Indiana Politicians and the Keystone XL Pipeline [2012]

  1. Mitch Daniels
  2. Richard Lugar

Mitch Daniels Joins John Boehner’s Web Of Keystone XL Corruption
SOURCE
Gov. Daniels and Sen. Lugar AP Photo
According to recent disclosures, Daniels is part of a concerted Republican effort to lobby Congress to push the tar sands pipeline through prime agricultural land and over the Ogallala Aquifer that supplies groundwater for 20% of America’s agriculture and drinking water for 2 million Americans. It is despicable that Daniels lied to Americans about the pipeline, but it is beyond the pale that his lobbying effort is being funded with Indiana resident’s tax dollars.

Think Progress reports that Indiana’s Washington D.C. representatives were paid with taxpayer dollars to lobby Congress during the fourth quarter of 2011 including “advocacy of the tar sands pipeline.” The Indiana Petroleum Council has pushed the Keystone XL pipeline even though it is unlikely that any Indiana residents will work on its construction. It is one thing to push the pipeline if it created jobs for Indiana residents and one would expect the state to actively lobby for any project to help the unemployed, but not only are there no jobs for Indiana residents, the pipeline does not evenpass through Indiana. And yet Indiana taxpayer’s are funding the oil industry’s lobbying effort at a time when Governor Daniels and Republican state legislators have slashed spending for programs like Medicaid and most recently, full day kindergarten and the state fair. Apparently, for Daniels and Republicans in Indiana, it is better to spend tax dollars to enrich the oil industry than fund children’s health, higher education, and K-12 education that suffered Republican’s deep spending cuts.

It is still unclear what, besides oil industry campaign contributions, Daniels stands to gain pushing the Keystone pipeline, especially in light of mounting evidence it is an ill-advised project. Up to this point, only Republicans in the employ of the oil industry and those with stock in Canadian tar sand companies are pushing the project, but even the GOP’s media outlet, Fox News, labeled the Keystone XL pipeline a “bad deal all along.” Fox News said President Obama was right to nix the pipeline and that “rejecting the Keystone XL deal was the best decision possible” despite Republicans “trying to force his hand” with an artificial deadline. Fox reiterated six reasons the pipeline was a bad deal and they enumerate the primary reasons critics of the project have stated from the before the GOP’s extortion attempt during the payroll tax cut extension fight in December.

It is obvious there is no length Republicans will avoid to enrich the oil industry and Mitch Daniels is the latest target of an investigation to determine what financial gain he will reap if the pipeline is built. However, the people of Indiana should exert severe pressure on Daniels to come clean and admit he was lying about the pipeline, resign, and repay residents for using their tax dollars to promote a project with no benefit to Indiana residents. The pipeline’s proponents are exclusively Republicans and oil industry giants such as Koch Industries, the American Petroleum Institute, and now, the Indiana Petroleum Council, and Indiana residents are footing part of the bill to lobby Congress on behalf of the oil industry.
Lugar Calls for Keystone XL Passage NOW
SOURCE
“It is time for Democratic Leader Harry Reid to take the reins off those Senate Democrats willing to stand up for America’s workers. Keystone XL is a win for jobs, a win for our economy, and a win for our national security. Further delay is irresponsible. If the President and Majority Leader aren’t willing to let private investors jumpstart the economy, then it’s time they get out of the way,” U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar said.

The House of Representatives has passed, as part of its payroll tax cut extension bill, Lugar’s Keystone XL legislation. Led by Lugar, a bipartisan group of 41 Senators have cosponsored the Lugar- Hoeven-Vitter North American Energy Security Act, legislation that would compel the Obama Administration to act on a construction permit for the Keystone XL pipeline in 60 days. Read the full statement.
Emerson Electric Has A $9.4 Billion Contract For Oil Sands Development Support Services.
From the Washington Post:
Environmentalists note that in December 2010, according to Boehner's financial disclosure forms, he invested $10,000 to $50,000 each in seven firms that had a stake in Canada's oil sands, the region that produces the oil the pipeline would transport. The firms include six oil companies - BP, Canadian Natural Resources, Chevron, Conoco Phillips, Devon Energy and Exxon - along with Emerson Electric, which has a contract to provide the digital automation for the first phase of a $9.4 billion Horizon Oil Sands Project in Canada. [Washington Post,1/14/12]
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Mike Pence and C-Street Cult aka The Fellowship and The Family [2012]

What is 'The Family' aka 'The Fellowship' or 'The C-Street Family'?

