Danny Davis Watch

Danny Davis voted with the majority of Congress on Thursday to extend the Patriot Act by another year, breaking with his two prior votes against the Act and violating his IVI-IPI survey response claiming that he supported repealing the law. The extension, which was part of the Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act, passed the House with a vote of 315 to 97 and will now go to be signed by President Obama (who has worked behind the scenes in support of it).

All told, this is yet another blow to Davis’ so-called “progressive” record and another indication that what he found unacceptable during the Bush years is suddenly very acceptable to him now.

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Despite his continued cries that more money be spent on health care, Congressman Danny Davis announced yesterday that he will attempt to make less of that money available by supporting an extension of the first-time home buyer tax credit. The current credit has given up to $8,000 to qualified first-time buyers to purchase homes. “Qualified” buyers has included those who earn up to $150,000 a year individually or $300,000 a year jointly. Those who are too poor or whose credit is too weak to purchase a home get zero assistance under the program.

The problems with the credit are legion, but here’s a short summary of some of the major one’s that apparently didn’t faze Davis during his decision making.

Low- or no-down payment mortgages were one of the major contributing factors to the housing crisis, yet the tax credit allows this same practice to continue. Since the credit can be used toward down payments, it can be combined with products like the 3.5% down FHA loan to effectively purchase homes with zero money down, just like at the height of the risky lending frenzy. This means that the credit may just be fueling another real estate crash down the road – not mending the current crisis.

The credit does little if anything to solve the cause of the housing crisis. Home prices are falling because there is too much housing and too few people. By convincing people to stop renting and buy homes instead, the credit simply replaces an empty house for sale with an empty house for rent. As vacant rental units rise, rents will drop, as they already are, motivating fewer people to buy homes and therefore undermining the effect of the credit.

The program spends a lot of money to accomplish very little. According to the real estate lobbying group the National Association of Realtors (which supports the tax credit) the vast majority of those who take advantage of the credit would have purchased a home anyway. Taking these numbers into account, the estimated cost to create one extra home sale with the credit is $43,000. If the credit is extended, the price tag will rise to $258,000 per home.

The program helps many of those who need no help. As stated above, the tax credit can be claimed by individuals who earn up to $150,000 a year – hardly the kind of people who are suffering economic hardships. A cut of the money will also go to real estate agents and mortgage brokers, two of the very groups that helped create the crisis in the first place. The IRS is also currently examining 100,000 cases of possible fraud concerning the program, including $4 million in credits claimed by children under 18-years-old, another source of significant waste.

The credit encourages more people to go into debt. By definition, most first-time home buyers are renters who have no mortgage. By encouraging them to stop renting and take on home loans, the program is incentivizing debt. This could also have disastrous effects for the economy down the road if new buyers are unable to keep up with their loan payments.

The program may be bad for the environment. As Harvard economist Edward Glaeser recently wrote about the credit, “Federal tax policies toward housing have long encouraged Americans to emit more carbon. President Obama could do the country, and the planet, a service by either refusing to sign the extension of the $8,000 credit or by insisting that it be accompanied by offsetting reductions in the home mortgage interest deduction.”  The The New York Times has also written on how housing subsidies contribute to carbon emissions.

All told, the first-time home buyer credit, like the “cash for clunkers” program Davis supported, does very little and helps those who need very little helping in the first place. What’s particularly bizarre is that Davis supports tax credits for programs like this, yet despite his stated concern about health care, he hasn’t bothered to cosponsor the Child Health Care Affordability Act, which would provide tax credits for children’s health care. Surely that would be a better use of limited resources than new houses and new vehicles.

If you’d like to help Congressman Davis see the light on this issue, contact his office and politely ask to have Davis reverse his position on this program. If Davis does correct his stance, we’ll be the first to give him credit here.

Update: Davis, disappointingly but predictably, has voted “yea” on the tax credit extension as part of H.R. 3548. By the estimate on his own website, the extension will cost $10.8 billion over ten years, an amount of money that could have given private health insurance to 430,000 people for the same period of time. Unbelievable.

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Another chapter in Congressman Davis’ backward human rights policy was written last week when he voted to pass a version of the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act that contained a measure to block the court-ordered release of evidence of detainees being abused in U.S. custody. Such evidence reportedly included, among other things, prisoners being raped in U.S. custody.

Two U.S. courts had previously ruled that this evidence was required to be released under the Freedom of Information Act, something that has been called “as sacred to Democrats as Social Security and Medicare.”

If voting for such a cover-up weren’t disgusting enough on its own merits, David Rohde, the New York Times reporter who recently escaped after being held by the Taliban in Pakistan, described the motivating force behind the Taliban as including Muslim prisoners being “physically abused and sexually humiliated in Iraq.” So, while the bill Davis supported may have been a Homeland Security bill in name, it’s hard to fathom how protecting and perpetuating the crimes that motivate our enemies promotes any kind of “security.”

