Lobbyist-paid travel
9 trips at $48,294 -- Obey never travels without family members. See
at:
http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/congtravel/member_report.php?member=7246
The issue is not where he went, but who paid for it. If it is truly an official trip the taxpayers should pay for it and the spouse doesn't need to go along. For every dollar the taxpayers pay for these trips we will save $100 in special-interest giveaways.
US Public Interest Group gives Obey 82% acceptance
See http://www.pirg.org/score2003/wisconsin.html (Note that the top screen scrolls through the issues Obey was graded on)
Permanent Estate Tax
Incumbent voted AGAINST the Estate Tax Relief Act (i.e., eliminating the Paris Hilton tax), which will shift taxes from the wealthy to the middle class.
Line Item Veto
Incumbent voted to oppose the line item veto
(6/22/2006): Follow the dominoes and you’ll see that the campaign bribes that
went to congressmen to get the pork inserted in the first place,
will just be duplicated for the president so the pork is not vetoed
when signed. Unless, of course, you are already a political briber
of the right persuasion, then it’s a shoo-in. They say things will
have to get much worse before they get better, and the line item
veto will clearly make things much worse. It will give voters the
false sense that things are being fixed when it is just increasing
the cash flow in an already corrupt political system. It is a
misconception that ‘bad’ things will get vetoed and ‘good’ things
left in. It will be just the opposite. In Wisconsin we saw Governor
Doyle veto 95% of the words in a bill and the remaining words
transfer funding from road construction to schools. I prefer that
particular end
result but am appalled by the tactic. This not only violates the
separation of powers doctrine but is also a terrible abuse of power. No, the real solution is to
get private money out of the public electoral system altogether, and
then the legislature will do the right thing in the first place and
a line item veto would not be needed.
Project Vote-Smart Rating
Ratings by Interest Groups: http://www.vote-smart.org/issue_rating_category.php?can_id=H4320103
Votes by Category: http://www.vote-smart.org/voting_category.php?can_id=H4320103