The mainstream media avoids referring to the Family as a cult, but check out this description of the group’s belief system from Jeff Sharlet and decide for yourself:
They have a very unusual theology in the sense that they think that Christ had one message for an inner circle and then a kind of different message for a sort of slightly more outer circle. And then the rest of us, Christ told us little stories because, frankly, we couldn’t handle the truth. And the core members are those they think are getting the real deal.
In other words, only they, the members of the Family, truly know what is best for the rest of us.

If it walks like a cult and talks like a cult… SOURCE

See: Sex and power inside “the C Street House”
From: Salon

The Family likes to call itself a “Christian Mafia”, but it began 74 years ago as an anti-New Deal coalition of businessmen convinced that organized labor was under the sway of Satan. The Great Depression, they believed, was a punishment from God for what they viewed as FDR’s socialism. The Family’s goal was the “consecration” of America to God, first through the repeal of New Deal reforms, then through the aggressive expansion of American power during the Cold War. They called this a “Worldwide Spiritual Offensive,” but in Washington, it amounted to the nation’s first fundamentalist lobby. Early participants included Southern Sens. Strom Thurmond, Herman Talmadge and Absalom Willis Robertson — Pat Robertson’s father. Membership lists stored in the Family’s archive at the Billy Graham Center at evangelical Wheaton College in Illinois show active participation at any given time over the years by dozens of congressmen. SOURCE

Jeff Sharlet is the author of, "The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power"; Associate Research Scholar, Center for Religion and Media, New York University

The Secret Political Reach Of 'The Family'

Read Transcript
Jeff Sharlet is the author, "The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power"; Associate Research Scholar, Center for Religion and Media, New York University. He was a guest on NPR's Fresh Air in November 2005. Listen to the interview below:



January 10, 2011 By Andrew Belonsky

The following comes from: AlterNet

Photo: CNN
Nowhere has the alignment of American exceptionalism and right-wing Christian theology been more dangerous than in the conduct of U.S. foreign policy. Since the free market includes the entire globe, conservatives claim, our biblically inspired, capitalism-driven democratic values must be exported, an idea that threatens our international standing.

It’s this theology that drives the international exploits of a secretive group of Capitol Hill elites -- including Jim DeMint and Mike Pence -- known alternately as the Fellowship or the Family. The Family made rare headlines last year, when it was revealed the group had supported the Ugandan lawmakers who proposed an anti-LGBT bill that would make certain practices punishable by death.

The organization also operates the C Street House in Washington, where, according to Jeff Sharlet, author of C Street: The Fundamentalist Threat to American Democracy, DeMint is "ideologically influential." And that ideology, as the senator told the right-wing magazine, World, in August 2009, includes the belief that "[t]he decline of America's power and prestige has been directly related to the secularization of our country."

But the Family’s influence on U.S foreign policy doesn’t begin or end in Uganda, or on the subject of LGBT rights. The group has also helped former Somali dictator Siad Barre buy arms, and facilitated U.S. support for various other despots, including Indonesia’s Haji Muhammad Suharto and Papa Doc Duvalier of Haiti. And now the Family’s congressional members are ascendant in the U.S. Capitol; most of them are allied with the Tea Party movement, and in an unprecedented position to shape our nation’s policy. SOURCE Photo: CNN

The Family: DC’s C Street Group Tied To Proposed Death Penalty for Gays in Uganda

SOURCE What many people may find surprising is that the Family has branches around the world. In fact, yesterday, Jeff Sharlet, author of “The Family: Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power,” reported on NPR’s “Fresh Air” that it was a Family member in the Ugandan parliament who introduced a bill that would increase the punishment for homosexuality from life imprisonment, which is the maximum sentence today, to death:
SHARLET: [The] new legislation adds to this something called aggravated homosexuality. And this can include, for instance, if a gay man has sex with another man who is disabled, that’s aggravated homosexuality, and that man can be – I suppose both, actually, could be put to death for this. The use of any drugs or any intoxicants in seeking gay sex – in other words, you go to a bar and you buy a guy a drink, you’re subject to the death penalty if you go home and sleep together after that. What it also does is it extends this outward, so that if you know a gay person and you don’t report it, that could mean – you don’t report your son or daughter, you can go to prison.

