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Will Rick Larsen Vote for the Cornhusker Kickback, Louisiana Purchase?

The Dems' Dirty Secret: Passing Healthcare Bill Means Voting for Shady Backroom Deals

Washington- With Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Barack Obama making their last-ditch push for their unpopular healthcare agenda, it's time for Rick Larsen to take a stand. As Democrat leaders attempt to usher a healthcare bill through the House with Larsen's seal of approval, they have a dirty secret: In order to run their end-around on the American people, Larsen's party will first have to approve the current healthcare bill - and all of the shady backroom deals that come along with it.

The last front in the healthcare fight is in the House of Representatives and Pelosi is scraping by to achieve a razor-thin majority. If Rick Larsen votes for the bill currently being pushed by Democrat leaders, he is voting in support of the Cornhusker Kickback, the Louisiana Purchase and every other backroom deal cut to sneak the legislation through Congress.

"In his weekly address, released Saturday, President Obama said he's asked ‘leaders in both of Houses of Congress to finish their work and schedule a vote in the next few weeks.'"

"It's not clear the president has the votes. He needs 216 votes in the House, where some Democrats are saying no. In the Senate, Democrats are expected to try to pass the latest version with a bare majority of 51, instead of the 60 votes it usually takes to move legislation, through a controversial tactic called reconciliation. Republicans called that a recipe for partisan warfare." (John Hendren, "New Deadline Set to Pass Health Care Bill," ABC News, 3/7/2010)

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"Then there's the perception of payoffs to states represented by senators who hesitated on supporting the Senate's health care bill, part of the overhaul that Obama had named his top legislative priority.

"Dubbed the ‘Cornhusker kickback' and the ‘Louisiana purchase,' the deals with Democratic Sens. Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana drew derision for the perception of sneakiness they created." (Laurie Kellman and Larry Margasak, Associated Press, "Democrats mired in swamp they vowed to drain," 3/4/2010)

"The only thing transparent about the Democrats' shady backroom deals is their utter disregard for the intelligence of American taxpayers and voters," said NRCC Communications Director Ken Spain. "President Obama and Nancy Pelosi vowed repeatedly to keep their Congress ‘honest' and keep congressional dealings open to the American public. But now they are asking Rick Larsen to go on the record with his support for these unpopular closed-door deals so they can sneak their runaway healthcare agenda through Congress while no one is looking. Will Rick Larsen stand up for the hard-working middle-class American families that have already rejected this bill or will he sit quietly while Democrat leaders attempt to pull the wool over the American public's eyes?"

Will Larsen endorse not only a government-run healthcare bill that the majority of the American public has already rejected - but also the secretive backroom dealings included in the bill before Congress?
 
Koster Opposes Hazardous Substance Tax

PRESS RELEASE
February 26, 2010

For Immediate Release
Contact:
Koster for Congress

360-631-6055

Koster Opposes Hazardous Substance Tax

ARLINGTON, WASHINGTON - February, 26, 2010 - Snohomish County Councilman John Koster, candidate for the U.S. Congress in Washington's 2nd Congressional District, announced today that he strongly opposes passage of Senate Bill 6851 and House Bill  3181. These identical bills would triple the state's hazardous substance tax rate from 0.7 to 2.0 percent.  John Koster

John Koster said "This is a direct attack on the four refineries located in Whatcom and Skagit Counties and the numerous other companies such as CH2M-Hill and Anvil Corporation that support the energy industry in the Northwest.  Here we have unemployment at record high levels and the State of Washington wants to raise taxes so high it will likely result in a loss of family wage jobs for hundreds in Whatcom and Skagit County. This is terrible idea that is unacceptable at best.

"We need to focus on job growth, not taxing businesses until they fail.  A better idea is to provide incentives for our four oil refineries to expand their production, reduce our dependency on foreign oil and grow jobs in Skagit and Whatcom Counties."

John Koster encourages Washington State citizens to call, write and email their legislators and the Governor to urge them to defeat SB 6851/HB 3181.

# # #

For more information about the Koster for Congress campaign, please visit the campaign's website at www.kosterforcongress.com or call the campaign team at 360-631-6055 or e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

 
Will Lap Dog Larsen Roll Over and Roll Out the Bureaucratic Red Tape?

