Steadfast and Loyal –To ACORN* but not to his oath of office
(updated 5/12/2014) CAGW reacted with derision at statementsmade by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) on April 15, in which he opened the door to the resurrection of congressional earmarking. Sen. Durbin’s comments are the latest in a disturbing trend among members of Congress from both sides of the Capitol and both sides of the aisle. The congressional earmark moratorium has been in place since 2010, and the House of Representatives and Senate have both claimed all legislation since then has been earmark-free. However, CAGW’s 2014 Congressional Pig Book, to be released on May 7, will show otherwise. “Just like the Easter Bunny, Sen. Durbin wants members of Congress to again hide pork-barrel goodies under every legislative shrub they can find,” commented CAGW President Tom Schatz. “If earmarks are revived in Congress, it will be a sad commentary on the moral compass of the institution.” Read more about the corrosive budgetary impact of earmarks.
(updated to report the term limit vote on 2/2/12) This poster boy for term limits, Illinois Senator Richard “Dick” Durbin, got his law degree in 1969 after already being an intern in the office of then Sen. Paul Douglas for a year. He immediately became counsel to Lt. Gov. Paul Simon until 1972 when he became legal counsel to the Illinois State Judiciary Committee. He ran for Lt. Gov. in 1978 and then was an associate professor for a few years all the while a delegate to the National Democrat party conventions before being elected to the US Congress in 1983 where he has been ever since. He is now in his third term in the Senate and is the Party Whip.
In other words: All politics all the time, just as our other Poster Boys and Girls.
The lack of real-life productive private sector experience is common among career politicians and probably explains the failure of most of their programs to reach their stated goals – and always at enormously higher costs than projected. Ironically, the longer they are in office, the more faith and confidence they seem to have in their ability to plan and execute new programs.
So, no surprise that he voted on 2/5/12 AGAINST the term limit amendment even though he knows full well that his constituents ovewhelmingly support them. See how your Senator voted: http://senateconservatives.com/site/votes/112/2/11?c=5R4F2B4F9B3A137 hint: All Democrats but Joe Manchin of WV voted AGAINST the reform amendment.
Also, because liberals embrace government for ideological reasons as well, it is not surprising that so many of our poster children are liberals. Sen. Durbin’s record is a case in point:
* Rated 100% by NARAL, indicating an anti-life, pro abortion voting record.
* Rated 4% from Citizens Against Government Waste for being wasteful with tax money.
* Rated 0% by the Christian Coalition: an anti-family voting record.
* Rated F by the NRA, indicating an anti-2nd Amendment Rights voting record.
* Rated 85% by the AFL-CIO, indicating a pro-union voting record.
* Rated 14% by the non-partisan national Taxpayers Union (www.NTU.org) indicating a “Big Spender” on tax votes.
Whether you consider yourself as leaning to the left or right of the political spectrum, you may be appalled by Durbin’s animosity towards those who defend us with their lives. Durbin called our soldiers in Iraq “Nazis.” He made a statement in 2005 morally equating U.S. treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, (zero killed) with prisoner treatment by Pol Pot (200,000 killed).
