Van Hollen

Contrary to Robert Erlandson's letter ( "Van Hollen shows why it will be so hard to reduce the deficit," July 26), Rep. Chris Van Hollen's op-ed ("Medicaid cuts would hurt us all," July 25) correctly pointed out the consequences of cutting Medicaid. As Rep. Van Hollen wrote, whenever uninsured people go to the hospital and get care they cannot afford, we all pay for that with increase premiums that are used to cover uncompensated hospital costs. According to Families USA, about $1,000 of each of our health insurance premiums go every year to cover the health care costs of the uninsured.

The article in today's Sun by Rep. Chris Van Hollen ("Medicaid cuts would hurt us all," July 25) demonstrates how difficult it will be to reduce our budget deficit. While giving lip service to the need to reduce our federal budget deficit, he then maintains that there should be no reduction in the federal Medicaid program. Not one dime. Conspicuously absent in his article are any proposals to bring our deficit down. There is a reason for this. He has none. He was perfectly willing to pass budgets containing huge deficits when he and his party were in the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, and he will continue to do so if given the opportunity.

Congress is engaged in an ongoing debate on proposals to reduce the deficit. There is no question we need get our fiscal house in order and put our nation on the path to long-term fiscal stability - the question is how. First, we must ensure that we do no harm to our still fragile economy - anything that would put American jobs at risk is unacceptable. Second, we must find a balanced approach that does not put undue burdens on our seniors and most vulnerable or slash critical investments in education, infrastructure and innovation.

For six straight hours on July 19, Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen forcefully led the Democratic floor debate against passage of House Resolution 2560 - the "Cut, Cap, and Balance Act. " His biggest problem with the legislation was its requirement for a seemingly onerous balanced budget amendment. Mr. Van Hollen claimed he wasn't against "garden variety" balanced budget amendments - just this one, because it required limiting annual government spending to an insufficient 18 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product.

Last year, Rep. Chris Van Hollen had the unenviable job of leading the House Democratic campaign operation through the party's worst election since 1938. These days, as the top-ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee, the Montgomery County lawmaker is engrossed in what might qualify as an even more daunting challenge: defending Democratic spending priorities at time when the party has its smallest minority in decades. Republicans regained the House majority on promises to rein in spiraling federal budget deficits.

Here's a stumper for your next current events quiz: Top leaders from what political party called for "full disclosure" of campaign contributions and expenditures as a "helpful move towards restoring confidence of voters"? Anyone who observed last week's 219-206 vote in favor of just such reforms might have assumed it was the Democrats, as members of that party cast all by two of the yea votes. But not so fast. The above phrases were lifted from the remarks made by House Minority Leader John Boehner and Minority Whip Eric Cantor.

Mary R. Van Hollen, a retired parochial school educator and volunteer, died Tuesday of melanoma at her Towson home. She was 88. Mary Ruppert, the daughter of a mechanic and a homemaker, was born in Baltimore and raised in Pikesville. After graduating from Seton High School in 1939, she earned a bachelor's degree in education in 1943 from St. Joseph College in Emmitsburg. She was married in 1946 to Louis H. Van Hollen, an estimator for the Knott Construction Co., and settled in Catonsville.

Now that the president and most Americans want national action on global warming, how do we pick the best legislation for reducing carbon pollution? There are three critical tests. First, is the climate policy simple? Second, is it fair? And third, is it built to last? Congress needs to adopt a statutory "cap" on greenhouse gas pollution as soon as possible. Let's agree that the nation's total carbon pollution will peak in 2012 and then get smaller each year - by law - until it's drastically reduced by 2020 and almost gone by 2050.

Washington - Upstate New York, a cradle of modern party politics, is the unlikely site of a showdown between a couple of Maryland pols, Michael Steele and Chris Van Hollen. Their minidrama is playing out in the background of the first voter test of Barack Obama's presidency, a special election to fill a vacancy in the House of Representatives. It opened up when then-Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat, had the good fortune to get appointed to Hillary Clinton's spot in the U.S. Senate.