KANJORSKI BETTER PREPARED TO LEAD 11TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT

WILKES-BARRE - During tonight’s debate against Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta, Congressman Paul E. Kanjorski showed that he is better prepared to lead Pennsylvania’s 11th Congressional District and work with presidential hopeful Barack Obama on reforming health care, creating local jobs, providing better regulations of the financial services industry, protecting Social Security, ensuring that students can afford to go to college, and responsibly withdrawing our troops from Iraq.

However, Mayor Barletta made a series of factual misstatements throughout the debate. Below please find a list of claims made by Mayor Barletta with the facts.

Barletta Charge: Congress has accepted millions of dollars from special interests in Washington, and it affected Members' judgment.

THE TRUTH: Paul Kanjorski votes for his constituents, not special interests.

• Paul Kanjorski has consistently called for creating a stronger regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac since 2000, and voted for legislation to create such a regulator in 2005, 2007, and 2008.
• In fact, Republican Mike Oxley who chaired the Financial Services Committee from 2001 to 2006 said that he “got a one-finger salute” from the White House in response to Congress’ regulatory reform efforts for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
• Paul Kanjorski helped to introduce legislation to provide tax credits for small campaign contributions and encourage more public participation in the political system.
• On October 16, Lou Barletta told the Citizens’ Voice and the Standard Speaker that “he wouldn’t accept contributions from industries overseen by committees on which he would serve if elected.”
• Lou Barletta, however, has taken money from groups that he’s given contracts to as mayor. These include Triple K, a snow removal contractor that Lou Barletta hired for the city, and Hazleton Creek Properties, a company Lou Barletta hired to fill city minelands with dredge. That’s not leadership – actually, it’s hypocritical
  
  

Barletta Claim: Congress must return the $4 trillion it stole from the Social Security Trust Fund.

THE TRUTH. The federal government has not taken $4 trillion from Social Security. This money is safe, and every single dollar paid into or paid out by Social Security is fully accounted for.

• Lou Barletta would prefer to make up his own theories rather than address the real issues.
• Most of the money coming into the Social Security Trust Fund is used immediately to pay current benefits, and any amounts not immediately needed are invested, by law, in interest-bearing Treasury securities -- the safest form of investment around -- and credited to Social Security. Treasury securities are safer than our volatile stock markets.
• The 2008 Report of the Social Security Board of Trustees showed that the Trust Fund currently owns more than $2.2 trillion of Treasury bonds.
• To further protect Social Security funds, Paul Kanjorski has voted multiple times in favor of implementing a “lock box” plan. (e.g., Roll Call 297 and Roll Call 477 in 2000, and Roll Call 13 in 2001)
  
  

Barletta Claim: I oppose privatizing Social Security.

THE TRUTH. In 2002, Lou Barletta openly stated his support for privatizing Social Security.

• Lou Barletta stated his support for allowing individuals to divert part of their payroll tax to personal retirement accounts to multiple papers, including the Times Leader in May 2002.
• The fact that Lou Barletta claims he is now against privatization just shows how he flip flopped on the issue. Lou Barletta just can’t be trusted.
• This year, Lou Barletta has already accepted more than $80,000 in Political Action Committee (PAC) contributions from supporters of privatization, and he was endorsed by 60 Plus Association, a group that prides itself on its support for privatizing Social Security.
• With our financial markets now so volatile, if a privatization scheme had been implemented, many Americans’ retirements could have been at risk, especially those who have already retired or those who are about to retire. Fortunately, Paul Kanjorski successfully worked to defeat President Bush’s plans to privatize Social Security.
  
  

Barletta Claim: Paul Kanjorski funneled more than $9 million in taxpayer funds to his own family..

THE TRUTH. Neither Paul Kanjorski, nor any member of his family, has ever profited from his government service at any time.

• These six-year old allegations have already been dismissed as false.
• If Paul Kanjorski had done anything wrong, the Republican Bush government would have certainly made sure that he paid the price. When allegations arose in the context of his re-election campaign six years ago, the Defense Department’s Inspector General fully examined them and found nothing improper.
• Bringing high quality jobs to Northeastern Pennsylvania has always been a high priority for Paul Kanjorski, and he is always searching for new job-creating technologies especially appropriate to the region.
• But, in February 2007, Hazleton mayoral candidate Dee Deakos questioned Lou Barletta on whether his brother worked for a city snow removal contractor. Lou Barletta hired his brother’s company for snow removal, despite the fact that the company’s trucks did not have plows.
  
