I continue to be impressed with how Grier Raggio is taking the fight to our area's out-of-touch Taliban congressman, Pete $e$$ion$ (TX-32).
In his campaign website, Raggio delivered a stinging attack on $e$$ion$' record of responsiveness only to large corporations while turning a deaf ear on the needs of average folks like myself.
More below.
The latest instance of how aggressive Raggio is willing to be in taking on $e$$ion$' pathetic record is in his latest news release regarding President Obama's fight for financial regulatory reform.
From Raggio's campaign web site:
Wall Street Counting on Sessions to Derail Financial Regulatory Reform
Raggio: "Sessions’latest FEC report underscores his resistance to financial reform."
Dallas, TX -- The latest campaign finance report reports for the 1st quarter of 2010 were made available today and Pete Sessions’ report shows he took over $371,600 from Wall Street bankers. Sessions’ contributions include $2,000 from Citigroup, which still hasn’t repaid the bail out money it was lent in 2008.
Time and time again, Sessions has sided with Wall Street banks over Texas families. Sessions voted against the financial regulation reform bill in the House in December 2009 yet voted for the TARP bailout of banks like Citibank and Bank of America, which cost taxpayers $700 billion dollars.
"How can Pete Sessions justify to the people of the 32nd congressional district voting to bail-out bad lenders like Citibank, then voting against reforms that would regulate these bad actors, keep them from doing it again and save taxpayers billions," questioned Grier Raggio, Democratic nominee for the 32nd congressional district. "Pete Sessions is the poster child of what is wrong in Washington today," continued Raggio.
The Raggio release continues:
"After 14 years, Pete Sessions has ‘gone Washington’ and is more focused on helping his cronies and special interests than Texas families. As your Congressman, I’ll make the banks, insurance companies and special interests take a back seat and focus on growing our economy and getting our budget under control," said Raggio.
With our economy just starting to recover from our worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, you'd think $e$$ion$ would have more than a few things to say on his $e$$ion$websites, but what does he say.
Instead of addressing the financial crisis caused by eight years of Republican policies, much of them passed during the six years the GOP controlled both the White House and Congress, $e$$ions chose instead to repeat the outright lie about how our president and Congress raised taxes on average folks.
From $e$$ion$' $e$$ion$' web site:
"Today the American people are facing Tax Day with more dread and uncertainty than ever before. Thanks to their profligate tax-and-spend agenda, Democrats are turning civic tax obligations into full-scale financial nightmares, already enacting nearly $700 Billion in tax hikes.
"At a time when millions of Americans remain jobless, President Obama and Democrats in Congress continue to pummel the free enterprise system with job-killing tax increases and onerous mandates. And despite promises to not raise taxes on the middle class, President Obama has already enacted at least 14 middle-class tax increases.
"Even with this enormous taxation, Democrats’ big-government spending agenda will still make our national debt reach 90% of GDP by 2020. This is simply unsustainable. If the American people behaved like their government, they would be bankrupt and prosecuted long ago. Yet today the American people dutifully fill the treasury of a shamefully fiscally-irresponsible government.
"Along with the American people, I will continue to stand up to Democrats’ policies for fiscal ruin. It’s past time to return to our nation’s principles of success: smaller government, limited taxation, individual liberty, and the free enterprise system. The American people deserve better."
$e$$ion$ may be good at using Frank Luntz buzz words to try to scare folks in his district into keeping him into office, but not only has he demonstrated that he is out of touch with the facts (like the 95 percent of us who got tax cuts from our President and Congress), but he has demonstrated his willingness to show compassion to his Wall Street and other big business contributors even when they conflict with the needs of average folks like me who live in his district.
We need someone who will fight for us and not for big business and failed Republican policies, and I'm glad Grier Raggio has decided to take the fight to our area's Taliban congressman.
I sure hope Grier gets the resources he will need to keep campaigning hard in my district and spread his word through TV and radio ads.