And it goes further, to say that any kind of promotion of these ideas of homosexuality, including by foreigners, can result in prison terms. Talking about same sex-marriage positively can lead you to imprisonment for life. And it’s really kind of a perfect case study and the export of a lot of American largely evangelical ideas about homosexuality exported to Uganda, which then takes them to their logical end.
And who is David Bahati?
SHARLET: [The] legislator that introduces the bill, a guy named David Bahati, is a member of the Family. He appears to be a core member of the Family. He works, he organizes their Uganda National Prayer Breakfast and oversees a African sort of student leadership program designed to create future leaders for Africa, into which the Family has poured millions of dollars working through a very convoluted chain of linkages passing the money over to Uganda…

Looking at the the Family’s 990s [IRS records], where they’re moving their money to – into this African leadership academy called Cornerstone, which runs two programs: Youth Corps, which [it] has described in the past as an international “invisible family binding together world leaders” and also, an alumni organization designed to place Cornerstone grads – graduates of this sort of very elite educational program and politics and NGO’s through something called the African Youth Leadership Forum, which is run by – according to Ugandan media – which is run by David Bahat… 
See:  Gearing Up To Stop Genocide In Uganda and Spotlighting The Family
The following lists come from: Truth Wins Out
Posted January 11th, 2011 by Wayne Besen

Family Quotes
  • “The more invisible you can make your organization, the more influence you will have,” (Doug Coe, the leader of The Family)
  • “You say, hey, you know Jesus said, ‘You got to put him before mother-father-brother-sister’? Hitler, Lenin, Mao, that’s what they taught the kids. Mao even had the kids killing their own mother and father. But it wasn’t murder. It was for building the new nation. The new kingdom.”  (Doug Coe)
  • “We elect our leaders, Jesus elects his.” (Doug Coe)
  • “[The Family is] A veritable underground of Christ’s men all through government.” (Chuck Colson, Prison Fellowship)
  • “I’m guilty of two things. I’m a Jesus guy and I have a heart for Africa.” (Sen. James Inhofe, R-OK)
Family Members (Senate)
  • Sen. Dan Coats (R-IN)
  • Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK)
  • Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC)
  • Sen. John Ensign (R-NV)
  • Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY)
  • Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK)
  • Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL)
  • Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR)
  • Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL)
  • Sen. John Thune (R-SD)
  • Sen. David Vitter (R-LA)
Family Members (House)
  • Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-AL)
  • Rep. John Carter (R-TX)
  • Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO)
  • Rep. Mike Doyle (D-PA)
  • Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO)
  • Rep. Mike McIntyre (D-NC)
  • Rep. Jerry Moran (R-KS)
  • Rep. Tom Osborne (R-NE)
  • Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN)
  • Rep. Joe Pitts (R-PA)
  • Rep. Heath Shuler (D-NC)
  • Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI)
  • Rep. Zach Wamp (R-TN)
  • Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA)
Mike Pence on LGTB Rights in the Work Place:
Apparently he things religious rights trump all others.



By Paul Singer Roll Call Staff Oct. 14, 2010,

The faith-based organization behind the National Prayer Breakfast is vigorously denying new allegations from an Ohio clergy group that foreign trips and other activities with Members of Congress may have been funded with money from a terrorist organization.

The allegation grows out of a guilty plea lodged in July by former Rep. Mark Siljander (R-Mich.), who was charged with concealing that he had been hired by the Sudan-based Islamic American Relief Agency to convince the Senate Finance Committee to remove the group from a list of organizations suspected of funding terrorist activities.

The indictment and guilty plea explain that the IARA wrote two $25,000 checks to cover Siljander’s costs but that in order to cloak the payments, the checks were made out to the International Foundation, which cashed the checks and then paid the money to Siljander.