  

THE TRUTH. Lou Barletta continues to refuse to provide a stance on withdrawal of American troops from Iraq.

• This is just another issue where Lou Barletta has flip flopped. In 2002 Barletta said that he would have supported authorization for the war, but now Lou Barletta refrains from saying whether he would have voted for the war. (see October 13, 2008 article in Scranton Times-Tribune) We cannot afford this indecision.
• Paul Kanjorski wants to end the war in Iraq as soon as possible, and he has voted on multiple occasions with a bipartisan majority of his colleagues in the House to bring the troops home and redeploy them from Iraq .
  
  

Barletta Claim: Congress failed to provide the oversight necessary when passing the $700 billion economic rescue plan.

THE TRUTH. Paul Kanjorski believes that the rescue law is part of a comprehensive solution. It will help to stabilize the economy and safeguard the financial security of average Americans. Congress must now pass additional laws, like a new economic rescue that Paul Kanjorski is working to draft, to get our economy back on track.

• Paul Kanjorski worked with his colleagues to significantly alter the initial Treasury plan in order to ensure that it would work as intended, protect taxpayers, limit the financial windfalls of executives at the distressed companies getting help, establish strong oversight watchdogs, provide transparency, and control overall costs.
• As part of a comprehensive response, the House is already working on a new economic recovery bill to help average Americans, and the Speaker has tapped Paul Kanjorski to serve on a task force developing this plan.
• While Paul Kanjorski has taken decisive action to put our economy back on track, Lou Barletta has flip-flopped in interviews with the Scranton Times-Tribune, the Citizens’ Voice, and the Pocono Record, as well as his own press releases, about where he stands on the rescue package. People want leadership in tough times, not indecision.
  
  

Barletta Claim: The President can't be in the Iraq war alone.

THE TRUTH. The Democratic Congress passed a bill in 2007 to bring our American troops home from Iraq, but President Bush, who Lou Barletta worked to reelect, vetoed it.

• Paul Kanjorski wants to end the war in Iraq as soon as possible, and he has voted on multiple occasions with a bipartisan majority of his colleagues in the House to bring the troops home and redeploy them from Iraq.
• President Bush, however, vetoed the timeline for bringing the troops home. (H.R. 1591, the U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans’ Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act.)
  
  

Barletta Claim: Barletta says individual tax credits should be given to citizens, much like we do with businesses, and allow them to use these tax credits to pay their premiums on their health insurances.

THE TRUTH. Lou Barletta has also been a proponent of a flat tax. But a flat tax would bring an end to deductions like healthcare tax credits. It is highly unlikely Lou Barletta could do both.

• In June 2008, Lou Barletta unequivocally stated his opposition to a government-run national healthcare system, saying “the idea of government-run healthcare scares me to death.” Lou Barletta supports George W. Bush’s healthcare policies – which have allowed insurance companies to make billions, and squeezing America’s working families. The government already runs many successful health care programs, including Medicare for seniors, veterans’ health care program, and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.
• Lou Barletta says “he believes the GOP prescription drug plan is worth backing.” Paul Kanjorski opposed the Medicare prescription drug plan passed by President Bush and the Republicans. He believes government should negotiate with drug companies for more affordable prices and that seniors should be allowed to buy drugs for the same lower prices as they get in Canada.
• Paul Kanjorski wants to make it possible for all Americans to have a doctor of their choice just like under Medicare. He believes that when Americans need help from the best doctors in the world, they should be able to get it..
  
  

Barletta Claim: Paul Kanjorski led us into this financial crisis by failing to properly oversee regulators. His friend, Democratic Congressman John Murtha, says Kanjorski saw this crisis coming and did nothing to stop it..

THE TRUTH. Paul Kanjorski has fought to protect average investors and maintain the financial security of middle class Americans for many years.

