Who is Dan Lipinski?

As I try to understand my opponent Dan Lipinski’s votes on health care I wonder who he really is.  He received his seat in Congress in the most blatant example of Chicago-style political nepotism from his father, a well respected Congressman.  Yet what has he done with the power and trust that the people of the 3rd Congressional District have given to him?

His votes on the health care issue are disturbing.  He originally stated that he opposed the bill but then he voted for it.  His official reasoning was that the Stupak Amendment was adequate to prevent the federal funding of abortion.  His vote was critical to passing the original bill last November; if only three votes had gone the other way, the issue would have gone back to the table and could have focused on reforming the system not obliterating it.  That bill included a massive consolidation of power under the federal government due to single payer option pushed by Nancy Pelosi, the ultra liberal Speaker of the House.  And it was fiscally irresponsible in all ways, even when the unrealistic savings were included by the CBO (at Speaker Pelosi’s direction).  Nearly 40 conservative Democrats opposed the bill, which demonstrates how far to the left Nancy Pelosi has pulled the House of Representatives.

Then the Senate-crafted bill came to the House.  Here was a bill that had a Presidential directive to address the abortion concerns, was more fiscally viable (the key phrase is MORE fiscally viable, but it was NOT fiscally viable) and in general a bad bill for American health care.  However it was improved over the one that Lipinski had supported last November.  He voted against it.  Not because it was too intrusive into the relationship between the patient and the doctor, not because it was a centralization of power into the hands of the federal bureaucrats, not because it did not reform the tort and defensive medicine systems, not because it would run up even more federal debt, but because he felt that the Obama order banning the use of federal funds for abortion was insufficient, even though it was adequate for Stupak and the rest of his supporters.  The good news for Lipinski is that Pelosi had enough votes, so he did not have to revert to his November manipulations and vote against the District’s wishes a second time.  There are rumors (not yet verified) that he did not vote when his name was called, but waited until the bill had enough votes to pass, hence he did not have to betray the District a second time by voting for Pelosi’s health care bill.

This brings us to the real Dan Lipinski, not the one presented to us by his well funded political machine.  Obama’s Executive Order 13502 makes it nearly impossible for any non-union entity to bid on a federally funded project over $25 million in value.  If the project manager wanted to use some non-union labor for a part of the project, their workers would have to contribute to the local union’s benefit plan even if they are not part of it due to the Project Labor Agreement (PLA) required by the Executive Order.  Lipinski has received over $300,000 from PACs (Political Action Committees), most of it from union PACs.  That explains why a $787 BILLION stimulus package did not include enough construction money for our Congressman, he voted “Present” rather than “Yes” on it.  Imagine, 4/5^th of a TRILLION dollar stimulus was not enough him.  That is $2600 for each and every person in America.  And remember that only about 15% of the construction workforce is unionized nationwide, hence 85% of the hard working folks in the construction industry are shut out of the stimulus money that you and I paid for with our taxes.  Dan Lipinski is indebted to the unions; his five top contributors are unions and they have given the maximum permitted by law, e.g. $10,000 each over a two year election cycle.  And he votes with Nancy Pelosi, a ultra liberal Democrat who is out of touch with the moderate and conservative Democratic party members, over 96% of the time.  And he has supported the huge annual budgetary bills which have run up large deficits under both the Bush and Obama administrations.

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