So, once again, while Davis bemoans the civil rights situations of third world countries on the opposite side of the world, he again does nothing when given the power to stop similar abuses in our own backyard.

Photo by takomabibelot

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Is it already that time again? Congressman Danny Davis has just offered up yet another non-binding resolution, H. Res. 711.

The summary of the resolution reads as follows:

Calling on the United States Government and the international community to address the human rights and humanitarian needs of Sri Lanka’s Tamil internally displaced persons (IDPs) currently living in government-run camps by supporting the release of such IDPs, implementing and facilitating an independent oversight of the process of release and resettlement, and allowing foreign aid groups to provide relief and resources to such IDPs.

Davis, of course, traveled to Sri Lanka in 2005 on behalf of the Tamil minority there. That trip, supposedly was funded by the Tamil Tigers, a Sri Lankan rebel group labeled as terrorists by the U.S. government.

This doesn’t diminish the very real plight of the Tamil in Sri Lanka, but with Davis denying funding for closing the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and breaking his promise not to fund the Iraq War without an exit plan, one wonders what position he is in to criticize the the Sri Lankans on human rights.

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In another demonstration of how low health care, fiscal responsibility, and personal freedom are on Congressman Davis’ priority list, he voted yesterday to approve an additional $2 billion to help people who already own cars buy new ones. That amount of money could have bought health insurance for 800,000 people (the population of San Francisco) for one year at the average Illinois individual market rate. Instead, if this measure passes the Senate as well, that money will be gone forever.

The $2 billion will go to the “Cash for Clunkers” program, which rewards buyers with a discount of up to $4,500 for trading in old vehicles for new ones with higher MPG ratings. The program had exhausted its initial $1 billion in funding, which Davis voted for as part of this bill, just days after commencing.

While supporters of the program have claimed it benefits the environment, that claim is only weakly supported by the program’s actual terms. For example, under the plan, a driver who trades in a 16 MPG Hummer for a brand new SUV that gets a marginally better 18 MPG can apparently receive a rebate of up to $3,500. Furthermore, these discounts give personal vehicles an unfair advantage over already disadvantaged mass transit systems such as Chicago’s CTA.

Another cause that doesn’t benefit from this program is that of America’s working poor. Those who don’t own a vehicle, own one that already gets high mileage, or can’t afford to buy a new vehicle even with a rebate, get little or no help under the Cash for Clunkers program.

Sound ridiculous? It’s all in a day’s work, apparently, for Illinois’ 7th District “progressive” Democrat congressman.

Update: A recent report by Edmunds.com has concluded that because so many “cash for clunkers” sales would have happened anyway, the total price to taxpayers for each new car sale created by the program was $24,000.

The Mises Institute has also pointed out that the program’s destruction of used cars contributed to an increase in the cost of living in October.

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“It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.”

- Thomas Jefferson

I went off on here before about Davis’ recent vote for a non-binding, hypocritical condemnation of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre in China — while at the same time Congress continued to allow prisoners, including Chinese, to be held without trial in the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. The government’s time, I argued, could be better spent with action, not with passing toothless declarations.

Sadly, Davis doesn’t just vote for these kind of bills, he introduces them as well.

Looking back, on June 15, Davis introduced H. Res. 546 for the sake of “[recognizing] the historical significance of Juneteenth Independence Day, and expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that history should be regarded as a means for understanding the past and more effectively facing the challenges of the future.”

Further back, on May 21, Davis introduced H. Con. Res. 134, which “[expresses] the sense of Congress regarding the need for further study of the neurological disorder dystonia.”

What’s so silly about these resolutions (other than the fact that they have no force of law), is how patently obvious to the point of being meaningless they are. Who doesn’t, in the year 2009, consider the abolition of slavery to be a “significant event”? Who doesn’t believe that dystonia — or any disease for that matter — deserves “further study”?

In light of the much greater problems of injustice and illness in America, why bother, even for a few minutes, with these trivialities?

That’s a question, apparently, only Congressman Davis can answer.

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Davis' vote for "cap-and-trade" goes against his bailout of SUV makers and home builders

I don’t want this blog sounding like a broken record, but Congressman Davis has cast yet another hypocritical vote, this time on the issue of the environment.

Today, Davis voted “yea” on the controversial “cap-and-trade” bill that aims to reduce U.S. carbon emissions. This, despite Davis’ past record of voting to prod Americans into purchasing more houses and more cars — both major contributors to emissions and resource consumption.

