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NRSC Statement On Jon Tester’s Latest Fiscal Legacy – A $15 Trillion Debt

admin — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 22:54:16 +0000

Republicans Release New Video Highlighting Tester’s Reckless Spending AgendaWASHINGTON — When Senator Jon Tester first came to Washington in January 2007, the federal debt stood at $8.6 trillion – a figure which took over 200 years for our country to reach. Yet, just five years later, and particularly over the last three years as Tester has rubber-stamped nearly every major spending initiative proposed by President Obama, the federal debt has now hit the once-unfathomable mark of $15 trillion – a 74 percent increase, and more than $48,000 for every American man, woman and child.

To mark the United States Treasury reaching the $15 trillion debt mark today, and to highlight the massive spending by Senator Tester and President Obama that has led to this point, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) released a new web video – “$15,000,000,000,000…Siriously”

“As a candidate for the Senate in 2006, Jon Tester talked about the importance of fiscal responsibility, but since coming to Washington he and his fellow Democrats have used the federal treasury like their own personal credit card,” NRSC spokesman Chris Bond said today. “As he prepares to face Montana voters next year, Senator Tester will have to explain why he’s rubberstamped President Obama’s reckless spending agenda, including his failed stimulus and government health care bill, instead of focusing on creating jobs and growing our economy.”

Click Here To Watch The NRSC’s New Video

$15,000,000,000,000… Siriously

BACKGROUND….

THE NATIONAL DEBT HAS HIT THE $15 TRILLION MARK

The National Debt Is Now $15.0 Trillion Dollars. (US Department Of The Treasury, TreasuryDirect.gov, Accessed 11/16/11)

Since President Obama Took Office And Senate Democrats Rubberstamped His Spending Agenda, The National Debt Has Risen $4.4 Trillion, An Increase Of Over 41 Percent. (US Department Of The Treasury, TreasuryDirect.gov, Accessed 11/16/11)

HOW MUCH IS $15 TRILLION?

$15 Trillion Is More Than The Value Of All The Goods And Services Produced In The United States Last Year. (“Gross Domestic Product,” Bureau Of Economic Analysis, BEA.gov, Accessed 11/3/11)

In FY2010, The Bureau Of Engraving And Printing Produced $974 Million Worth Of Currency. At That Rate, It Would Take 15,400 Years To Print $15 Trillion. (“Annual Production Figures,” Bureau Of Engraving And Printing, Accessed 11/3/11)

· It Would Take The Average Household Over 300 Million Years To Pay Off The National Debt On Their Own.(Press Release, “Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2010,” US Census Bureau, 9/13/11)

To Pay Off $15 Trillion In Debt, The Federal Government Would Have To Devote Every Dollar Of Revenue To Paying Off The Debt For 6.5 Years. (“Monthly Budget Review,” Congressional Budget Office, 10/7/11)

In 2006, Tester Expressed Support For A Federal Balanced Budget

Tester: “Let’s Be Fiscally Responsible. Let’s Have A Fiscally Balanced Budget, Just Like We Do In The State Of Montana. We Don’t Deficit Spend Here, We Don’t Have To At The Federal Level.” TESTER: “My folks did not teach me to not have a fiscal balanced budget. It’s absolutely critical. . . . You cannot make the claim that you are not a borrower and spender, because you are. And I think that’s very sad. Because I am of the belief that you take care of your own self and you don’t pass your debts on to your kids. We’re passing an incredible debt on to our kids. . . . In my opening statement I talked about the kind of abilities and gifts we give our children to be successful, we’re saddling them with a debt of what is it . . . 45, 50 thousand dollars? That’s not right. Let’s be fiscally responsible. Let’s have a fiscally balanced budget, just like we do in the state of Montana. We don’t deficit spend here, we don’t have to at the federal level.” (Montana Senate Debate, Whitefish, MT, www.c-spanvideo.org, 6/25/06)

· Video Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95XYdyJ-ybQ

Tester: “I’m Not About To Put My Kids’ Future And Opportunity On The Line So I Can Spend Money Like A Drunken Sailor. I Am Going To Be Fiscally Responsible. And The Fact Is If You Would Support A Pay-As-You-Go In This Government, We Wouldn’t Be In A Situation Where We Have Every Man, Woman, And Child, And Child To Be Born With A $30,000 Debt.” (Montana Senate Debate, www.c-spanvideo.org, 10/12/06)

