Along with other Republicans, Rep. John Kline pledges to return to the level of government we experienced under Bush. You remember back when these exact same Republicans including Kline were doubling the size of government, deregulate the banking, mortgage and wall street businesses making record profits while ignoring the needs of Americans. "With our Pledge to America, we proposed bringing the federal budget back to where it stood before the bailouts, government takeovers, and failed stimulus"
The pledge has little to no substance and doesn't even mention balancing the budget! It's a joke and shows that John Kline is still not serious about fair governance or finding solutions to American problems. Eliminating wasteful and applicative programs in government is a good idea, so maybe we could start by replacing John Kline with someone who would actually work for us?
So let's take a look at what Kline's pledge plan will do...
Keep the minimum wage at $5.25 for another ten years (Kline voted against raising the minimum wage...we're not even talking a 'living wage', while voting against any job creation plans by the current administration.)
Freeze all government growth (Given the majority of new jobs this year were in the government sector, won't that send the American economy into free fall?)
Take care of Corporations...
Give fat tax breaks to his oil company pals (Kline takes more corporate money from oil companies than any other Congressperson in Minnesota.)
Continue to allow the drug and oil companies to make federal policy (Kline is supported by big corporations and votes lock-step with their agenda including wanting to stop health care reform but voting for bank bail outs.)
Eliminate all government regulations so that big business can generate even more profits at our environment and workers expense (Kline's mantras of Self Regulation with Drill, Baby, Drill)
Extend the Bush/Kline era tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% and eliminate the estate tax and $1 trillion in revenue in the process (Kline wants his rich friends to be taken care of, he refuses to support tax breaks for the middle and lower class while supporting extending the Bush/Kline tax cuts.)
Destroy social security (Kline wants to stop all government spending...even those programs that we paid into for our retirement)
Reduce funding for health, education and social services across-the-board (Kline's record clearly shows a pattern of voting against any support programs while voting for any programs supporting war.)
Continue to send troops to die in war, squandering precious military and financial resources that could be used here at home. (Kline has never seen a war he didn't support. Currently over 40% of the American budget goes toward war. That money could fund our education system, put Americans back to work, and pay off our national debt.)
2 comments:
The PLEDGE is not just about holding the line on spending … it’s a reduction in spending (with a major exclusion - Defense.) In the PLEDGE House Republican leader, John Boehner has called for immediate cuts in “non-security discretionary” spending to pre-recession 2008 levels. Independent analysts say that would require eliminating about $105 billion — or more than 20 percent of spending by departments like Education, Transportation, Interior, Commerce and Energy.
Voters in the Second District should seriously question Mr. Kline’s commitment to the PLEDGE … after all, he has already broken it.
Mr. Kline and his pro-business colleagues voted to approve NASA’s budget. For FY2009, NASA received $17.8 billion (compared to the $17.6 requested by President Bush) … that should have been the baseline. President Obama’s FY2010 request for NASA was $18.686 billion. However, Mr. Kline and 118 other Republicans voted to authorize NASA funding for three years ($19.0 billion in FY 2011 to $19.96 billion in FY 2013).
For voters that want to see who the true fiscal responsible members of Congress are, look at the roll call where Tim Walz (D-MN-01) voted in opposition.
The PLEDGE is not just about holding the line on spending … it’s a reduction in spending (with a major exclusion - Defense.) In the PLEDGE House Republican leader, John Boehner has called for immediate cuts in “non-security discretionary” spending to pre-recession 2008 levels. Independent analysts say that would require eliminating about $105 billion — or more than 20 percent of spending by departments like Education, Transportation, Interior, Commerce and Energy.
Voters in the Second District should seriously question Mr. Kline’s commitment to the PLEDGE … after all, he has already broken it.
Mr. Kline and his pro-business colleagues voted to approve NASA’s budget. For FY2009, NASA received $17.8 billion (compared to the $17.6 requested by President Bush) … that should have been the baseline. President Obama’s FY2010 request for NASA was $18.686 billion. However, Mr. Kline and 118 other Republicans voted to authorize NASA funding for three years ($19.0 billion in FY 2011 to $19.96 billion in FY 2013).
For voters that want to see who the true fiscal responsible members of Congress are, look at the roll call where Tim Walz (D-MN-01) voted in opposition.
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