Thaddeus McCotter opposes legislation to create national health care reform, but he has no problem helping out the pet industry:
Pet-care expenses would be tax deductible under a new measure introduced by U.S. Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich.).
House Resolution 3501, commonly referred to as the Humanity and Pets Partnered Through the Years, or HAPPY Act, would amend the Internal Revenue Code to allow an individual to deduct up to $3,500 for "qualified pet care expenses."
"Qualified pet care expenses" is defined as "amounts paid in connection with providing care (including veterinary care) for a qualified pet other than any expense in connection with the acquisition of the qualified pet."
As you might imagine, the Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council is quite happy about the bill. Here's part of their statement:
Providing pet owners the opportunity to deduct pet care expenses is an important step towards ensuring that pet owners provide adequate veterinary and other necessary pet care. It encourages responsible pet ownership and will hopefully reduce the abandonment of pets by people struggling as a result of the economic downturn.
I'm all for responsible pet ownership, but I also think people should maintain the brakes on their car so I don't have to worry about getting rear-ended while I'm stopped at a traffic light. Maybe we should give car owners tax deductions for repairs.
I also want to know if McCotter is limiting the deduction according to income? The IRS only allows me to deduct medical and dental expenses that exceed more than 7.5% of my adjusted gross income. Here's an example from their website:
Your adjusted gross income is $40,000, 7.5% of which is $3,000. You paid medical expenses of $2,500. You cannot deduct any of your medical expenses because they are not more than 7.5% of your adjusted gross income.
But apparently I could deduct up to $3500 that I spend on my dog!
Putting the health care needs of dogs and cats ahead of people is the final straw. McCotter needs to go.
McCotter is either crazy or one of those professional conservative liars Steve Benen warns us are busy conning the country. Actually, crazy liar is probably more accurate.
So, what did McCotter say this time? According to MLive, McCotter "issued a statement last week expressing concern that Democrat's proposed health care legislation may encourage assisted suicide."
"This provision may start us down a treacherous path toward government-encouraged euthanasia if enacted into law."
"...With three states having legalized physician-assisted suicide, this provision could create a slippery slope for a more permissive environment for euthanasia, mercy-killing and physician-assisted suicide because it does not clearly exclude counseling about the supposed benefits of killing oneself.
"This is very dangerous," McCotter said Friday. "We, in Michigan, have already fought back an attempted assisted suicide several years ago. And yet you see that the people who support this are trying to use this bill to advance this agenda."
What nonsense. Here's the bill, McCotter. Try reading it. There's no mention of assisted suicide or euthanasia, but there is a provision that would "provide Medicare coverage for the work of doctors who advise patients on life-sustaining treatment and "end-of-life services," including hospice care."
MLive points out that FactCheck calls the claim nonsense too.
In truth, that section of the bill would require Medicare to pay for voluntary counseling sessions helping seniors to plan for end-of-life medical care, including designating a health care proxy, choosing a hospice and making decisions about life-sustaining treatment. It would not require doctors to counsel that their patients refuse medical intervention.
Furthermore, the bill would not make these sessions mandatory. Counseling would be patient-initiated and voluntary.
The only slippery slope McCotter needs to worry about is the one leading to the unemployment line. His constituents deserve professionalism and honesty, not baseless scare tactics.
Republicans think the Democrats' health care plan is a Faustian web of Washington bureaucracy. To make their case they're doing exactly what they did in 1994, when President Clinton unveiled his plan, they're circulating a chart with lots of pretty colors, boxes, lines and acronyms. It's meant to confuse people and make light of the Democrats' plan.
It might make for a lovely board game but it makes for horrible health care system.
McCotter obviously never had to deal with HMO's, referrals, denial of claims, etc. Or, as Jonathan Cohn put it:
But these charts--and, more important, the Republicans who use them as propoganda--tend to ignore one inconvenient fact: American health care is already complex. Ridiculously complex. Thanks to decades of haphazard, disorganized growth, it's evolved into a mind-numbing web of institutions, agencies, businesses, and individual actors. And while that may be self-evident to anybody who's ever had to deal with, say, a billing dispute between an insurer and hospital, it's easy to lose sight of that when the discussion is all about what reform might do--rather than what health care would be like without it.
TNR developed their own chart (with the help of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation) illustrating just how byzantine our system has become. McCotter should check out.
Actually, if bureaucracy is a problem for Republicans, they might want to get on board with single-payer.
Single payer reform... would eliminate the bewildering patchwork of private insurance plans with their exorbitant overhead and profits, as well as the costly paperwork burdens they impose on providers. These savings on bureaucracy - nearly $400 billion annually - are sufficient to cover all of the uninsured and to provide first dollar coverage for all Americans.
Twitter Pete is getting national attention again, although this time it's not because he breached national security. Steve Benen wonders if Hoekstra isn't taking crazy pills based on something he said recently.
"I'm watching Neil Cavuto," said Hoesktra, "and I see [Treasury Secretary] Tim Geithner is talking about how he might be OK with a world currency. I don't think Americans are going to be comfortable with that. You're going to see things that people perceive as eroding American sovereignty-this is something that's clearly un-American. I mean, here's the secretary of the Treasury, and instead of defending the United States and defending our currency, he's saying he might be open to a world currency. What does that mean? It means turning our currency over to the UN."