The International Foundation, also known as the Fellowship Foundation, has extensive ties to Capitol Hill. The group is affiliated with a house on C Street where several Members of Congress have lived. It organizes regular prayer meetings for Members and other influential government figures, and — as Roll Call reported in June — it has provided Members with just over $100,000 worth of foreign travel since 2000.

The foundation has little formal structure and only in the past few weeks launched a website making a public declaration of its purpose and mission. SOURCE

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John Gregg [2012]

John Gregg [D-IN]
Former Indiana House Speaker
Track Record
Challenging Mike Pence (R) and Jim Wallace (R) in the general election for Governor

John Gregg is a native Hoosier, a lifelong Democrat and a committed public servant who has been a leader throughout our state for more than 20 years. Throughout his career, John has focused on two things: serving others and creating opportunity right here in Indiana.

John grew up in Knox County and still calls Sandborn his home. He got his start in public service in 1986 when he was elected to represent Southwest Indiana in the Statehouse.

John was in the Statehouse for eight terms, rising to the office of Speaker of the House. He served as speaker for six consecutive years, making him the longest-serving Democratic speaker in Indiana's history, when he left office.

John is a Democrat, and he is guided by his Democratic values. As Speaker, John realized his job was to bring people together from throughout Indiana to work on the issues that matter to Hoosiers and the middle class. John cut taxes and balanced budgets, all while overseeing record surpluses. Just as importantly, he accomplished these things by working with people on the issues that unite us — not the politics of division that are far too common today.

In 2002, John voluntarily left office to spend more time with his two sons and to enter into the private sector. Since 2002, John has been the interim President of Vincennes University and is an attorney in Vincennes. In 2008, John re-entered politics, serving as honorary chair of the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign in Indiana.

While his career has been defined by incredible professional success, John's proudest achievement and greatest love are his two sons, John and Hunter. And those who know John say with certainty that no matter what his future holds, that will always remain true.

John is an author, Hoosier Hero award winner, former university president, loyal Democrat and genuine leader with a proven record of winning all eight elections in which he's run. With your help, John Gregg will be the next governor of the great state of Indiana.

   



The following information all comes from Wikipedia

Early Life and Education

Born on September 6, 1954 to Don and June (née Blackwood) Gregg in the rural Indiana community of Sandborn in Knox County, he is a 1972 graduate of North Knox High School.

Gregg graduated with an associate’s degree from Vincennes University in 1974, and is a member of Sigma Pi Fraternity. He graduated from Indiana University (B.A., Political Science and History) in 1976; Indiana State University (M.P.A., Public Administration) in 1978; and the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law (J.D., Juris Doctor) in 1984.

Law Practice and Early Career

From 1978–1985, Gregg worked as a land agent for Peabody Coal Company and as a governmental affairs representative for Amax Coal Company. After earning his J.D. and passing the state bar in 1984, he opened a private practice in Vincennes until 2002, when he joined the Indianapolis law firm Sommer Barnard PC. In 2005 he became partner at the Vincennes, Indiana office of the law firm Bingham McHale LLP. He is a member of the Indiana State Bar Association and the Knox County Bar Association, where he served as President in 1992.

Political Career

Indianapolis Star/ John Severson
Gregg served his Sandborn community as a Democratic precinct committeeman from 1974–1986, when he ran against and defeated Republican incumbent Rep. Bill Roach to represent District 45 in the Indiana House of Representatives.

He served as the House majority leader from 1990–1994 and as the House Democratic leader from 1994–1996.

Gregg was first elected Speaker of the House in 1996, when the general election had left an equally divided House with 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans. For the first time in Indiana history, the Speaker presided over an equally divided House. Gregg was re-elected Speaker following the 1998 general election when Democrats took control of the House of Representatives with a 53-47 majority. During his tenure as Speaker, Gregg championed many causes, including reforms in education, campaign finance, property tax, lobbying and ethics.

During his terms as Speaker, Gregg implemented improvements in House procedures, including on-time convening of sessions, the support of a bipartisan clerk's office, staffing parity for both caucuses, and the prohibition of smoking within the interior hallways and offices surrounding the House chamber. A House Resolution to honor Speaker Gregg on his retirement in 2002 credited him with returning civility and congeniality to the House chamber.