After all of the evidence of election fraud by ACORN, Dick Durbin was one of seven Democrats that voted to continue funding it. He was well aware that The ACORN Housing Corporation has long been pushing the very loose-lending policies that helped destroy the housing industry. And recently it was exposed for being willing to finance underage prostitutes, as well. No problem – give them taxpayer money as all of their voter registration fraud efforts are on behalf of Durbin and his party. See: ACORN: A Criminal Enterprise Run Amok www.getliberty.org/files/ACORNExecSummary.pdf
Durbin went to Catholic grade school and calls himself Catholic yet is aggressively pro-abortion even voting against a ban on partial-birth abortion. In January 2006 he said that “I’ve stood for election more than 12 times in the House and Senate, general and primary, stating my position as pro-choice.” This was at the hearings on Alito’s nomination to the Supreme Court. He was trying to get Judge Alito to say he converted to pro-abortion, too. And just last week he voted for the confirmation of David Hamilton to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. This is the District Court Judge who has ruled to suppress religious freedom, protect child predators, and rule leniently against career criminals. Judge Hamilton has ruled that prayers to Jesus Christ offered at the beginning of legislative sessions violate the Constitution, but that prayers to Allah do not. Hamilton worked for the ACLU and as a fund-raiser for ACORN. When originally nominated to the U.S. District Court by President Clinton, Hamilton was rated “not qualified” by the American Bar Association. What in Dick Durbin’s eyes qualifies this judge now for this high position? His connection to ACORN? update on ACORN, *click here One Bite at a Time
On spending and the economy, on education, he is all for FedGov being the major force regardless of Constitutional restrictions. He is for more government controls regarding the environment and energy production. He’d like to give the District of Columbia a seat in Congress. He voted yes on another congressional pay raise in the midst of this recession and to approve more gifts from lobbyists. Durbin is against requiring photo ID for voting. (Hmmmm that sounds like something to make ACORN’s job easier.)
Durbin voted against the Iraq war and against the Patriot Act’s provisions for wiretaps on foreign calls. He is for U.S. Constitutional rights for Guantanamo detainees. Other positions: For taxpayer funding for the “sanctuary cities” to protect illegal immigrants; for welfare and Social Security benefits for illegals; against the border fence; Against English as the official language of the US. Against more visas for skilled workers who, after obtaining advanced degrees at US universities, have to leave the country – we can always outsource to their scarce skills, I guess. Durbin is against the death penalty and three strikes mandatory sentences for repeat offenders.
He always votes against any limits on the national debt, he’s against personal retirement accounts like the Roth IRA and against a lock box or reserve for Social Security funds. You get the idea. So, if you like Statism, you’ll love Durbin.
Because professional politicians generally believe in the State as the ultimate authority as that gives them more power, they tend to dominate in our government. Challengers have so little chance of defeating an incumbent because of the overwhelming advantages of office – 95% are reelected, most without any meaningful opposition—so the statist-types gain control over us. And that is where we are today without checks and balances, without respect for the limitations of our Constitution. Tenure corrupts and we are up to our eyes in corruption because we have no limits on professional politicians.
There is hope: Sen. Jim DeMint has formally proposed a Constitutional Amendment, which is cosponsored by Senators Tom Coburn, Kay Bailey Hutchinson and Sam Brownback, that would limit U.S. Representatives to three, two-year terms, and Senators to two, six-year terms.
Said DeMint, “Term limits will increase legislative turnover, expand the field of candidates who run for office, and instill transparency and accountability in our public officials,” and “the power of incumbency had created an almost insurmountable advantage for Washington politicians.” You can help by signing the petition in support at www.termlimits.org
Porker of the Month: Sen. Dick DurbinCitizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) has named Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) Porker of the Month for leading the effort to block a permanent ban on Internet access taxes. For 18 years, a temporary ban on Internet taxes has benefited millions of Americans by empowering them to enjoy the economic and personal benefits of Internet access without the fear of an additional tax burden. Congress has recently taken steps to pass a permanent ban to bring more certainty to both Internet transactions and the overall economy. Language to make the Internet tax ban permanent was… Read more »
Each time you pay more to access your own money, you have this man to thank. If we had a Dim Bulb of the Year Award, we would give it to Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. How better to honor someone who so ostentatiously proposes a policy with obvious unintended consequences, then gets angry when they predictably come to pass?During the debate over the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill, when Democrats controlled Congress, Durbin insisted on including an amendment that had nothing to do with Dodd-Frank's stated aims of stable banks and consumer protections. The Durbin amendment granted regulators the authority to… Read more »
CNSNews.com) – Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) said Sen. Dick Durbin’s (D-Ill.) idea to house Guantanamo Bay detainees in Illinois shows that the Democrats have “at least” come up with “a jobs program.”
Franks sarcastically praised Durbin and Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn’s idea to house terrorists from Gitmo in the Thomson Correction Center in Northwest Illinois saying, “Let’s bring terrorists to America, and let’s make sure that we have a lot of jobs to take care of them.”