Why Are My Tax Dollars Being Used for Peter Roskam’s Campaign Mail?

On October 11, 2009, in Healthcare, Peter Roskam, by RSR
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I received this expensive-looking over sized mailer from Peter Roskam a couple of days ago. Says it contains “important facts and information”. “Dated information”, it tells me, “read today”. This must be it. This must be Peter Roskam’s plan to make sure that all Americans receive adequate quality healthcare. Maybe he’s finally doing the job we pay him for. Maybe he’s studied the situation and decided a public option makes sense after all. Lets see.

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Nope. No plan here.  Just a picture of Peter with an ugly tie. Says he wants “real bipartisan reforms”. Doesn’t want a public option – that would put bureaucrats in charge of my family’s healthcare.  Hmm. That sounds a lot like the same old crap we’ve been hearing from the Republicans who’ve been trying to block healthcare reform in Congress. “Bipartisan” means do whatever we want and what our campaign donors from the healthcare industry want or else. Says the status quo is unacceptable. Things must change by remaining exactly the same, withour healthcare in the hands of giant corporations. Not a government plan like in those commie countries – like England and Switzerland.

There’s another picture of Peter smiling next to a nurse taking a small child’s blood pressure while mom looks on. Everybody is smiling. Blood pressure taking is fun.  (We hear from usually reliable sources at the hospital that Peter devoured this child for lunch moments after the picture was taken – solving the healthcare crisis one child at a time).

There’s a note under the photo that brags about Peter’s $1.1 million in earmarks for local healthcare facilities since 2007. Yes, that’ll solve the problem. Well maybe Peter’s plan is on page 3. Let’s take a look.

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Well this looks familiar. We’ve seen this before. Over and over. Pretty nebulous. Doesn’t say anything concrete about what he’s going to do this year to ensure that those people without health insurance can get coverage and those who have it can get covered for pre-existing conditions or deal with increasingly unaffordable co-payments and deductibles and how they can keep insurance when they lose or leave their job. Maybe that’s on the next page. Lets see.

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No its not here.  Just some stuff telling me that this was paid for with my money. And instructions on how to get hold of Peter if I need help.

I guess that must be the plan. If you don’t have insurance, if your coverage is being denied because of a pre-existing condition, if your deductibles are too high, if you want to move to a new job but can’t afford to lose your insurance – just call Peter Roskam’s office and he will help you. (630) 893-9670. I guess its not really the plan I hoped for.

So, I have to say, this pretty much looks like a campaign piece. There’s really no information here. This is Peter Roskam using his constituents hard-earned money to lobby them in order to defeat the Democratic healthcare reform plan that would otherwise benefit them. That’s pretty twisted. But then so is Roskam.

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Peter Roskam’s Conduct in Honduras Is Treasonous

On October 9, 2009, in Foreign Policy, Honduras, Peter Roskam, Peter Roskam's Corporate Agenda, by RSR
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Foreign Policy’s The Cable published this piece on Peter Roskam’s recent trip to Honduras to meet with Roberto Micheletti and other members of the right-wing junta that overthrew Honduras’s Democratically-elected president in June. Roskam was interviewed for the article:

Congressman Peter Roskam, R-Ill, also spoke with The Cable just after returning from Tegucigalpa to talk about his delegation and the strategy behind the GOP’s controversial engagement approach…

Although the State Department tried to prevent the delegation from going, U.S. consular officials did assist the delegation logistically, but did not participate in the meetings, Roskam said. The delegation also had a tense meeting with U.S. Amb. Hugo Llorens, in which Roskam described him as being “very defensive.”

“The very consistent theme that was coming across was a sense of bewilderment from all the Hondurans we were meeting with at their treatment by the United States,” Roskam related.

Micheletti acknowledged to the group that he did not have the authority to physically remove Zelaya from the country, but he seeks communication with the U.S. government and was not pleased that the State Department had cut him off.

