by Ramona du Houx
The most
dramatic change in Washington, DC since Democrats took power in Congress has been in
attitude shifts, which have changed votes on the House floor, said U.S. Rep. Tom Allen.
"What
I’ve noticed is that the old Republican majority has lost most of its arrogance. The
election was a real blow for people who have been in charge for over 12 years. Now, there
is a willingness to work across the aisle on things we care about," said Congressman
Allen. "Much of the legislation we did in the first 100 hours was supported by a fair
amount of Republicans. Personal relationships on the floor seem much better to me than
they were before. At the same time Democrats are so happy that we are getting legislature
passed — we’re not interested in taking revenge."
Allen embraces
the new five-day workweek brought about by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, though he misses
being able to be with constituents in Maine to the degree he had when there was a
three-day workweek. He relishes the chance to move America forward again.
"We want
to get things done. We have the energy that has been building from an agenda that was
stalled for a dozen years. Now we have a chance to work on improving access to health
care, to improving education, to developing a more progressive approach to climate change,
and at the top of the list — how we get out of Iraq."
United States
Representative Tom Allen talks with Maine Representative Emily Cain at the Statehouse in
Augusta last March.
Iraq —
The war deeply
distresses the congressman who has cosponsored bills that will bring troops home and make
the president accountable. Allen never supported the invasion.
"Iraq is
going to dominate the issues this year in Congress. It’s always there with us. After
four years, we’ve learned that there is no military solution in Iraq and that the
Sunni leadership and Shiite leadership have to work out their differences. They are not
going to do that unless we give them a deadline of when we are leaving," said Allen.
"If we say we are leaving, you are on your own, that will be a powerful motivator for
them to compromise their differences about the structure of the government, about the
amount of regional autonomy, and about how to share the oil revenues. They have to come to
agreement on those three things."
Congressman
Allen says the only responsible action for America to take at this stage in the war is to
leave Iraq.
"We need
to leave in the most responsible quickest way possible. It also puts intense pressure on
Iran, as supporters of the Shiites, and the Saudis, as supporters of the Sunnis, to make
sure the Middle East doesn’t blow up into a much larger conflict. And to do that,
both Saudi Arabia and Iran have a very strong interest in having some sort of stability in
Iraq. As long as we are there, the Shiite government wants us to go kill Sunnis. And the
Sunni insurgents are determined to drive us out. We’re in a very bad place,"
said Rep. Allen. "We almost can’t avoid being caught in this crossfire. We need
to get out by the end of the year."
Allen supports
the Comprehensive Strategy for Iraq Act of 2007, introduced by U.S. Reps. David Price
(D-NC) and Brad Miller (D-NC). HR 645 requires the president to submit a plan for phasing
out troop deployments, with a timetable, by December 31, 2007. It declares that U.S.
policy is to withdraw forces in order to transfer responsibility to Iraqis; prohibits
funding for permanent U.S. bases in Iraq; authorizes funding for employment, democracy and
governance programs in Iraq; and creates a Special Envoy for Iraq Regional Security. This
legislation would terminate the authorization for operations in Iraq passed by Congress in
2002 on the grounds that the original mission that was authorized — eliminating
weapons of mass destruction and ousting Saddam Hussein — is no longer operative.
"If we
pass HR 645, I think neighboring countries will hold together and the Europeans and other
potential donor counties will be willing to play a greater role than they are today. We
ought to help in the ways we can, which include political support and economic aid, but
not a military presence trying to prevent the Sunnis and Shiites from killing each
other," said Allen. "We’re not being successful. We’re only succeeding
in breaking up our Army and Marine Corps in Iraq, and we have a lot of other challenges
around the world. The war is straining our military, compromising our ability to address
other vital national security priorities, like global terrorism and nuclear proliferation,
and diverting attention away from troubling developments in Iran, North Korea, and
Afghanistan."
When the
president threatened to veto a bill that would bring troops home, Allen responded with
this statement:
"Congress
will soon send the president a bill that supports the troops and ends U.S. involvement in
the Iraq war. The president’s choice is simple. He can sign the bill and start
bringing our troops home, or he can veto the bill and leave Americans in the middle of a
civil war without end. He can sign the bill to provide billions of dollars in equipment
for troops in Iraq and for the wounded veterans who come home, or he can veto the bill and
delay their relief. I strongly urge the president to sign the bill."
Accountability
—
The American
people have been outraged at the blatant use of the Bush administration’s power to
give contracts and favors to their friends. The new Congress is putting an end to those
policies.
"At long
last, the new Congress is ending the administration’s practice of awarding government
contracts to its friends at the expense of the taxpayer and the public interest,"
said Rep. Allen. "For six years, the former majority turned a blind eye, shunned its
oversight responsibilities and failed to check the administration’s abuses. From the
truckloads of ice and empty trailers of Katrina, to the billions unaccounted for in Iraq
reconstruction funds, to the outsourcing of care for the wounded at Walter Reed, Americans
are fed up with dysfunctional government that has failed to account for how our tax
dollars are spent. The days of Halliburton’s taxpayer-funded war profiteering are
over. HR 1362 establishes common-sense rules to restrict no-bid and cost-plus contracts
and assure that Congress and the American people see the details of all contracts and
receive an honest accounting for the disbursement of public funds."
Rep. Tom Allen at
one of the many events he attends during the summer. The congressman enjoys talking with
constituents, hearing their concerns and seeing if there is some way his office can help
them.
