Because His Era has Passed

There was a time when America's world dominance could more than adequately compensate for her leaders' imprudence.  Politicians could essentially give their constituents whatever they wanted.  Pork was for dinner, and the pigs were fat!  Times are different now, but the incumbent is unfazed, voting FOR such things as an extraordinarily ill-conceived health care law, a $2.4 trillion "clean" debt ceiling increase, multiple versions of unfunded short-term stimulus, bailouts, mandates, regulations, and prohibition of the incandescent light bulb, while voting AGAINST such things as free trade agreements with our closest world allies; a higher bar to pass deficit spending; repealing  irresponsible federal healthcare reforms like the CLASS Act and the IPAB; selling excess government buildings and land; and a multitude of sensible solutions for sustaining America's safety net, including a lifetime pledge to never re-examine Social Security's benefits formula.  He is a party leadership puppet who puts his coveted committee assignment ahead of the interests of his constituents. 

Dutch is also the infamous county executive who sought to apply "eminent domain" as a means of condemning the private residential property of some of his middle income constituents in Essex-Middle River in order to give his cronies a place to build their waterfront recreational complex.  It was called Senate Bill 509.  It was beyond the pale.  Fortunately, he was defeated; but his true colors were forever exposed.

We also cannot afford two more years of the incumbent’s insatiable appetite for government spending.  During his decade-long tenure, he has proven over and over again that he is part of the problem in Washington and not part of the solution. 

When it comes to taxes and spending, Ruppersberger has earned a failing grade.  Our incumbent has failed to control spending.  Club for Growth, an organization that monitors pro-growth and limited government polices, recently rated Mr. Ruppersberger’s 2011 voting record 419^th out of 435.  His votes corresponded with the Club’s one percent of the time…one percent.  Here are his most recent ratings:

• National Taxpayers Union (2010):  6%
• Citizens Against Government Waste (2009):  2%
• Americans for Tax Reform (2007):  5%
• National Tax Limitation Committee (2007-2008):  3%
• Club for Growth (2011):  1%

Right now, thanks to representatives like Dutch Ruppersberger, America’s fiscal road is taking us right to Greece…  As the only Republican candidate with a plan to cut spending, I am the best person to take him on in November. 

We're talking about our children, our grandchildren, and the future of this country as we go forward in a hotly competitive international environment.  Until very recently, we didn't have China and Brazil and India, and oil was at a manageable price.  The world is different now, and the incumbent doesn't understand it.  His time has come...his era has passed.

Dutch's Top 21 Disappointing Decisions

Why 21?  We had to stop somewhere…

1.  Voted FOR a “clean” $2.4 trillion increase in America’s credit limit (May 2011):   No single action better illustrates Dutch’s blissful ignorance regarding America’s single biggest threat -- its ever-increasing national debt.  Dutch has no desire to face, much less make, the tough choices our looming fiscal crisis requires.  He is a clear and present danger to our children and grandchildren.

2.  Voted FOR the President’s Health Care Takeover (March 2010):  Flopped position in eleventh hour to cast key vote to attain the slim and purely partisan majority for arguably one of the most ill-conceived and misguided pieces of major legislation ever enacted by the U.S. Congress.

3.  Voted FOR “Cap and Trade” (June 2009):  In a world where China, India and the other “non-OECD” countries emit far higher quantities of greenhouse gases than America, Dutch nonetheless wanted to make America the world’s martyr by intentionally raising every American’s energy costs.

4.  Voted FOR the Stimulus Bill (January 2009):  Borrowing $787 billion to purchase sugary sweets for special interest groups is not how one improves the foundations of a weak economy.  Taken alone, Dutch’s complicity in this fiasco is enough to warrant his removal from Congress.

5.  Voted AGAINST requiring 60% majorities to pass deficit spending (November 2011):  Congress should spend the people’s money the same way the people do -- they should take pause before borrowing money to pay for something, and make sure its really needed, not just wanted. 

6.  Voted AGAINST reversing the President’s moratorium on offshore oil exploration (May 2011):  Refused to help advance American energy independence by denying governors the right to approve exploration leases in portions of the outer continental shelf that lie off their states’ shores

7.  Voted AGAINST instituting basic health care tort reforms and eliminating the IPAB (March 2012):  Refused to fix the “Affordable” Care Act’s worst omission (tort reform) and its worst inclusion (the Independent Payment Advisory Board).  Dutch is clearly more interested in protecting his special interests than in pursuing constructive improvements to America’s health care system.

8.  Voted AGAINST sensible regulatory reform (December 2011):  Opposed requiring congressional hearings for all Executive regulations projected to lower America’s GDP by more than $1 billion per year.  Dutch simply isn’t interested in addressing America’s onerous regulatory regime.

9.  Voted FOR preserving baseline budgeting rules (February 2012):  Opposed sensible reforms to an often exploited budgeting system where a “decrease in the increase” is portrayed as a “cut.”  Anyone truly serious about facing America’s debt readily understands why this system has to go…

10.  Voted AGAINST free trade agreements with three key allies (October 20ll - 1, 2, 3):  Revealed how clueless he is about our new global economy and the overwhelming net benefits of free trade* by voting to block bi-partisan, job-creating free trade agreements with three of America’s best (and highly strategic) friends -- Korea, Panama, and Colombia.

