FACT CHECK: “WINDFALL” Roy Blunt for Senate, 9/30/10 AD Text/Audio THE FACTS VO : They promised ONLY ONE CANDIDATE FOR U.S. SENATE IN MISSOURI IS AN INCUMBE NT MEMBER OF jobs. CONGRESS – ROY BLUNT . Robin Carnahan did not vote for the stimulus bill. On Screen : Project THE UGLY FACTS ABOUT BLUNT RECORD OF KILLING JOBS Missouri families are suffering because of Funded by the Congressman Blunt’s 14 year Washington record of enabling risky behavior on Wall Street, wasteful spending, and protecting American Recovery tax breaks to corporations that ship jobs overseas. and Reinvestment Act; Job Creation Plan. Post Dispatch Calls Out Blunt’s Jobs Plan for What It is: Smoke, Mirrors and Buzzwords : “To sum up: Boehner/Blunt 2010: More for the rich. Less for the poor and middle classes. No savings. Higher deficits. Smoke. Mirrors. Buzzwords.” [STL PD Editorial, 8/30/10] Blunt Helped Impose $30 Billion in New Regulations and Increased Size of Government to Unprecedented Levels: Cong. Blunt was a loyal rubber stamp for former President George Bush who, according to Nick Gillespie of Reason magazine “increased the size and scope of the federal government to unprecedented levels.” According to the Heritage Foundation, the Bush Administration – with the support of Congressman Blunt – imposed almost $30 billion in new regulatory costs on Americans between 2001 and 2008. The total staffing of regulatory agencies increased from 172,000 to 244,000 between fiscal 2001 and fiscal 2007. [Wall Street Journal, 1/24/09; Heritage Foundation ] Blunt Supported Wall Street Deregulation Bill – Which Opponents Predicted “Could Lead To An Economic Crisis Down The Road.” In 1999, Blunt voted to pass the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which allowed traditional banks to merge with insurance companies and investment Houses – as they had before the passage of the Glass Steagall Act during the Depression. The “Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act … helped pave the way for companies such as AIG and Lehman Brothers to become behemoths laden with bad loans and investments,” according to the Washington Post . [Washington Post, 9/17/08; Vote 570, 11/04/99] Blunt Repeatedly Voted to Protect Corporate Tax Dodgers & Expatriates. Blunt has voted repeatedly to protect companies that avoid U.S. taxes and send American jobs overseas . [HR 4213, Vote #324, 5/28/10; HR5576, Vote 275, 6/14/06; HR 4520, Vote 258, 6/17/04; HR 4931, Vote 247, 6/21/02] Blunt Supported Permanent MFN Status for China That Cost Missouri 38,000 Jobs. In May 2000, Cong. Blunt voted in favor of a bill that would grant permanent most favored nation status to China. A recent study by the Economic Policy Institute found that the growing trade deficit with China has displaced 2.4 million U.S. jobs. EPI estimated that Missouri saw a net loss of 38,000 due to growing trade deficits with China between 2001 and 2008. [EPI, 3/23/10; HR 4444, Vote 228, 5/24/00; San Diego Union 1 Tribune, 5/26/00] THE RESULTS: Missourians Can’t Afford More of Blunt’s Job Killing Policies: On Cong. Blunt’s watch, Missouri has lost over 175,000 jobs and the unemployment rate has skyrocketed to 9.3 percent. [BLS.gov] Median Income Dropped: Median income in Missouri fell from $53,330 to $46,906 or by more than $6,000 between 2000 and 2008 when adjusted for inflation . [Missouri Budget Project, Oct 2009] Since 2000, the percentage of Missourians living in poverty has nearly doubled . [Springfield News Leader, 9/25/10] VO : Instead we got ONLY ONE CANDIDATE FOR U.S. SENATE IN MISSOURI HAS VOTED TO INCREASE OUR DEBT – generations of debt. ROY BLUNT. On Screen : They BLUNT EXPLODED THE DEFICIT, DOUBLED THE DEBT AND INCREASED THE SIZE OF GOVERNMENT Promised Jobs; Generations of Debt Blunt Turned $128 Billion Surplus into $1.2 Trillion Deficit : The Bush-Blunt team inherited budget surplus of $128 billion in 2001 but proceeded to post deficits every single year after that. As a result, by the time Bush left office in 2009, the non- partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated a deficit of $1.2 trillion. [CNN, 1/28/09; New York Times, 8/25/09] Blunt Voted 5 Times to Raise the Debt Ceiling. During The Time Blunt Was In The Republican Leadership, The National Debt Nearly Doubled: Congressman Blunt voted 5 times between 2002 and 2006 to increase the statutory debt limit in order to allow Congress to spend more taxpayer money with less accountability. During the time Blunt was in the Republican leadership, the national debt nearly doubled from $5.7 trillion in 1999 to more than $10 trillion eight years later – an over $4 trillion increase. [TreasuryDirect.gov; Vote #279, 6/27/02’ Vote #280, 6/22/04; Vote # 536, 11/18/04; Vote # 198, 5/19/04; Vote# 158, 5/18/06] “Prodigious Pork-Meister” Oversaw Explosion of Earmarks: The number of pork barrel spending projects also skyrocketed under Congressman Blunt’s leadership -- from just 1,600 earmarks in 1997 to nearly 12,000 in 2008. One editorial called Blunt a “prodigious pork-meister ,” while the Springfield News Leader faulted him for allowing “earmarks to get out of control during an era of no accountability.” Blunt also declined to release his earmark requests to the press, despite new rules designed to bring openness to the process. Among the wasteful pork barrel spending projects Blunt supported: $1 million for potato research in Idaho, Oregon and Washington; $250,000 for the East Coast Shellfish Research Institute ; and $500,000 for a swimming pool in Banning, CA. [CAGW; Gannett, 5/3/07; Springfield News-Leader, 6/16/07; Providence Journal, 2/6/06; Vote #507, 7/9/09; Vote #6/14/06; Vote #736, 7/26/07] 2 CONG. BLUNT NEGOTIATED $700 BILLION WALL STREET BAILOUT…. Worked with Pelosi to Pass $700 Billion Wall Street Bailout – The “Largest Government Intervention in Markets Since the Great Depression”: In the fall of 2008, Congressman Blunt voted not once – but twice – in favor of the $700 billion Wall Street bailout championed by former President Bush and former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson. After the bill was defeated in the face of public outrage and opposition from his fellow Republicans, then Minority Whip Roy Blunt took the lead in convincing rejectionist Republicans to support the bailout. Though the bill ultimately passed 263-171, 108 Republicans, including Missouri Reps. Akin and Graves and former Rep. Kenny Hulshof, voted “no.” The Associated Press described the bill as “the largest government intervention in markets since the Great Depression.” [HR 1424, Vote #681 , 10/3/08; HR 3997, Vote #674, 9/29/09; Associated Press, 10/3/08] Helped Convince 25 Republicans to Switch Their Votes: As reported by the AP, “Blunt, the minority whip, worked with House leaders to persuade enough lawmakers to switch their votes to pass the legislation.” Though the bill ultimately passed 263-171, 108 Republicans, including Missouri Reps. Akin and Graves and former Rep. Kenny Hulshof, voted “no.” [HR 1424, Vote #681 , 10/3/08; Washington Times, 10/4/08; AP, 10/3/08] And Even Called it One of the “High Points” Of His Career: Later, during an interview with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch , Blunt said former Secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson had credited Blunt and Sen. Judd Gregg for making sure the TARP legislation passed. Asked “what would be a couple of high points as a leader,” Blunt said, “And then of course, I had (Treasury Secretary) Hank Paulson tell me on the phone last night that this rescue effort (for the $700 billion financial rescue) appeared not to be happening “until you and (New Hampshire Sen.) Judd Gregg stepped up and made it happen.” [St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 11/23/08] …A BAILOUT THAT FAILED TO CREATE JOBS OR HELP MIDDLE CLASS FAMILIES Headline: “Government Bailout Has Increased Risk of Economic Crisis.” As reported by the AP “The government's response to the financial meltdown has made it more likely the United States will face a deeper crisis in the future, an independent watchdog at the Treasury Department warned… Since Congress passed $700 billion financial bailout, the remaining institutions considered "too big to fail" have grown larger and failed to restrain the lavish pay for their executives, Barofsky wrote. He said the banks still have an incentive to take on risk because they know the government will save them rather than bring down the financial system.” [AP, 1/30/10] Headline –Government Bailout Failed in Many Ways: Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general for TARP said in a January 2010 report that the government’s bailout program had failed to achieve many of its objectives. Consumers and businesses are still struggling to get loans, he says. Small businesses are still waiting for an aid program to start. Homeowners are still grappling with record levels of foreclosures. Unemployment is still 10 percent. [ABC News , 1/31/10] 3 VO : Where did our FACTS: PAYMENTS FOR WIND PROJECTS TIED TO TWO TAX CREDITS THAT BLUNT HAS money go? REPEATEDLY SUPPORTED On Screen : Where did Production Tax Credit Has Been Repeatedly Extended With Support from Both Parties: “ The payments are connected to our money go? two tax credits, one for investments in wind energy, on the books since the 1970s, and the other a production tax credit for renewable energy approved by Congress in 1992. The production credit has been extended several times since then with VO : Ask Robin support from both major political parties. Before the stimulus, it was last renewed in 2008 as part of the financial system bailout.” [St.