Thursday, September 16, 2010

What Republican Values?

Where should I start?  The recent ad by Republican Steve Stivers, former "top" bank lobbyist seems to over glorify his days as a paper boy and a Boy Scout.  He talks about the values that his background gave him.  Really?  Did they teach him to protect corporations, and asbestos companies against lawsuits from victims?  While he was a state senator, Stivers worked with then Ohio Gov. Bob "Ethics Charges" Taft to create a bill that would limit lawsuits against corporations that manufactured asbestos (see the Toledo Blade June 4, 2004).  Instead of working to help the victims, Stivers worked to protect the corporations.  These are the types of values that Stivers learned: protect the corporation/bank/company and to hell with the victims.

> Recently, a website called That's My Congress, has noted an extremely large donation made to the Stivers campaign.  According to the article, Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy
(OH-15-Democrat) worked against a common practice in the pharma industry in which the big pharma corporations pay off the generic manufacturers to keep the low cost generic drug off the shelves.   Apparently, such rules would eat into the obscene profits that some pharmaceutical companies enjoy.  Seeing that Kilroy was working to protect people instead of the pharmaceutical industry, campaign contributions from pharma firms have been going to her pro-corporation opponent, Steve Stivers, a former bank lobbyist.

thatsmycongress:

....These policies would cut into Abbott’s profits, and so the corporation’s political action committee contributed the maximum allowable $5,000 to Kilroy’s challenger, corporate lobbyist Steve Stivers

That’s all Abbott Laboratories is allowed to contribute as a corporation. But the employees in the “government affairs” offices of Abbott Laboratories didn’t stop there. Jason Grove, Kristin Morris, Rosemary Haas and Thomas Evers, each an employee of the Abbott Laboratories government affairs division — and each a federally-registered lobbyist for Abbott Laboratories — have also kicked in their own contributions to the congressional campaign of Steve Stivers this year. Despite the fact that they live in three different communities in two different states, Grove Morris and Haas even sent their checks to Steve Stivers on the very same day, March 8 2010. According to the Federal Election Commission, another registered lobbyist for Abbott Laboratories named Darren Willcox joined them in making a Stivers contribution on March 8. Haas and Grove gave synchronized contributions to Steve Stivers again on June 17. Abbott lobbyist Kelly Childress is the wild one of the bunch: she gave Steve Stivers her money on a completely different day, March 23.

It’s not at all clear that Abbott Laboratories is in violation of the law for its activities. But there is a breach of trust here with the Stivers campaign: coordinated contributions by corporate employees magnify the influence of those corporations in the electoral process and diminish the freedom of Americans to participate in politics by and for themselves.


I guess the Stivers campaign has really learned a lot since John Boehner has taken him as his protege.

Stivers is clearly a far right candidate. Here are some other things Stivers wants to eliminate/repeal. I wrote about his plans on this blog on June 9, 2010:

1. Repeal the health care reform bill
2. Repeal the 16th Amendment to the Constitution
3. Repeal the 17th Amendment to the Constitution
4. Eliminate the Department of Agriculture
5. Eliminate the Department of Education
6. Eliminate the Department of the Interior
7. Eliminate the Department of Housing of and Urban Development
8. Eliminate the Department of Transportation
9. Eliminate the Department of Energy



In today's New York Times, we have evidence of the increase of poverty in our nation. The recession, created by Wall Street, Lehman Brothers, and the economic policies of President George W. Bush and Rob Portman, has made it difficult for families, the elderly, and single people to survive.  More people are without medical insurance.

NYTimes:
 ....The number of residents without health insurance in 2009 climbed to 51 million, from 46 million in 2008. The share of children who were uninsured fell, though, reflecting an expansion of government health programs covering low-income children. The share of uninsured adults rose, as a long-term decline continued in the number who have private health insurance. Health experts expect the share of residents without health coverage to decline in coming years as the health care overhaul adopted by Congress in March begins to take effect.... 

Be afraid. Be very afraid.  Steve Stivers, Boehner, Portman, and the rest of the Republicans want to repeal the new health care law, if they gain control of Congress.  Even more people would be without insurance.

It is clear to me that the self-centered, pro-business, anti-regulation Republican Party has no desire or interest to help the average American family get back on their feet.

*  The good people over at Irregular Times have noticed something about Republican Rep. Pat Tiberi (OH-12).  Tiberi has been going on and on about how there should be more emphasis on creating jobs, but.......
Irregular Times:

...In the 111th Congress of 2009-2010, has Pat Tiberi introduced any bill with any focus whatsoever on jobs? No.
Has Pat Tiberi introduced any amendment or even symbolic resolution with any focus whatsoever on jobs? No.
Has Tiberi even introduced any bill or amendment or resolution that could create (as he put it) “an environment friendly to job creation”? No.
Heck, has Tiberi even created any budget earmarks that would direct money to his district to create jobs there? No.


Pat Tiberi has introduced seven bills to the U.S. Congress since he was last elected. Five of these are entirely symbolic bills that don’t accomplish anything, but only make declarations (like Tiberi’s declaration that “jobs should be the focus of Congress”): to celebrate an Antarctic treaty forged 50 years ago, to congratulate a local soccer team for winning a game, to rename a post office, to name September “Brain Aneurysm Month”, and to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the use of telescopes for astronomy. Two bills introduced by Pat Tiberi since he last got elected accomplish something: one bill would give one particular family an immigration exemption, and another would review unidentified corpses to determine their veteran status.

That’s all Patrick Tiberi has to his name in the 111th Congress. For a time when so many residents in his district are losing their jobs, Pat Tiberi is writing bills to commemorate telescope usage, rename post offices and recall the glory days of South Pole diplomacy. Although he chastises everybody else in Congress for failing to do anything about American jobs, he doesn’t lift a finger to solve the problem himself.

Those commemoration bills certainly must have taken a lot of thinking and research. (Just kidding.) Voters in Ohio's 12th district have to face facts:  Tiberi has been nothing but a seat warmer and a puppet of John "I'd rather be golfing" Boehner.


There you have it.  The do nothing, all white, mostly male, right wing, party of "No!" has been working hard to protect corporations and doing nothing to help average Americans. If you are interested in moving forward, you'll vote for Democrats. However, if you enjoyed the miserable economic failures of the last Bush administration, you'll vote Republican.