The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 90, No. 264, Ed. 1 Wednesday, January 5, 2011 Page: 4 of 8
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Viewpoints
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I KI I) HARTMAN
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EDITORIAL BOARD
JANIE HALTER GRAY
Fdrtor/Pubksher
Carla Torres
Managing Editor
M.A. Bengtson
Community mender
Jim Finley
Former Managing Editor ,
Jay ExHtwch
Community member
TEXAS VOICES
Archives help
family trees
blossom
Of course, wc'rc all related somehow if
you go hack far enough. But how exactly
.each person got from there to here has
provided endless fascination for
humankind since even before the book of
Genesis listed all the who begat whoms
Today, with online research sites
expanding their databases, family back-
ground sleuths have increasingly rich
resources for exploring records but
that’s mostly for a price.
The National Archives, though, pro-
vides a national treasure just w aiting to he
mined.
The archives regional branch in Fort
Worth houses a cornucopia of public
records, more than 200 years’ worth, from
military listings to American Indian-relat-
ed documents dating to the territory that
became Oklahoma. But the holdings have
been out of the way at facilities in far
southwest Fort Worth.
Gome February, the National Archives
at Fort Worth plans to open a family _
research center at the Montgomery Plaza
shopping center.
Researchers’ will be able to comb
through online genealogical data and
microfilm records.
For those who want to do their explo-
ration online, the National Archives,
unveiled a centralized public access sys-
tem at www.archives.gov/research/search
that reaches about 12 million electronic
records, including some unavailable else-
where. They include federal, congression-
al and presidential documents as well as
records that can help in tracing family
trees.
Remember what happened when
genealogists started looking into President
Barack Obama’s heritage: they reported
him distantly related to both Presidents
Bush, former Vice President Dick Cheney,
former vice presidential candidate Sarah
Palin, radio talker Rush Limbaugh, Civil
War General Robert I. Lee and actor Brad
Pitt. '
It’s a smaller world than we think.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
I WISH IOT MOUY
PRESERVE THIS MOMENT:
»
e 2011 Jett Stabler/ Dist by UFS. Inc.
vM awftPtsBpGi
2011
Obamacare mess is
legacy of Dems’ brief
moment of power
As Republicans take power in the
House and play a more influential role in
the Senate, it’s good to think back a year.
As 2010 began, it was not at all clear that
big Republican victories were on the way
only that the GOP was at its lowest
point in a long, long time.
Roundly defeated in 2008, House
Republicans were powerless to stop a
huge Democratic majority from passing
the national healthcare hill in November
2009. Then, in late December of that
year. Senate Republicans were just as
powerless to stop a filibuster-proof
majority of 60 Democrats from pushing
that far-reaching and deeply unpopular
piece of legislation through the Senate.
With the passage of Obamacare, GOP
lawmakers learned what defeat really
meant.
The country is still learning the full
extent of the damage. A new analysis by
the Washington Post shows that a provi-
sion of Obamacare dealing with high-risk
patients is attracting far fewer partici-
pants than expected but still costs vastly
more than projected — - a bad omen for
the law’s other programs. And that is on
top of earlier reports showing that
Obamacare will actually bend the cost
curve upward, not downward; that many
companies are curtailing or planning to
curtail coverage offered to employees
and retirees; and that its core provision
the imjividual mandate might well be
unconstitutional.
It’s a mess. And as this Congress ends,
and a new Congress considers repeal, it’s
worth remembering the unusual and fleet-
ing circumstances that led to its passage.
Obamacare is the product of a brief
moment of total Democratic dominance
in Washington. Key to that dominance
was a 60-seat,, filibuster-proof Senate
majority. It wasn’t a sure bet for
Democrats; despite victories in 2008, the
party’s hopes for that majority depended
on the defection of formerly Republican
Sen. Arlcn Specter and the outcome of a
contested race in Minnesota. After a con-
troversial recount, Al Franken became the
60th Democratic senator on July 7, 2009,
giving Democrats an unassailable edge.
But that majority disappeared just 49
days later when, on Aug. 25, 2009,
Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Ted
Kennedy died. State law called for a spe-
cial election to fill the empty seat. That
would have taken months, and as public
opposition to Obamacare grew,
Democrats became increasingly anxious
to pass the bill as quickly as possible.
Luckily for them. Democrats in the
Massachusetts legislature came to the
BYRON
YORK
rescue, changing the
law to allow the imme-
diate appointment of
Democrat *Paul Kirk.
Sworn in on Sept. 24,
! 2009. Kirk gave
| Democrats 60 votes
| once more.
Aft’er Obamacare
.passed the House on
Nov. 7 over the
opposition of 39
Democrats and all but one Republican
Senate Democrats raced to get the job
done. Threatening to keep the Senate in
session through the holidays, they finally
passed the hill 60 Democratic votes,
not one to spare in the early hours of
Christmas Lye.
Kven as that vote was taken, a little-
known Massachusetts Republican named
Scott Brown was rising in the polls in the
race for Kennedy's seat ‘ by promising
to become the 41st vote against
Obamacare. On Jan. 19, Brown’s victory
shocked the political world. When he was
sworn in on Feb. 4. the second period of
a Democratic filibuster-proof majority
was over. It had lasted 134 days.
But health care had been passed. Later,
without a decisive Senate majority,
Democrats were forced to use procedural
maneuvers io put the final touches on
Obamacare, But they were just tweaking
what had only been possible with a 60-
vote majority.
