Fact #92: Congressman King has questions to answer during recess
Today, we released a memo asking if Congressman King shares Iowa values when he defends his opposition to strengthening prohibitions on animal fighting; suggests that President Obama’s birth announcement was telegraphed from Kenya; claims it’s legal in America for a sexual predator to abduct their victims, take them across state lines and force them to have an abortion; or says there’s no evidence to suggest diversity is valuable.
He has been making these statements at a time when Congress needs to take action on important issues: the Farm Bill, keeping taxes from increasing on middle class families, and protecting Iowa’s 7,000 wind energy industry jobs by extending the production tax credit.
Unfortunately, Congressman King’s record shows that supporting middle class families is not a priority, as our memo outlines:
Take, for example, his decades of support for the so-called Fair Tax. This policy – a national 23 percent sales tax increase on everything you buy, from groceries and gas to prescription drugs and back-to-school supplies – would increase taxes on the average family in Iowa, while giving the wealthiest Americans a huge tax break. Tax experts also agree that the Fair Tax would unfairly double-tax seniors who have spent their life saving up for retirement.
Then, there’s his vote earlier this year to increase payroll taxes on the average family by $1,500. Once again supporting a tax hike on working families in small towns and cities across the 4th District.
Not only are seniors targeted by the Fair Tax, Congressman King has yet to explain his votes to make them pay more out-of-pocket for prescription drugs. He also supports the Ryan Budget, which replaces Medicare with a voucher system that forces seniors to pay more out-of-pocket for care, and supports fully repealing the health care reform bill, even the provisions that close the donut hole in Medicare.
As Congressman King begins his August recess, with unfinished work on his desk in Washington, he owes the people of the 4th District an explanation as to why he has spent ten years voting against the middle class. If he put the same amount of energy into working on their behalf as he did into building a lawsuit against the president or forcing 33 votes to repeal health care reform which cost taxpayers $50 million, Congress might be a better place today.
Now that Congressman King is in Iowa for a month, will he explain his record and give Iowans a real answer as to why he votes against their best interest? Only time will tell.