Davis supported additional, unnecessary home construction when he voted for the $819 billion stimulus bill in January which included a provision to provide first-time home buyers with a $7,500 tax credit on the purchase of a new home. Like all subsidies, there can be only one result: more of what is being subsidized. More home sales, more home construction, more energy and resource consumption, and more destruction of natural habitat — all at higher levels than a free market would have produced. And what if you’re someone like me who rents a small apartment? Tough luck. Even though America has too many houses already, Davis is using your paycheck to build even more.

And despite more Americans (including myself) getting rid of their cars completely, Davis has been helping to keep more cars on the road by supporting recent bailouts for the automotive industry. The prime recipients of these bailouts has been GM, the producers of some of the largest at least fuel efficient personal vehicles on the planet. Had GM or the other auto giants been allowed to go bankrupt, the money in the economy would have simply flowed into creating jobs elsewhere — and just about anything else would have been better for the environment than producing gas-guzzling hunks of steel that no one is actually buying. But that’s not what happened. If you’re like me and travel mostly by bus or bike, too bad. Your tax dollars will go toward keeping cars cheap and streets full, thanks to Davis.

And those are just two examples. There are countless other instances (such as his recent funding for the Mid East Wars) of Davis sending money to expensive, anti-environmental causes that many Americans would have never themselves approved of.

If Davis truly wants to vote “green,” he needs to stop incentivizing American consumption of Big Auto and Big Real Estate products, not foist clumsy, “cap-and-trade” tax schemes on the country.

Photo by Wikimedia user Sfoskett

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This past Tuesday, Davis cast an enormously hypocritical vote by approving continued, no-strings-attached funding for the War in Iraq, despite previously vowing not to do so. The bill in question was the Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2009, which among other things, provided the funds to continue America’s Mid East wars.

Davis had previously signed a letter, along with 91 other House members, promising not to vote for any Iraq War spending that didn’t also include funds for “the protection and safe redeployment of our troops out of Iraq”. Davis is also a member of the Out of Iraq Congressional Caucus, which advocates the return of U.S. troops from Iraq.

And as if that weren’t enough, Davis had recently signed another letter demanding that the terms of $100 billion in funding for the IMF in the supplemental bill be changed to ensure the money would truly benefit the needy. Even though it appears that those changes were never made, Davis still voted for the bill.

So while the Congressman talked a big pro-peace, pro-reform game when his word wasn’t being put to the test, once it came time to vote, he folded faster than a rusty lawn chair under the weight of a well-fed Soldier Field tailgater. That’s apparently what passes for “progressive” politics in Davis’ mind.

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Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China

Congressman Davis, along with all but one member of the House, voted Tuesday to pass H. Res. 489, condemning China for the June 4, 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown and demanding that those imprisoned without fair trial in connection with the protests have their cases reexamined.

Since H. Res. 489 is a simple resolution, however, it has no actual force of law. Add to this the fact that China is notoriously adverse to interference in its “internal affairs” and that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has admitted that the U.S. will not pressure China on human rights in order to continue borrowing money from them, it’s unlikely that Davis’ toothless “yea” vote will come to any positive effect.

What makes Davis’ words ring particularly hollow in this instance is that his actions directly contradict his supposed concern for Chinese human rights.

Last month, Davis showed no hesitation when he voted for a version of the 2009 Supplemental Appropriations Act that had been stripped by Democrats of funding requested by President Obama to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. Seventeen Muslim Chinese are currently imprisoned in Gitmo without having received a trial, even though the Bush administration has already decided that 15 of them ought to be released, a federal court has ruled that there was no evidence against any of them, and even a prominent group of conservatives has been calling for their release. None of this was apparently enough to stop from Davis from throwing yet another roadblock in the way of justice for these Chinese.

Davis’ biggest China hypocrisy, however, is that he continually votes for big spending bills (such as the appropriations bill, which topped out at $96.7 billion) which must be financed in part by selling U.S. investments to the Chinese government. If Davis was truly opposed to the Chinese Communist Party’s abuse of its citizens rights, he wouldn’t be helping to shovel so many U.S. dollars in to their coffers.

If Davis’ actions strike you as offensive (and they ought to), call his office at (202) 225-5006 or email him and tell him to stop issuing do-nothing resolutions until he puts America’s house in order and stops  funding and perpetuating the things he claims to oppose.

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Congressman Davis, along with all but 17 Democrats, has voted “yes” on a record $3.4 trillion federal budget that will increase America’s federal deficit to a new high of $1.2 trillion.

As I wrote previously, defenders of the budget have claimed it will create jobs, but Americans don’t need jobs, they need paychecks. If Congress truly wanted to help, it could do so immediately through stimulus checks to the needy. Almost 100% of that spending would reach the recipients, with little bureaucracy or corruption to skim from the top.

Now, we know that this largely will not happen. The victims of the recession will get paid last, not first from Congress’ new spending, and the country will sink further into debt for the effort.

Hopefully, Congressman Davis and his colleagues will wake up to this truth and act more prudently on this issue in the future.

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