This Should Scare the Shit Out of You....And Motivate You....

Steve Benen, one of my favorite bloggers and who you should definitely be reading, conceived of this and his friend Bill Simmon put it together.

GT:National Security Demands That We Assure That the Next Generation of the Koch Family Has the Assets to Continue the Fight on the Middle Class

GT spoke last night at Penn State on national security which he interpreted very broadly. Let's compare and contrast a couple of his statements.

First up:

"What my generation is providing you, unfortunately, is a legacy of debt," he said. "It's just not American.

He said the Obama administration needs to present -- and Congress needs to enact -- a responsible budget.

Next:

Meanwhile, Thompson said, if steep estate taxes are reinstated next year, a family passing a farm from one generation to the next may be forced to pay a 45 percent levy. That threatens to take still more farms out of business, a trend that could force more reliance on imported food over which the U.S. has little control, Thompson said.

To sum up, GT wants to deal with the national debt by adding $1.3 trillion dollars over the next ten years to the national debt by stopping a reinstatement of the estate tax. To be fair, perhaps GT just wants the tax to go back to last year's level, then the cost to the US Treasury over the same time span would be $609 billion. He justifies adding this huge burden to the national debt, which he himself says is "not American," by suggesting that the tax will impact family farms.

But it is  estimated that that in 2011 the estate tax, if reinstated at 2009 levels,  would only effected 110  family farms and small businesses and these estates on average would pay a rate of  11.3%. (The 45% number that Thompson uses for the tax rate only applies to the portion of the estate in excess of $3.5 million and of the portion above the threshold much of it can be shielded from taxes.)  Further, there is absolutely no evidence that farms would have to liquidated to pay for the estate tax. In 2001, the American Farm Bureau Federation could not cite a single example of a farm being sold off to pay the estate tax and the CBO  has estimated that under the 2009 conditions only a handful of family farms would not have sufficient liquidity to pay the tax, but it said that it likely overestimated this number since the it couldn't include certain assets held in trust.

The take away is that  GT thinks that it is in our national security interest to help  the Koch brothers pass on their wealth to their heirs so that those heirs can continue the family war against ordinary Americans.

GT "Respecting the Pain and Suffering" of 9/11 Emergency Responders

As I noted earlier this month, GT joined 158 of his Republican colleagues to defeat a bill which created a fund for the 9/11 emergency responders who have health problems due to the toxic environment created by the collapse of the World Trade Center.  At the time, GT hadn't explained his vote and I wondered which Clown Caucus approved talking point GT would point to if he was asked to justify his vote. This week at a townhall meeting in Philipsburg  we got an answer to that question.

Thompson said he understands what first responders experience in a situation, as he is a licensed Emergency Medical Technician and a volunteer firefighter.
He said he understands the emotional and physical trauma experienced but also said that the bill was not well crafted and he was concerned about where the money was going and what it paid for, which was not clear to him in the bill.

That's pretty fucking vague. And it looks like GT didn't do his homework on this one, since his excuse  is not on the the  list of Clown Caucus approved talking points (PDF). The closest item on that approved list of reasons not to vote for the bill is item #3. It must be tough remembering all those rationales for voting no.

The fact is that the bill is very clear on both where the money is going and what it pays for. Both geographic and temporal eligibility requirement for receiving the money from the fund are clearly spelled out and a detailed list of health conditions which are covered by the fund are given. The one open area is cancer which takes a longtime to develop. Hence at this time there is no epidemiological evidence to tie 9/11 to cancer risks.  You can learn more from this CBO report on the bill and the bill itself.

By the way,

...Thompson also briefly talked about the controversial mosque and community center proposed to be build in New York City near ground zero. He said that it is a local decision of the city and the federal government doesn't have jurisdiction over it. However, he also said that he didn't think those involved were respecting the pain and suffering that is still occurring there and that should have been taken into consideration.

GT has a funny way of respecting the pain and suffering of those 9/11 emergency responders.

