Jack Kingston

 This past Saturday the Kingston Staff was present at the D.C. World War II memorial to welcome World War II veterans from Valdosta and the surrounding area.  Over one hundred World War II veterans flew to D.C. accompanied by many other citizens that helped make this trip a success. The trip was established through a program called Honor Flight and was funded by donations totaling over a $100,000 dollars. The Kingston office was excited to meet with the veterans and display our appreciation of their efforts by making signs and handing out Georgia Peanuts.

Last week, the House Steering Committee appointed California Rep. Ken Calvert to a seat on the House Appropriations Committee.  That probably isn’t on most people’s radar, but currently out in the blogosphere there’s a battle going on over this move.  Those opposing the appointment lay out their reasons for not wanting Calvert on the committee - he was the target of an LA Times story involving a transportation earmark and land he owned - but we thought we’d share Rep. Calvert’s side of the story.

On his website, the Congressman links to the articles giving details about the earmark.  Roll Call has reported that he has asked the Ethics Committee to vet all of his earmark requests.  And today in The Hill, the ethics panel gave the green light to a recent earmark request Rep. Calvert made.

Those who disagree with the Steering Committee’s decision to put Rep. Calvert on the Appropriations Committee have every right to voice their opinion and call for change, but before you make a decision, check out both sides of the story.

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The other day, Jack had the opportunity to appear on a new internet-based TV show hosted by David All, of the David All Group, and Jerome Armstrong of MyDD.  On the show, Jack accepts his Online Politician of the Year award and discusses reaching out to young people through alternative mediums.

You can check it out HERE.

This week, high school senior Alex Gold got the chance to shadow Jack for the week.  Alex is a senior at Savannah Country Day who will be attending the University of Richmond this fall.  So what’s it like shadowing Jack all week?  Well here’s Alex’s story:

“It was 4:00 AM on Tuesday morning when the alarm clock rang.  i had a day of traveling and general craziness in front of me and no chance to turn back.  A little apprehensive at first, I did not have any idea of what I was getting myself into.  Sure enough, I had gotten myself into a great experience.

When I got to Washington I was picked up and immediately taken to work.  The new interns had just gotten in the day before I arrived and I thought I was going to have to do various tasks and what not, but I didn’t.  I’ve actually had the opportunity to sit in on various meetings, watch Members vote and get to know the nice people of the office. On Wednesday, Rep. Kingston was on Hardball and I got to witness the taping.  They had Kingston and a Democrat representative sitting side by side and during the recording and their remarks could be summed up in a few words consisting of ‘but Chris, let me just . . . no let me . . . can I just say?”   It was kind of funny now that I think about it, but Matthews just could not stop talking.

This entire week, Rep. Kingston and the rest of his staff have been so accommodating and friendly, that it’s hard to think that I have to go home on Friday.  I’ve enjoyed my time here very much and I have learned a lot more than I can take in all at once.  If you think government does not do anything, you’re mistaken; in fact, I have never witnessed more genuine, hard working people than those who work here on Capitol Hill.  There have been days when Rep. Kingston (and staff) have had to stay here until nine or ten at night.

In closing, I hope that after a few years of college I can return here to Washington to do an internship on the Hill with him.  It’s been a great experience…”

We had a great time with Alex this week and we’re just going to go ahead and put him down as a future intern with this office.

We’ve heard plenty of talk from the Democrats about withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq.  But one thing you don’t hear from those same Democrats is what would happen if we did bring home our troops? 

Well, today, at a London security conference, al Qaeda expert Rohan Gunaratna answered that question with a warning that withdrawal would lead to Iraq becoming a “terrorist Disneyland where al Qaeda could build up its strength unchallenged.”

At the conference, Gunaratna argued, “If U.S., British and other coalition troops withdrew from Iraq in the next year, . . .  ‘certainly the scale of attacks that would be mounted inside Iraq, and using Iraq as a launching pad to strike other Western countries — countries in Europe, North America - would become such that after two or three years, the U.S. forces will have to go back to Iraq.’”

In the Rose Garden today, President Bush once again discussed the country’s need to kick our addiction to oil.  He outlined several proposals, including setting new fuel economy standards and increase the use of alternative fuels.

As many of you know, Jack has been pushing the use of alternative fuels for some time.  He and Rep. Eliot Engel have reintroduced their energy bill, the Drive Act.  You can check out details HERE.

President Bush said today “We now have reached a pivotal moment where advances in technology are creating new ways to improve energy security, strengthen national security, and protect the environment.”  And that’s music to our ears.

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Jack was on the floor again this evening discussing the agriculture disaster supplemental.  A clip of his speech can be found below.

Jack addressed the House today in regards a resolution which would force a premature withdrawl of our troops in Iraq.  To see a clip of the speech, click below:

The Democrats’ latest Iraq funding plan is about as bad as their first.  They now propose to only fund the war through July then give Congress the option of cutting off funding if conditions don’t improve. Majority Leader Boehner compared the plan to the troops getting a monthly allowance. And White House spokesman Tony Snow pointed out today that with money for only 60 days, how are commanders on the ground supposed to make any long-term decisions? 

We want the the troops to get the money they need as soon as possible, but we want them to get all the money the need in order to be successful.  Forcing them to come back in July and ask for more money, doesn’t seem the best way to help them get the job done in Iraq.�

New job figures were released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  In April, 88,000 jobs were created and now more tyhan 7.8 million jobs have been created since August 2003 when the Bush tax cuts went into effect.  The unemployment rate remains at a very low 4.5 percent.

These figures make it even more vital that we keep President Bush’s tax cuts in place and not let them expire as the Democrats have assumed in their recently passed budget.  Spending restraint plus keeping taxes low is the key to this strong economic growth.