Health care
—
"I believe
that health care will be the dominant domestic issue in 2008. The goal has to be universal
coverage. We need to be working productively towards that goal. I think there are three
steps that we should take as soon as we find the money.
"Firstly,
we need to cover all children. There still are eight to nine million children that do not
have health insurance in America. Those are the most important health dollars you can
spend.
"Second,
the small-business community is the place where you find the most working uninsured,
therefore the plan that I’ve introduced would subsidized small businesses (of 50 or
fewer employees; the number could be adjusted). By having the federal government pick up
the cost of the most expensive health-care cases in a given year, it should sharply reduce
the cost of health insurance for small businesses," said the congressman. "The
plan is modeled on what we get as federal employees. My bill would guarantee, for small
business owners and employees, a choice of two to four different insurance plans in a
state, subject to state law, with subsidy for low-income workers and smaller businesses.
In this way we make sure that we cover people and we reduce the cost to business at the
same time. We will find a way to pay for it.
"The third
component is that everyone over the age of fifty should be able to buy into Medicare,
maybe without a subsidy or with a small subsidy. Medicare is the most cost-effective
health-care plan in the country. By letting people into the system who are early retirees,
we let them lessen their responsibility to their former employers and spread the
responsibility of health care to all of us. After all, we are in this together. This would
be an enormous help to Ford or GM."
GM spends
millions of dollars in health care. Two-thirds of their health-care costs go to their
retirees before they are eligible for Medicare and to supplements afterwards. As a result
of burgeoning health-care costs, GM has closed facilities. "I think that American
business simply cannot bear that kind of cost and still be competitive in the global
economy," said Allen.
The American
auto industry, in large part, has kept to union deals that have guaranteed workers have
health-care coverage. There are many companies who actively discourage unions being
formed. Rep. Allen was an original cosponsor of HR 800, an Employee Free Choice Act, which
improves protections for employees attempting to unionize. The bill passed in the U.S.
House of Representatives by a vote of 241 to 185.
"The
American middle class is witnessing an erosion of health insurance coverage, pension
benefits, and job security," said Rep. Allen. "Union members are better off than
non-unionized employees in all three areas in large measure because they negotiated for
them through the collective bargaining process. The Employee Free Choice Act helps level
the playing field between employers and employees by strengthening penalties for employers
who break the law and better protecting employees during the organizing process. After
decades of erosion of workers’ rights, this legislation is a big step forward for
hardworking American families."
"There are
a lot of parts to the health-care issue; we have to figure out how to encourage people to
take better care of themselves. We need to have cost containment of a scale and in ways we
haven’t done. In the long run we need a more simplified system. We spend tons of
money in this country on insurance companies that cover the healthy not the sick, the
young not the old, and not paying claims when they are made. We’ve even reached the
point where providers, like doctors and hospitals, are actually hiring professional
consultants to collect bills from insurance companies. And insurance companies have a vast
amount of staff figuring out whether they can avoid paying claims. Too many people are
doing too much paperwork, and as a result too much money is going into the health-care
system but not for health care."
Almost a sixth
of the nation’s population does not have health-care coverage. In Maine the uninsured
rolls have decreased since Dirigo Health’s inception, while 47 other states have seen
dramatic increases in people losing insurance coverage.
"We’re
now at a point where 47,000,000 people do not have health insurance — an area with
the population of New England, New York, and New Jersey combined — that’s a lot
of people," said Allen. "One of the consequences is that people that don’t
have health insurance don’t get the quality health care that others do. There is a
real discrepancy in the kind of health care people without insurance get. The second
factor is the private market in the business community ends up paying for much of the cost
of the uninsured. No other developed country would tolerate our system."
Rep. Allen with
his wife, Diana, waves to supporters at the last MDP convention.
Students —
"In the
first hundred hours we did a bill to cut interest rates on student loans in half over the
next five years. That legislation will be enormously helpful for college students,"
said Allen.
"We need
to focus, as a party, on younger voters, 18–30 years old. Younger voters are the
people who frankly are suffering most of the fatalities in Iraq. This is the age group
that is least likely to have health insurance; these young adults are trying to get a
higher education, but are finding it increasingly out of reach because the costs have been
going up so fast. This generation will be more impacted by climate change than any of us
past fifty. And finally this is the generation that will pay a price for the fiscal
irresponsibility of the Bush administration and a dysfunctional Republican Congress. This
generation has to become more politically involved for the sake of the county and for
their own self-preservation," said Allen.
"Unlike
the Reagan presidency, where younger people looked at Ronald Reagan and said, ‘this
is the president I know and I like him,’ younger people now are looking at the Bush
administration and former Republican Congress and saying, ‘this is not what I
believe; this is not the kind of county I want to live in’.
"For a
host of reasons, young people now are trending Democratic. Partly because of Iraq and
partly because they are living in an increasingly interconnected and complicated world,
and they know this ethic that you stand on your own two feet and we’re not going to
help you — you’re on your own — is wrong. That kind of radical
individualism is not a philosophy for the 21st century.
"We are all individuals.
We all believe in standing on our own two feet and working hard; that’s part of the
American way. But when we are successful on important things it’s always because
we’ve worked together with others to accomplish something meaningful. I think that
government and politics is the realm where you have to be focused on finding the common
purpose for the common good and reaching that goal in practical ways," said Allen.
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