By JENNIFER A. DLOUHY, Washington bureau Last updated: 3:51 p.m., Friday, March 19, 2010
WASHINGTON -- Rep. Paul Tonko today pledged to vote "aye" on the administration-backed plan to redesign the nation's health care system, because, he said, it will make things "better off" for Capital Region residents.
Tonko, D-Amsterdam, also supported a larger health care measure that narrowly passed the House last year. Though he remained officially undecided until midday Friday, the first-term lawmaker had been widely expected to back the Democrats' final proposal. "The bottom line litmus test for me is whether people in the 21st congressional district will be better off than they are today," Tonko said in an interview. "And my answer is an emphatic 'yes.' "........>>>>..........>>>>..........Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=913454#ixzz0iiq2wavL
I just assumed that Tonko was a yes anyway after the way he raved about the bill last year and doesn't have the guts to oppose anything his party wants IMHO. All he worries about is his next election which the people in his district should deny him.
He's a career politcian who collects a state pension and a federal salary. Just what we need to represent the struggling taxpayers of Schenectady County in a recession...
Geez what a shocker! Paul Tonko voting party line. This guy never had an original idea in his political life. Took the phrase go along to get along and turned it into a lucrative career. This guy is a prime example of what is wrong with this state. We elect people like him and then we complain about how difficult it is to survive in this state. After this vote most other congressional districts in other states would vote him out of office next chance thay get. But not here. He will be re-elected and we will continue to pay and b**ch.
You want to deny Tonko another term--the Reps need to get smart call in Jerry Jennings for an idea who could beat him. Remember Jennings is probably still annoyed over the Shawn Morris thing.
Tonko is a career politician who drives the cost of government up an up! Too bad he doesn't miss a pancake breakfast or bingo match. He's unbeatable because voters are uneducated with the facts. I mean they elected Barack Obama.
I know but it just irks the sh*t out of me that he gets elected. I don't think any Rep. can beat him because this is NYS. You are right though Jennings does not like Tonko at all. I know this for a fact. They keep their distance whenever they are at functions and never speak to one another.
"The bottom line litmus test for me is whether people in the 21st congressional district will be better off than they are today," Tonko said in an interview. "And my answer is an emphatic 'yes.'
your empathy sucks the independent/empowering/soul from folks........should we call you "Great Father"?
empathy/apathy can kill a soul.........
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
Tonko has no other life other than politics so he'll do whatever it takes to keep getting elected.
But will this get him elected? Don't his constituents know the govt. now owns their bodies, and they will have to beg the government for treatments to save their lives, and the lives of their loved ones?
We have a few years left, if we're lucky, and then we will be at the government's mercy UNLESS this gets overturned by the courts.