Corruption Personified!

 A socialist is someone who has read Lenin and Marx. An anti-socialist is someone who understands Lenin and Marx.   ~ Ronald Reagan

A couple years ago the Socialist Party of America felt secure enough to announce the names of 70 Democrats in Congress that belong to their caucus. Several of our Posters are in that number along with Corrine Brown (D-FL Dist 5). It is not likely that Rep. Brown has read or understands anything about Marx or Lenin –more likely she simply follows the party line as a look at her votes indicate. See the Heritage Action scorecard.  Read the bills and how she voted and draw your own conclusion. You’ll see clearly that she votes for FedGov control of virtually every aspect of our lives --and at great cost.

The nearly $20 trillion national debt has her name on it for her 

votes over 24 years in office.  Many of the votes of the Socialist Caucus members are in direct violation of the U.S. Constitution that these Reps have taken an oath to uphold.

Citizens Against Government Waste  calls her “Hostile to Taxpayers.”   The NationalTaxpayers Union gives her an “F” a failing grade that places her in the "Big Spender" category.

The Club for Growth ranks her at 435^th out of 435 members of the House, dead last in her votes for a pro-growth economy without which we cannot generate the taxes to pay for her spending.  Mind you, she’s not alone in the basement –along with her are many other anti-growth members: in Florida alone there’s Wasserman-Schultz, Hastings, Castor, Deutch and my Rep., Lois Frankel. Don't forget Sen. Nelson.  

But she’s not just wild left-wing spender and regulator. Her tenure abounds with legal and ethical problems. Just a few from Wikipedia:

• ·        Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington reported that Brown's daughter Shantrel Brown-Fields was a congressional lobbyist, a conflict of interest.. In 2006, Brown's campaign committee paid her daughter's husband, Tyree Fields, $5,500 for political consulting work. Rep. Brown has earmarked millions of dollars in federal funding for her daughter's client Edward Waters College and for other of her daughter’s clients.
• ·        The Federal Election Commission admonished Brown and her campaign treasurer quit after he discovered that his name had been forged on her campaign reports. The staffer alleged to have forged the treasurer's signature stayed with Brown and as of 1998 was her chief of staff.^[19]
• ·        She violated the House Gift Rule when her daughter received a luxury automobile when Rep. Brown used her influence to get her friend, Gambian millionaire named Foutanga Sissoko, released from prison where he was serving time for bribing a customs officer.
•  ·         Last month, Corinne Brown and her chief of staff, Elias "Ronnie" Simmons, pleaded not  guilty to a 24 count federal indictment in relation to One Door for Education Foundation Inc.,^[32] which federal prosecutors allege was supposed to give scholarships to underprivileged students, but instead acted as the personal slush fund for Brown and her associates totaling $800,000, much of which was deposited in cash to Brown's personal bank accounts.

There’s a lot more on Rep. Brown that argues for the term limits amendment to the U.S. Constitution but let me close with this recent email from U.S. Term Limits:

   True to form, another career politician in Congress is preparing to be indicted on federal charges. These elected officials just can't seem to keep their hands out of the cookie jar.
   This time it's 12-term Florida Congresswoman Corrine Brown. Brown frequently runs unopposed for re-election or wallops her only opponent by 30-40 points. Her district was one of the most gerrymandered in America before a judge ordered its "bizarre shape" be redrawn.
   Now Brown will face charges regarding "One Door for Education," a fraudulent charity which raised $800,000 for education, then only disbursed one student scholarship for $1,000. Meanwhile, the charity's money was spent on lavish parties in Washington, D.C. and luxury skyboxes at NFL games. Lifestyles of the rich and elected, apparently.
   According to the Florida Politics blog, Brown will continue to serve in Congress while under indictment. They cite a 2014 report by the congressional research service saying "there are no federal statutes or rules of the House of Representatives that directly affect the status of a Member of Congress who has been indicted for a crime that constitutes a felony."
   This raises a question for the American people: Why do members of Congress only leave office on occasion of indictment, retirement or even death? That is evidence of a broken system which protects the powerful and excludes everybody else. It must be fixed.
   If Corrine Brown had faced the six-year term limit prescribed by the U.S. Term Limits amendment, she would have left the House of Representatives in 1999. Instead, she was given 17 more years to build power within the system and connections with special interests outside of it.
   We need to clean up the corrupt mess in D.C. as soon as possible. It will require a grassroots army of volunteers pressuring state legislators to pass resolutions for the Term Limits Convention. 
   Are you ready to join this grassroots army to fight for term limits? Sign our Super Activist Sign-up Form by clicking HERE.

