Well, its time for a
REPORT CARD, and the ratings are out. Vito Fossella, the only Republican incumbent in NYC, unfortunately, gets a ton of
failing grades in key areas of Government 101:
KIDS - He gets an 11% Rating from the Children's Defense Fund
SENIORS - He gets an 10% Rating for 2005, a 9% lifetime score from The Alliance for Retired Americans
VETS - Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans Association just released their grade on Fossella, a C+, and the Disabled American Veterans group gave him a 66% (also, about a C+)
LABOR UNIONS - Almost every single Union fails Vito - 2006 Service Employees Union gave him 11%, Governmeent Employees Union 15%, Boilermakers 25%, in 2005 the UAW gave him 20%, AFL-CIO 23%. in 2004 Postal Workers 43%, in 2005 Machinists Union and the State/County/Municipal Workers BOTH gave O%, in 2005, and the Electrical Workers gave him a 30% in 2003/4 (not all Unions do yearly ratings).
Full documentation to support all this, below the fold . . .
DOESN'T PLAY WELL WITH OTHERS . . .
Most people in Fossella's district are either
Seniors, Kids, Vets, or Union members, or are closely connected to someone who is - heck, both my brothers are Union members, and so was I (until President Bush stocked the NLB - National Labor Board - with cronies who voted to revoke their previous ruling requiring my previous employer to recognize our union . . . ).
So, if he's not fighting for us, then who's this guy fighting for?? (ok, here's a hint - The New York Daily News did a recent 8pg expo on his ties to people like Abramaoff, Delay, Hastert, questionable skiing trips, he was recently fined $60,000 for misuse of funds, etc. Oh, and he refuses to give back a $10,000 campaign contribution from Mr. Delay himself . . . )
Now, don't get me wrong, I don't think Vito really dislikes all these people on a personal level, but business is business when it comes to being a Republican. So, just like we all got report cards in school, well, its time for Vito to get one, based on his votes . . .
And just like when parents come to Parent-Teacher conferences and ask for
specific grades to backup why their child didn't do so well, if we democrats are gonna take Vito to school, well, we need some data to back it all up. So, here's the data for y'all, to make sure this report card is legit:
VITO'S FAILING GRADES:
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VITO'S VOTES AGAINST KIDS: According to the 2005 Children Defense Fund Action Council's Non-Partisan Report 'Did Your Member of Congress Protect Children?'," Mr. Fossella Scores 11%. A copy of the report can be found here. But here's some salient votes
1) Fossella voted AGAINST reducing tax cuts on wealthy americans in an ammendment which would have increased spending on education, health care, low-income programs, and veterans health care (RCV#82/H.Com Res. 95)
2) Voted FOR limiting discretionary spending on Head Start, child abuse prevention, and juvenile justice, cut 34.7 billion from funding guaranteed for poor children, cut $10 billion from Medicaid, oh, and snuck in $70 billion in tax cuts (and though the document doesn't state who its for, I somehow doubt it goes too those low-income families whose benefits just got cut). (RCV#149, H.Con.Res.95)
3) Fossella voted FOR the final 2005 budget which cut $39.7 billlion ove 5 yrs from a range of programs for children, seniors, the disabled, students loan programs, and Medicaid. (S 1932, RCV#670)
4) Fossella voted AGAINST a law requiring anyone in DC to keep their firearm unloaded and trigger locked unless in place of business and or approved recreational settting. (HR 3058/RCV#349)Why would ANYONE vote against this, unless they were trying to gain points with Charleton Heston??
5) Fossella voted FOR allowing religious based charities who run Head Start programs to be able to discriminate in regard to who they hire based on religion. Are you kidding me? (RCV#492, HR 2123).
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VITO'S VOTES AGAINST SENIORS:
Wish we could get some info on Vito from the AARP, but he declined to fill out their questionaire - unlike Steve Harrison, who filled it out in full. Why? Because Vito was FOR Bush's Social Security Fiasco, oh, until he learned most of his district was against it, then changed his mind, and sent a letter to all his constituents saying he was NEVER for it. Riiiiiiight.
But, if we don't have a rating from the largest senior's rights group, let's look at what the The Alliance for Retired Americans Report has to say - their Congressional Voting Records for 2005 gives Fossella a 10% rating for 2005. Here's some good ones:
1) Vito voted FOR cuts to programs in the Depts of Labor, HHS, and Education that affected health care, Medicare, Medicaid, medical research provisions - also included in this package bill was a scrapping of the Older American Act. (HR 3010, RCN 598)
2) Voted to cut Medicad (HR 4241, RCN 601)
3) Voted to NOT CONDEMN the Medicare Part D program as part of a 'culture of corruption' in the House, as called for by Rep. Pelosi (HR 591, RCN 622).