· Video Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlHE4FzuO2I

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Tester Flip-Flops, Sides With Obama & Reid To Move Ahead With Obama Stimulus

admin — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 16:08:19 +0000

Just Days Ago Said “We Shouldn’t Be Sending Billions Of Dollars In Bailout Aid To States,” But Voted Last Night To Do Just That

WASHINGTON — Despite declaring just ten days ago that “we shouldn’t be sending billions of dollars in bailout aid to states,” Democrat U.S. Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) flip-flopped last night, voting instead with Democrat Senate Leader Harry Reid and his fellow Senate liberals to send tens of billions of dollars to state governments in what Tester himself has dubbed a “bailout,” while raising taxes on families and small-business owners.

As Capitol Hill newspaper The Hill reports:

The first measure, a piece of President Obama’s larger jobs package, failed by a tally of 50 to 50 after several Democrats joined with Republicans to the Senate from moving to the measure… [Nebraska Sen. Ben] Nelson and Sen. Jon Tester (Mont.) were the two Democrats to vote against the president’s full “jobs” package last week. Tester voted yes on Thursday’s measure.

And despite Tester’s insistence that he wanted changes made to the underlying bailout bill, Thursday night’s vote was the one that mattered because, had the measure attained the 60 votes needed to proceed, Tester’s fellow Democrats could have passed Obama’s bailout through the Senate with just 51 votes.

Ironically, Tester’s flip-flop is just the latest example of his words not matching his deeds when it comes to bailouts. Tester was caught last week claiming in a taxpayer-funded direct mail piece to have opposed “all bailouts,” despite his vote to bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – as reported by the Associated Press.

“Senator Tester’s flip-flop to vote for this bailout and tax-hike package is just the latest example of Tester not keeping his word to Montanans,” said National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) spokesman Chris Bond. “Whether he’s flip-flopping to please President Obama and his Washington party bosses, or blatantly misleading the public about his hypocrisy, it’s clear that Jon Tester continues to put his own narrow Washington agenda over the best interests of Montana.”

Meanwhile, as the Solyndra loan scandal continues to fester in the wake of Tester and Obama’s original $825 billion stimulus debacle, new and disturbing headlines like these continue to remind Montanans of the pair’s failed economic agenda:

· ABC News: Car Company Gets U.S. Loan, Builds Cars In Finland. With the approval of the Obama administration, an electric car company that received a $529 million federal government loan guarantee is assembling its first line of cars in Finland, saying it could not find a facility in the United States capable of doing the work. Vice President Joseph Biden heralded the Energy Department’s $529 million loan to the start-up electric car company called Fisker as a bright new path to thousands of American manufacturing jobs. But two years after the loan was announced, the job of assembling the flashy electric Fisker Karma sports car has been outsourced to Finland. “There was no contract manufacturer in the U.S. that could actually produce our vehicle,” the car company’s founder and namesake told ABC News. “They don’t exist here.”….An investigation by ABC News and the Center for Public Integrity’s iWatch News that will air on “Good Morning America” found that the DOE’s bet carries risks for taxpayers, has raised concern among industry observers and government auditors, and adds to questions about the way billions of dollars in loans for smart cars and green energy companies have been awarded.

Just The Latest Tester Hypocrisy…

As a reminder, taxpayer-funded bailouts are not the only issue set on which Tester’s hypocrisy have drawn criticism in recent weeks.

· Just last week, the Associated Press compared Tester’s strident anti-lobbyist rhetoric to his record as the number-one recipient of lobbyist campaign cash so far in the 2012 cycle – a fact which Tester falsely denied on the air recently: Six year ago, farmer Jon Tester ran as an outsider fighting lobbyists and corruption in Washington D.C. … But after nearly five years in the U.S. Senate the Democrat’s pledge is being tested amid one of the hottest Senate races in the country and the demands of raising millions in campaign money… his opponent, U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg, is finding it rich hunting ground for hypocrisy… Republicans have been hammering Tester for taking a lot of campaign cash from lobbyists after denouncing the influence of lobbyists. So far this election cycle the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics has found that Tester took more campaign cash from lobbyists than any other members of Congress. The GOP also made hay earlier this year when it was revealed that big banks dumped money into Tester’s campaign coffers as he took their side in opposing the congressionally mandated caps on debit card swipe fees.. “He can deny it if he wants. But he was number one in receiving money from lobbyists. That is a fact,” Rehberg said. “For a guy that went into the last campaign saying `not me. Not going to do it,’ but then to be number one out of 535, it is hypocrisy.”