The conclusion Roskam drew from the trip was that the problem in Honduras won’t be solved until the Nov. 29 election, in which neither Micheletti nor Zelaya is running — that is, if it can meet reasonable standards of freedom and fairness.

U.S. trade with Honduras is at stake, Roskam argued, and is needed to counter the expanding regional influence of anti-American forces such as Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez.

This is unbelieveably arrogant, and, I believe, treasonous.

First off, the Republican Party is not entitled to conduct an alternative foreign policy. They lost the Presidential election in November, in no small part because of the horrible mess they made of  U.S. relations  with the rest of the world. They are neither competent to or empowered with conducting foreign policy. That is the role of President Obama.

Second, the policy of the United States of America,  as defined by the President, is that Manuel Zelaya was illegally deposed from power and that the government of Roberto Micheletti is illegitimate and must restore Zelaya to power.  Micheletti admitted to Roskam that he lacked authority for his actions. This policy is shared by the United Nations, the Organization of American States, and the European Union. The men Roskam met with constitute a criminal regime and consequently are enemies of the United States.

Third, since Roskam is clearly not acting on behalf of the United States, on whose behalf is he acting? Well, clearly, the criminal dictator Micheletti, who seized power and then terminated the constitutional rights of the press and the people of Honduras. But Roskam told us who he was really acting for when he said this was about trade. He is acting on behalf of the huge U.S. based corporations that do business in Latin America and don’t like the democratically-elected governments because they are supportive of higher wages and better working conditions for those who they employ, endangering their obscene profits.

So Roskam’s project in Honduras is to subvert the legitimate foreign policy of the United States, and give aid and comfort to its enemies, the criminal junta in Honduras, on behalf of another power, the multinational corporations.That sounds like treason to me.

And he complains that the U.S. ambassador is defensive??

Fortunately, in this country, we have the possibility of free and fair elections, at least while the Republicans remain in the minority. 6th District voters should overthrow the treasonous Roskam at the polls in 2010.

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Peter Roskam Casts Anti-Family Vote to Oppose Paid Parental Leave

On June 10, 2009, in Executive Compensation, Healthcare, Middle Class, Peter Roskam, Peter Roskam's Corporate Agenda, by RSR
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If I don’t have much good to say about Peter Roskam these days, I can at least credit him for being consistent. Roskam is quite consistently opposed to anything that might possibly benefit an ordinary working man or woman at the expense of the giant corporations and wealthy individuals whose interests he uses his seat in Congress to represent.

It was no surprise when Peter Roskam voted against the Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act of 2009 on June 4, 2009. Congressman Roskam has been a fierce advocate of unlimited pay for corporate executives, but God forbid any working mother or father should be given the time and the financial wherewithal to care for a new child. Why that would make us no different than those Commie countries like… like Canada!

H.R. 626 provides for 4 weeks of paid parental leave to federal employees surrounding the birth or adoption of a child. Federal employees currently receive 12 weeks of unpaid leave (as do all employees subject to the Family Medical Leave Act of 1993). The bill further provides that the employees can use accumulated sick time and vacation time to convert some or all of the balance of that 12 weeks into paid time. Finally, the Office of Personnel Management would be enabled to extend the paid period to 8 weeks. The measure applies only to federal employees and would be at best a weak immitation of pro-family policies in place in many Western countries. Hell, even Zimbabwe gives mothers 90 days at 100%.

Roskam, of course, in addition to not wanting to spend a dime of our federal tax dollars on a working family, fears that the bill will be a foot in the door for future further enhancements to FMLA, something that Roskam’s corporate overlords at the U.S. Chamber and at the National Association of Manufacturers virulently oppose.

Despite Roskam’s vote, along with those of most of his Republican colleagues, H.R. 626 passed by a vote of  258-154. It will now have to be taken up by the Senate.

Peter Roskam deserves to be shamed for his anti-family vote. Please contact him today.  You can reach him at (202) 225-4561 in Washington or at (630) 893-9670 in Bloomingdale.