4) Voted AGAINST a bill that would make it more difficult for companies to declare bankruptcy as a way to avoid paying pensions (HR 2830, RCN 634)
5) Voted FOR an omnibus budget bill with $39.7 billion dollars in cuts, much of it on programs for the elderly, poor, and disabled. This bill also allowed States to be able to force Medicaid to require higher premiums, deductibles, and copayments from seniors, regardless of their ability to pay. (S 1932, RCN 670)
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VITO'S VOTES AGAINST VETERANS:
As has been widely discussed, Fossella just recieved a C+ rating from the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans Association, the largest group of its type. This is particularly odd, since Fossella is all about 'supporting the troops', at least if you listen to his rhetoric. Now, the Disabled American Veterans gave him a slightly better rating, a 66%, but considering that the vast majority of the NYS delegation got a 100%, and only 2 scored lower, its still pretty pathetic. Still, the first one is much more shocking. While I found the list of legistlation on both these web sites a bit more difficult to follow, you've got the links if you're industrious. But it seems that Fossella voted, amongst other things, AGAINST TRICARE health care benefits (though I'm not sure exactly what that means) for reservists (and aren't they doing a lot of the fighting in Iraq/Afghanistan?).
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VITO'S VOTES AGAINST LABOR UNIONS:
So, most of my stats came from the page on Fossella at Project Vote Smart. It has the ratings by a series of labor organizations, and links to all of their ratings for the Congressman. But let's take one particular Union as a case in point. I chose the AFL-CIO, one of the biggest, and their ranking system. They gave Vito a 20% for this year (2005). So, what were some good examples of Vito's votes:
1) Vito voted AGAINST reversing the Dept of Labor's recent policy of giving Wal-Mart, which has been accused of using child labor and having wage-hour violations, 15 days advance notice of when they are going to get inspected. Basically, Fossella voted for keeping the 15 day 'warning' so they could clean up the evidence. THIS BILL LETS WAL-MART HIDE ANY CHILD LABOR ABUSES IT HAS - AND VITO VOTED FOR THIS?! (HR 3010)
2) AMTRACK - Vito voted to basically cut almost all federal funding for Amtrack in HR 3058 - luckily, he didn't get his way, and the bill was changed via ammendment.
3) Vito voted to weaken workplace safety OHSA regulations by weakening oversight capabilities (HR 742)
BUT, there's lots more, just go to each union's webpage . . .
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OVERALL REPORT CARD: Vito Fossella, Government 101
CHILDREN: F
SENIORS: F
VETERANS: (well, since a 66% is about a C+, which he then has two of) C+
UNIONS: (seeing as his Union ratings average to about 20%, that's about, oh, something really low) F
Oh, and I think we've gotta ad a special category or two, based on some of these votes:
VOTING FOR EVEN MINIMAL GUN PROTECTION IN THE NATION'S CAPITAL: F
VOTING TO HELP STOP CHILD LABOR AT WALMART: F
VOTING TO STOP RELIGIOUS DISCRIMINATION IN HEAD START PROGRAMS: F
Well, if he were my student, I don't think Vito's got passing grades . . .
OK, SO VITO FAILS, WHAT NOW??:
We need to make this report card KNOWN. If you live in the district, write The Staten Island Advance, the largest local daily, or, The New York Times. Write anyone who'll listen.
BUT, as Tom Wrobleski, political columnist from the Staten Island Advance has argued on his blog:
But the best way to measure if the tide is indeed turning against Fossella is if the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and other high-caliber, off-Island donors start contributing to Harrison's effort.
So, CALL THE DCCC and DNC and tell them to give Steve some money!!! I'm currently working to get the debates on local Cable Access channels, because as anyone who was there knows, Fossella went down in flames, constituents are hopin' mad, and Harrison was on fire. But now we need to make sure the district knows just how ANTI CHILDREN, ANTI-SENIOR, ANTI-VET, and ANTI-UNION Fossella is, let them know what a great candidate Steve is (we need volunteers for phonebanking at lit dropping!), and GET THE DCCC to give some cash!!!
If you want to volunteer, contact the campaign at their website, and if you can spare any cash, please help Steve out on ActBlue. Steve is a candidate who has strong progressive values. Let's make this happen!