11.  Voted AGAINST making U.S. Healthcare more affordable (June 2012):  Showed himself to be a true disciple of the “Un-Affordable Care Act” by attempting to protect excise taxes on American made medical devices, limiting the medical expenses that private health savings accounts (HSAs) can cover, and more generally disincentivizing the use of HSAs by preserving their targeted taxation.

12.  Voted FOR “Cash for Clunkers” (June 2009):  Joined a slim majority eager to borrow billions of dollars to throw at a problem without any real understanding of what would happen when they did.  All this law “succeeded” in doing was destroying functional automobiles, accelerating purchases that were going to happen soon anyway, and adding billions to our national debt.

13.  Voted FOR providing the federal government broad latitude in detaining American citizens (December 2011):  The 2012 National Defense Authorization Act allows the federal government to indefinitely detain "associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners."  Such a phrase is way too vague, and threatens law-abiding Americans who may contact, even unknowingly, enemies (real or perceived) of a particular majority in power at the time.

14.  Voted AGAINST school choice in Washington, DC (March 2011):  Even with Washington, DC students ranked at the bottom of the nation in combined math and reading test scores, Dutch saw no good reason to provide some of the District’s least affluent families with credit vouchers to send their kids to high-quality, non-profit schools.  Really, Dutch -- really??

15.  Voted FOR outlawing domestic production of the incandescent light bulb (July 2011):  Openly displaying his core conviction that “Daddy-State Knows Best,” Dutch helped intentionally inject inefficiencies into our economy by removing a perfectly safe and desirable product from the market.  Energy ratings are one thing, but limiting consumer choice is another.  Partially thanks to Dutch, consumers are now limited to purchasing bulbs that cost more (per unit), harm the environment, and emit inferior quality light.

16.  Voted FOR preserving loopholes in Medicaid eligibility rules (October 2011):  Dedicated to keeping federal entitlement programs as large as possible, Dutch voted to stymie his colleagues’ responsible efforts to begin including Social Security income in the formula used to determine eligibility for Medicaid.  Fortunately, for all American taxpayers--both present and future--he failed.

17.  PROPOSED Senate Bill 509 to condemn viable property so his cronies could develop it (November 2000):  Dutch’s true colors shone brightly in this infamous attempt to run an “end-around” the residents of Essex-Middle River by getting the Maryland General Assembly to expand eminent domain powers so his friends could build a profitable waterfront recreational complex.  Today, it’s “déjà vu all over again” as some of these very same friends are pressing him to get Congress to deem historic Fort Howard a federal liability so they can build an oversized waterfront housing development on it that none of the neighbors support, and that the local infrastructure cannot accommodate.  It’s disgraceful.

18.  Voted FOR micro-managing the Intelligence Community’s funding priorities (May 2011):  Believing Congress knows best, Dutch supported a motion to supersede the IC’s classified Intelligence prioritization funding matrix and order all Intelligence agency heads to make battling al-Qaeda their top funding priority.  Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers was dismayed:  “What you are saying is cybersecurity [won’t be] as important. You think this is more important. That is not for us to determine.”  As it turned out, Iran, Syria, Egypt, Libya, China, Hezbollah, Hamas, North Korea, and “Yes,” cybersecurity, did in fact matter every bit as much -- maybe more.

19.  Voted FOR preserving the most fiscally irresponsible component of the “Affordable” Care Act -- the “CLASS ACT” (February 2012):  Dedicated to keeping federal entitlement programs as large as possible, Dutch voted to retain the one program within the ACA that even President Obama recognized had costs that were impossible to justify.  The President suspended it in October 2011.  Taking the next step, and removing it from public law would have locked in debt savings of $87 billion over the next decade.  But the thought of that was too much for Dutch -- he just couldn’t bring himself to do it…

20.  Voted AGAINST the Budget Control Act of 2011 (July 2011):  In the spirit of Dutch’s two-faced, empty rhetoric about controlling our deficit (which usually falls along the lines of, “everybody knows we need to cut our spending, I just think we need to be careful”), Dutch voted against instituting backstop measures such as sequestration for locking in agreed upon spending level cuts associated with raising our debt ceiling by $2.6 trillion.  No surprises here:  Dutch never wanted any limits placed on raising our debt ceiling in the first place (see #1).

21.  Voted AGAINST having the CBO calculate and break down the impacts of major legislation on GDP (February 2012):  Wholly in keeping with Dutch’s burning desire to keep his head buried as deeply in the sand as possible, the blissful ignorance that Dutch enjoys whenever he doesn’t know the details about how much he’s hurting his country is likely only matched by the joy he feels when he gets re-elected by his equally--and intentionally--ill-informed constituents.

* Net Benefits of Free Trade:  Trade gives companies and consumers access to cheap imports while providing exporters access to foreign markets.  Open global competition spurs innovation and accelerates the spread of new technologies.  According to economists at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, increased trade since World War II has added about 10 percent to American national income.