Once Obamacare Goes into Effect Maybe We Can Finally Afford to Do Something About That Terrible Hack Afflicting the Fifth District

From Blogger Pictures

Well, GT is at it again, bullshitting  his constituents. I've been having a bit of a back and forth over at the CDT for the past few days over a lie filled letter GT wrote "explaining" one of his votes on energy policy. I hope to build on my comments over there for a post here sometime soon. In the meantime, let's have a go at this tweet. (By the way, the link in the tweet takes you to  the Web site of the Republican members of the  Education & Labor committee where they've posted a portion of a Wall Street Journal opinion piece. The whole article is here. )

The good news is that I don't really have to do much work to clean up the load that GT's shoveled our way, since the invaluable Kevin Drum dealt with this particular pile of bullshit yesterday.

We're not talking about university health centers here, we're talking about actual health insurance policies. And if you read through the rest of the story, you find that most students are insured through their parents' policies. According to the GAO,
"only 7 percent bought their own policies or purchased school-based
plans." Add to that the fact that so far there's no real evidence that
healthcare reform will seriously impact student health policies anyway
(colleges are merely "warning" that it might) and that a lot depends on
the rules HHS sets, which is all part of how healthcare reform is designed to work. HHS rule setting is a big part of the process and was always intended to be.

So: do I expect vast hordes of angry students descending on Capitol
Hill? No. Do I expect HHS to sit around and do nothing about this? No.
Do I expect that some reasonable set of rules will be worked out in the
end? Yes. Do I expect that critics will take any notice of the fact that
yet another scare story about healthcare reform will turn out to be
overblown and ridiculous? No indeedy.

Why does GT insist on bullshitting his constituents?

The Media Finally Reports on a GT No Vote and Gets a Quote From Him

Last week House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi (R-CA) called the House back into a rare August session to vote on an emergency funding bill for Medicaid and education. The bill passed, despite GOP opposition, and Obama signed it into law.

In Pennsylvania, its passage staved off a financial catastrophe.

The Pennsylvania Legislature approved a budget for 2010-11 based on the hope of receiving $850 million in Medicaid funding.
Gov. Ed Rendell, who once predicted as many as 12,000 layoffs if no additional Medicaid money were received, has said that, with $600 million, some layoffs are still possible next month. The governor and legislative leaders are expected to meet to decide how to close that gap.

But GT voted against the bill, and thanks to WENY-TV in Elmira, New York, we know, for once, what GT says about the reason he voted the way that he did.

Northern Tier Congressman Glenn Thompson voted against it, saying it's spending more money at a time when the country can't afford it. “This is about the fact that we're experiencing challenging times fiscally.” Thompson says, “and when you experience challenging times, everybody has to tighten the belt.”

However the Congressional Budget Office says while the bill does add to the deficit over five years, in ten years, it would break even and actually reduce the overall deficit

Well, there you have it, we, in the Centre Region, have to rely on an out-of-state TV station to get GT's bullshitting on record.

Technorati Tags: Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-PA5), emergency medicaid education bill

@CongressmanBS

GT is at it again.

From Blogger Pictures

When people ask him  "How can we justify tax cuts[?]" he responds with bullshit.  Let's take a closer look at this.

First, let me concede that GT is almost correct when he says that more than 50% of those that will be affected by allowing the Bush/Cheney tax cuts to expire on high income taxpayers are small business owners. Almost because the figure applies to taxpayers that claim  small business income. Not all of these taxpayers are, in fact, small business owners. 

Setting that aside for the moment, let me  be clear that that this is not the same as 50% of small business owners will be affected by the expiration of the tax cuts, but my guess is that many who read GT's tweet get that wrong impression. And GT, or more likely a smarter staffer, probably  was aiming to induce that misunderstanding.

The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center reports that a  large proportion (33%) of taxpayers claiming small business income either have incomes too low to pay taxes or are in the lowest tax bracket. In fact, 14.5% taxpayers claiming small business income claim the Earned Income Tax Credit for low income workers.

How many taxpayers claiming small business income will be hit by the expiration of the Bush/Cheney tax cut on high income taxpayers? That would be 1.9%,  again according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.  But about half of these taxpayers aren't small business owners. Included in this number are high income investors who receive part of their income from investments in small business. As the Tax Policy Center noted, of the 1.9% of taxpayers  with

...small-business income who face one of the top two tax rates are merely passive investors who have nothing to do with running the business. This is because the Tax Policy Center data cited above use the Treasury Department’s relatively broad definition of “small business.” Under the Treasury definition, for example, the $84 of income President Bush received in 2001 from a passive investment in an oil and gas company7 made him a “small-business owner.” About 35 percent of “small-business owners” with incomes above $200,000, and about 58 percent of “small-business owners” with incomes over $1 million, received some or all of their business income in the form of passive investments. The Treasury definition also counts as “small-business income” the fees that CEOs are paid for sitting on corporate boards.