Gregg introduced measures to help streamline the workload of legislators and staff, including reducing the number of standing committees from 21 to 17 and initiating stricter adherence to House rules regarding how members vote and conduct themselves on the House floor.

Gregg was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2008. As an honorary chair of the Hillary Clinton for President, Indiana Campaign, Gregg accompanied former President Bill Clinton to events across Indiana during the 2008 primary.

Vincennes University President

Following his service as an Indiana state representative, Gregg became interim president of Indiana’s oldest college, Vincennes University, from 2003–2004, where he was instrumental in helping the institution move from a two-year to a four-year curriculum.

Radio Talk Show Host

Since 1999, Gregg has hosted a radio call-in show in Vincennes and in Washington, Indiana. Gregg hosted the popular early morning talk show, “Indiana Open Phones,” on an Indianapolis radio station from 1999–2004. The forum covered topics from Indiana politics to folksy western Indiana cuisine.

Awards

In addition to his 2002 recognition as "Public Official of the Year” by Governing Magazine, Gregg has been honored with a Hoosier Hero Award (1996) an Honorary Doctorate Degree from Vincennes University in 2002, and four Sagamore of the Wabash awards (Governors Robert D. Orr, 1989; Evan Bayh, 1996; Frank O’Bannon, 2002; and Joe Kernan, 2003.

Personal

PHOTO/Frank Espich
Gregg chose to end his career as Indiana House Speaker to devote more time to his two sons, John Blackwood Gregg, born in 1992, and Hunter Wallace Gregg, born in 1993. In his parting announcement, he told his colleagues: “I think I’ve been a pretty good Speaker, but I want to be an even better father.”

In 2004, Gregg was diagnosed and successfully treated for prostate cancer, and in 2011 he remained cancer-free. A Weight Watchers program helped him gradually lose 60 pounds.

He is a member of Sandborn First Christian Church, and is a 33rd Degree Mason and past Master in the Sandborn Masonic Lodge #647.
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Mike Pence, the Kochs and Unlimited Corporate Spending in Elections [2012]

Please see this series of videos from 2007 of Mike Pence speaking at the Cato Institute. He states that McCain-Feingold campaign finance laws were unconstitutional. Considering the new information about Supreme Court Justice Thomas and Scalia attending one of the Koch meetings, I have to wonder just how long this was all in the planning. The Cato Institute, Koch Brothers, and Americans for Prosperity are intertwined and Mike Pence benefits from this alliance.

My question to Mike Pence regarding Americans for Prosperity might be, "Which Americans are prospering - besides you, the Koch Brothers and other politicians with big corporate interests?"
Click to Enlarge
The End of Campaign Finance Reform?

Here is the link to the Cato Institute page with the video:

The text reads:
The End of Campaign Finance Reform?

CAPITOL HILL BRIEFING
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Noon

Featuring Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) and John Samples, Director, Center for Representative Government, Cato Institute.B-354 Rayburn House Office BuildingThe recent Supreme Court decision in FEC v. Wisconsin Right to Life marks a change in direction in judicial doctrines concerning campaign finance. As recently as 2003, a majority of the Court upheld the strictures on free speech enacted in McCain-Feingold. In Wisconsin Right to Life, the Court forcefully stated that the benefit of the doubt lies with freedom of speech and not with the government. What will this decision mean for the 2008 campaign? How has the Court limited the power of Congress to regulate campaign finance and freedom of speech? Will we see a general deregulation of campaign finance compelled by judicial decisions over the next few years? Please join us to hear a leading congressional critic of restrictions on campaign spending and to discuss this vital judicial decision and its implications for Congress and national politics.
Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana
(Credit: Getty Images/Alex Wong)
Before the Citizens United vs FEC Ruling: Pence was the only House member to become a plaintiff in the McCain-Feingold case, McConnell v. Federal Election Commission. He charged that the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law was unconstitutional.