• As early as 1994, Paul Kanjorski introduced legislation to regulate the complex financial instruments like derivatives that contributed greatly to the current economic crisis.
• Moreover, Paul Kanjorski said in 2000 that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac needed “strong, independent regulators that have resources they need to get job done” and he consistently worked toward developing a consensus on a regulatory reform bill. Paul Kanjorski also voted for reform bills in 2005 and 2007, but the Republican White House opposed these bipartisan efforts until the summer of 2008. In fact, Republican Mike Oxley who chaired the Financial Services Committee from 2001 to 2006 said that he “got a one-finger salute” from the White House in response to the Congress’s bipartisan regulatory reform efforts for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
• Paul Kanjorski introduced and moved legislation through a key House subcommittee in 1999 to require greater disclosures by hedge funds, but Republicans blocked further progress on this sensible bill.
• After the downfall of AIG in September, many attributed the company’s problems to complex credit default swaps. Paul Kanjorski, however, was ahead of the curve because he ordered independent congressional investigators in July to review these financial instruments and to make legislative recommendations.
  
  

Barletta Claim: Paul Kanjorski sponsored a bill to slash oversight on the banking industry. His friends at the banks made millions. Now, after they've sucked up all of the money, Kanjorski had you bail his rich friends out.

THE TRUTH. Lou Barletta lies once again. Newsweek online published an analysis by factcheck.org of these charges. This independent, non-partisan group concludes that Lou Barletta got it “wrong”.

• In its review, factcheck.org points out that “Banks may have made money, but not with any help from Kanjorski’s bill.” The bill in question “didn’t even make it out of Committee.”
• In describing the bill’s uniform national standards aimed at curbing abusive lending practices, factcheck.org also finds that the independent experts at the Congressional Research Service summarized the bill as setting “new ‘requirements for higher-cost mortgages’ among other provisions” and that these national lending standards would have “increased” regulation in some states.
• Factcheck.org concludes its review of the faulty Lou Barletta television ad by stating “the implication that a bill that never passed helped banks ‘suck up all the money’ is wrong.
  
  

Barletta Claim: Barletta says he never voted with President Bush.

THE TRUTH. Lou Barletta is a George Bush Republican and there’s no way Lou Barletta can hide it.

• Even though President Bush favors amnesty for illegal immigrants, Lou Barletta has stood by his side through and through.
• Lou Barletta was the Luzerne County Chair for Bush-Cheney 2004 Campaign. Lou Barletta said he would work “very hard for President Bush’s re-election.” In November 2004, President Bush then invited Lou Barletta to an exclusive Christmas dinner party at the White House.
• Barletta has supported policies popular with Republicans – including privatization of Social Security, health care tax credits, and a flat tax.
• Lou Barletta tries to hide from his overwhelming support for President Bush, but there’s no denying it. It shows again that Lou Barletta is not to be trusted.
  
  

THE TRUTH: There is only one candidate in the PA-11 Congressional race who has been endorsed by the NRA - and that candidate is Congressman Paul Kanjorski.

THE TRUTH. President Bush has failed to enforce the current immigration laws that are aimed at preventing illegal immigration. His failure to enforce our current federal laws and complete construction of the fence along our border are the key contributors to the illegal immigration problem in the United States.

• Paul Kanjorski has been voting against amnesty for illegal immigrants for 24 years, while Lou Barletta started to address the issue in 2006.
• Paul Kanjorski joined in drafting and introducing the SAVE Act that aims to remove the job magnet that draws illegal immigrants to the U.S. and to improve border and interior enforcement of our immigration laws.
• Paul Kanjorski has consistently voted against amnesty for illegal immigrants, advocated an enforcement-only approach, voted to secure our borders and increase surveillance, and voted to prevent illegal immigrants from obtaining driver’s licenses.
• Paul Kanjorski opposes President Bush’s so-called reform plans to provide amnesty to illegal immigrants.
• Between 2000 and 2007, under the Bush Administration, 3.3 million illegal immigrants entered the country because of the Administration’s lack of enforcement.
• A recent examination by the Scranton Times-Tribune concludes “…Kanjorski and Barletta agree on the main points surrounding the issue [illegal immigration]” and a Morning Call analysis finds that the two “are pretty much on the same page” on illegal immigration.