From Blogger Pictures

So we see the reason that  more than 50% of taxpayers who would see their tax bill go up after the Bush/Cheney tax cut expires are "small business owners" is that many high income earners get some of their income classified by Treasury as coming from a small business even though they are not small business owners.

How much would extending the Bush/Cheney cuts for ten years cost the US Treasury? That would be $678 billion.

An how many jobs would we get for that price tag? Not too many would be my guess. Recall,  that during the whole Bush presidency while these cuts were in effect, which included, let us not forget, the housing bubble, the rate of job creation never matched that during the Clinton years. 

But I'd  still be interested in hearing how many jobs GT thinks this $678 billion give away to the rich would create and why?. Comon', give us a ballpark figure GT.

(h/t Kevin Drum)

Technorati Tags: Bush/Cheney tax cut extension, Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-PA5)

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For GT Legislatin' is Like Paintin' by Numbers

Last week GT joined 158 of his Republican colleagues to defeat a bill which would have created a fund for  9/11 emergency responders who have health problems due to the toxic environment created by the collapse of the World Trade Center.

As with his no vote on extending emergency  unemployment insurance, GT has not  seen fit to issue a press release explaining  why he has voted the way he has on this. He hasn't  even a twitter twatted, his favorite form of keeping constituents abreast of the depths of his mind. I'm guessing he isn't too proud of the vote and hopes than no one in the local  press notices it. A pretty good bet around these parts.

You can find the background on the bill here and what other wingers in the House have said about their no votes here  The reaction of both Democrats and Republicans are  here and a  Democrat responded in detail here. Then you can try to guess which Clown Caucus approved talking points (PDF) GT would check off as his reason for voting no, if forced to explain his "reasoning."
(Cartoon via watertiger at Dependable Renegade ,a very funny blog which I highly recommended.)

Technorati Tags: 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-PA5)

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Shale Schlocked

OMG!!!! We're goin'a be rich!!! Stop your worrin' 'bout drinkin' water and such.

That's the way wingers want Pennsylvanians to react over the Macelleus Shale. Consider uberwinger GT,  who recently tweeted,"On House Floor to discuss 60 year history of natural gas hydro-fracking, record of zero confirmed groundwater contamination & DEP oversight."  Stories like this one from The Patriot-News today are important as reminders of the reality behind this gold rush mentality.

Marcellus Shale gas drillers in Pennsylvania commit an average of 1.5 regulatory violations per day, according to a report from the Pennsylvania Land Trust, based on Right To Know requests to the Department of Environmental Protection.

In the last two and a half years, drilling companies were cited for 1,435 violations -- 952 of which were considered most likely to harm the environment, according to the report.

Nearly half of the violations were related to improper erosion and sedimentation plans and improper construction of wastewater impoundments that contain fracking water. These impoundments were improperly lined or not structurally sound.

[...]

In one instance, the Department of Agriculture quarantined a Tioga County farmer’s cattle because they could have ingested the frack water that leaked from the impoundment.

There were 155 citations for discharging industrial waste onto the ground or into commonwealth waters.

There were 100 violations of the state Clean Streams Law.

East Resources Inc. of Warrendale had the highest number of violations with 138, followed by Chesapeake Appalachia LLC, a subsidiary of Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy, with 118, and Chief Oil & Gas LLC of Dallas with 109.

Houston-based Cabot Oil & Gas, the company responsible for contaminated drinking water wells in Dimock, was fourth with 94 violations.

The list of companies with the worst performance records in terms of the number of violations per well drilled was topped by J-W Operating Co., of Dallas, which drilled only one well and racked up 11 violations. Citrus Energy Corp. of Castle Rock, Colo., averaged seven violations per well, and Penn Virginia Oil & Gas Corp. of Radnor  averaged four violations per well.

And DEP may not be the protector that some would have us believe. Go read the article for more.

