The Federal Tax Credits Blog

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Paul Kirk, the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, just appointed by Governor Deval Patrick to fill the seat the late Ted Kennedy in the senate, will be sworn into office this afternoon by Vice-President Joe Biden and take his place as an interim replacement until the special election is held in Massachusetts on January 19.

However, this will now make a total of six sitting US Senators who were ‘not’ elected by a vote of the people of their state. Each one was appointed by the governor of his state to temporarily fill a vacancy created by another occurrence, in this case, the death of Sen. Kennedy.

Sen. Russ Feingold, D-WI., has been elected three times by the people of Wisconsin, and he says ‘people shouldn’t be voting in the United States Senate unless they were elected by the people of their state.”

He’s obviously entitled to his opinion on this matter, but he’s also well aware of the existing law on the books pertaining to it.

Feingold wants to amend the Constitution so that all Senate vacancies are filled by special elections rather than by gubernatorial appointments. But until that happens, the 17th Amendment allows states to let their governors appoint replacements — and that means that Roland Burris (D-Ill.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Ted Kaufman (D-Del.), George LeMieux (R-Fla.) and, soon, Paul Kirk will be representing constituents who never had a chance to vote for or against them.

Whether it has to do with closeness or admiration or political considerations, the idea that one person gets to decide rather than all the people in the state bothers me,” Feingold said.

Like many other issues in Washington, to change the process is more easily said, than done. And Russ Feingold is not the only one upset about the swarm of unelected members.

“It’s a problem,” Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), No. 3 in Republican leadership, said of caretakers in particular. “The temporary nature of this is causing me to rethink the whole process. … The large number of temporary appointments is raising the question that we ought to deal with it one way or another — either the states should or we should.”

Of course, Alexander has a reason to complain: Of the six — counting Kirk — unelected members of the current Senate, five are Democrats, appointed by Democratic governors. And for party leaders, caretakers — or appointed senators who don’t run in the next election — can be loyal votes, following party orthodoxy since they don’t have to worry about carving out a unique image ahead of a political campaign back home. Other than Gillibrand and Bennet, the rest of the appointees are not running for election next year.

Each of the so called ‘caretaker senators’ has been voting at a very high percentage, about 95% of the time, along their party line. This actually may be the thing that bothers Republican senators the most. They want ‘all’ the democratic senators to have to go through the same electoral process and spend the time and money to get elected that they themselves had to in order to become a senator. In their view, it doesn’t seem fair that one single person, a sitting democratic governor, can just appoint another democrat to fill a vacancy when he seat opens up, until the next election (or a special election is held, as in Massachusetts’ case), thus helping to keep firm control of the senate in the hands of the democrats.

In the end, it always seems to come down to a matter of politics. I strongly suspect that, if the circumstances were reversed, and five of the six temporary caretakers were republicans, and they were the majority party, then the democrats in the senate would be singing the same tune.

From my standpoint, I have to admit that it seems to be a matter of politics as usual in both Massachusetts as well as Washington DC. so nobody should be surprised.

New year, new laws

State legislators weren’t too busy in 2009 impeaching a governor and dealing with a crushing budget deficit to pass a bunch of new laws – more than 270 – that take effect today.

Senate committee passes health care reform bill

Bad year for biofuel ends on a dour note

An alternative fuel for diesel engines is off to a shaky start this year though it emits fewer pollutants and cuts down on petroleum use because it’s made from environmentally friendly waste and veget

PolicyCast: Economic Recovery and Unemployment Benefit Extension

Question: Is the 6500 tax credit retroactive?

I lived in my first house for 5 years and 3 weeks, before purchasing a new Primary house on October 15th. I still own my first and soon it will be rented. Am I eligible for the $6,500 tax credit? I cannot find anything besides for those buyers thru July 1, 2010. Is it retro active to when the first bill began or at least for October 15th, 2009?

Answer: It was signed today. And no, it’s not retroactive, starts Dec 1.

With a faulty and risky credit history, the lenders are not going to offer you an easy loan. However, some loan products such as no credit check signature loans are exceptions. The applicants can find the approval even if they have some bad credit tags like late payments and defaults. All you need to take out these loans is to sign an activated letter and offer it to the lender as a security that you will return the loan amount on time. You will be approved an amount against your signature. So, your signature matters in this type of the loan. But that is not enough for the lender. In offering you no credit check signature loans, the lending companies want to make it sure that your repayment capability is sufficient. It is understandable that you made mistakes in the past regarding the repayments, but to get a new loan, you have to prove that you can repay the newly borrowed amount.

The signature will matter to the lender only when you prove your income, employment and residential address. You should be able to satisfy the lenders’ queries regarding your existing financial capacity. If the lending companies have a faith in your ability to repay, then they do not even go for any credit checks on you. They will not pull your credit repot. But in that case the loan amount will be smaller, depending on lenders to lenders. Since, there is no collateral involved, the interest charges will be little higher.

No credit check signature loans are usually for a very short period as the amount is smaller and there is no collateral pledged by the borrower. This means that you should be prepared to pay interest at higher rates. You can make use of the borrowed amount for any purpose. Scan as many lenders on Internet as you possibly can.

In the US, there are plenty of offers that come with competitive interest rates because of the online competitive business of these loans. Find out which offer of no credit check signature loans is suitable to your repayment ability and go through the terms and conditions before singing the deal.

Election blog: Elk Grove’s future mayors likely to be elected by voters

Get updates here on Election Day happenings in Sacramento, Placer, El Dorado and Yolo counties. Learn what’s happening at the polling places and with the candidates.