The House of Representatives voted yesterday to block the Bush Administration from cutting federal spending on Medicaid benefits for the poor by $13 billion over the next 5 years.  Two-thirds of House Republicans joined the Democrats in voting for the bill which had 220 co-sponsors from both sides of the aisle. 

The proposed Bush White House cuts were opposed by all 50 State Governors.  The final vote in the House of Represent-atives was 369 to 62.  Congressman Joe Pitts voted to preserve the cuts.

Bruce Slater responded to Pitts' NO vote by saying, "Joe Pitts' vote to deny our poorest seniors Medicaid benefits is unconscionable. This is just one more vote that shows Pitts' disconnect with the needs of his constituency. There is no legitimate rationalization for continually voting for tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans and for international corporations at the expense of the health of our senior citizens."

Bruce Slater, the Democratic Candidate for Congress in the 16th district which covers all of Lancaster County and part of Berks and Chester Counties, out-polled Joe Pitts, the Republican incumbent, by 9000 votes.

Slater was helped by high Democratic voter turnout and relatively low Republican turnout. In some precincts, Democratic turnout was two and three times higher than that of Republicans.

However, Pitts has problems within his own party. Many Republicans withheld their votes for the 6-term congressman.

Republicans are displeased with his votes against child health insurance, his anti-environmental record, his support of the Bush War in Iraq and his abandonment of traditional fiscal conservatism. Pitts voted for the largest deficit creation budgets in history.

Slater said in an interview last evening, "I thank all the Democratic voters who voted for me today. But, we are facing a 1.8 to 1.0 Republican voter registration edge in Lancaster County and we must get the word out to our friends and neighbors who are Republican, many who share our values and issues. Joe Pitts votes against us. He votes against children, against retirees and against working families in our district consistently. The only way to stop the bleeding of our money from our pockets to his rich friends' hands, is to beat him in November."

The new Slater for Congress Campaign Headquarters  will open May 1st, 2008 in downtown Lancaster located at the Brunswick Hotel on the corner of North Queen and West Chestnut Street. View map...

The new address for Slater Campaign Headquarters will be:

Bruce Slater for Congress
151 N Queen St.
Lancaster, PA  17603

View Bruce's positions on Project Vote Smart's
Political Courage Test...

View a list of Joe Pitts' contributors
Who does he represent?

The US Economy and the Iraq/Afghanistan Wars

Charles Melchior from Chester County has published an analysis of the economic impact of the Iraq War in an article that appears on www.newPA16.com.

Melchior states, "Our current list of national economic difficulties and governmental failures is a direct result of nearly 30 years of failed Republican policies. We are paying the price in many ways for our national love affair with slick, emotionally appealing Republican political rhetoric and candidates. We ignore the harsh reality behind the deceitful words." Read more...

If you have not yet heard the name Bruce Slater, then get ready... by Jim Jones, West Chester

If you have not yet heard the name Bruce Slater, then get ready. That is about to change. He's running for the U.S. Congress against the incumbent Republican Joe Pitts.

Pitts is best known in the (West Chester) Borough for his "guest editorials" which appear regularly in the Daily Local News. They carry titles like "The Bush plan for fiscal sanity" (Mar. 13, 2001), "No weapons, but a weapons program" (Feb. 29, 2004), and "Freedom on the march once again" (Jan. 25, 2005). He also receives frequent praise from the Local for "protecting our cell phones" (June 9, 2004), visiting a mushroom farm (July 28, 2004), and in a rare instance of implied criticism for the Bush administration, for offering a "fix" for the Patriot Act (Aug. 8, 2006).

The Local also publishes plenty of letters criticizing Pitts, giving them headlines like "Pitts leaves questions unanswered" (Mar. 6, 2004), "Pitts, Christianity and abortion" (Jan. 11, 2005) and "Pitts out of touch with reality" (July 28, 2006).

Read more...

Last week, Joe Pitts voted to put free trade before American workers. by voting to force the United States-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement through the House of Representatives.

Bruce Slater said of Pitts' vote, "Joe Pitts continually refuses to understand that supporting unrestrained free trade hurts small business and working families in the 16th Congressional district. I support the Democratic leadership in the House of Representatives and their decision to delay this resolution."

Read more...

In League of Women's Voters Lancaster 2008 Voters' Guide, Bruce Slater stated, "The federal government needs to enact the National Health Insurance Bill (H.B. 676). I support its passage as soon as possible. 

"There are 47 million Americans without health coverage and millions more are inadequately covered.  This is because private insurance bureaucracy and paperwork consume one-third (31 percent) of every health care dollar. Streamlining payment through a single nonprofit payer would save more than $350 billion per year, enough to provide comprehensive, high-quality coverage for all Americans."

Joe Pitts favors private health care insurance, the current system that has left American's uninsured and paying more.

The highest rated health care system in the world is found in Japan. Japanese live longer and visit their doctor at a rate three times that of Americans. The Japanese system is universal and government regulated. The average cost of health care per family in Japan is equivalent to $280.00 per month. Read more from NPR...

Public schools, and other community institutions, must be considered essential to the future of our nation. To control local taxation and provide for our public schools, I believe that certain priorities must be set. Read more...

The House of Representatives has passed the Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax Act of 2008, H.R. 5351, which will end unnecessary subsidies to Big Oil companies and invest in clean, renewable energy and energy efficiency.

Joe Pitts voted NO to this Bill, I support the legislation. Read more...

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