· And the Great Falls Tribune reported Tuesday on Tester’s hypocritical attacks on an American job-creator while he himself accepts campaign cash from companies doing business with Iran: All American companies should cease doing business with Iran, and those that continue should be required by law to fully disclose all business activity to the public, said Montana Democrat Sen. Jon Tester during a Senate Banking hearing last week. Now, Tester is taking heat for suggesting during the hearing that Koch Industries was doing business in Iran after the company released a statement stating it ceased business in the country years ago. Mark Holden, Koch Industries’ general counsel, said the policy proposed by Tester is already Koch policy. Tester also is facing criticism for taking campaign contributions from companies with affiliates still doing business in Iran. Philip Ellender, President and COO at Koch Companies Public Sector, called the Koch reference a political move. David and Charles Koch have been major funders of conservative causes and the target of criticism by Democrats. “The reason Senator Tester singled out Koch Industries is because of our political positions and beliefs,” Ellender said. “This is just the latest in the concerted attacks against us.” Tester’s re-election campaign has mentioned the Koch brothers in at least five fundraising emails.

o In reporting on this very issue, the Weekly Standard discovered that, under fire for his hypocrisy, Tester attempted to scrub his Senate website of his remarks: I contacted Senator Tester’s press secretary by both phone and email on Friday to ask if Tester would return Honeywell’s money, since he is on record as saying “no responsible and patriotic American business should be dealing with Iran in any way.” Since my phone call, and perhaps sensing that he’s vulnerable to charges of hypocrisy here, the statement on Tester’s website has been toned down considerably. In particular, the quote where Tester says “no responsible and patriotic American business should be dealing with Iran in any way” has been removed. (You can still read the original statement on Tester’s Facebook page.)

Background Information:

Sen. Tester: “We Shouldn’t Be Sending Billions Of Dollars In Bailout Aid To States.” (Sen. Jon Tester, Statement, 10/11/11)

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Obama & Tester’s Endless Summer…

admin — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 16:33:29 +0000

One Year After Declaring “Recovery Summer,” Stimulus Failure Continues To Highlight Tester’s Reckless Spending, Broken Promises

WASHINGTON — In case liberal U.S. Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) lost track of the date and forgot to remind Montanans, it’s been a full year since Tester and his fellow Washington Democrats declared that it was “Recovery Summer,” promising that their $787 billion in reckless deficit spending would fix America’s ailing economy.

So, to mark the one-year anniversary of Tester and the Democrats’ “Recovery Summer,” it’s worth examining a few of the claims he and his fellow liberal Democrats made regarding their failed $787 billion stimulus debacle. For instance…

· The Obama administration claimed their stimulus would “save or create 3.5 million jobs before 2011,” and Tester claimed it would “rebuild America’s struggling economy by creating millions of new jobs.” But America has lost nearly 1.9 million jobs since he helped ram the stimulus into law. As President Obama admitted this week, “[s]hovel-ready was not as … uh .. shovel-ready as we expected.

· While Tester’s party bosses predicted the Democrats’ stimulus would keep unemployment below 8 percent, unemployment nearly two-and-a-half years later is 9.1 percent – and has remained above 8 percent for 28 consecutive months.

· And while Tester claimed the stimulus was “a big victory for middle-class folks in Montana,” a report shows that stimulus funds have been spent on a large number of outrageous non-job-related projects, including a study to determine the effects of cocaine on monkeys, iPods for high school students, cell phones for smokers trying to quit, and advertising devoted to the promotion of the stimulus bill itself.

“Jon Tester still believes it was a good idea for him and his fellow Washington Democrats to add $787 billion to our national debt in order to lose 1.9 million jobs – and that tells Montanans all they need to know about whether they can trust his judgment,” said National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) spokesman Chris Bond.

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Unemployment Rises To 9.1% In Wake Of Tester & Obama’s Failed $787 Billion Stimulus

admin — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 14:50:53 +0000

In yet another reminder that President Obama and liberal U.S. Senator Jon Tester’s (D-MT) $787 billion stimulus failed to create jobs while driving our national debt past $14.3 trillion, the U.S. Department of Labor reports today that national unemployment has risen again to 9.1 percent.