Thanks for your support,
                                     Phil Blumel, President
                                     U.S. Term Limits

Your Typical Career Politician. Or, why we have a $18+ trillion debt

(updated 2/5/12 re term limit amendment vote.) Clarence William "Bill" Nelson is the senior U.S. Senator from Florida, (my home state since 1973). As most of our Posters, he is a lawyer having obtained his law degree in 1968 after which he went to work for then governor Reubin Askew. He was elected to the House of Representatives for six terms from 1972 to 1991 and ran for governor in 1990 and lost to Lawton Chiles. Then he ran for Treasurer and Insurance Commissioner in Florida and won two terms before running for the U.S. Senate where he has been ever since. Again, fitting the poster profile in not having any real life experience in the productive private sector. When one spends his entire adult life in politics one becomes adept at getting reelected and, of course, for a professional politician that is Job #1.

On 2/2/2012 on the vote to limit the terms of congress it is telling that the senators who voted against term limits have been in the Senate for an average of 13.6 years compared to just 6.4 years for those who support them. The longer people are in Congress, the more power they get, and the more they lose touch with the voters who elected them. See how your Senator voted: www.senateconservatives.com/site/votes/112/2/11?c=5R4F2B4F9B3A137 hint: All Democrats but Joe Manchin of WV voted AGAINST the reform even though they know full well that a super-majority of their constituents are in favor of term limits.


Now, at age 68 he is running again for another 6-year term. His voting record has generally been down the Democrat Party line over 93% of the votes with some exceptions for local political realities. One exception is his more recent vote for elimination of the estate tax (after having voted for the tax in previous years) given the senior-heavy demographic of Florida --seniors don’t want half of their estates taken by FedGov. Of course, it has yet to be repealed. Nelson supports continued restrictions on Cuba as Florida has a huge Cuban exile population.

Five Senators up for reelection in 2012, including Nelson, sent a public letter to VP Biden asking him to reaffirm his commitment to leaving Medicare unchanged in his negotiations with the bipartisan negotiators on the budget. They did this to impress (read: fool) their voters knowing full well that the ObamaCare that they themselves voted for just a few months before cuts over $500 billion from Medicare, raiding Medicare to fund Obamacare. Honesty is just another casualty of Job #1 –getting reelected. Reelection efforts take precedence over all for, by the reasoning of a career pol, “how can I continue to help the people if I don’t get reelected?”

The non-partisan National Taxpayers Union has given him an “F” in all but one year when he earned a “D” placing him firmly in their “Big Spender” category. Our Poster Children most of whom are in that category are the main reason we have a $14 trillion debt and $zillions more in unfunded liabilities. Another non-partisan organization, the Club for Growth, confirms NTU’s rating by giving Nelson a 13% lifetime score, near the bottom for voting consistently against pro-growth policies regarding spending, taxes, regulations, free trade and legal reform. Citizens Against Government Waste gives Nelson a lowly 18% “Hostile to Taxpayers” lifetime rating for wasteful spending. Clearly, it is the professional politician that has put our country in the dire financial and overall economic position we find ourselves in today.

Votes and ratings on other issues:
• Rated 100% by NARAL for his aggressive support for abortion.
• Voted for TARP, so-called Stimulus bills and against paying down the debt and against a modest $40 bil reduction in overall spending.
• Rated 89% by the HRC, indicating a pro-gay-rights stance.
• Rated 86% by the NAACP, indicating a pro-affirmative-action stance.
• Rated 91% by the NEA, indicating pro-union education votes and opposition to school vouchers and for greater FedGov spending and control of education.
• Consistently votes against domestic energy production; for cap and trade tax plans; for global warming restrictions on the economy; Voted YES on reducing oil usage by 40% by 2025.
• Rated 79% by the LCV, indicating pro-environment votes. Voted for Cash for Clunkers. Fund projects for international conservation of cranes. (Sure, why not –China will loan us the money.)
• Rated 16% by the Christian Coalition: an anti-Family-Value voting record.
• Rated 33% by CATO, indicating a mixed record on trade issues.
• Voted NO on requiring photo ID to vote in federal elections. Voted NO on require photo ID (not just signature) for voter registration. (Why do you suppose?)
• Opposes Second Amendment rights to gun ownership.
• Supports More Federal Funding for Health Coverage. Rated 100% by APHA, indicating a pro-government health record.
• Voted YES on reauthorizing the PATRIOT Act.
• Voted YES on continuing federal funds for declared "sanctuary cities".
• Voted to restrict employer “interference” in union organizing; eliminate the secret ballot for employees on joining a union (for “card check”); raise the minimum wage to $7.25/hr.
• Voted No to confirm Samuel Alito and Yes to confirm Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court.
• Social Security: Opposes efforts to partially privatize; Voted NO on establishing reserve funds & pre-funding for Social Security.

Our point, as always, is the fact that the longer one is in the Congress, the more he will vote to expand the size and scope of the federal government because he is responding to special interests that support his tenure by contributing to his election campaigns. Each special interest has got to get its way which usually means special favors from FedGov such as tax breaks, subsidies, mandates –whatever. That relationship explains our multi-million word tax code and the uncountable regulations imposed on all segments of society.

It needs to end and term limits on Congress is one reform that is most effective as proven by the limits already on many other levels of government throughout the country. Go here to support the proposed congressional term limit Constitutional Amendment: www.termlimits.org