Wisconsin Clean Elections Coalition

Promoting fair elections for all parties and independents

eNewsletter #8
(April 1, 2006)

This is a periodic newsletter on election and health care reform. If you wish not to receive it please unsubscribe at the bottom and accept my apologies for the intrusion.

In this issue:

1)  Citizens Against Government Waste

2) Where are business leaders when you really need them?

3) Upcoming Events

4) Tidbits

5) Obey-Frank gets dumped on (and rightfully so)

6) Sensenbrenner's Latest Free Trip

7) Book recommendations

8)     Contact Information

9)     Removal instructions


Please do not respond to this email address. It is used for cleanup purposes only. Please use jlohman@execpc.com

 

1

Citizens Against Government Waste 

Citizens Against Government Waste has done a super job of tracking the wasteful spending of our US congressmen, and I would encourage you to check out their web site at http://www.cagw.org/site/VoteCenter?page=congScorecard&congress=108&location=H&lcmd=state-desc&lcmd_cf= (this link gets you to the page with the individual ratings for Wisconsin reps).

For those interested in just the numbers, they have scored them as follows:

US Representative

% Satisfactory

Sensenbrenner, F. James (R)     

          95%

Ryan, Paul (R)

          93%

Green, Mark (R)

          83%

Petri, Thomas (R)

          73%

Kind, Ron (D)

          21%

Klecka, Jerry (D)

          12%

Baldwin, Tammy (D)

          10%

Obey, David (D)

           5%



 

 

 

 

 

But I caution you on simply accepting the above numbers, for several reasons:

1) This seems to be a conservative site. You may not agree with CAGW on what they call good votes versus bad votes, and you really should log on and see how your representative specifically voted on a particular issue and whether or not you agree with that vote.

2) Most certainly, if government has grown by 10% under Bush and his Republicans, versus 3% in all of Clinton's years, the Republicans that fare so well here are doing something wrong elsewhere.

3) The above scores have nothing to do with ethics issues, and I'd probably reverse the order on those.

4) Their votes can be very misleading. My representative (Sensenbrenner) often votes against spending bills when he knows he can without costing the Republicans their win. He was one of only eight that voted against the transportation bill because there was "too much pork in it," and there was. But you can bet your last dollar that if his vote was needed for passage and a Republican win, he would have voted for it. Thus in many cases they are simply grandstanding votes. (Feingold did the same on the original PATRIOT Act that passed 99-to-1, where he was the lone dissenter.)

Another example is where Sensenbrenner gave constituents the impression that he opposed CAFTA because it would cost American jobs, but he voted for it anyway because his was one of two votes needed to make it a Republican win.

2
Where are business leaders when we really need them?
Small Business Times, March 31, 2006   

Employee health care is a major business expense that closes down some companies, causes others to outsource manufacturing, and still others to relocate toCanada where medical costs are just $800 per year per employee versus our $6500.  GM is doing it; so is Ford. There are more Big Three autos being made in Ontario today than in Detroit. Over 60,000 US jobs lost in this industry alone.

But otherwise good businessmen still fall for the well-orchestrated rhetoric of the health care industry. Understand this very clearly: OF COURSE the health care interests do not want to see a Canadian-style system that would eat into this profitable market. Why else the stories about how bad the Canadian system is, even when it is not bad at all. What does it tell you when over 90% of Canadians prefer their system to ours? Point made.

<snip>

See the complete article at www.ThrowTheRascalsOut.org/Small_Biz_Times_March31_2006.htm

3
Upcoming Events  

Grassroots Citizens of Wisconsin:See this and other announcements at www.GrassrootsWisc.com

Thursday April 6,  7 p.m.   CANDIDATE LISTENING SESSIONS (MINERAL POINT)Steve Hilgenberg, candidate for the 51st Assembly District, and John Simonson, candidate for the 17th Senate District, will hold joint listening sessions  on Apr. 6, 7 p.m. at the Comfort Inn in Mineral Point.  The public is invited to attend and bring any concerns, ideas and questions for the candidates.  Call 608-935-3509 for further information.  Refreshments provided.

 

 

4
Tidbits

 

Join the movement for National Universal Health Care at www.HealthCare-Now.org . Their bill is H.R. 676 by US Rep. John Conyers (D). The bill summary is at  http://www.healthcare-now.org/printsummarytest.html  and you can sign up for their monthly newsletter on either of these two pages: As a volunteer on www.healthcare-now.org/hearings.php?sid=3&subid=9 or sign the petition at http://www.healthcare-now.org/petition.php?sid=3&subid=11

WDC did it again with their latest report at http://www.wisdc.org/pr032706.php. I am taking donations to buy a remote car starter for Mike McCabe.

www.ThrowTheRascalsOut.org is up and running but in its early stages. It will fatten as more challengers enter the field.

Scott Jensen Resigns, leaves office early -- See complete story at:http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=408007

 

Steve Foti received a 60 day sentence and when released will go back to his job lobbying his state buddies.

