It’s no surprise that this lack of experience and perspective results in counter-productive laws, regulations and taxes that have so hobbled our economy. For proof, just look at their voting records. Sen. Pryor Voted in October 2008 for the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act that created the TARP program bailouts and for Obama's failed $787 billion "stimulus" program; He cast the deciding vote in support of Obamacare 12/24/09; Joined Obama to support the Wall Street bailout 10/02/08; Voted to raise the debt limit by $2.4 trillion 08/02/11; Supported the Bridge to Nowhere and other wasteful earmarks 10/20/05; Voted to require workers to join a union in order to get a job 01/22/09 –note that his largest contributors, by far, were unions; Opposed term limits for members of the House and Senate 02/02/12; Voted to raid Social Security to fund other programs 04/02/09; and on and on.
We use some reliable rating groups to get a sense of where the pol stands in the political spectrum: from statism to anarchy, from left to right, from progressive/liberal to conservative/libertarian.
- Citizens Against Government Waste (non-partisan) rates Pryor “Hostile” to taxpayers. See the votes at http://tinyurl.com/oynbphb
- National Taxpayers Union (non-partisan) gives Pryor a failing “F” grade placing him in the “Big Spender” budget busting category.
- Heritage Action gives Pryor 21% from a conservative view http://tinyurl.com/ncohvt8
- Americans for Democratic Action awards Pryor 70% on their liberal "progressive" quotient (LQ) scale –see http://tinyurl.com/agdczac
New York Mayor Bloomberg's gun-control advocacy group says Pryor "let us down" when he opposed Obama's gun control plan; The NRA supports Pryor by running ads thanking him for that vote. But he did Support the "Assault Weapons Ban" gun control law. Sen. Pryor received a 100% rating from the pro-abortion group NARAL.
A good place to find who contributes to the politician is That's My Congress but there are so many contributors it is mind boggling. We’ve favored the idea of making politicians wear logos of their largest contributors just like NASCAR drivers and golf pros do, but there wouldn’t be enough room on their clothes--including socks and underwear!
Other telling votes depending on how you look at them: Voted to force taxpayers to fund abortions 4/14/11; Pryor Voted to allow the sale of F-16s to Egypt, which is controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood 01/31/13; and, a terrible vote from our own view: he opposed term limits for members of the House and Senate 02/02/12.
There is little doubt that Sen. Pryor has been part of the problem in Washington. He voted with President Obama 95% of the time and was the deciding vote for Obamacare. His votes explain much of the $17+ trillion deficit being loaded onto the backs of future generations. He will have been in the Senate 12 years when he comes up for reelection in 2014 –long enough from our view.
Term limits would help give us candidates who can bring business or professional experience to the government and replace the ‘government knows best’ career pols. Help us pass the term limits amendment by supporting the effort here: www.termlimits.org
As of today no Republican has announced a run against Pryor in the 2014 race. It is a serious problem at all levels of government that entrenched pols have the name recognition and special interest support that a challenger rarely enjoys so successful people, accomplished in productive fields, don’t even try to run. Pryor’s name is golden in Arkansas as a result of his father’s long tenure and his huge special interest support. The lobbyists don’t want to lose their “honest” career pol –their definition of honest in this context is that once he’s bought, he stays bought.
