IL GOP congressman gets butt kicked by constituents

Randy Hultgren, a freshman U.S. representative from northern Illinois, couldn't answer a simple question: Where's the evidence that the Bush tax cuts create jobs?

Constituents corner congressman in NY (video)

Rep. Chris Gibson, a New York Republican, is no match for his constituents at a recent town hall meeting. His constituents just wanted him to consider raising taxes on the people who can best afford it.

Gibson signed the Grover Norquist pledge to oppose tax hikes. His constituents wanted to know if he was representing them or Grover Norquist.

Watch.

Today's Teamster News 04.29.11

Benton Harbor protest against emergency manager  WZZM-13   ...Hundreds of people gathered in Benton Harbor Wednesday to protest Michigan's emergency financial manager law...
Black caucus plans federal case against Emergency Manager law  Michigan Messenger   ...The Michigan Legislative Black Caucus is working with the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, Rep. John Conyers (D-Detroit), and others on a lawsuit to challenge Michigan’s Emergency Manager law...
MU says video distorted labor professors’ meaning  Kansas City Star   ...Videos released on the Internet showing two University of Missouri instructors advocating union violence totally distorted their comments, a university official said this afternoon...
Afraid To Face Angry Voters, Rep. Paul Ryan Sneaks Out a Back Door  Crooks and Liars   ...Paul Ryan is flipping out that town hall attendees aren't going to follow his command to "play nice" in front of the media....
Shadow Right Wing Policy Group Holds Summit in Cincinnati  Progress Ohio   ...They meet in secret. They write our laws. And they want us silent...
Teachers union sues Otter, Luna over reform law  Idaho Statesman   ...Members of Idaho's statewide teachers union have filed a lawsuit against the state, the governor and Idaho's public schools chief over a new law that phases out teacher tenure and wipes out collective bargaining over salaries and benefits...
Oregon Unions Put Their Fists in the Air  Willamette Week   ...Raising their fists and chanting, “Good jobs for all, ” about 2,500 Oregon union members and their supporters packed Portland’s Pioneer Courthouse Square today to protest stagnant job growth and government budget cuts...
Philly schools may cut nearly 1,300 teachers jobs  Associated Press   ...The Philadelphia public schools will have to cut 3,800 jobs—including almost 1,300 teachers—if the governor's planned budget cuts are approved, the district's budget chief said Wednesday...

You'll get arrested and maced if you ask this wingnut rep. about Medicare

Talking Points Memo has the story:

A constituent arrested at a Florida town hall event in Rep. Allen West's district says she was singled out for political reasons, taken into custody under false pretenses, and maced in jail. And she has video to prove some, if not all, of it.

Nicole Sandler is a progressive radio show host*, and one of West's constituents. At a town hall event Tuesday, West was screening questions ...When he ducked a question about the House GOP plan to phase out Medicare and replace it with a private insurance system, Sandler shouted out a followup.

"I wanted to ask: How does privatizing Medicare make it more efficient? How does adding a profit motive to it make it more efficient? And I want to know the name and telephone number of an insurance company who will sell a policy to... someone who's 75 years old, obese, with high blood pressure..."

Here's what we love about this story: West has the nerve to claim the current "fee for service" system under Medicare leads to fraud. Any guesses whose company paid the highest criminal fine in history for Medicare fraud? That would be Florida's Republican governor, Rick Scott.

Today's Teamster News 04.28.11

Indiana OKs broadest private school voucher system in US as Daniels mulls White House bid  Associated Press   ...It would allow even middle-class families to use taxpayer money to send their children to private schools...
Little evidence found to support claims of voter fraud  Florida Independent  ...Republican legislators pushing new restrictions on groups that register voters and on voters trying to change their addresses at the polls have said the changes are intended to bring integrity to the voting process...
A State Manager Takes Over and Cuts What a City Can’t  New York Times   ...Only four entities in Michigan, including Detroit’s public school system, currently are deemed distressed enough to require oversight by emergency managers. But some economists predict those ranks will grow...
Big Jump In Disapproval For Pennsylvania Governor  Quinnipiac University   ...Pennsylvania voters say 50 - 39 percent that Gov. Corbett's budget-cutting proposals are unfair to people like them...
Angry voters crowd GOP town meetings  CBS   ...constituents from Twin Lakes to Kenosha are being turned away as capacity crowds inside come to praise or condemn the plan Ryan likes to call the "path to prosperity..."
Wisconsin pension system is nation's most solvent, study finds  Green Bay Press Gazette   ...At a Capitol Hill forum Tuesday sponsored by the American Action Forum, a conservative think tank, the consensus among panelists was pensions are not to blame for states' fiscal woes...
Advocates: Consumers 'betrayed' by high court ruling on class-action suits  MSNBC  ...Fine print in everyday consumer contracts can include provisions that require Americans to surrender their rights to file class-action lawsuits, the U.S Supreme Court ruled Wednesday...    

VIDEO: Bedlam at Orlando town hall over Medicare cuts

This isn't your Tea Party uprising at a town hall. This is people furious with a Republican congressman, Dan Webster, because he voted to cut taxes for the rich and end Medicare.

Think Progress brings us the video from Orlando, telling us

...for nearly an hour, Webster was peppered with one question after another about his support for ending Medicare, his desire to see tax breaks for the wealthy extended, and his vote to repeal health care reform, including its protections for people with preexisting conditions. For his part, Webster didn’t just avoid the questions by resorting to talking points, as most politicians commonly do. On numerous occasions, Webster simply declined to give an answer to contentious questions altogether, moving on to take a new question instead....

Webster is the latest congressman to face a town hall backlash after his vote in favor of Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) budget plan. Provisions of the Republican budget, which ends Medicare, slashes Medicaid, and extends tax breaks for the wealthy, is opposed by strong majorities of Americans, including over 7 in 10 Republican voters as well.

Last week, ThinkProgress reported from a town hall in Milton, Wisconsin, where Rep. Ryan’s plan to extend tax breaks for the wealthy earned the congressman a loud chorus of boos from his own constituents. Similar backlash among voters to the Republican budget has played out for other congressmen across the country, including Reps. Patrick Meehan (R-PA), Charlie Bass (R-NH), Chris Gibson (R-NY), Robert Dold (R-IL), and Sean Duffy (R-WI).