Technorati Tags: Macellus Shale, Ground water, DEP, violations

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GT's Hamlet: To 'Bag or Not to "Bag: That is the Question

Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com

GT might find himself in a bit of a bind over Michele Bachmann's (R-Loony Tunes) Teabagger Caucus thing. Isn't that right, GT. If you join many of your better informed, and I might add more rational, constituents might think you're bit of a loon. On the other hand, if you don't join your Teabagger supporters, or as you once called them liberty-loving patriots, might think that you really aren't one of them. I say, go ahead  join and don't worry about us better informed constituents, we already think you're bit of a loon.

(H/T FeliciaK from Newsy.com for the heads up on the video)

Technorati Tags: Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-PA5), Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), Teabagger Caucus

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This Should Be Fun

Think Progress reported this morning that  yesterday,  Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Crazytown)

.... filed paperwork to start a House Tea Party Caucus in the current 111th Congress. Possibly taking a cue from Kentucky Senate GOP hopeful and fellow Tea Partier Rand Paul, who recently said he might start a similar caucus in the Senate if he were elected, Bachmann sent a letter to the Committee on House Administration in an effort to “formaliz[e] the [Tea Party] movement within the federal government.” The letter read:

I would like to register the House Tea Party Caucus as a Congressional Member Organization for the 111th Congress. The House Tea Party Caucus will serve as an informal group of Members dedicated to promote American’s call for fiscal responsibility, adherence to the Constitution, and limited government. Presently, I will serve as the chair of the House Tea Party Caucus.

I'm curious if GT, who already serves in the Clown Caucus alongside Michele, will be joining her new  Teabagger Caucus. GT if you are planning on joining you better hurry, the first ten to sign up get a complimentary lawn chair.

Technorati Tags: Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-PA5), Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), Tea Party Caucus, Teabaggers, wingnuts

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Hey GT, Do You Agree with Tom?

GT, to my knowledge, still hasn't explained his vote against extending emergency unemployment  benefits, but Tom Corbett current Pennsylvania Attorney General and Republican nominee for governor recently gave his opinion on extending unemployment.

"The jobs are there. But if we keep extending unemployment, people are just going to sit there," Corbett told Harrisburg radio station WITF at a campaign stop in Elizabethtown. "I've literally had construction companies tell me, 'I can't get people to come back to work until . . . they say, "I'll come back to work when unemployment runs out." ' "

Let's leave aside the anecdotal nature of Tom's evidence and ask, does Tom have a point,  is there any real evidence that extending unemployment insurance in the current economic environment  contributes to unemployment?  The answer is yes, but the effect is not very big and it effect is offset by larger and more important ones.

According to a recent paper (via Ezra Klein) by two economists at the Federal reserve bank of San Francisco, Rob Valletta and Katherine Kaung,

As of the fourth quarter of 2009, the expected duration of unemployment had risen about 18.7 weeks for job losers and about 17.1 weeks for leavers and entrants, using the years 2006-2007 as a baseline. The differential increase of 1.6 weeks for job losers is the presumed impact of extended UI benefits on unemployment duration. ...The implied increase in the unemployment rate is quite small, slightly less than 0.4 percentage point, indicating that without UI extensions, the measured unemployment rate would have been 9.6% in December 2009 rather than the observed 10.0%.

Ezra notes that "Using the most recent estimate of the size of the labor force, a 0.4 oercent increase in the unemployment rate represents 614,964 people. This is not a trivial number..."

But, you knew there had to be a but, there is another thing to be considered here, the stimulative effect of unemployment benefits. Once again I give you Ezra,

With that process,  [Moody's economist Mark] Zandi estimated that each dollar spent on extending unemployment benefits generated $1.61 in economic growth. Extending benefits had the third-greatest bang-for-the-buck of any component in the stimulus package, after increasing food stamps and subsidizing work-sharing, both temporary measures. To quote Zandi, "No form of the fiscal stimulus has proved more effective during the past two years than emergency UI benefits." The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities looked at the impact on poverty of the extension and found that it saved a total of 800,000 people from falling below the poverty line. So far, then, unemployment benefits have been very effective at stimulating the economy and reducing economic misery among affected families.