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Peter Roskam’s Doublespeak on Executive Compensation

On May 29, 2009, in Economic Justice, Executive Compensation, Peter Roskam, Peter Roskam's Corporate Agenda, by RSR
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Peter Roskam’s been going to a lot of trouble to publicize his media appearances lately on his House website.  Of course they consist mostly of clips from Fox News, Don Wade & Roma, and Big John & Cisco. Roskam doesn’t like to talk to anyone who might ask him a serious question. He just wants a friendly outlet for his talking points – designed to keep his base in a lather about the Dems so that they won’t realize that he’s screwing them in Washington. But I appreciate the time he’s taken to organize this material so its easy for me to find.

This video was interesting and Roskam seems to be pretty proud of it.  Its a clip from Fox News back in March around the time the House voted on H.R. 1586, the measure that would have imposed a 90% tax on bonuses received in 2009 by high-paid employees of companies that received TARP bailout money. Roskam voted with the majority of House members (including about half of the Republicans) to approve the measure. And then he went on Fox News to play the outraged populist while smearing Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and the Obama administration for a mess they inherited from President Bush. I don’t think the measure ever went anywhere – just died in the Senate after AIG’s Chairman urged his employees receiving more than $100,000 to return at least half.

So was this a new Roskam we were seeing? Concerned all of a sudden about the outrages committed by big corporations at the expense of the little people back home in his district? Not so much. This was just Roskam the politician taking advantage of the moment.

Roskam showed his true colors on April 1st, when H.R. 1664, the Grayson-Himes Pay For Performance Act of 2009, came up for a vote. This was a more serious and comprehensive measure to address the issue of excessive compensation, not just for AIG but for other companies receiving bailout money as well:

The Pay for Performance Act of 2009 prohibits the payment of “unreasonable or excessive” compensation, including bonuses that are not based on performance, by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the federal home loans banks, and firms that have received funds under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act. The Treasury Secretary must define “unreasonable or excessive” compensation and outline what constitutes an appropriate performance-based bonus using criteria including the stability of a financial institution, ability to repay taxpayer funds, and adherence to appropriate risk management requirements. The prohibition only applies while government payments to the firms are outstanding. Firms subject to the Pay for Performance Act must report their compensation practices to the Treasury Secretary. Finally, the legislation applies bonus prohibitions included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to all employment contracts.

When Roskam figured the folks at home were no longer paying attention, he dropped his faux outrage and voted against the measure. But you won’t see him promoting that fact on his website.

This was not the first time Roskam had stood up for outrageous executive pay. One of Roskam’s few floor speeches during his first term was to fight against a  measure that would have given shareholders a voice in limiting the excessive pay of corporate executives. But I bet you’ll never see that video on his website.

That he uses his office to fight for unlimited executive pay is particularly sad given that Roskam has been an opponent of any efforts to raise the minimum wage for people who actually work for a living and voted against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act earlier this term.

Interestingly, we understand that Peter’s new Press Secretary,Daniel Conston, is an A.I.G. alum. He also worked on the failed campaigns of Fred Thompson and John McCain. Let’s hope this endeavor goes better. But what happened to Matt? Did we convert him?

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Peter Roskam and Insurance Lobby to Have Major “Face Time” April 2nd

On April 1, 2008, in Peter Roskam, Peter Roskam's Corporate Agenda, by RSR
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Peter Roskam will be speaking at the 2008 Big I Legislative Conference and Convention tomorrow. That’s “I” as in Insurance. Big I is a nickname for the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America, an insurance industry lobby group. They are having their convention in Washington and Roskam will be speaking at a luncheon meeting for young agents and for the InsurPac state chairpersons. InsurPac is IIAB’s political action committee. They gave $5000 in donations to Roskam’s campaign in 2007.On its website, InsurPac describes the reason behind it’s generosity:

“While contributions do not buy solutions to legislative debates, they do allow members of IIABA’s government affairs team significant face-time with elected officials. Through InsurPac, IIABA is allowed the opportunity to educate these members and develop working relationships with them. Lobbying and a well-funded PAC go hand-in-hand.”

