Seniors group grades Illinois’ reps in Congress

 

Bill Knight column for 5-6, 7 or 8, 2021

 Eleven of Illinois’ House Representatives in Washington scored 100% in the Alliance for Retired Americans’ analysis of Congress’ 2020 voting record, released last week.

Two of the 18 in the state’s delegation received scores below 20: John Shimkus (R- Collinsville), was given a 13, and Darin LaHood (R-Peoria) got an 11.

The “grades” were determined on how the Representatives voted on 10 key votes, as set by the ARA, during the second session of the 116^th Congress, January-December 2020.

Besides LaHood, two other downstate Representatives – Cheri Bustos (D-Moline) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Channahon) – deserve reporting. Bustos received a 100; Kinzinger was given a 33.

(On the Senate side, Illinois Democratic Sens. Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin both were scored at 100. It’s noteworthy that last year’s GOP-majority Senate took no action except for four referrals to committees on all this legislation.)

Following is a breakdown of the 10 House issues and votes, and whether votes cast by Bustos, Kinzinger and LaHood agreed with pro-retiree recommendations:

 

Age Discrimination Rights

HR 1230 would protect older workers from discrimination by restoring protections lost through a U.S. Supreme Court decision, which raised the burden of proof to prove age discrimination in the workplace.

The bill passed 261-155; the Senate referred it to committee.

BUSTOS YES

KINZINGER YES

LaHOOD NO

 

Postal Pensions Reform

HR 2382 would repeal the requirement that the U.S. Postal Service pre-pay future retirement health benefits. (Since 2006, the Postal Service has been required to pre-pay these benefits for the next 75 years. The pre-funding is responsible for more than 84% of the Postal Service losses.) It passed 309-106; the Senate took no action.

BUSTOS YES

KINZINGER YES

LaHOOD YES

 

Protect Benefits

HR 2474, last year’s version of the PRO Act reforming labor law, would have protected the right of workers to organize. Union jobs provide higher wages and benefit, leading to higher Social Security and retirement benefits. The measure passed 224-194; the Senate referred it to committee. (Re-introduced this year; it passed the House and stalled in a Senate committee.)

BUSTOS YES

KINZINGER NO

LaHOOD did not vote

 

Medicaid Block Grants

H. Res. 826 expressed the House of Representatives’ disapproval of Trump administration guidance permitting block grants for states that expand Medicaid. “Block grants create insufficient funding, requiring states to cut benefits or reduce eligibility,” ARA says. The resolution passed 223-190.

BUSTOS YES

KINZINGER NO

LaHOOD NO

 

COVID Relief

HR 6800 was to provide relief due to the COVID pandemic, including funding for testing, nursing homes, state and local governments and vaccine distribution. The bill passed 208-199; the Senate referred it to committee.

BUSTOS YES

KINZINGER NO

LaHOOD NO

 

Protect Health Care

HR 1425 sought to lower premiums for individuals purchasing health insurance on the exchange portals. The bill passed 234-179; the Senate took no action.

BUSTOS YES

KINZINGER NO

LaHOOD NO

 

Emergency Housing

HR 7301 was for housing assistance and a one-year eviction moratorium due to the COVID 19 pandemic, helping many seniors remain in their homes. The bill passed 232-180; the Senate took no action.

BUSTOS YES

KINZINGER NO

LaHOOD NO

 

Cut Health Funding

GOP Rep. Rick Allen, R-GA, tried to amend the budget proposal (HR 7617) for the Department of Health and Human Services to cut funding 5%, affecting the CDC, FDA and public-health agencies. The attempt was defeated 123-292; the Senate referred it to committee. 

BUSTOS YES

KINZINGER did not vote

LaHOOD NO

 

Postal Funding

HR 8015 was to adequately fund the U.S. Post Service during the COVID pandemic and ensure the delivery of election-related mail. “Older Americans are the most susceptible to COVID,” ARA says. “Voting by mail ensures that they can exercise their right to vote safely.” The bill passed 257-150; the Senate took no action.

BUSTOS YES

KINZINGER NO

LaHOOD NO

 

Higher Stimulus Checks

HR 9051 would have increased the COVID relief stimulus payment from $600 to $2,000. The bill passed 275-134; the Senate took no action. 

