Mike Arcuri Helps The Rich, Votes Against The Rest

Congressman Mike Arcuri talks a lot about working to help ordinary working people in our district, but talk is easy. What's the truth about the Arcuri record? The sad truth about Representative Arcuri's true priorities is shown in terms of how he dealt with two different pieces of economic legislation.

The first piece of legislation helps everyday homeowners who work for a living. H.R. 1106, The Helping Families Save Their Homes Act, has been passed by the House, but not yet by the Senate. The bill, if it becomes law, will allow bankruptcy judges to work to restructure mortgage payments so that banks can continue to get money, and people can continue to stay in their homes. The fact is that rich people have had the power to make these very arrangements for mortgages on their vacation homes, and debts on their yachts, but ordinary working Americans aren't allowed the same opportunity.

Michael Arcuri voted against the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act. Arcuri told middle class homeowners that, in the middle of a deepening economic recession, he won't give them any help.

Congressman Arcuri has a very different standard for the wealthy. A few weeks ago, Arcuri himself wrote a bill to help out wealthy investors. H. R. 2798, the Support Investment Protection for Customers Reform Act of 2009, authorizes the government to provide an extra one and a half billion dollars to wealthy investors through the Securities Investor Protection Corporation.

If you're a rich investor who's lost a some money because of the recession, Congressman Arcuri will not only cosponsor a bill for you and vote for it, he'll actually write the legislation to serve your needs. If you're an average working homeowner hit by hard economic times, Michael Arcuri won't write the bill to help you out. He won't cosponsors a bill to help you out. He won't even cast a vote for you.

Why should the homeowners of New York's 24th congressional district support the re-election of Congressman Arcuri in 2010, when he won't support them?

Mike Arcuri Has A Short Term Mind

On yet another issue, U.S. Representative Michael Arcuri has demonstrated an antiprogressive agenda this week. This time, the issue is climate change.

In 2008, people elected Democrats to Congress and the White House in large part because the Democrat promised a green energy revolution. They seemed so earnest, so honest. Yet, in 2009, we've learned that if you really want green energy, you're going to have to vote Green Party - at least in New York State's 24th district.

Yesterday Michael Arcuri voted to kill legislation promoting a green energy in order to fight global climate change, including global warming. Once again, Arcuri joined with the Republicans to support the kind of politics of pollution we saw under George W. Bush.

Why did Arcuri do it? Why did he vote with Big Oil, against the environment? Here's his excuse for opposing the legislation:

"In the short term it will have a negative effect on my district because of the high power costs."

This comment reveals why Mike Arcuri has come to be regarded as among the mental lightweights of the House of Representatives. In the short term, the bill will create higher power costs, but in the long term, it will actually lower costs. Trust Arcuri to ignore long term benefits in favor of short term thinking.

Besides that, what's the cost that this bill will actually create? According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the cost for the average American will be 48 cents per day. Low income Americans will actually gain economically from the legislation. These calculations don't even take into account the economic benefit from avoiding damage related to climate change, which is estimated in the billions per year already.

It seems that Arcuri is willing to let Planet Earth go to pot for the sake of 48 cents in short term savings. In 2010, let's make Michael Arcuri a short term member of Congress.