One is left to wonder how much “significant face-time” would cost for the residents of Roskam’s district here in Illinois.. I imagine that at these rates, it would be out of reach for most of us.

In all seriousness, there is nothing nefarious about this particular contribution or this particular speech. My impression of Roskam is that he operates with deliberate transparency when it comes to campaign financial matters. He is not a crook.

But I do think that residents of the 6th should consider that Roskam is a member of the House Financial Services Committee, which oversees the banking, financial services, and insurance industries. As such, Roskam is courted by groups like IIAB and receives lots of PAC contributions from this sector. In fact, this is the largest sector for Roskam by far. Roskam has received over $236,000 in individual and PAC contributions from the Finance/Insurance/Real Estate sector during the current cycle. That’s a lot of face time.

Roskam has time and time again shown himself to vote in favor of corporate interests over those of the residents of his district. One wonders whether it’s the result of all this lobbying activity. One wonders who’s voice he really is on Capitol Hill. This is particularly troubling when one considers the upcoming issues that Congress is going to be dealing with relative to the mortgage crisis and the reevaluation of financial services regulation. Will Roskam be speaking up for us in those deliberations?

Perhaps in the interests of continued transparency, Roskam will post the text of his speech tomorrow on his website. He says he’s our voice in Congress. I for one would like to hear what that voice is telling the insurance industry.

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Laws are for Poor People, Not Corporations…or Presidents

On March 10, 2008, in Civil Rights, George Bush, Peter Roskam, Peter Roskam's Corporate Agenda, by RSR
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Peter Roskam is Mr. Law and Order when it comes to migrant workers who come to our country seeking a better life for themselves and their children. But Roskam draws the line at telling the big corporations he represents in Congress, or even the President that they need to obey the law. In fact, Roskam wants to give the President and the telephone companies a pass. This is a pattern with Roskam: giving free rein to Bush’s lawless administration while promoting the interests of corporations over those of ordinary citizens.

George W. Bush broke the law by directing the National Security Agency to start eavesdropping on American citizens without warrants by listening in on their phone calls and reading their email messages He did this despite having the legal means at his disposal to obtain warrants under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Bush solicited the cooperation of some large telephone companies in his criminal enterprise and they cheerfully complied.

Once Bush’s illegal program was uncovered, he started pressuring Congress to cover his own ass and the collective asses of the telephone companies by granting the companies retroactive immunity from prosecution for their complicity.

Now the question of immunity is coming to a head. Under consideration now are two competing revisions of a revision of the FISA legislation: the Senate version provides retroactive immunity to the telephone companies, the House version does not.

Bush and Roskam and other Republicans are trying to intimidate legislators and scare citizens into accepting the Senate’s bill, even presenting television commercials with a ticking time bomb implying that the bill is the only thing than can prevent another terrorist attack. Citizens should not let themselves be cowed by the likes of Bush and Roskam. It is possible to be secure and at the same time require that the President and the corporations obey the laws and observe due process when their is a real need for surveillance.

Residents of the 6th Congressional District can help Democrats in Congress ensure that the final bill supports the rule of law and protects citizens from warrantless surveillance by doing 3 simple things:

  • Call the White House at (202) 456-1111 and tell President Bush to quit trying to scare the public into accepting a bad FISA bill including immunity
  • Call Peter Roskam at (202) 225-4561 and tell him the same thing. Remind him of his own words: “we are a nation of laws.”
  • Visit the Fix FISA website of Rep John Conyers and Senator Patrick Leahy and use their simple tool to help you send a letter to the editor of a local newspaper

The need is urgent Please do these 3 things today and let men like George Bush and Peter Roskam know that laws are for everyone.

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