BUSTOS YES

KINZINGER YES

LaHOOD NO

Vaccinate for yourself – and others: health and faith leaders

 

Bill Knight column for 5-3. 4 or 5, 2021

 Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and health-care officials last week launched a program to dispel myths surrounding the COVID-19 vaccine. The $60 million state program – in partnership with OSF Healthcare System, the Illinois Primary Health Care Association, and the Illinois Public Health Association – will build “confidence among our unvaccinated residents,” Pritzker said.

“This program is about one-on-one connections involving established, trusted members of the community,” he said. “Misinformation packaged as truth-telling on social media makes the decision to get vaccinated nerve-racking.”

There’s some confusion about getting COVID-19 vaccinations, which has led to reluctance to get protected and protect others, so concerned health, community and church leaders are appealing to people to get vaccinated since it’s morally acceptable AND an act of charity.

More than 560,000 Americans have died from the virus; and vaccines protect us all and are the nation’s pathway back to life before the pandemic. President Biden’s medical adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, notes that we continue to suffer 50,000 new infections daily, saying, “That’s a precarious level.”

About 70% of the population must be vaccinated for the country to reach “herd immunity” and be safe, says the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, and the less fortunate are often the most at risk.

Researcher Dalibor Rohac from the conservative American Enterprise Institute said, “The longer it takes to reach herd immunity on a global scale, the longer we will have to live with travel restrictions and ‘vaccine passports,’ not to speak of face masks, nasal swabs, and quarantines.”

(In fact, buying and distributing 16 billion doses of vaccine would cost about $300 billion, a bargain compared to the $16 trillion the pandemic will cost the United States by this fall.)

Reasons for reluctance to get vaccinations range from the ridiculous to the sublime. For example, “A full half of those who consider Fox their primary news source believe that Bill Gates is using a coronavirus vaccine to inject people with a microchip,” wrote conservative commentator S.E. Cupp.

Also, some people opposing abortion are concerned that getting vaccinations supports abortion.

But refusing to get vaccinated not only puts reluctant neighbors in jeopardy, it hurts others – especially the marginalized in our communities.

 “Sickness has a preferential option for the poor,” says Stan Chu Ilo of Catholic Theological Ethics. “COVID-19 has exposed the vulnerabilities in our world. It is affecting the most vulnerable members of our society: children and the elderly.

“None of us is safe until all of us are safe,” he adds. “We are all sick when any one of us is sick.”

Still, 22% of Catholics say they won’t get the shots, according to Pew Research, and some of that hesitancy may be due to misinformation, so church ethicists, Bishops and the Vatican all clearly say it’s morally permissible to receive the vaccine.

Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich says, “We have a moral responsibility to look out for each other’s benefit, and it is an act of love to get vaccinated. All vaccines are morally acceptable.”

Also, a coalition of 31 Catholic groups – “Catholic Cares,” including Catholic Charities USA (CCUSA), the Catholic Health Association (CHA) and Catholic Relief Services – recently urged people to vaccinate for their own good – and the good of others.

“Our faith propels us to act and here is our chance to do that,” said CHA president Sister Mary Haddad.

CCUSA president Sister Donna Markham added, “Each of us plays a part by getting vaccinated and practicing safety measures for the good of all, and by doing everything we can to ensure that those who are most in need have access to the vaccine.”

Leading pro-life scholars with the Ethics & Public Policy Center affirm it’s morally acceptable to get vaccinations produced from embryonic kidney cells from the remains of an aborted fetus from about 50 years ago. That abortion wasn’t been performed for that purpose, EPPC explained, and the cells were changed to continue dividing.

“No fetal ‘body parts’ are present in these immortal cell lines,” the group clarified. “The immortal cell lines are biological products that have been modified and reproduced many times, and they do not retain the natural function of the tissue from which they were derived.”

Further, the cells’ use is widespread, applied in processed and packaged foods, cosmetics and pharmaceutical testing.

“We concluded that one may choose any of these vaccines to protect oneself or one’s community from transmission of the virus without endorsing the abortion that preceded the development of the cell line, incentivizing future abortions, or disrespecting the memory or mortal remains of the baby whose tissue was used,” they said.

Recalling the simpler innocence of ‘Fibber McGee & Molly’

 

Bill Knight column for 4-29, 30 or 5-1, 2021

 As April ends, poet T.S. Eliot’s line “April is the cruelest month” is recalled – along with its actual meaning – and an Illinois couple who succeeded in show business despite April’s bad tidings – and good.