For Immediate Release: Contact: Press Office
February 19, 2010 (202) 479-7070

Will Lap Dog Larsen Roll Over and Roll Out the Bureaucratic Red Tape?

Democrats Look to Lock-Up More Energy-Rich Land

Washington- In a document recently leaked by the Department of Interior (DOI), a list of as many as 14 energy-rich areas could be unilaterally designated as national monuments under the Antiquities Act, which provides the President full executive power to designate areas without input from local residents, stakeholders and officials. If the President were to move forward with the national monument designations, Washington's public land users and energy producers will be among those hardest hit, not to mention the likely impact it will have on future local tax revenue and jobs. Lap Dog Rick Larsen has already rolled over for his party's failed economic policies which have cost taxpayers millions of jobs, will he roll out the red tape too?

"A letter to President Obama Thursday from Reps. Doc Hastings (Wash.) and Rob Bishop (Utah) highlights an internal Interior list of 14 areas that could be designated as National Monuments under the Antiquities Act.

"The lawmakers fear Obama will wield executive power to designate large regions where uses such as oil-and-gas drilling and mining would be greatly restricted." (Ben Geman, "Senior Republicans allege secret Interior plot to create national monuments," The Hill, 2/18/2010)

By giving his seal of approval to his party's failed stimulus, Larsen has already proven he supports a big-government agenda that puts bureaucracy before creating jobs:

"Although President Obama initially said that 90 percent of the jobs created by the stimulus program would be in the private sector, the data suggests that well over half of the jobs claimed so far have been in the public sector." (Michael Cooper and Ron Nixon, "Reports Show Conflicting Number of Jobs Attributed to Stimulus Money," The New York Times, 11/5/2009)

"With thousands of acres of profitable and energy-rich land at stake, will Rick Larsen continue to advance his party's big-government agenda at the expense of creating opportunities for Washington's small businesses?" said NRCC Communications Director Ken Spain. "Larsen has already jeopardized Washington's economy by supporting his party's failed economic policies 98.3percent of the time. Will Larsen roll over again for his party bosses and potentially put more Washington jobs at risk?"
 
Koster Answers the Call to Congress

EVERETT, WASHINGTON - January, 13, 2010 - Responding to hundreds of e-mails, phone calls and a "draft Koster for Congress" petition drive, Snohomish County Councilman John Koster announced today that he will launch a campaign for the United States House of Representatives in Washington's 2nd Congressional District.

Elected to a third Council term last November by a wide margin, the Koster run for Congress will offer voters a clear ideological choice between Koster's steady conservative political approach to that of the "progressive" socialist agenda of the incumbent, Rick Larsen.

Larsen, who appears consistently in the upper tier of congressional big spenders, has been heavily criticized in the 2nd Congressional district the past year for supporting the Obama administration's multi-billion dollar bailouts and economic "stimulus" packages. He is seen as vulnerable by the National Republican Congressional Committee for his "anti-jobs big government agenda".

"Rick Larsen offers Washingtonians a failed socialist ideology that punishes prosperity and produces mediocrity - it has failed millions of people every time it has been tried - government cannot spend us into prosperity", said Koster.

"Larsen continues to promote and fund a bigger and more intrusive government marked by a continuing loss of freedoms and more control as the federal government micro-manages our lives and confiscates our personal wealth", Koster continued. "A look at his voting record reveals a puppet of the Pelosi-Reid Congress that is spending our hard earned dollars to fund anti-American disasters like ACORN"

"And now, Congress is on a course to destroy the finest health care system in the world. They are asking us to believe that it will be more efficient and cost less. The last survey I saw showed that 63% of Americans are against government run health care. What has the federal government done so well that we want to give them our health care?"

"With John Koster as your congressman, you will get smaller, less intrusive government, and more freedom. You will get a government that takes far less from the people, because it recognizes that wealth is created in the private sector, and belongs to you."

John Koster owned and operated a dairy farm for 23 years in North Snohomish County. He and his wife Vicki have been married 39 years and have four children and nine grandchildren. During his years of service in the Washington State Legislature and the Snohomish County Council, Koster earned a reputation as a man of integrity with a genuine commitment to the betterment of his community and the state of Washington.
 


"You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it."

--Adrian Rogers: See it @ Google Books: Ten Secrets for a Successful Family, p. 138.