In January of 2010 the Supreme Court Ruled, in a 5-4 vote, that Corporations had the same free speech rights as people and that money in elections is free speech. We now understand how that opened the doors for unlimited corporate spending in elections.
The Supreme Court reversed the lower court, striking down those provisions of the McCain–Feingold Act that prohibited all corporations, both for-profit and not-for-profit, and unions from broadcasting “electioneering communications.” An "electioneering communication" was defined in McCain–Feingold as a broadcast, cable, or satellite communication that mentioned a candidate within 60 days of a general election or thirty days of a primary. The decision overruled Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce (1990) and partially overruled McConnell v. Federal Election Commission (2003).[4] McCain–Feingold had previously been weakened, without overruling McConnell, in Federal Election Commission v. Wisconsin Right to Life, Inc. (2007). The Court did uphold requirements for disclaimer and disclosure by sponsors of advertisements. The case did not involve the federal ban on direct contributions from corporations or unions to candidate campaigns or political parties, which remain illegal in races for federal office. SOURCE
2010 Source

2012 [as of 1-26-12] Source

Koch Contributions 2010 Indiana Candidates SOURCE


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Mike Pence Fact Check [2012]

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Mike Pence [2012]

Mike Pence [R-IN]
U.S. Representative, Indiana
Track Record
Challenging Jim Wallace (R) in the primary and John Gregg (D) for Governor

Mike Pence is the U.S. Representative for Indiana's 6th district, and previously the 2nd district, serving since 2001. He is the former Chairman of the House Republican Conference. After the 2010 election Pence said he would not run for re-election to Chairman of the Conference. On May 5, 2011, Pence officially announced that he will be seeking the Republican nomination for Governor of Indiana in 2012. Pence's announcement was anticipated by his resignation of his leading position in the GOP caucus in the House.

Mike Pence was born in Columbus, Indiana. He attended Columbus North High School, graduated from Hanover College in 1981, and earned his J.D. from the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law in 1986. While at Hanover, Pence joined the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, serving as his chapter's president. Pence and his wife Karen have three children: Michael, Charlotte, and Audrey. Michael is a student at Purdue University. The Pence family lives in Arlington, Virginia while Congress is in session. SOURCE

   

He is the former chairman of the Republican Study Committee, a group of conservative House Republicans. He was succeeded in the 110th Congress by Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX). He has stated his support of Israel and its right to attack facilities in Iran to prevent them from developing nuclear weapons, has defended the actions of Israel in its use of deadly force in enforcing the blockade of Gaza and has referred to Israel as "America's most cherished ally" SOURCE

Was Israel's raid on Gaza Freedom Flotilla legal?
Israel says its raid on the so-called Freedom Flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, which left nine activists dead, was a justified defense of its economic blockade of Gaza. Legal scholars aren't so sure. SOURCE

On the Issues
VoteMatch Responses 
(CLICK HERE for full answers)
  • Abortion is a woman's right - Strongly Opposes
  • Require hiring more women & minorities -  Strongly Opposes
  • Same-sex domestic partnership benefits -  Strongly Opposes
  • Teacher-led prayer in public schools -  Strongly Favors
  • Death Penalty - Neutral
  • Mandatory Three Strikes sentencing laws - Strongly Opposes
  • Absolute right to gun ownership - Strongly Favors
  • More federal funding for health coverage - Strongly Opposes
  • Privatize Social Security - Strongly Favors
  • Parents choose schools via vouchers - Strongly Favors
  • Replace coal & oil with alternatives - Strongly Opposes
  • Drug use is immoral: enforce laws against it - Strongly Favors
  • Allow churches to provide welfare services - Strongly Opposes
  • Make taxes more progressive - Strongly Opposes
  • Illegal immigrants earn citizenship - Strongly Opposes
  • Support & expand free trade - Favors
  • Expand the armed forces - Strongly Favors
  • Stricter limits on political campaign funds - Favors
  • The Patriot Act harms civil liberties - Strongly Opposes
  • US out of Iraq & Afghanistan - Strongly Opposes

Earmarks
Pence's Earmarks 
.
Pence was a supporter of earmark reform. He voted against the $139.7 billion Transportation-Treasury spending bill in June 2006, and in favor of a series of amendments proposed that same month by Jeff Flake that would strip other members’ earmarks from the federal budget. Pence, however, has in the past secured several of his own earmark projects. Pence earmarked $500,000 for the “Transit Acquisition and Intermodal Facility Project” in his state, as well as $250,000 for construction of a park in Portland, Indiana. Pence also secured earmarks for inclusion in a Labor-Health and Human Services 2007FY bill. This included $200,000 for both Ball State University’s Center for School Innovation in Muncie, Ind. and to the Madison County Community Health Center in Anderson Ind. Pence also secured $100,000 for Ivy Tech Community College in Columbus, Ind. When confronted with this, a spokesman for Pence’s confirmed the projects, stating, “Mr. Pence stands by his earmark requests." SOURCE



