Congressman Cooper Represents

Posted by Mary Mancini on August 18, 2006 under Uncategorized |

Congressman Jim Cooper of Tennessee’s 5th District (the fighting 5th!) will be our guest this coming Monday, August 21, at 8am. In Washington, Cooper serves on the Armed Services Committee (including the Terrorism and Special Forces Subcommittee) and the Budget Committee.

The Congressman recently published in book form, The Financial Report of the U.S. aka “The Report the Government Doesn’t Want You to See,” an official government document released by the Bush administration in the middle of December 2005 - a festive time of year when visions of sugarplums keep us from paying attention (”War on Christmas???” It’s more like a “War on Taxpayers” or a “Raid on the National Treasury”). The report provides a more accurate picture of the U.S. deficit, which Cooper writes in the foreward of the book, is much greater than President Bush tells us it is. The sunshine the Congressman invites in exposes a report rife with details that the current administration did their best to bury. For instance, America’s debts and commitments total $49 trillion, and not the $8.3 trillion as commonly reported. Holy Lou Dobbs! We’re being lied to again, Batman!

Congressman Cooper is a thoughtful politican who is often accused by conservative groups of being too “liberal” as well as being “not progressive enough” by those of us on the left. Since we put him on notice in June, we’ve been looking forward to having him in the studio to answer questions about his voting record. But we may be even more excited for him to give us an update on his tireless support of the amendments to strike specific pork-barrel earmarks from House legislation, the President’s aversion to vetos, and that pesky and hidden Financial Report. Oh, and we know he’ll bring the funny.*

*We’re just itching for him to appear with my boyfriend, Stephen Colbert, on The Colbert Report’s 434-part series “Better Know a District.” Watch out, Colbert, Cooper’s not afraid of bears.