Talk about defying "Natural Law", BSU beating Oklahoma!!!<br><br><b><i>Tom Hansen <thansen@moscow.com></i></b> wrote:<blockquote class="replbq" style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255); margin-left: 5px; padding-left: 5px;"> >From today's (January 11, 2007) Spokesman Review -<br><br>What Rep. Sali voted against:<br>HR 1 - Homeland security measures <br>HR 2 - Increase of minimum wage<br><br>What Rep. Sali is sponsoring:<br>HR 26 - Commends Boise State University for their victory in the Fiesta Bowl<br>(other bills establishing English as the official US language and a<br>balnced-budget amendment)<br><br>---------------------------------------------------------------<br><br>In D.C., Bill Sali quick to take lead <br>Sense of humor key to his approach<br>Parker Howell <br>Staff writer<br>January 11, 2007<br><br>New Idaho Congressman Bill Sali proposed a bill Wednesday to combat obesity<br>by reducing the Earth's gravity, saying that's no more unreasonable than
the<br>Democrats' legislation to increase the federal minimum wage.<br><br>Both defy "natural laws," he said.<br><br>"The well-intentioned desire to help the poor apparently will not be<br>restrained by the rules and principles of the free market that otherwise do<br>restrain American businesses and workers," Sali told the House of<br>Representatives. "Apparently, Congress can change the rules that would<br>otherwise affect the affairs of mankind."<br><br> <br>The Democratic-controlled House voted 315-116 to raise the federal minimum<br>wage to $7.25 an hour, with more than 80 Republicans joining Democrats to<br>pass it. But Sali stuck to his stance that the market, not government,<br>should determine how much workers are worth to employers.<br><br>"Obviously, it was a facetious notion to suspend the laws of gravity," he<br>told The Spokesman-Review by phone from Washington, D.C., about his "Obesity<br>Reduction and Health Promotion Act," which proposed helping Americans
shed<br>pounds by cutting gravity by 10 percent. "The same is true of the act we<br>took today."<br><br>In his first few days on the job, Sali, 52, has been elected leader of the<br>small freshman class of Republicans, was invited to a meeting with President<br>Bush and voted against several bills sponsored by Democrats.<br><br>Although Sali spent 16 years as a state representative from Kuna, moving to<br>Washington, D.C., has taken some getting used to, he said.<br><br>"Things are so much bigger in terms of scale and scope here," he said. "In<br>the Idaho Legislature, for example, I didn't have any staff. It was just<br>me."<br><br>He now has to deal with OSHA inspections of his office and training his<br>employees in ethics and anti-discrimination policies, he said.<br><br>As president of his class, he is helping fellow freshmen learn legislative<br>processes and procedures, he said. On the advice of past class presidents,<br>he is coordinating social events with new
Democrats - both for building<br>relationships and for the "practical benefit" of moving legislation.<br><br>Sali and a small group of other legislators met with President Bush at the<br>White House last week to discuss the Iraq war.<br><br>"It was really something to be in there," he said. "It was kind of one of<br>those 'pinch me' moments."<br><br>He said Bush has "spent a lot of time listening" to military commanders and<br>will act on their advice.<br><br>"The notion that we're going to end sectarian violence over there, I think,<br>is not even on the table; the president expressed that through a number of<br>his people," he said, adding that making peace between warring factions is<br>"not achievable."<br><br>"I don't think that's our job. I do think our job is to help make sure this<br>fledgling Iraqi government is going to stand on its own two feet," he said.<br>"There's a bunch of pent-up emotion over there and a lot of pent-up desire.<br>We may end up with a civil
war before they get things straightened out. In<br>the affairs of mankind, sometimes that's what you need."<br><br>Sali has also participated in several House votes, including the<br>$2.10-an-hour minimum wage increase, to take effect over two years. The<br>increase is arbitrary, not tied to how much an employee's work is really<br>worth, he said.<br><br>"It's just to give people a perceived pay raise," he said. "The underlying<br>problem is government spending."<br><br>His obesity speech is characteristic of the congressman's outspoken style,<br>said former colleagues from the Idaho Legislature.<br><br>"That's his sense of humor," said Rep. Frank Henderson, R-Post Falls.<br><br>Rep. Phil Hart, R-Athol, agreed, recalling a time Sali proposed licensing<br>legislators when lawmakers discussed licensing contractors. Even though he<br>didn't plan to introduce it, he actually held up a completed bill.<br><br>"He's a very principled man, and he's not afraid to stand by himself
if he<br>has to," Hart said. "I think he's already showing that. He hasn't changed<br>since he's been in the Legislature."<br><br>But Rep. George Sayler, D-Coeur d'Alene, said using the logic of Sali's<br>obesity proposal, legislators should revoke government regulations that<br>benefit businesses as well.<br><br>Congressional Democrats will likely succeed in their "100 Hours" plan to<br>pass several bills within the first 100 working hours of the new Congress,<br>Sali said. But he said Democrats are circumventing the committee process and<br>claiming to know what Americans need, which is "elitist" and "arrogant."<br><br>"If they were trying to do what's right, they would be spending the time to<br>go through the committee process," he said. "I've always been a real<br>advocate of slowing down the legislative process and giving everyone the<br>opportunity to have their say."<br><br>So far, Sali has voted against "pay-as-you-go" rules designed to prevent<br>legislators from
adding to the national debt. He said it will lead to "tax<br>increases combined with cuts to programs like defense."<br><br>He has also voted against legislation that would add another committee with<br>oversight power over intelligence. Adding one actually counters the Sept. 11<br>Commission's findings by adding another layer of bureaucracy, he said.<br><br>Sali has signed up to co-sponsor amendments to balance the budget and make<br>English the official U.S. language, he said.<br><br>He and fellow Idaho Republican Rep. Mike Simpson are co-sponsors of H.R. 26,<br>which commends the Boise State University football team on its recent win<br>against Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl, he said. He attended the game, calling<br>it "an indescribable experience."<br><br>The bill will "probably pass on a consent calendar," he said. "It will be a<br>nice piece of congressional history."<br><br>---------------------------------------------------------------<br><br>Seeya round town,
Moscow.<br><br>Tom Hansen<br>Moscow, Idaho<br><br>"Forty percent of the mass of every tree in the forest is crude oil. Stop<br>and think about that. We call them fossil fuels because they used to be<br>live stuff . . . now in the ground is turned into crude oil." <br><br>- Bill Sali (September 21, 2006)<br><br><br>=======================================================<br> List services made available by First Step Internet, <br> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994. <br> http://www.fsr.net <br> mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com<br>=======================================================<br></blockquote><br><p> 
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