Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Rep. John Kline: Another Of His Scams Exposed

Wikipedia defines a confidence trick or confidence game (also known as a bunko, con, flim flam, gaffle, grift, hustle, scam, scheme, swindle or bamboozle) as an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence.

A master trickster aka confidence man, con man, trickster, or con artist lears the mark in by laying out a story and getting the mark to bite....

Rep. John Kline (R-MN-02) tells voters of all the current massive wasteful government spending...and who doesn't want to cut that? Don't all good Americans want to cut wasteful spending...Aren't you a good American?

The confidence trick exploits typical human qualities such as  honesty, compassion, and naïveté. The common factor is that the mark (victims or CD2 citizens)  relies on the good faith of the con artist (John Kline). The victimized individuals come from all walks of life not just the young, elderly or poor.


Don't be fooled by Rep. John Kline's shell game!
John Kline then runs the YOUCUT game (scam, bunko) where you can cut the wasteful spending...'Play along', 'Come on', he shrills, 'You know you want to cut the wasteful government spending!'

Shills, also known as accomplices, help manipulate the mark into accepting the con man's plan

The GOP/John Kline sets up a YouCut websites and polls, they run testimonies, and promote the scam throughout their base...'Come on', they bark, 'YOU CUT the waste', 'Tell us which of the programs we picked to cut', 'You are in control and can make the call'.

The confidence trick (bunko, con, flim flam, gaffle, grift, hustle, scam, scheme, swindle or bamboozle) is then put into play with the desired ending.

Rep. Kline oozes pleasure....'We have a winner! You have spoken (WOW! all one quarter of one percent of registered CD2 voters!) and we will now cut the wasteful spending on the FreedomCar!'

And the scam? Well Rep John Kline and the Bush Administration started the FreedomCar wasteful spending in 2002...As mnpACT! points out:
"It [FreedomCar] was a Republican initiative and it was kept alive by the 2002 and 2004 Republican Congress.(of while Cong. John Kline was a member)."

So the GOP and Kline introduce the waste, then ask CD2 marks to vote it as waste under the Democrats, and then promises to do the job they (GOP and Kline) are paid for by eliminating the waste they introduced!:
'When Congress resumes Tuesday, Sept. 14, Congressman Kline will ask his colleagues to cut the project voted most wasteful by Minnesotans. The “FreedomCAR” and fuel partnership program provides federal funding for research on fuel cell technology, despite existing private-sector research and the market incentives. Eliminating this program would save taxpayers $2 billion over 10 years.'

Really Kline? If you were serious about government waste maybe you could have stopped it in 2002...this is just another gimmick...scam...hustle...scheme. Frankly the residents in CD2 are tired of your gamesmanship. How about just doing the job you were elected to do?

Coming soon to this blog...John Kline's 'A Pledge of America' scam

1 comment:

Minnesota Central said...

The FreedomCAR scam is the type of gambit that makes The PLEDGE such a joke.

Why did the FreedomCAR program survive for so long when The National Taxpayers Union (NTU) said in 2003 that the Bush administration FreedomCAR initiative was a waste of taxpayers’ money ?
In my August 2 commentary, the FreedomCAR program was compared to other subsidies. That commentary noted how cutting the program could impact jobs in America … and that 3M in Saint Paul was one company that was awarded a grant for the FreedomCAR program.


Mr. Kline has grabbed on to the anger expressed by implying the “bailout of the auto industry” when invoking the FreedomCAR program even though the purpose is to reduce our consumption of foreign oil.

IF the Republicans really wanted to get rid of the FreedomCAR program, then why didn’t they do it earlier? During the current term, 62 Republicans including Erik Paulsen (R-MN-03) voted to approve it earlier.

Worse yet, an Oklahoma Republican authored legislation that would provide government funding for Natural Gas vehicles … $30 million a year when only about 2,000 natural gas vehicles were sold in 2006 …. Versus $200 million for the FreedomCAR program (assuming $2Billion over ten years) with 16.5 million new light-duty vehicles sold in 2006 … do the math and tell me which one will have the greater impact ....
Oh and by the way, John Kline voter FOR the Natural Gas Vehicle funding (as did Michele Bachmann (R-MN-06) and Erik Paulsen) … read more about this on the MN Political Roundtable




FYI : Did you notice that the Republicans avoided the whole question of “earmarks” on the PLEDGE to America. My commentary looks at that and a few other omissions.

Shelley Madore has correctly pointed out the Chamber of Commerce’s view on “earmarks” … the Chamber states, "Not all earmarks are wasteful. Earmarks can undermine the integrity of federal transportation programs particularly if they are not related to transportation infrastructure, do not address the goals of federal transportation policy, and have limited or no regional or national benefit. However, the vast majority of earmarks included in SAFETEA-LU have been dedicated to projects that were already on state transportation improvement agendas."

Madore said, "As the Chamber points out, not all earmarks are wasteful. Yet John Kline has long insisted on promoting his "no earmarks" ideology by calling all earmarks 'pork.' This is not only a business issue but also a serious public safety issue, as highlighted by my 35 Cent Tour stop at Highways 5 and 212 in Carver County. As your next Congressperson, I will work hard to fund the necessary projects to build economic advantages, promote public safety and repair our broken bridges here in the Second Congressional District."