Scott Walker could have enjoyed a fair, competitive governor's race had he only pushed through Clean Money Clean Elections while he was in the state legislature. Now he must clearly know how it feels to be on the short end of the money stick. Sorry Scott. You could have been leading the pack rather than on the outside looking in.

Grassroots groups to follow: www.GrassrootsNorthshore.org and  www.GrassrootsWaukesha.org and www.GrassrootsWisc.com. Get involved, start a group in your area if one does not already exist. Next issue I will be listing all grassroots groups and their contacts. If your group should be listed make sure I have the web address, email and contact info.

Also from WDC, an interesting web site political thought see http://www.americanvoice2004.org/f actoids/index.html Among the factoids you'll find: The most current available figures put the average salary of a state legislator in America at $30,300. The average amount spent lobbying one is $130,000. The number of federal income tax filers who paid nothing grew from 29.9 million in 2000 to 44 million in 2004. Roughly 45% of households own at least one gun today, compared with less than 10% that owned a gun during the Revolutionary War.

Victory For K Street , by David Donnelly, TomPaine.com
The lobbying reform bill passed by the Senate does almost nothing to prevent the next Jack Abramoff or Tom DeLay. 
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/03/31/victory_for_k_street.php

 

 

5

Obey-Frank gets dumped on, and rightfully so....


We announced the new Obey-Frank bill in an earlier eNewsletter, but it has come under scrutiny by several groups because it would be virtually impossible for a challenger to receive a competitive amount of money.

 

The best comments can be seen on Mark Schmitt's Blog: It's Campaign Money, Not Lunch

The problem of lobbying is obviously not a matter of who pays for lunch, but who pays for politics. So I welcome those politicians, almost exclusively Democrats, who have pointed this out and acknowledged that changing the way we finance campaigns is the most essential reform that will end the culture of corruption. I have a slightly idiosyncratic take on that, which I"ll get to shortly, but in the meantime, I want to gripe about how out of touch even the very best Democrats are with what can really be done to free politics from the distortions of money. Reps. Dave Obey and Barney Frank (the very smartest and most capable Dems) this week announced they would introduce the "Grassroots Clean Campaign Act,"

See the complete and excellent comments at : http://markschmitt.typepad.com/decembrist/2006/01/its_campaign_mo.html

Green Party criticisms at http://www.gp.org/press/pr_2006_02_09.shtml

Libertarian Party calls it the Incumbent Protection Bill at http://www.lp.org/media/article_284.shtml

 

The better bill by Rep John Tierney (D-MA) can be found at  http://thomas.loc.gov. Enter Clean Money Clean Elections in the search box and click on H.R. 3099 for its full description.

 

 

 

The earlier link I sent on the Obey press release was: http://tinyurl.com/k973d

And the details at: http://tinyurl.com/fpjeb

6

Sensenbrenner's Latest Free Trip

3/31/2006

If this was official business it should have been funded by the taxpayers, not the lobbyists that seek legislation regulated by his Judiciary committee. He certainly won't vote for lobbyist reform and travel laws that he is in violation of. The big question: What did he give away for this? By common standards it had to be at least 100 times the value of the trip, but more like 1000.

 

Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr. and his spouse Cheryl received a free trip to Liechtenstein and Germany from February 18-24, 2006. The $11,957.43 trip was paid for by the International Management and Development Institute. Rep. Sensenbrenner's travel form indicated the purpose of the trip was to "meet with officials regarding counterterrorism, homeland security, trade, technology, judicial affairs, foreign policy and agriculture."

Rep. Sensenbrenner has made the same trip in 2004 and 2005. Rep. Sensenbrenner's privately funded trips from 2000-2005 cost a total of $191,218 and ranks him number one amongst Members of Congress according to our database of Travel - Privately Paid. Sensenbrenner is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee that has jurisdiction over two sections of the House lobbying bill. Section 201 deals with notification of post-employment restrictions, and Section 303 deals with prohibiting registered lobbyists on corporate flights. Source: http://www.politicalmoneyline.com/

7
Book Recommendations

Read the reviews on www.amazon.com

 

Inequality Matters: The Growing Economic Divide in America and its Poisonous Consequences 

Edited by James Lardner and David A. Smith  (ISBN: 1565849957)
A series of articles on the issues of the Left, but many will be very compelling even to those on the Right.

 

America the Broke: How the Reckless Spending of the White House and Congress are Bankrupting Our Country and Destroying Our Children's Future
by Gerald J. Swanson (ISBN: 0385513046)
Excellent description of the symptoms but fails to connect the dots to the politicians and their contributors.

 

8
Contact information

Lohman is a retired business owner in Colgate WI and volunteers’ time on the issues of Election reform and Universal health care -

 

Contact: Jack E. Lohman

jlohman@execpc.com or jelohman@charter.net

Phone 414-477-8686 (cell)

www.WiCleanElections.org

www.wi-cfr.org

www.SmokeFreeDining.net

 

9
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