There is no doubt that the overnight pay raise as it is remembered was a mistake for Dave Argall to vote with. As people remember: Dave along with a majority of representatives had voted to increase their pay and pensions over night.
Some have even accused Dave are heading up the bill, and lobbying for votes on the bill. Not true.
Dave voted along with the bill, but remains one of just a few members to vote for the bill, whom are still alive in today’s political environment. Within 4 months this pay raise was repealed. Dave Argall and Sam Rohrer co-wrote a bill which would repeal almost every part of the bill. The pay raise and the pension. But this does not explain why the bill went through in the first place.
There were several problems which were attempted to be address by this horrific bill, One was to increase the salary of law makers which had not been adjusted in over 20 years, likewise the pension which wasn't adjusted since shortly after its fund was created. But this is as deep as most people know about or remember.
The local Federal Judges and District Attorney’s salaries are capped based on this pay, without a pay increase here, other salaries could not be raised. At the time of this vote a majority of PA voters were unhappy that such people were not being paid accordingly.
Although in the end of the final bill representatives were allowed to keep 7,000, many of them did not. Dave Argall did not accept this money.
If Dave made this mistake, what will stop him from making similar mistakes again? One thing to remember is that Dave lead the charge to repeal the bill, and he didn’t stop until the bill was successful! He also passed legislation which blocked the state house from voting on bills after 11pm. On top of this he passed a bill which required law makers to not vote on a bill until 24hrs after they had received the bill in which they were voting on. In many states and in Congress these are some laws that need to be put into practice. If we send Dave Argall to Congress, we know he will:
1. Represent Us.
2. Learn from his mistakes.
3. Admit his mistakes.
4. Fight to correct injustice.
5. Push for Common sense laws and practices in Washington.
In 18 years we have continued to get the same things from Tim Holden! He says he is conservative, yet when his vote is needed he votes with his party. He has done so 11 times alone on the issue of Abortion since Aug 2007! He has voted for almost every pet project of government waste projects 97% over the past 2 years! We need to send someone to congress who knows the money they are spending is OURS NOT THEIRS!
