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Most Indiana lawmakers vote against raising debt ceiling

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A majority of Indiana's congressional delegation bucked the trend and voted against emergency legislation to raise the nation's debt ceiling, drawing praise from a tea party official.

Indiana's representatives in the House voted 5-4 against the bill, while the state's two senators split their votes. That means the overall delegation went 6-5 against raising the debt ceiling.

The House passed the bill 269-161 Monday, while the Senate approved it 74-26 Tuesday.

In the Senate. Republican Richard Lugar voted for the bill while fellow Republican Dan Coats voted no. Lugar called the bill a "victory for conservatives," but Coats said it didn't go as far as it should have.

"The bill falls significantly short of what is needed to address the severity of the financial crisis," Coats said in a statement. But he acknowledged that "progress has been made in this debate. The culture of Washington is changing from 'what can we spend' to 'where can we cut.' This is a step in the right direction and I am optimistic that we can carry this momentum in the months ahead."

The vote in the House didn't follow party lines. Indiana's Democrats in the House split 2-1 against the bill, while House Republicans from Indiana split 3-3.

Democrats Andre Carson and Pete Visclosky voted against the bill.

Carson said the bill clearly favored the rich at the expense of the working class. "Under this approach, oil companies earning billions and companies exporting American jobs sacrifice nothing," he said. "Millionaires, whose low tax rates have not led to job creation, sacrifice nothing."

Democrat Joe Donnelly said the deal was "far from perfect" but was better than default. "The possibility of defaulting on our nation's obligations, causing catastrophic harm to our already fragile economy, is not an option for me," he said.

Republicans Dan Burton, Todd Rokita and Marlin Stutzman voted no, while Mike Pence, Larry Bucshon and Todd Young voted in favor of the bill.

"People thought it was time to get something done," Pence told WISH-TV during a visit to Indianapolis on Tuesday.

Monica Boyer, co-founder of Kosciusko County Silent No More, praised those who voted against raising the debt ceiling but said she was disappointed in Pence. Still, she said she would support Pence in his run for Indiana governor next year.

"We congratulate those congressmen and Senator Coats for holding the line. That takes a lot of courage. We are really grateful to them for doing that," she said.

But she said she understood the pressure that congressmen had been under to pass the bill and avoid default.

"I believe this was a no-win situation for all of them," she said.


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  • Les
    Les you are pretty generous when it comes to other people's hard earned money!!
  • Fair?!
    O you got to love the Libs like Les blabbing as to what is fair! Obviously when more than half the country pays "ZERO" taxes, about half the country thinks we should raise taxes on those evil "rich guys". Hugo Chavez did pretty well with people like Les as supporters -
  • Karen S & Tim
    People making more than $100K-150K a year will get no sympathy from me regarding higher taxes... Over $250K? Pay up people... You can afford it... Bush gave people making over $200K tax breaks, and we continually lost jobs every quarter since. Reality Check: Trickle-down economics doesn't work. Plus, I'm worried a cut back in government spending will have the same consequences we noticed in 1938 when Republicans gained a majority and stopped New Deal spending: a dip back into the Great Recession (for them a dip back into the Great Depression).
    • Out of Bounds
      @Tim - regardless of your viewpoint, that comment about the late Julia Carson is entirely classless.
    • Andre
      I would have to agree with Tim's comments. Andre Carson didn't sign on with the debt agreement, because in his eyes it didn't create enough additional debt. How is it that these guys can't cut spending in any meaningful way, instead want to take more money out of the hands of the taxpayer. If anyone thinks increasing taxes on those over 250k won't affect the middle class - you are buying into their mentality. Last I checked those making 251K were not polishing their "private jets"
    • Carson
      Wow - good grief, Andre Carson is actually dumber than his grandmother. He is really picking up on the class warfare rhetoric that BO constantly spews.

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      1. City-County Councilor Angela Mansfield and Bob Lutz have a case of wishful thinking.

        They obviously don't really care about the cost.

        They should.

        Extending Federal Benefits to Same-Sex Couples Will Cost $898M, CBO Says

        http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/12/22/extending-federal-benefits-sex-couples-cost-m-cbo-says/

      2. Brett, be careful what you lie about, the truth always comes out.

        "IMS's George Honored: Tony George, Indianapolis Motor Speedway president and chief executive officer, received the inaugural Pioneering and Innovation Award at the Autosport Awards Dec. 5 in London for his leadership in the development of the Steel and Foam Energy Reduction (SAFER) Barrier. George received the award at the annual gala at the Grosvenor House on behalf of the creators of the SAFER Barrier from Prince Salman Bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the leader of the Bahrain International Grand Prix circuit. This is the fourth major award that has been presented to honor George and the SAFER Barrier development team. The SAFER Barrier also received the Louis Schwitzer Award, SEMA Motorsports Engineering Award and GM Racing Pioneer Award in 2002. The SAFER Barrier was installed in all four turns of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway a pioneer in safety for drivers, cars and tracks -- in time for the 86th Indianapolis 500 in 2002. It since has been installed at more than a dozen other tracks, and the latest iteration will be installed at the Speedway in the spring.(IMS PR), see more on my Indy Track News page.(12-7-2004)"

        As far as the cart safety team, I cannot find anything on its date of creation. The Delphi Safety team was created in 1996. For some reason there is not much info out there on defunct racing series.

      3. Great article Anthony. Glad IMS is finally being run like a business and not a personal check book to finance the "Vision".

        Things are looking up but 15 years of scorched earth won't be fixed overnight. Unfortunately the TV ratings are still poor and that won't change anytime soon with the brilliant 10 year contract signed under the former regime.

      4. Brett not sure why you wonder what he said in his quote. "''I would like to jump in a time machine, go back to 1995, and tell the owners and Tony George not to split,'' Franchitti said. ''As soon as my time machine is done, I know where I'm going.''"

        Pretty clear, he would love to go back and tell TG and the team owners not to split.

        I am not sure there is anyone who wanted the split, and I don't think there is anyone who would not like to go back and prevent the split. But, as has been discussed ad nauseum, without the split carts management by team owners would have run all of ow racing into bankruptcy. If cart had such a wonderful product, then losing IMS would not have forced it into bankruptcy. If NASCAR lost Daytona or Charlotte, it would not fail like cart did.

        Truth,

        So you predicted that cart would go into bankruptcy and cease to exist while Indycar would continue on? I missed that prediction.

      5. I want to live in a city that has a garage structure to be proud of for it's innovating design!

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