Let's put this on the scales. On the on side, extending unemployment insurance leads 614,964 people to remain unemployed about 1.6 weeks longer. On the other side, extending unemployment insurance each dollar spent on extending unemployment insurance generates $1.61 in economic growth and the extensions have prevented 800,000 people from fall below the poverty line.  I'd have to say the the scales tip overwhelmingly in favor of extending unemployment benefits in the current economic climate.

But Tom would rather play the resentment card. He wants to stir up Teabaggers with this pleasing tale,  "I've literally had construction companies tell me, 'I can't get people to come back to work until . . . they say, "I'll come back to work when unemployment runs out.' "

So GT, do you agree with Tom? Did you vote against  extending unemployment because you think your unemployed constituents are lazy?   Your constituents, employed and unemployed alike,  want to know what you really are thinking.  You are thinking aren't you?


Technorati Tags: Tom Corbett, Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-PA5), extended unemployment benefits

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Is GT Looking Out for His Constituents in His Own Twisted Way?

From Blogger Pictures

On July 1^rst, GT voted  with 141 of his Republican colleagues and 11 Democrats against the restoration of emergency unemployment compensation.  Fortunately, 241 Democrats and 29 Republicans voted in favor of the bill. Unfortunately, the Republicans in the Senate successfully blocked the bill from coming to a vote. So the long term unemployed sit this summer in limbo.


GT, so far as I know, has not explained the reasoning behind this vote, but it is clear from the table below that he; owes many of his constituents an explanation.  While the Pennsylvania Fifth Congressional District is home to Centre County the Pennsylvania county with the lowest May 2010 unemployment rate, 6.5%, it is also home to Cameron County the Pennsylvania County with the highest unemployment rate,14.8%. In fact, of the seventeen counties which are in, or part of which are in, the 5th 11 are  above the median of the county  rates and 15 are above the overall Pennsylvania rate of 9.1%. Further, the unemployment rates increased from April 2010 in all of the counties in the 5^th with the exception of Cameron which decreased from 15% in April. But that was likely due to people dropping out of the workforce. So the employment situation in GT's district is bad and many of his constituents will be hurt by the action of Republican colleagues in the Senate. An action which his vote shows that he supports.


So why did  GT vote to screw his constituents? There are several possible answers which I will explore in a future post.

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Technorati Tags: Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-PA5), emergency unemployment insurance extesion

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It's Summertime And The Livin' Is Easy....

....and the blogging is light. 

I find it odd that there haven't been any stories on the reorganization of Penn State Great Valley in the media and, as of today, the Web site for that campus makes no mention of it.

I'm working on a post on GT's vote against extending unemployment insurance, perhaps I'll get something up tonight or tomorrow morning.

In the meantime, enjoy this great performance by Janis.

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Clowns on Parade

Com'on GT, tell us, do you agree with your buds in the Clown Caucus?

Technorati Tags: Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-PA5), GOP, BP, Republican Study Committee

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GT a Man with All the Smarts of W

GT is upset that we haven't started any offshore drilling following the lift on the moratorium at the end of Bush's second term. He explains that there is no reason  not to and the concerns about the environment are misplaced. He recycles a Bush era talking point to bolster the claim.

He disputed claims that off-shore drilling poses environmental problems.

One need look no further than Hurricane Katrina, when oil rigs off the Gulf Coast escaped any damage, despite potentially damaging winds and flood waters which ravaged coastal communities including New Orleans, he said.

The worst environmental disasters related to oil or natural gas occur when they spill while being transported over water, he argued.

Oh yeah, GT?

The US coastguard, which is responsible for the marine environment, said yesterday more than 6.5 million gallons of crude oil had been spilt in at least seven major incidents. The previous worst spill in US waters was the 11m gallons in Alaskan waters from the Exxon Valdez in 1989.

"This is a major event," said Lieutenant Colonel Glynn Smith of the coastguard in New Orleans. "Things are going well, but three-quarters of the oil from the spills has not yet been recovered."

So if you liked the Bush years, I'm sure you love GT.

Technorati Tags: Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-PA5), offshore drilling

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GT, a Dim Bulb That Shines Only to the Right

Late last week in a press release our congressman Glenn "GT" Thompson was full of praise for CBS News for the latter's manure spreading effort.

U.S. Representative Glenn `GT’ Thompson today praised  CBS News, which reported the Administration’s real estimate of costs per household for the Cap and Trade legislation.