The last such achievement, Medicare,
passed in 1965 with bipartisan support on
the foundation of a huge Democratic
majority that lasted many years.
Obamacare barely scraped by.
Brown’s win helped change GOP for-
tunes. But even with that victory and
wins by Republicans Chris Christie and
Bob McDonnell in the New Jersey and
Virginia governors races the huge vic-
tories that Would come for Republicans
in November 2010 were beyond the
imagination of most observers.
Now a new, more balanced Congress
will consider what to do with Obamacare.
House Republicans will likely vote to
repeal the bill, and Democrats, still in
control of the Senate and White 4 louse,
will fight furiously to keep their achieve-
ment untouched. As the battle goes on, it
will be good to remember the circum-
stances and lessons of the bill's passage.
Given a brief window of opportunity, a
determined group of lawmakers can do
damage that might take years to undo.
Byron York is chief political corre-
spondent for The Washington
Examiner
Recipe for
a successful
2011
The year 2011 brings in a host of
opportunities and challenges to
America. Will we accelerate toward eco-
nomic insolvency by continuing the
policies thai have created this crisis, or
will a new Congress elected on the ener-
' gy of the Tea Party movement find the
courage to change course?
With the new Republican majority in
the House I w ill have the opportunity as
a subcommittee chairman to take a care-
■jMBgppn ful look at' our domestic
| JK t monetary policy. I am
excited by the prospect,
flHEj&hk of real oversight of the.
I'j1 Jw federal Reserve, hut I
hope to
; the important ways in
which our foreign poli-
nrp pny cy and monetary policy
PAIN arc re^a,c<^’ -*ust ^asl
PAUL week, the Financial
Times reported that the
limited oversight of the Federal Reserve
allowed hv the passage of a watered-
down version of my Audit the Fed bill
revealed that approximately 55 percent
of the loans made available under the
largest Federal Reserve bailout program,
the Term Auction Facility, went to for-
eign banks! This is hut one example of
the,real cost to Americans of maintain-
ing its empire overseas, and it cries out
for more transparency and oversight.
This is why it is key for us to under-
stand that our foreign policy and current
economic crisis go hand in hand. Some
have promised to lead us back to. fiscal
responsibility while asserting that any
reduction in our foreign and military
spending is off the table. They would
like us to believe that we should not only
continue spending as much on the mili-
tary .as the rest of the world combined,
but they actually call for an even more
aggressive U.S. policy abroad. They
believe we should continue to bomb
Pakistan. Yemen, Afghanistan, and else- t
where; that we must impose even more
crippling sanctions on countries like Iran
while moving steadily on to yet another
Middle Fast war that is not in our inter-
est. They represent the, failed policies ot
the past and they would like to lead us
down a dead-end, street. We must resist
the temptation of their neo-con inspired
scare-mongering.
There will he much work for us to do
in the next year and in the next Congress.
We need look no further than the grossly
unconstitutional and immoral policies of
the Transportation Security
Administration demanding that we
either be irradiated or fondled to travel in
our own country to sec that those who
would deprive us of our civil liberties on
the empty promise of full security will
not be giving up easily. We must contin-
ue standing up to them and we must not
compromise. We must not allow the out-
of-control Department of Homeland
Security to impose an F.ast German-like
police state in the U.S., where neighbors
are encouraged by big brother or big sis-
ter to inform on their neighbors. We must
not "accept that government authorities
should hector us via television screens as
we go about our private lives like we are
living in Orwell's 1984.
I atn optimistic that the incoming
members of Congress understand the
importance of what they have been
entrusted with by the American people,
But I do hope that those who elected
them will watch their actions and
their votes in Congress carefully. An
early indication will be the upcoming
vote on re-authorization of the anti-
American PATRIOT Act. Defeat once
and for all of this police-state legislation
will be a great way to start 2011 and the
112th Congress. We must move ahead
with confidence. Our numbers arc grow-
ing. Happy New Year!
Ron Paul represents the 14th district
in the U.S. House of Representatives.
FEDERAL
Barack Obama.
Prescient
202-4567111
F®c202-456-2461
presdenffa)
vrfuehousegtv
JoeBlden,
Vice Prescient
202-456-2324
Pax; 202-466-2161
aairesOentra)
wrttehousagov
Kay Bailey
Hutchison,
Senator
202-2246822 >
713665-3456
Fax: 202-224-0776
Fax:713209-3450
hutchsonsenate.
gcwfe-maihtm
JohnCornyn.
Senator
202 224-2934
713572-3337
Fax: 202-228-2856
Fax:713572-3777
cofTMisenale.
govtartact/
ndexJtrrt
SUTE
Rick Perry ,
' Governor
800-8436789
800-252-9600
Fax: 512-46318$
Ted Poe.
Qstnct2Rep.
866-4256565
866-447-0242
wwwhouse,
gwt»e
Ron Paul,
Ostrict 54 Ftep.
202-2252831
979-2850231
wwwheuse.
gwbad
Gene Green,
District 29 Ftep
202-225*88
7133300761
28P42O06Q2
wwwttxise.
gcwSreen
HOW TO REACH US
Janie Halter Gray, Publisher
janie.grcV@baytownsun.com 1
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Gray, Janie. The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 90, No. 264, Ed. 1 Wednesday, January 5, 2011, newspaper, January 5, 2011; Baytown, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1027707/m1/4/: accessed June 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Sterling Municipal Library.