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From:
Scott RuffnerFriends, Kindly consider some major differences between the Senate candidates. Pls forward too. Thank you! Scott
Collins Allen
Fiscal Responsibility
Voted for all three Bush tax cuts, Opposed all tax cuts, as did Snowe &
removed $1.35 trillion from budget for decade. Michaud/Baldacci
Federal debt doubled by Bush/Collins, $5.7 to 10.5 tril
Dollar devalued 40% during this period.
No Senate action on Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac Voted for House bill for oversight of FMNA/FHFA
Foreign Policy
Voted Bush authority to attack Iraq & Voted against resolution. Supports a withdrawal timeline.
Has continued uncritical support. Cost is $600b Supports hearings on contracting abuse and torture;
borrowed & rising. National Intelligence Estimates supports closing Guantanamo prison asap.
say we are less secure than before Iraq war.
Little oversight on military contracting in Iraq, nor
on extraordinary rendition or torture
Energy
Voted for the Cheney energy bill with $14b in subsidies Voted against Cheney energy bill.
for the oil companies.
Health Care
Does not support universal health care; voted for Opposed Medicare Part D bill because of hole in coverage
Drug company bill Medicare Part D Prescription Drug and prohibits government to negotiate prices
Social Issues
Voted to confirm Sam Alito & other reactionary judges Opposed Alito and similar judges.
Trade
Has supported some free trade bills Opposes free trade bills, supports fair trade
Votes on the environment and women and children's health and women's rights as well as good constituent service are similar. The opportunity costs of Collins poor votes above are huge because those funds are not available for education, research and development, infrastructure renovation, etc.
Collins' votes have cost Maine and the country dearly, playing a role in the financial markets collapse and the doubling of our national debt. Maine would be better off if she had missed votes, and best off if she hadn't been voting for us at all. It is past time to turn this "moderate" out of office and elect someone who represents the interests of most Maine people, not just the few. Tom Allen deserves our votes.
Postscript: Re missed votes: According to www.govtrack.us, "Thomas Allen missed 157 of 7695 roll call votes (2%) since Jan 7, 1997," while "Susan Collins missed 0 of 3889 roll call votes (0%) since Jan 22, 1997." So Allen cast 3649 more votes than Collins. One difference is the House records roll call votes whereas the Senate uses many hand votes which are not recorded. So we have no way of knowing if Susan Collins was present for all the hand votes or not.
Below please find an op-ed Geoff Gratwick and I wrote but was not published by the BDN.
Examine the Record for Fiscal Responsibility before Voting for Senate
Susan Collins is a nice person. She does very good constituent service. She would be a great ombudsman for an institution or organization. But it's important to examine her record.
Susan Collins reportedly understands good business practices, yet she has supported imprudent budgetary and fiscal policy. She voted for all the tax cuts in the last eight years, even though the rest of our congressional delegation, including Senator Snowe, did not. She says these tax cuts have put $2000 back into Maine family pocketbooks. But she doesn't mention that those cuts added $9000 to that same family's share of the federal debt. She also doesn't say that they put $48,000 back into the pocketbooks of 1% of Maine's wealthiest people. (Nationally the top1% own 38% of the wealth, while the bottom 40% own less than 1%.) And she doesn't tell us that these cuts have taken $1.35 trillion in revenue for this decade out of the federal budget and contributed to nearly doubling the national debt from $5.7 trillion to $10.5 trillion today. With a record $454 billion deficit for the fiscal year which just ended, the budget deficits increased each Maine family's share of the national debt by $64,000 to a total of $140,000. Former Comptroller General and head of the Government Accountability Office, Republican David Walker, has declared, "I think the greatest threat to our future is our fiscal irresponsibility."
Susan Collins and her colleagues have been asleep at the regulatory switch. They failed in their oversight of the financial institutions which figure prominently in the current financial and credit meltdown. They were repeatedly warned of these looming problems. The present bailout is $700 billion, not including the bailout earlier this year of Bear Sterns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and AIG. And we are already hearing that that sum is insufficient. In 2005 and 2007 the House passed a bill to better regulate Fannie and Freddie, yet Collins would not join a bipartisan effort to get it through the Senate.
Further contributing to our fiscal insecurity, Collins has voted for other costly projects. The price of the Iraq war is $600 billion and rising. As Chair of the Homeland Security committee she was ineffective at eliminating waste and fraud in military contracting. Collins voted for the Bush/Cheney energy bill which contained $14 billion in oil company subsidies. She has supported free trade deals which have cost us manufacturing jobs, leading to trade deficits over $700 billion dollars. She boasts of her support for passage of the Medicare prescription drug bill, but, besides the hole in coverage, this bill prohibits the government from negotiating prices with drug manufacturers, costing us billions more. Adding to this unhealthy trend she advocates the repeal of the estate tax. In Maine only 0.34% (0.27% nationwide) of the people are subject to this tax, yet it would remove $72 billion from annual revenues, and reduce incentives for charitable giving. Even Bill Gates, Sr., campaigned around the country against repeal!
This year, right now, we can change from this dismal course. We have an excellent opportunity to elect a new Senator, Rep. Tom Allen, who has shown the foresight and understanding to protect Maine and the nation from these disastrous policies. He realized how irresponsible the current budget and tax proposals were, and voted against tax cuts, against the Iraq war, against the free trade deals, and against the Bush/Cheney energy bill. He voted for regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and has advocated for regulation and oversight of our financial markets.
Just imagine how much better off we would be today if Representative Allen's votes had been in the majority these past eight years, and not Susan Collins'. Tom Allen understands fiscal responsibility. He understands the huge opportunity costs of such bad policy because the funds are lost for education, research and development, sustainable energy initiatives, scientific research, healthcare access, rural development and infrastructure renovation. It is crucial that voters see through the marketing of a so-called "moderate" Senator, whose votes have helped bring financial and economic calamity. If you are in the wealthy top 5%, then Susan Collins has voted to help you and you might understandably vote for her. But if you are in the other 95% and wish to improve your future, a vote for Tom Allen is a wise choice, indeed the only responsible choice.
Geoff Gratwick, M.D., is in private practice in Bangor, and Scott Ruffner is a Bangor real estate broker.