Immigration

In June 2006, Pence unveiled a plan he describes as "no amnesty immigration reform" consisting of increased border security, followed by strict enforcement of laws against hiring illegal aliens, and a guest worker program. This guest worker program requires potential participants to apply from their home country to government-approved job placement agencies that match workers with employers who cannot find Americans for the job. The plan has received support from conservative leaders such as Dick Armey. Pat Buchanan described this as "stealth amnesty," claiming that it is merely a "one week vacation" for illegal immigrants to return to their home country to apply for jobs under the program. Others (Phyllis Schlafly and Tom Tancredo) have criticized Pence's plan. SOURCE
  • Voted YES on building a fence along the Mexican border. (Sep 2006)
  • Voted YES on reporting illegal aliens who receive hospital treatment. (May 2004)
  • Voted YES on extending Immigrant Residency rules. (May 2001)
  • Rated 100% by FAIR, indicating a voting record restricting immigration. (Dec 2003)
  • Rated 92% by USBC, indicating a sealed-border stance. (Dec 2006)
  • End Birthright Citizenship; no more anchor babies. (Apr 2009)
  • Declare English as the official language of the US. (Feb 2007)


Mike Pence on Immigration: In His Own Words
Therefore, the solution is to setup a system that will encourage illegal aliens to self-deport and come back legally as guest workers. This may sound outside of the box, and it is. It may sound far-fetched and unrealistic, but it isn’t. It is based on sound, proven conservative principles. It places reliance on American enterprise and puts government back into its traditional role of protecting its citizens. Let me explain to you how it will work.

Private worker placement agencies that we could call “Ellis Island Centers” will be licensed by the federal government to match willing guest workers with jobs in America that employers cannot fill with American workers. U.S. employers will engage the private agencies and request guest workers. In a matter of days, the private agencies will match guest workers with jobs, perform a health screening, fingerprint them and provide the appropriate information to the FBI and Homeland Security so that a background check can be performed, and provide the guest worker with a visa granted by the State Department. The visa will be issued only outside of the United States.

Outside of the United States. That is a key point because it is the provision that will require the twelve million illegal aliens to leave. Now, some of you are thinking to yourselves that twelve million people aren’t going to pack up and leave just to get a visa to come back legally. But, I believe most will. SOURCE
Taxes and Revenues

SOURCE [FactCheck.org] 
GOP Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana made a wildly false supply-side tax claim on ABC’s "This Week" — and repeated it even when disputed by Ronald Reagan’s former budget director, David Stockman:
Pence: David [Stockman] believes that every tax increase equals a revenue increase, but that’s not true. Anybody who is familiar with the historical data from the IRS knows that raising income tax rates will likely actually reduce federal revenues. … So if we raise taxes, the American people are very likely going to — the top 1 percent are going to send less money to Washington, D.C., and that will never get us out of this …

Stockman: I just have to respectfully disagree. … [I]t’s just common sense fact that, when you raise the rates, you get more revenue.

Pence: Raising income tax rates on the top 1 percent will not increase revenues to the federal treasury.
Pence is simply wrong here, as shown by what followed Bill Clinton’s 1993 tax increase, which fell almost entirely on the top 1 percent or 2 percent of earners. In fact, the result was a steady rise in federal revenues that ended only in 2001, the year that the first round of President Bush’s tax cuts took effect. 


The truth of Stockman’s "common sense fact" is illustrated by this graphic, which is derived from the historical budget data tables published by the Congressional Budget Office. SOURCE [FactCheck.org] 

Mike Pence protects the interests of the top 1% over and over again while advocating cuts in safety nets for the middle class and the poor.



MIKE PENCE REAFFIRMS REPUBLICAN PLAN TO PRIVATIZE SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE SOURCE

On Meet the Press this morning, House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence reaffirmed House Republicans intention to privatize Social Security and Medicare.

