Massa began his press conference by remarking that he was glad to
be in the 29th district today, given that his family (parents, brother
and sister) had all been evacuated from their homes in San Diego. They're all OK, but like the other half-million evacuees, the question is whether they'll have houses when this is over.
Massa then mentioned two issues: S-CHIP and drivers' licenses.
On S-CHIP, Massa concentrated on refuting a set of "false, slanderous Rush Limbaugh talking points." Massa said those points are "taking us back to the stone age."
The first talking point is the question of adults being convered by S-CHIP. Massa said that adults so covered are "severely developmentally disabled individuals." Massa said he sat with a number of those individuals recently in Chemung County. He recounted the example of one gentleman in his forties who had a ski accident in his twenties:
His tortured and twisted body could not function, but his brain was the intellectual equivalent of an adult. To use someone like him as a scapegoat is not just unethical and immoral, but criminal. This is not an argument about some hypothetical.
The second talking point Massa discussed was the one saying that families earning $80K per year would be eligible for S-CHIP. Massa noted that Governor Spitzer has said that a family of four earning $80K in New York City is earning a lower-middle-class wage. Moreover, "the legislature voted, in a bi-partisan manner, to request an increase". Massa noted that Governor Pataki ran ads in favor of S-CHIP, "now it is in jeopardy in New York State".
Massa called the S-CHIP vote a "telling moment" for Representative Kuhl, because
10,400 children [in the district] were voted out of the doctor's office. I think that's wrong. Randy Kuhl ran a campaign based on bringing home the pork, but the biggest piece he could bring home was denied because George Bush told him to.
Massa said he was "delighted to hear that Speaker Pelosi is going to send the bill back to the President." (Here's an article about that.)
Turning to the drivers' license imbroglio, Massa said that he doesn't agree with the governor. "Nobody thinks giving drivers' licenses to illegal aliens is a good idea." He said his main concern was that the governor is "asking county, city and state employees to violate federal law."
That said, Massa took the opportunity to get in a few licks on what he perceives as Kuhl's, and the President's, hypocrisy on the issue. He noted that Kuhl supported a guest worker program, but opposed a program that would allow those guest workers to get a drivers' license. (I asked a follow up on that - because I'm not sure that guest workers would be denied drivers' licenses since they have valid visas - but I don't think I expressed myself well, and we moved on.)
As for the President, Massa said the following:
We need to trace back to why we have this problem to begin with. Our government has had six years to secure the borders. George Bush has refused to do it with a wink and a nod. That's because he wants Tyson's Chicken to have illegal workers for sub-minimum-wage jobs, but he also wants to have the scarecrow of illegal immigrants.
I asked Massa a few questions about other issues that have been in the news recently. First, I asked for his take on Randy Kuhl's view that the Veterans' Appropriations bill is being stalled by Democrats. Massa characterized Republicans in the Senate as "obstructionist" and added, "Maybe he should walk across the Capitol and ask the Senate to pass it." Massa added that the House had passed more legislation in this session than in many previous Congresses.
I also asked Massa for his view on progress in Iraq, and the role of Blackwater. On Blackwater, Massa said, "I don't know any military officer who looks at a company like that as antying but a danger to our troops." He noted that Blackwater operates outside of military control and doesn't coordinate operations with the military. He said that he's concerned about the expansion of private armies, and though he believes there must be greater oversight, ultimately he'd like to see control of the American battlefield returned to the American military.
Massa said that Blackwater is the "end result of Dick Cheney and George Bush's culture of outsourcing" and characterized it as part of a "spiral to the bottom": Blackwater employees are "paid enormous salaries that entice our own service personnel to leave the military, creating incredible shortages, and dictating that Blackwater employees get higher wages."
On Iraq in general, Massa said that nobody is happier than he is to see fewer casualties, but he thinks the standard for progress in Iraq is whether the Iraqis are making progress towards a political solution.
We just saw Gen. Sanchez open up and tell the truth about what a failure the policies in Iraq are. Sanchez is probably one of the guys who briefed Kuhl during his 16-hour trip to Iraq. The guy who said that everything is wonderful is now saying that its failed. We're going backwards instead of forward.
Finally, I asked about the recent money numbers in the 29th. Massa said "this race has never been, nor will it ever be, about raising money." The issue is "not how much is raised, but how it is raised." The big difference, according to Massa, is that he doesn't take corporate PAC money, and Randy Kuhl continues to accept money from corporate PACs, and "recently accepted thousands of dollars from the tobacco lobby". Massa said he was returning an unsolicited corporate check today.
I was the only person on the call because of some issues coordinating it.