Headline
Knock, Knock – Who’s There?
For Immediate Release: September 30, 2009 Contact: Ryan Hobart (573) 636-5241 Ext. 125 Knock, Knock – Who’s There? Congressman Roy Blunt’s History of Trick or Treat: The Joke’s on Us Jefferson City, MO – This Saturday, countless Missouri households will open their doors to the perennial question of “Trick or Treat.” But for 12 years, Congressman Roy Blunt has been playing out his own corrupted version of this scene from Washington, DC, and the joke’s been on Missouri families. Whether it is subsidies and giveaways to big oil companies, or multi-billion dollar bailouts for Wall Street banks, Congressman Blunt has showered the corporate special interests with countless “treats” over the years, while Missouri families were left with the cruel “tricks” of skyrocketing deficits, ballooning health care costs, and a tanking economy. Here are some highlights: 1. Treats for: Wall Street – Tricks on Main Street As a leader in the Republican led Congress, Congressman Blunt supported loosening regulations on Wall Street’s big banks that created the worst economic crisis and turned a budget surplus into an exploding deficit. Then he voted for the $700 billion bailout of the financial industry that was passed at the end of the Bush administration and left small businesses to fight for themselves. 2. Treats for: Insurance Companies – Tricks on Missouri Families, Businesses and Seniors: According to www.opensecrets.org, Congressman Roy Blunt has received $567,532 from insurance companies alone during his time in Congress. As the leader of the Republican Health Care Solutions group since early this February he guaranteed a health care proposal [Politico, 6/17/09], but he has failed to produce a detailed proposal. Congressman Blunt’s allegiance to the insurance companies has cost Missouri families, businesses and seniors accessible, affordable and secure care. 3. Treats for: Congressman Blunt – Tricks on Missouri’s Working Families: Blunt repeatedly opposed increases in the minimum wage but voted 12 times to increase his own congressional pay, including a vote just months ago to raise his salary to $170,000 while working Missourians suffer in the worst economy since the Great Depression [Congressional Research Service; Washington Post, 6/28/07]. 4. Treats for: Fellow politicians – Tricks on Missouri Seniors: As one of the leaders of Republicans in Congress, Blunt has voted repeatedly to cut Medicare, the popular program that nearly 1 million Missouri seniors rely on, putting partisanship above people. Congressman Blunt faces State Senator Chuck Purgason and Kansas City auto consultant Mark Memoly in the August 2010 primary for the Republican nominee for US Senate. --30--
