House Vote on Senate's Version of Transportation Budget

An interesting thing happened last week. It was Tuesday March 24, 2009. We were in the House Chambers for Session. The Agenda included a vote on concurrence with the Senate version of the Transportation Budget.
Everything appeared to be normal, there was an emergency clause in the bill and the Speaker called for the vote, repeating the question to be voted on, as is customary; The question is, shall the emergency clause be a part of the bill? (I'm paraphrasing because I forgot my papers in the office) The vote came down: 93 nays 6 yeahs. The Speaker then states: (again paraphrasing), The measure failed to receive the constitutional requirement for passage, therefore the House does not concur with the Senate, the bill will go to conference committee.
My immediate thought was that maybe I voted wrong or made some sort of freshman mistake because I did indeed concur with the Senate changes. There was immediate reaction from other members, papers were rustling, a few people quickly left their seats to speak to others, and quiet discussion followed. Minority Leader Batchelder went to speak to the Clerk. The Speaker then proceeded through the remainder of the Agenda.
I sat in my chair speaking with my colleagues who sit around me. We were all wondering what had just happened because we voted according to the question asked. Normally, and by House Rules, whenever there is an emergency clause; the emergency clause and the bill are voted on separately. We had not voted on concurrence! Yet the Speaker said we did and that we voted against it!!!
Later that evening in caucus, the leadership outlined what had happened and what recourse and actions we might take. We were sure to get copies of the Journal - both, to make sure that it would not be changed and to prove that there was never a vote taken on concurrence with the Senate. Some members, like Leader Batchelder, said that in his forty some years in the Legislature, he had never seen anything like this! One would think that the Speaker of the House would know the House Rules!
Of course, all the rest of the week, the media reported that the House had rejected the Senate changes to the Transportation Budget by a vote of 93-6, which I think looks pretty bad. It looks like we overwhelming didn't like what changes the Senate had made. That is simply false. I mean, it would probably have gone to conference anyhow, but the vote would have been more like 53-46.
What happens from here I'm not sure. The Conference Committee has been scheduled and rescheduled about six times now. Of course, I don't know what they have to talk about in conference committee, the only thing we voted on was the emergency clause! It has been suggested that because the democrats screwed it up that they will have to accept the Senate changes or that they might be able to request a reconsideration.
Whatever happens, I know this much; the democrats don't seem to know what they are doing and I did not vote against the Senate changes to the Transportation Budget, I voted against the emergency clause!

Just Another Government Outrage

I've recently learned that we are now providing social benefits to individuals based on a "categorical eligibility" meaning that if you qualify for one program (like unemployment) then you automatically qualify for other entitlement programs without any further verification of need! The result is that we are now giving food stamps to individuals with multiple rental properties and one family with a net worth of more than $400,000!
Read more here: http://www.daytondailynews.com/search/content/oh/story/news/local/2009/03/17/ws031909commission.html?cxntlid=inform_artr

The Dayton Daily News has written about three articles on it.

Soverignty and the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

The definition of sovereignty is the supreme power or control especially over a body politic; freedom from external control; controlling influence. We think of countries around the globe as independent sovereign states and I have to ask, do we think of Ohio as a sovereign state? The answer should be yes! Ohio and the other forty-nine states that make up the United States are in fact sovereign. These fifty independent states should be likened to fifty small countries, each with their own boundaries, laws, and leaders. Indeed, there is a legal argument to be made with that statement, see http://www.tenthamendmentcenter.com/2009/02/21/were-the-states-sovereign-nations-2/ for more discussion on that.





The states delegated certain rights of their sovereignty to a central federal government with ratification of the constitution and I will briefly examine the term delegate as it is done in the link above. To delegate is to transfer power or to assign. Therefore, it is fair to say that the states assigned or transferred certain rights to the federal government. However, ever so mindful as the founders were, there was a fear that eventually a large central government would become too large, too powerful, and begin to overtake or usurp the rights and power of the states. Thus, in the Bill of Rights passed very shortly after the constitution, we have the 10th Amendment, which reads:





"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

The tenth amendment defines the entire scope of the federal government. More precisely, it limits the scope of the federal government to only those powers delegated to it by the states. Therefore, the federal government derives its power from the states. It is an agent of the states.

It can be argued that since its inception, through the Civil War, the passage of the 16th and 17th Amendments and into today, the federal government has been overstepping its authority of the states. In The Federalist Papers, Hamilton, Madison, and Jay argued in favor of a central federal government telling us that the federal government could never grow too large because the people would not stand for it, they would never allow that to happen. They were wrong.

Today, the federal government continuously dictates to the states. The federal government tells the states that they must pass this legislation or that legislation if they are to receive federal funding. One most egregious example is in the recently passed American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, states are required to raise Medicaid eligibility standards to 300% of the federal poverty guidelines. Here's an example of what that means: Federal poverty guidelines for a four person household equals a yearly income of $21,200, 300% = 21,200 X 3 = $63,600!!! Therefore, in my house with my wife and three kids and my income as a State Representative, I can qualify for Medicaid!! Do we really need to give handouts to people with that kind of income?

It is for these reasons and so many more which I've not covered today, that I have introduced Ohio's State Sovereignty Resolutions. The Resolution is not as strongly worded as some states have introduced (there's no language of secession), but more strongly worded than other states.

The Resolution is to reaffirm our rights under the Constitution as a sovereign state, to tell the federal government that we believe in the Constitution and to let the federal government know that we expect them to abide by it. To learn more about Ohio State Sovereignty and what other states have been doing, visit The Ohio Republic. Be sure to click through to the other sites that they are connected to.

Everyone's always happy on Friday!

It's Friday and everyone seems to be pretty happy about that! The weather, while a little cold, is still nice with lots of sun and clear skies. After a very hectic week, I finally have a rather slow day! Only two scheduled meetings, one at noon and one at five. I'm enjoying that because it gives me time to catch up on some of the smaller stuff, including this blog. I'm planning on stopping by at a few local businesses to chat with the owners. Although I do have a few meetings planned for the weekend, I always look forward to the weekends because I'm usually home before dark and actually get to spend a little bit of time with my kids!

Busy Day

The day started innocently enough. My first meeting in Columbus wasn't until ten thirty which meant I didn't have to leave the house until around nine. From then on though, I had at least one meeting every hour until five. Between five and seven there were nine events scheduled, including one that was back in Greene County! I got home around ten and worked on some paper work until about 11:30. Then I checked some e-mail, updated my website and decided to share my schedule with the world on here! It's now ten after midnight and my first meeting is at 7:30 tomorrow morning in Cincinnati! -Good night!

First Time

So this is my first blog. I'm in the process of learning a whole new language in terms of RSS feeds and atoms and widgets, which I still don't fully understand! I was trying to take a RSS feed off of my website but it appears that it's only going to work for the rest of the day today and then thirteen days because that's all the longer the free trial lasts and I'm not all that willing to pay for something that I figure I can do for free. I just have to figure it out! I think I might be able to find some language to put into the html code that will do it. If there's any technologically savvy individuals who'd like to donate their services to my campaign, I'd love to hear from you!