Today’s rise in unemployment is just the latest development to highlight the failure of Obama and Tester’s tax-and-spend economic policies in Washington. While Tester and the Obama Administration promised their $787 billion stimulus would create “millions of new jobs” and keep national unemployment below 8 percent, the United States has actually lost more than 1.8 million jobs since Tester helped his Washington party bosses ram it into law – and national unemployment has remained above 8 percent now for 28 consecutive months.

“As the unemployment rate rises to 9.1 percent, Montanans are reminded once again that the Obama-Tester agenda of reckless spending has failed to create the jobs they promised while driving our national debt past a record $14.3 trillion,” said National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) spokesman Chris Bond.

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Tester Fiddles While Montanans Suffer From $4-A-Gallon Gas

admin — Wed, 18 May 2011 16:22:58 +0000

Even Fellow Democrats Call Tester Proposal “Laughable” & “A Gimmick”

As a new USA Today/Gallup survey shows nearly 70 percent of Americans suffering “financial hardship” thanks to a national average of nearly $4-per-gallon gas, Montanans are reminded that not only is liberal U.S. Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) refusing to work with Republicans on bipartisan efforts to lower the price at the pump, he is actually attempting to drive the price of fuel up by raising energy taxes.

As USA Today reports:

As gas prices hover near $4 a gallon, nearly seven in 10 Americans say the high cost of fuel is causing financial hardship for their families, a new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds. More than half say they have made major changes to compensate for the higher prices, ranging from shorter trips to cutting back on vacation travel. For 21%, the impact is so dramatic they say their standard of living is jeopardized. Nationally, the price of a gallon of regular gasoline averages $3.96. That’s up 38%, or $1.09, from levels a year ago. In seven states, gas prices have passed July 2008′s record of $4.11 a gallon.

But instead of working to expand domestic production and lower fuel costs for Montana’s families and job creators, Tester and the liberal wing of the Democrat Party are working to raise energy taxes – a reckless move that the non-partisan Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports would “make oil and natural gas more expensive for U.S. consumers and likely increase foreign dependence.”

“With the vast majority of Montana’s families suffering ‘financial hardship’ thanks to $4-a-gallon gas, why is Jon Tester working to drive energy costs even higher with his proposed tax hikes?” said National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) spokesman Chris Bond. “Yet again, Tester’s liberal Washington agenda has put him in direct conflict with the interests of Montana families and small businesses.”

While his fellow Montana U.S. Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) claims that near-record-high gas prices are “not the issue,” even several Senate Democrats have called Tester’s proposal “laughable,” and have made clear that his tax hikes will “cost thousands of jobs” and “increase our dependency on foreign oil.”

Sadly, this is not the first time Jon Tester has displayed his enthusiasm for energy tax hikes and high gas prices: Tester has repeatedly voted in support of a job-killing cap-and-trade energy tax.

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Senate Democrat Leader Says Tester Bill Is “Unfair” To Montana Small Businesses

admin — Wed, 18 May 2011 10:59:33 +0000

Comments From Harry Reid Heighten Scrutiny On Tester Campaign Contributions

Already under the microscope for accepting tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from banks and lobbyists after introducing a bill to delay new regulations on debit-card swipe fees, U.S. Senator Jon Tester’s (D-MT) position on this important issue has come under even greater scrutiny today.

In a statement to The Hill newspaper, Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) now says he will be opposing Tester’s proposal because it is “unfair to small businesses.”

· “He feels it’s unfair to small businesses,” Reid spokesman Jon Summers said of an amendment proposed by Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) that would force the Federal Reserve to delay regulations on debit-card transaction fees that could cost banks as much as $16 billion annually in profits….Banking lobbyists say Tester’s proposal has strong behind-the-scenes support from Schumer, a staunch defender of New York’s financial-services industry.

“It should raise the eyebrows of all Montanans to hear even Harry Reid suggest that Jon Tester is standing on the side of Wall Street, instead of Main Street,” National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) spokesman Chris Bond said today. “Given the massive campaign contributions that Senator Tester has received from his friends on Wall Street, and now that his own Senate Leader says that his bill is harmful to Montana small businesses, we look forward to hearing Tester’s response to this serious charge.”

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