After a year of casting vote after vote for Obama Administration proposals, resulting in the largest increase in government spending in history, Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-11th) is trying to paint himself as a fiscal conservative. Right.
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On June 3, Congressman Connolly issued a press release highlighting his “break with [the Democratic] party” where he voted against the recent unemployment and COBRA extension bill, H.R. 4213, in the House of Representatives. In his cynically political press release, Congressman Connolly argues that “as Northern Virginians are tightening their belts in this tough economy, Washington must also buckle down and take serious steps to stop wasteful spending and rein in the deficit…” as a justification for his voting against the $115 billion measure.
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What took him so long to figure that out?
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Congressman Connolly’s epiphany on reckless Washington spending seems to have come not a moment too soon. With Republicans raring to taking him on this fall and an anti-incumbent mood sweeping the country, he’s going to need to clean up his record on spending. And just what is that record?
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- He voted in favor of the Stimulus Bill, H.R. 1, which cost taxpayers $787 billion and was supposed to keep the unemployment rate from going above 8%. The unemployment rate has hovered around the mid-to-high 9% range for over a year;
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- He voted in favor of the 2009 Omnibus Appropriations Act, H.R. 1105, which included $410 billion in spending, the President’s 2009 supplemental spending bill for the Cash for Clunkers program, H.R. 3435, which cost an additional $2 billion, and the $3.56 trillion budget plan in 2009, H. Con. Res. 85, which 20 of his Democratic colleagues in the House voted against;
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- He voted in favor of the “minibus” spending bill last December, H.R. 3288, which 28 of his Democratic colleagues in the House voted against and which cost taxpayers $1.1 trillion;
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- He voted in favor of the President’s health care plan, H.R. 3590, which will add over $1 trillion in new federal spending over the next 10 years. The CBO recently changed its score of the health care law, adding an additional $115 billion in spending that was left out of the original estimates.
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Yet after all of that, he has the gall to call himself a “deficit hawk” on his campaign website. Is that a joke?
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Recent Gallup polling shows the American people are as worried about the Federal Government’s debt as they are about terrorism, with 79% rating it “very serious” or “extremely serious” (USA Today/Gallup Polling, May 24-25, 2010). With the public demanding fiscally accountability in Washington, it makes perfect sense for Congressman Connolly to try to pretend he cares about runaway government spending. But his record demonstrates that he, like his mentor Nancy Pelosi, never saw a spending bill he didn’t like – or wouldn’t vote for, until now.
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Connolly can see the handwriting on the wall, but if he thinks he’s going to win another election by pretending his a fiscal conservative, he’s got another thing coming. Unlike his votes as Chairman of the Board of Supervisors, people are actually paying attention to him now that he’s in the Congress. The voters of the 11th District won’t be buying Congressman Connolly’s last minute conversion when it comes to fiscal discipline.
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Nice try, Gerry. But we all know you better than that.
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Jun 09th by Brian S
We can’t let people forget Connolly’s record.
Glad to get this sorry record out in front of voters. Fimian will need all the help he can get.
Here Connolly hints today at raising “revenue” also known as taxes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNpOGgV0P1c
Fascinating reading on a day that Hayeks’s “Road to Serfdom” is No. 1 on Amazon’s Bestseller list. The populous is smartening up — they’re not going to fall for the posers, no more, no more.
Can someone here explain why this blog is running ads AGAINST our republican nominee in Nevada? Who here is hoping that dingy Harry will win another SIX years in the Senate? Who’s the sellout? It’s disgusting. I thought Vince was a conservative. Obviously NOT.
just noticed that. Vince ….is that randomly generated crap?
LL Good Catch!!! Boy this group is totally disingenuous. They try to look like the tea party non-partisan, but after digging through their site, it is obvious who and what they are. This is typical political slime!!!
Googleads is uncontrollable. Deeds advertised on my blog for instance, although I was pounding him on every issue.
If that’s true, Vince needs to delete googleads!
Google ads lets you remove any advertisers that you object to. Its fairly simple to do.
“randomly generated crap”….nailed it!!
Hey, PWC,
I never saw that link to prove your claim that Tom Davis voted to pull troop funding. Did you forget? Here, I’ll remind you…for the 2nd time:
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http://masonconservative.typepad.com/the_mason_conservative/2010/05/herrity-dives-head-first-into-the-gutter.html#comments
local gop
Some clown used my id, Davis didn’t vote against funding to the best of my memory, just the surge, which in retrospect was idiotic. If Davis did vote against funding than he was a worse congressman than I remember but i’m not searching through reams of votes to find out, when Davis is not standing for election.
“he was a worse congressman than I remember”
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just curious, what exactly made him a bad congressman? because he was an effective legislature? or because he ran the NRCC that put dozens of new republicans in office? yep, so awful.
Did Davis vote against the surge or did he vote against a resolution that stated it was the “sense of congress” that the surge was awesome (or something along those lines)?
Brian,
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Don’t criticize Gerry’s vote for the Cash For Clunkers program. According to the GAO, it was responsible for taking 90% of the Obama-Biden bumper stickers off the road!
Nice one, HisRoc.
I was not implying that he was a horrible congressman, he represented the district, but his economic views were lackluster and I don’t remember him being overly pro-life either. I wonder though, are you Tom Davis? Or just one of the groupies?
pwc,
i have immense respect for davis becaue of his decades of faithful service to the GOP at the local and national level….apparently something far right fringers can’t appreciate.
I can appreiciate his commitment, just not his lack of backbone to stand up for what is right.
“lack of backbone to stand up for what is right.”
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like……..??
“Don’t criticize Gerry’s vote for the Cash For Clunkers program. According to the GAO, it was responsible for taking 90% of the Obama-Biden bumper stickers off the road!”
Recently in a vehicle graveyard scrounging for a couple of custom suspension parts for my new beast…. I wandered into the “C-4-C” portion of the yard. Damned if you weren’t spot in. I should return and get a camera picture of the bumpers as a group shot to do a post on my blog.