“The more we start looking at it, the more briefings I get, this may be, if it’s done right … a good source of revenue to provide better benefits for everyone,” Harkin told reporters during a conference call.
Harkin said he would support shielding low-income workers from the tax if such a measure was proposed. […]
The concept was at the heart of the health care plan proposed during the 2008 presidential campaign by Republican nominee John McCain, an Arizona senator. […]
Harkin is a senior majority member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. He is in charge of drafting language dealing with disease prevention and public health policy for a health-care reform bill expected this spring.
This is a ridiculous position and would encourage more businesses to not offer health care benefits and more people to forgo the insurance benefits from their employer.
State fiscal stabilization fund: $386.3 million for local school districts, public colleges and universities to help close budget shortfalls and make improvements.
Job training: $6.3 million for dislocated workers, $1.6 million for adult training, $5.2 million for youth training and $5.4 million for vocational rehabilitation to help disabled people prepare for and find employment.
Pell Grants: Increasing the maximum grant to $5,350, up from $4,860, providing additional grant aid to 113,000 Pell Grant recipients in Iowa.
Special education: $122.1 million for special education Part B state grants to help improve educational outcomes for disabled people. This will raise the federal contribution to nearly 40 percent, the level established when the law was authorized more than 30 years ago.
Title I: $65.6 million for Title 1 Education for the Disadvantaged to help close the achievement gap and enable vulnerable students to reach their potential.
Classroom technology: $3.2 million to purchase new computers and software, and for professional development to ensure that the technology is effectively used by students.
School construction: According to the White House, the plan provides funding sufficient to modernize at least 412 Iowa schools. Harkin’s aides said a specific dollar figure for Iowa isn’t available yet. Nationwide, the bill provides $23.4 billion in tax credit bonds for construction, rehabilitation or repair of school facilities.
Head Start: $5.3 million for Head Start programs in Iowa that provide development, educational, health, nutritional, social and other assistance to prepare children to succeed in school. In addition, $1.1 billion will be awarded nationwide on a competitive basis to new grantees for early Head Start expansion.
Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, who endorsed Dean’s presidential campaign in 2004 and is rumored to be in the HHS running himself, applauded the idea of the former DNC header taking over the cabinet post vacated by Tom Daschle.
“I think that would be a very good move,” Harkin told the Huffington Post. “He brings all the background and experience. He’s very strong on prevention and wellness, which I’m very strong on. I think he’d make an outstanding secretary of HHS.”
Marc Ambinder is reporting that Tom Harkin is being considered for the director of Health and Human Services.
This would be a great fit for Harkin. He has been an advocate for people with disabilities and has fought for stem cell research and healthier schools throughout his career.
“I strongly believe that, save in extraordinary circumstances, the President should have the right to select his own team. President Obama believes that Mr. Geithner is the best person for this job, and it pains me to go against the President’s wishes on this matter.
“I believe that Mr. Geithner is a person of obvious talent and experience, and I bear no ill will toward him whatsoever. However, after careful deliberation, I simply could not overcome my very serious reservations about this nominee for two reasons. Mr. Geithner made serious errors of judgment in failing to pay his taxes, and he made serious errors in his job as chief regulator of the financial institutions at the heart of the current financial crisis.
Sen. Charles Grassley also voted against Geithner, but that wasn’t much of a surprise since Grassley voted against sending Geithner’s nomination out of the Senate Finance Committee.
In their endorsement of Sen. Tom Harkin, the Des Moines Register outlined the potential of Harkin’s 5th term..
In his fifth term, Senator Harkin should aim high and set aside partisan sniping for…
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Barack Obama is supposed to announce his VP candidate this evening or tomorrow morning by text message to supporters. There will be an event in Springfield, Illinois tomorrow afternoon with Obama and the Vice President candidate.
I am predicting that the choice will be Joe Biden. Biden is known to talk a lot and, except for a comment midweek that he’s not the guy, he has been pretty quiet the past couple weeks. Biden is coming off a trip to Georgia where he talked to leaders in the region about the conflict with Russia. Biden best quality in my opinion is that he isn’t afraid to throw elbows and go on the attack.
Bayh and Kaine’s names have been put out there before Obama made campaign stops in their respective states and the buzz wasn’t always positive. I think that was basically a test run and the campaign has decided against those two. Another reason that going against Kaine is that Obama just spent two days campaigning in Virginia, a key battleground state, so it wouldn’t make sense to announce your naming the Governor of Virginia VP at an event in another state.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Hillary Clinton gets the nod. This diary at Open Left makes the case that Obama will name Hillary Clinton that makes a lot of sense.
If, in June, Clinton told you she should be your VP and you were seriously considering it, what would you do? You would probably tell her that the only way it could happen is if you wholeheartedly endorse me, make it clear you have gotten over the joint ticket idea, have those under your influence (such as the “Vote Both” folks) drop all of their efforts on HRC’s behalf. You’d say, I can’t look weak by picking you, like I was forced by circumstance. It must look like a choice I made that I didn’t have to make but I did because I’m such a big person and I care about the country and I care about victory.
There are three candidates that I would most like to see be named vice president. I would love for Obama to name Kathleen Sebelius, who was campaigning in Iowa yesterday, is still a choice, but there hasn’t been much buzz about her lately. And Tom Harkin is pushing for Chris Dodd, which I think would be a great choice. Finally, I have been a little surprised that Bill Richardson hasn’t been mentioned as much. I think he would bring a lot to the table.
Then it could be a complete dark horse candidate like Tom Daschle, John Kerry, Mark Warner, or Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer (one of the battleground states Obama is visiting after the announcement is Montana).
Now it’s just time to sit back with my cell phone in hand and wait for the announcement.
Last week, I attended a fundraiser for Steve Sodders with Sen. Tom Harkin. It was a well attended event for being on Monday morning at 8 am.
Sen. Harkin stressed how important it is to elect good people to the statehouse and highlighted all of Steve’s great work in the community. Sodders is a deputy sheriff in Marshall County, is on the Red Cross board, serves on the Youth and Shelter Services board, and coaches middle school wrestling.
Then Harkin went on to discuss rising energy costs. Harkin cited increased production of cellulosic ethanol in the 2008 Farm Bill and discussed the potential of renewable energy. One example heused was making ethanol out of algae. He also mentioned how we can’t drill our way out of this problem.
I have been to a couple of events for Steve Sodders. This was one of the first ones he gave real campaign speech at and I think everyone left impressed. I got the whole speech on video, but the sound didn’t come out. Since I was taping the speech, I missed a lot of the details, but here is the gist of the speech.
Sodders told a story of him growing up. There was an elderly lady that lived down the block and he and his brothers would mow her yard and help with yard work. When they’d finish, the lady would get her checkbook out and ask them how much they were worth that day. Steve then made the connection to present day Iowa, saying that he believes Iowans are worth a quality education, health care, and a state where young people want to stay in after graduation. To keep young people in the state, it requires good paying jobs. Sodders said we have a great opportunity to create good paying jobs through the research and development of renewable energy in the State.
Sodders is running for the State Senate in District 22 that covers Marshall and Hardin Counties. The seat was formerly held by Republican Larry McKibben who has retired. Sodders is facing Republican Jarret Heil. Democrats consider this seat to be one of their top chances to pick up a seat in the Iowa Senate this year.
