tells us that small businesses employ more than 25 percent of the total workforce. Insisting on a small business tax hike is the last way to create jobs," Hultgren said in a press release. Hultgren, …
Friday, June 15, 2012
Concerned constituents challenge the freshman Congressman on taxes, insurance and more at the public event held Thursday night. Here’s what they said.
On a perfect summer evening, while dozens of residents strolled the Riverwalk or took in a band concert at the Peg Bond Center, about 30 people gathered in Batavia City Hall to hold U.S. Rep. Randy Hultgren’s feet to the fire. Hultgren held a town hall meeting on Thursday in the Batavia City Council chambers to update constituents on what’s happening in Washington, D.C. Though most of the audience members were friendly, they tossed some hard questions at the freshman Congressman. And several of the residents pulled no punches. “Really? Is that all you have to show for yourself?” demanded one man, after Hultgren cited voting for a bill that prevented Congress from voting on unpublished proposals as the highlight of his first term. Several …
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Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Congressmen are convinced we communicate like high-schoolers, write like lawyers and speak 'cartoon,' but we're just trying to keep up with the information overload.
Congressmen speak to us at a 10th-grade level. This was the subject of an article I stumbled on this week. I found this surprising since about 25 percent of Congressmen—maybe even more—are lawyers. Are they “dumbing down” for their audience (you and me)? Probably not. About 86 percent of Americans have earned a high school diploma, and more than half have college degrees. We are not so “stoo-ped” after all. It’s not that we’re dumb—we’re busy. In the last 15 years, the number of women in the workforce has increased by several percentage points; women in the workforce now out-number men. If you want proof, ask your yoga teacher. Attendance in the 9 a.m. class is probably down, and stress levels are proportionately up. With two parents …
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
How can we raise our daughters to feel like equals when we are still being labeled hookers for having opinions?
Rush Limbaugh has always been a gaseous windbag, but "slut" and "prostitute?" Really? For anyone who may not have heard, the old right-wing shock jock blamed the victim. He waged a personal, and inappropriate attack on Sandra Fluke because she advocated insurance coverage of birth control. "I chose the wrong words in my analogy of the situation," he said in a diluted apology that came only after advertisers started pulling out. The wrong words? Ya think? Personally, I've never been a fan of shock jocks—on either side of the political spectrum. There is very little, if anything, that has ever come out of Limbaugh's mouth that I would find entertaining. He is easy to ignore. However, as a woman and a mom, this recent outrage has me seeing …
Matilda B
1:05 pm on Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Rich, the constitution does not allow us to not pay our legislature, so all that would happen is they hold back the money and pay them one lump sum at the end of the year. Randy knows this. He hopes we are too stupid to realize that. It is a public relations ploy that really means nothing. And Jim Ryan is correct that many in Congress are wealthy enough to not need the money. There was an article… more ›