Pete, Pete, Pete. There is no such proposal on the table to replace the dollar as legal tender in the United States. This story has no basis in reality, but that didn't stop Twitter Pete from spouting off.
Benen wasn't too impressed with our governor wannabe.
Hoesktra isn't some random, no-name backbencher. He's been in Congress for 16 years, he's the former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and next year, he expects to be the governor of one of the nation's largest states.
And yet, here's Hoekstra spouting ridiculous gibberish about global currencies, American sovereignty, and turning our currency over to the U.N.
What's wrong with these people? Geithner never said he'd accept "a world currency" -- he actually has vowed the opposite -- the Treasury Secretary simply addressed the notion of a global reserve currency. There's nothing "un-American" about it. That doesn't even make any sense.
Either Hoekstra knows this, and he's just riling up uninformed right-wing voters for partisan gain (in which case he's a hack), or he's popping off on a subject he knows nothing about after catching a segment on Fox News (in which case he's both irresponsible and foolish).
I go along with hack, irresponsible and foolish. Pete should just drop out while he's ahead and let the dozen or so other Republican candidates fight it out.
By the way, Hoekstra isn't the only wingnut pushing this lie. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) is pushing a proposed constitutional amendment to stop the Obama administration from replacing the dollar with a global currency, and she's picked up 30 cosponsors so far, including another Michigan wingnut - Thaddeus McCotter.
As Steve Benen said above, "What's wrong with these people?"
Thaddeus McCotter threw a hissy fit because President Bush refused Republicans request to convene a special session of Congress for political grandstanding on oil drilling.
In a "legislative update sent to GOP members and staff" today, Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI) accused "'Beijing George' Bush of throwing House Republicans 'under the bone-dry bus' on his way to the Olympics." From the memo:
Today, in his final term, the wildly unpopular President George W. Bush boarded Air Force One bound for the Beijing Olympics and a meeting with his chum Hu Jintao, the dapper ruler of a nuclear armed, communist dictatorship. ... Perhaps our Compassionate Conservative-in-Chief will bring our absent Democrat Congress some 'Made in (communist) China' souvenir t-shirts: "Bush went to Beijing and all I got was this lousy five week, paid vacation."
It seems that Thaddeus forgets that taxpayers pay for his five-week vacation, which is a far sight more generous than most of us get.
American companies are stingy on their vacation allotments - the average US worker gets just 8.1 days a year.
25 percent of Americans receive no paid vacation at all.
Can we please start electing people with maturity and manners? Men like McCotter make terrible role models.
(I gotta help pimp the blog that hopes to replace my Congressman:) - promoted by djtyg)
As one would expect, Thaddeus McCotter and the Republicans voted against improved mine safety. That news and more await your eager click here to visit the McCotter Monitor! The surprising vote was the one he cast for improving HOPE VI public housing. He did so kicking and screaming, of course, only after voting with his party pals to try and weaken it along the way, but he did ultimately vote for it. Funny how that happens in an election year...
U.S. House members spent $20.3 million in tax money last year to send constituents what's often the government equivalent of junk mail -- meeting announcements, tips on car care and job interviews, surveys on public policy and just plain bragging.
You know the stuff. Here's one. It arrived at my house recently from my Congresscritter, thin-skinned Thad McCotter (R-Livonia).
This crap is really shameless self-promotion at your expense. The kindest thing one can say is that occasionally the "questionnaire" is an excellent example of leading questions.
Everyone knows illegal immigration breeds terrorism. Are you in favor of cracking down on it?
Yes Hell Yes (circle one)
Do approve of the democrat party (sic) wasteful spending?
No Of course not (circle one)
Congressmen receive what's called "franking privileges" for their mail. Instead of actually purchasing postage their signature is affixed to the upper left hand corner of the correspondence. It's a practice that began years ago. Although these days, the true cost is a budget item for their office.
Some members choose not to join the charade, but there's no shortage of ones who spend your money on these glossy flyers. In fact, there were a dozen members who spent in excess of $133,00 each to send 9.8 million pieces.
And, this brings me back to thin-skinned Thad.
Among legislative leaders,the biggest spender was Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, R-Mich., who last fall became chairman of the House GOP Conference. He spent $133,053 to mail 844,336 pieces....
The cost of postage is not the only expense for taxpayers. Printing and reproduction can add tens of thousands of dollars to a mailing's cost. The printing cost for one mailing from McCotter was $30,259.
The guy who signs his correspondence "I work for you," votes against healthcare for kids and insists that we must find a way to win in Iraq also blows your hard earned tax dollars on junk mail to make himself look pretty. And, he's one of worst offenders to boot.
(Bumped with new YouTube video! - promoted by djtyg)
Congressman Thaddeus McCotter (R-Livonia) is Keith Olbermann's Worst Person in the World today.
Each day Keith Olbermann, on his Show Countdown, selects a public figure and highlights their fool hearty actions or outrageous comments.
McCotter's comments
Catholics United is not a Catholic Church sanctioned organization; it is a Leftist political front group. No one should be fooled when this devil cites Scripture for his own purpose.
