Today's Massa Press Conference focused on elections, torture, impeachment and some bill or other about children's health care. Read on for more details.
The call kicked off with my question on his overall take on yesterday's elections. Massa was discouraged by the election process:
Negativism and money continue to be the deciding factors in elections at the local, county, state and national level. [...] Witness the mailers that went out with a picture of terrorists on a drivers' license. The only way to fight this is with honesty and integrity. It has reinforced my resolve.
Though he didn't like the process, he said he thought the Democratic party "lost no ground" in the district. He also said that "these elections got people organized, involved and excited in a way that no other midterm has done."
Turning from the recent elections, I asked him about some national issues. First, I wondered if he agreed with Sen. Chuck Schumer's vote yesterday on the Mukasey nomination.
I do not agree with that vote, and if I had been asked in any capacity to vote I would not have voted for Mukasey as Attorney General. If you are a nominee for Attorney General, and you cannot answer a question about waterboarding, then you are either being dishonest or you are not qualified.
I also asked Massa how he would have voted on the Articles of Impeachment against Vice-President Cheney. Noting that the debate would have consumed several days of floor time, he said:
I would not have supported it. We have an awful lot of people's business to get done. I want to vote on getting the children's halth insurance program passed. [...] We need to pick our issues, and that is at the top of the list, right up there with ending the war in Iraq and creating jobs in the US. There are four free trade bills coming up. Randy Kuhl is going to vote yes on every one of them. He's going to send more jobs overseas at the same time that people who don't have jobs are paying $3.50 a gallon for gas.
Massa also said he was concerned about some other recent House votes:
Yesterday, Randy Kuhl voted to override a veto on the water projects bill, which cost $7 billion. He has no problem voting for pork embedded in a water projects bill, but he would never stand up to vote for children with the same federal money. That water bill is being funded by deficit spending [financed by] the Chinese government. The S-CHIP bill does not add to the deficit.
Massa also noted that the Defense Authorization bill spends $459 billion in one year, not including funding for the Iraq war. S-CHIP is less than about $40 billion for its entire projected life. "Yet, Randy Kuhl refuses to vote for it, and instead throws up smoke screens about why not."
I asked Massa whether he thought that a compromise on S-CHIP would occur, as Kuhl has indicated in recent media reports.
The compromise [he] wants is no taxes on cigarettes. [...] Why? Because he's taken tens of thousands of dollars from the tobacco industry. He wants to irresponsibly take money from China to finance the deficit, but will not responsibly pay for S-CHIP.
Massa noted that the "smokescreens about adults, the earned income cap" and immigration are all false. For immigration specifically, he says that the bill clearly spells out the verifications that need to be met.
I asked Massa if he would co-sponsor the bill to move the regulation of cigarettes to the Food and Drug Administration. He would, because "cigarettes are a form of ingestion of nicotine, which is a narcotic, and should be controlled." He noted that, as a cancer survivor, he felt pretty strongly about regulating cigarettes.
Massa concluded by pointing out that there are 363 days until the next election. "It's going to be an exciting year with a great deal of momentum. The team on the ground is chomping at the bit."
I was the only person on the call, other than Massa.