David Gregory: What about entitlement spending? Are you going to raise the retirement age as John Boehner suggested might be a good idea on Social Security?

Mike Pence: … for Americans under the age of 40 we absolutely have to begin to reform Medicare and Social Security in ways that will ensure its long term fiscal solvency.

Reform = Privatize

When Republicans say they will “reform Medicare and Social Security” they mean that Republicans will privatize Social Security and dismantle Medicare:
  • In 2009, Boehner led 137 House Republicans who voted for a plan "that would eventually end the Medicare program as it is presently known," according to the Associated Press. The Republican plan would dismantle Medicare, turning it into a voucher program and forcing seniors to buy insurance on their own from private insurance companies. [Roll Call Vote #191, 4/2/09; Associated Press, 4/2/09]
  • Boehner-Ryan Plan Would Privatize Social Security and Dismantle Medicare. Under the Republican “Roadmap for America’s Future” that Boehner praises, “Medicare is privatized. Seniors get a voucher to buy private insurance, and the voucher's growth is far slower than the expected growth of health-care costs. Medicaid is also privatized… And beyond health care, Social Security gets guaranteed, private accounts that CBO says will actually cost more than the present arrangement” [Washington Post’s Ezra Klein, 2/1/10]
  • Republican Study Committee Supports Medicare Privatization. The 126 Member Republican Study Committee favors an approach similar to Rep. Paul Ryan’s controversial plan to privatize Medicare by replacing it with private vouchers. [New York Observer, 2/6/10]
Rep. Pence: The Best Thing For The Unemployed Is Tax Cuts For Millionaires
December 01, 2010 10:38 am ET — Matt Finkelstein SOURCE

Unemployment benefits expired for millions of jobless Americans at midnight, marking the first time infour decades that Congress has failed to provide benefits with so many Americans out of work. Republican lawmakers who blocked an extension of benefits maintain that the country simply cannot afford to spend $12 billion on the unemployed, even as they fight to secure permanent tax cuts for the richest two percent of Americans, which will heap hundreds of billions on to the deficit.

On MSNBC's Morning Joe today, Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) said that while he is "deeply sympathetic" to the plight of the unemployed, "we've got to make the cuts necessary to offset those costs." During the interview, Pence claimed that Republicans are "anxious to support" struggling Americans, "particularly in the holiday season." However, asked whether he would accept a compromise that paid for unemployment benefits by allowing tax cuts to expire only on income over $1 million, Pence insisted that the jobless are better off swallowing tax cuts for the very rich than receiving immediate relief.

Pressed further on his priorities by Time's Mark Halperin, Pence awkwardly joked that he's "not good at chess," before falling back on his talking points. "I think the minimum that we have to do right now for Americans that are struggling in unemployment in this economy is make sure that no American sees a tax increase," he said. 
HALPERIN: If your leaders came to you and said, "We have a deal with the White House. We're going to extend unemployment benefits, but the tax cuts for the people making over a million dollars a year will not be extended, but that helps to pay for it," would you take deal? Would you vote for that package?
PENCE: Look, I think the worst thing you could do for people that are struggling in this economy and looking for a job is raising taxes on any American. We don't wanna help with one hand and take away with another.
HALPERIN: Would you rather extend the tax cuts for every American, including those making over a million, or have the unemployment benefits extended if that's the choice?

PENCE: [Laughs] Yeah, good. This isn't a corner, but I feel the paint. You know? I'm good, nice move. I played chess with my son the other day and I lost, so, you know, I'm not good at this chess thing. [Laughs] Let me tell you, I think the minimum that we have to do right now for Americans that are struggling in unemployment in this economy is make sure that no American sees a tax increase. 

Pence also plugged his speech on Monday at the Detroit Economic Club, in which he advocated for a flat tax and a return to the gold standard. Former Reagan adviser Bruce Bartlett excoriated the speech yesterday, calling it a "hackneyed rehash" of "simplistic" ideas. "Mike Pence isn't ready for prime time," Bartlett concluded. "His proposals show no hint of understanding the true nature of our economic problems or any evidence that he has thought more than five minutes on what to do about them. The sad thing is that Pence at least spent five minutes; most other Republicans don't appear to have spent even that much."

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