First, Eliot’s opening line from “The Waste Land” indicates how people confined in a mythical country devastated by a pandemic suffer profound disappointment at the arrival of the season of renewal and growth – new life they’re unable to enjoy. Eliot wrote his masterpiece during his recovery from the “Spanish flu,” which killed 100 million people.

Next, legendary entertainers Jim and Marian Jordan – most famous as “Fibber McGee and Molly” – experienced both joy and loss in April. Marian was born April 15, 1898; their most famous show premiered in April of 1935; and they both died in April: Marian in 1961 and Jim 27 years later.

Months before Jim died, I interviewed him, and he was as warm, charming and silly as he played at the microphone for decades – in a far more innocent time that had moments of hope and humor despite economic hardships, persistent racism, and World War II.

Jim Jordan and Marian Driscoll grew up in Peoria, Ill., where they met as teens at church there. They married in 1918 and worked on stage for a few years – although to make ends meet, Jim also worked as a letter carrier and clerk, and Marian gave piano lessons.

In 1925 they broke into local radio and occasionally appeared on Chicago’s WIBO-AM, which later featured them as “the O’Henry Twins.” They moved to Chicago’s WENR-AM in 1927, starring in “Air Scouts” and spoofing farm reports with “The Luke and Mirandy Show.” In 1931, the pair went to the much bigger WMAQ-AM and hired a jobless cartoonist named Don Quinn as their writer. In 1933, the NBC radio network picked up the act and featured them in a 15-minute show called “Smackout,” in which Jim played store owner Luke Grey, who always seemed “smack out” of whatever items customers wanted.

“Fibber McGee and Molly” debuted on April 16, 1935, written by Quinn and starring the Jordans – plus a cast of characters who moved through the McGee home at 79 Wistful Vista:  Mayor LaTrivia (actor Gale Gordon), the Old-Timer (Cliff Arquette), Teeny (Marian, in a dual role), and Mrs. Abigail Uppington (Isabel Randolph), plus regular guests ranging from Bea Benaderet and Herb Vigran to the Billy Mills Orchestra and the King’s Men vocal group.

“Fibber McGee and Molly” was “one of the greatest continuing radio shows that ever existed,” radio star Fran Allison from “Kukla, Fran and Ollie” later remembered.

The show appealed to audiences instinctively seeking escapist comedy during the Great Depression, as the boastful but kind-hearted Fibber got himself into hare-brained situations indulged by the ever-patient Molly, who often repeated her trademark lines “T’ain’t funny, McGee” and “Oh, heavenly days.” Also, Fibber usually opened his legendary, messy closet, causing an enormous clatter created by radio sound effects.

The show steadily grew in popularity until it was an established hit by the end of the ’30s.

Created and mastered by two ex-vaudevillians from the Midwest, “Fibber McGee and Molly” became a national hit and, more importantly, pioneered what became radio and television’s situation-comedy formula. Further, “Fibber McGee and Molly” spawned spin-off series and movies. Radio featured “The Great Gildersleeve” series starring Harold Peary, and “Beulah,” a popular show starring a succession of African-American actresses. The Jordans played Fibber McGee and Molly in the films “This Way Please” (1937), “Look Who’s Laughing” (1941), “Here We Go Again” (1942) and “Heavenly Days” (1944).

By the end of their radio career, the Jordans had performed on stage 4,000 times and had done 7,000 radio shows. But the duo never moved to television; NBC-TV’s “Fibber McGee and Molly” instead cast Bob Sweeney and Cathy Lewis in the starring roles, and only Harold Peary from the radio show made the transition to TV – as Mayor LaTrivia instead of his radio part as Throckmorton Gildersleeve.

Twenty-two TV episodes were broadcast in the 1959-60 season, after which it was cancelled.

After Marian died, Jim retired except for a few appearances, such as guesting on a 1976 episode of NBC-TV’s “Chico and the Man” and voicing Captain Orville in Disney’s “The Rescuers” film the next year.

In 1983 the Jordans received a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame (near the building where they’d performed “Fibber McGee and Molly”). Jim died in 1988, and a year after Jim passed, the couple was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame.

Elements of those seemingly simpler times can be illusory, but they’re sometimes missed – especially in spring.