It is almost Christmas! I ask all of you to continue to pray for our soldiers and their families, as Christmas is a very tough time of year for the many families separated by distance and danger. I should know, I have spent 2 of the last 3 Christmas Days overseas in combat zones myself.
Now for this week's issues:
Victory for airline pilots and your traveling safety was accomplished this week! The House and Senate unanimously approved raising the retirement age for the nation's 80,000 airline pilots from 60 to 65. This allows pilots to financially makeup for their disappearing pensions due to the terrible effect that 9/11 had on the financial bottom line of airlines. Many airlines like US Airways and United were granted Bankruptcy Court approval to cancel their pension plans. This left my fellow airline pilots in a terrible financial position for retirement. Now pilots can work an extra 5 years to build up their savings and to provide you with more experience to serve you as you travel. It took Congress and the President less than a week to make this change in the law happen. This shows what can be done when our government works together!
Earmarks have reared their ugly head. I was reading USA Today's December 12th edition and the December 14th edition and we all know that the many US House and Senate members like to bring home the pork, but you may not know just how out of control they are! For fiscal year 2008, the House had $4.5 Billion in earmarks for an average of $10.7 Million per requesting member. This is outrageous! And much of this money is to reward contributors for funding their campaigns. The money for the earmarks is not the personal money of Members of Congress....it is YOUR tax money that they are wasting just to keep their jobs.
Mike McIntyre is guilty of the same thing. One his many earmarks included $75,000 to a golf cart company in Bladen County which gained the laughter and the amazement of local residents. When Nancy Pelosi and her Democrats took control of Congress last January, they said they would change things particularly they would end the abusive earmarks. As with nearly all the other campaign promises they made, their words did not match their actions. The Democrats continue to break their campaign promises by maneuvering to squash any scrutiny of numerous earmarks which were inserted secretly into appropriations bills. North Carolina’s taxpayers will never know if these secret projects are nothing more than a boondoggle. Think about it, do you want your hard earned tax dollars spent on Pork Barrel projects with no scrutiny? McIntyre does, he had plenty of opportunities this year to vote against earmarks - but he won’t do it – if he votes against theirs, they might vote against his!
In the meantime, I am going to ask all of you who are not looking for Pork Barrel earmarks for your continuing financial support. Just whip out your credit card and donate on-line at http://www.awilltowin.com/. Most of our contributions are under $250 which is fine with me. I would much rather have 1,000-$250 contributions than 250-$1,000 contributions!
Until next week,
Will
P.S.- Please remember to call our scheduler, Ashley Stanton, with your date to hold a house party/fundraising reception for me with your friends and family in attendance. When you book a date, our events coordinator, Nicole Siemer and her team, will come and help you setup before the party to make it a huge success.
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