There are a  few thing to correct in this opening paragraph. It really wasn't "CBS News" doing the reporting. It was CBS News libertarian  cyber-correspondent  Declan McCullagh. Second, the report didn't concern the cost of Waxman-Markey, the Cap and Trade legislation currently under consideration, it considered an early proposal by the Obama administration.

GT goes on to quote McCullagh.

“The Obama administration has privately concluded that a cap and trade law would cost American taxpayers up to $200 billion a year, the equivalent of hiking personal income taxes by about 15 percent,” according to CBS reporter Declan McCullagh.  “At the upper end of the administration’s estimate, the cost per American household would be an extra $1,761 a year.”

Which leads GT to ask,

How is the average American household going to pay for this added almost $2000 a year?” ...  “How are my constituents, in some of the lowest employment areas in the state, supposed to pay for this?”

GT, GT,....GT, you really have to read Waxman-Markey which

...would establish a more limited carbon market, distribute most permits for free to polluting industry, with provisions that compel utilities to pass along their value to ratepayers, and provide further assistance for low-income consumers.

Perhaps GT will someday explain why he doesn't have similar concerns for his constituents when it comes to the very real skyrocketing cost of health care. In the meantime,  you can read more about what's wrong with McCullagh's report and McCullagh himself here.

Technorati Tags: Rep. Glenn Thompson (R.PA-5), Cap and Trade, Waxman-Markey, Obama, Declan McCullagh,

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FYI

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports on the latest political maneuvering to get stimulus funds restored to the state-related universities.

Fourteen members of Congress from Pennsylvania today urged the Obama administration to reject Gov. Ed Rendell's attempt to exclude the four state-related universities from receiving federal economic stimulus money.

[...]

Of the 19 U.S. representatives from Pennsylvania, the 14 who signed the letter are Tim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair; Jason Altmire, D-McCandless; Mike Doyle, D-Forest Hills; Kathy Dahlkemper, D-Erie; Bill Shuster, R-Blair; Glen Thompson, R-Centre County; Charles W. Dent, R-Allentown; Jim Gerlach, R-Chester Springs; Tim Holden, D-Schuylkill County; Todd Russell Platts, R-York; Joe Sestak, D-Delaware County; Christopher Carney, D-Susquehanna; Patrick J. Murphy, D-Bristol; and Robert A. Brady, D-Philadelphia.

Technorati Tags: stimulus funds, Penn State, politics,

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Putting the Stupid in Congress

A little over a week ago the GOP unveiled their new energy plan. Well, new's a little strong;it's built mostly on ideas recycled from Bush/Cheney administration.

Now to be fair, there is a new wrinkle in the plan. The GOP wants to make global warming denial the law of the land.

And our Congressman couldn't be prouder to be part of the GOP braintrust that came up with this garbage.

U.S. Representative Glenn `GT’ Thompson, R-Howard, today joined other members of the GOP American Energy Solutions Working Group to introduce their alternative to the proposed Cap and Trade legislation.

“We have been criticizing strongly the `Cap and Tax’ program being considered. The next step is to propose a viable alternative—and today we do just that,” said Thompson.

GT, helping to putting the stupid in Congress for over five months.

Technorati Tags: GOP energy plan, Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-PA5)

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I Think We Should Start to Call GT....

...Shecky Greene. Here's the big buffoon-he's third up-in the well of the House ridiculing green jobs.

[h/t Think Progress]

Technorati Tags: Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-PA5), green jobs, environment

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Dog Bites Man/Republican Opposes EFCA

I'm sure this will surprise no one, but our congresscritter GT opposes the Employee Free Choice Act.

Thompson spoke out against the Employee Free Choice Act, which he claims removes the secret ballot process in considering whether to unionize a workplace.

"It's a job-killing measure," he said.

Thompson also criticized the measure for its binding-arbitration inclusion, which he said gives an outside party the ability to dictate contract terms.

Proponents of the measure claim it only raises the option of a secret ballot process, but more importantly, that it addresses good will negotiations through binding arbitration and increases sanctions on unfair labor practices.

I also wanted to commend the Sun Gazette, the paper that reported this, for at least stating the proponents position.

Technorati Tags: Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-PA5), Employee Free Choice Act

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