Chip Cravaack
Minnesota's 8th District (MN - 08)
Updated: Oct 10, 2012
Updated: Oct 10, 2012
JOBS CONTRAST IS EXACTLY WHAT IS NEEDED. BOTH TELLING THE TRUTH ABOUT CRAVAACK AND NOLAN.
Even though Minnesota has lost thousands of good-paying jobs due to unfair trade deals, Cravaack voted for more unfair trade deals – with South Korea, Panama, and Columbia. Worse – Cravaack has voted to continue tax loopholes that encourage outsourcing jobs overseas – the failed policies of the past that have sped up the decline of manufacturing jobs here.
Rick Nolan has created jobs in Minnesota, both as a small business owner (sawmill) and as head of the MN World Trade Corporation, which helped Minnesota businesses learn how to export their products instead of exporting jobs.
Congressman Cravaack Voted to Implement Free Trade Agreements. Cravaack has voted to implement trade deals with South Korea, Panama, and Colombia. [HR 3079, Vote #782, 10/12/11; HR 3078, Vote #781, 10/12/11; HR 3080, Vote #783, 10/12/11; USA Today, 10/13/11]
Free Trade Agreements Expected to Cost 214,000 US Jobs. In August 2011, CNN reported that an international economist for the Economic Policy Institute estimated that the South Korea, Colombia, and Panama free trade deals taken together would result in a loss of 214,000 American jobs. [money.cnn.com, 8/15/11]
Minnesota Lost 19,278 jobs to NAFTA. According to the Economic Policy Institute, the North American Free Trade Agreement has resulted in a net loss of 19,278 jobs for the state of Minnesota. [Economic Policy Institute, “NAFTA’s Cautionary Tale,” 7/20/05]
Congressman Cravaack Voted to Transition to Tax System That Would Reward Moving Jobs Overseas. On August 1, 2012, Congressman Cravaack voted for a plan to transition the federal tax code to a “territorial tax system.” Currently, U.S. companies pay the tax rate of the country where the outpost is located and then, if they bring those profits home, often pay some U.S. taxes as well. Under this proposal, companies essentially would pay just the tax rate of the country where the profits are earned. The territorial system “would exacerbate the worst features of our current tax system. It would: enhance the tax code’s rewards for moving jobs and investments overseas; provide a gratuitous windfall to some of the very companies that have already shifted jobs and profits overseas; further invite the offshore tax haven abuse that deprives the U.S. Treasury of tens of billions of dollars in revenue every year.” [HR 6169, Vote #552, 8/2/12; Citizens for Tax Justice, 3/22/12; Center for American Progress, 7/16/12]
Richard Nolan is President/Owner of Emily Forest Products, LLC; Involved in Paperboard Container Manufacturing. According to Hoover’s, Richard Nolan is the president and owner of Emily Forest Products, LLC. Emily Forest Products, LLC was founded in 1991 and employs 10 people. The company has a single location and is involved in paperboard container manufacturing. The company received a prescreen score of low risk. [Hoover’s Report on Emily Forest Products, LLC, link]
Due to the fact that television time is prohibitively expensive in the MSP media market, this portion of the district needs strong mail coverage.
First tier targets in the MSP Region are in Chisago, Isanti, Kanabec, Mille Lacs, Pine Counties. There are 7 other Counties in the MSP market that are second tier targets. Women 50+ are a key demographic we need to reach in this region. Note this is not a pro-choice district, but other aspects of women’s healthcare are important to these women voters.
Cravaack wants to abolish the Department of Education. Cravaack has voted against efforts to make college more affordable, including voting to cut Pell grants, voting against a tuition tax credit for families and even voting to block lower interest rates on student loans. The budget he voted for this year would cut Pell Grants for nearly ten million students in order to pay for the tax cuts for the rich.
Cravaack also wants to privatize Social Security and have seniors invest their retirement savings in the stock market.
Cravaack Supported Eliminating the Federal Department of Education. In a March 2010 interview with the Libertarian Party of Minnesota, Cravaack said, “I do not see a place for the Department of Education…we eliminate the Department of Education, it is a states issue. The states are in charge of education.” [YouTube.com, 3/12/10, Part 1, 7:50]
Cravaack Voted to Cut Pell Grant Funding. Cravaack voted for two House Republicans budgets that cuts critical education programs. “The Department of Education would be cut by more than $115 billion over a decade. Approximately 9.6 million students would see their Pell Grants fall by more than $1000 in 2014, and, over the next decade, over one million students would lose support altogether.” [H Con. Res. 34, Vote #277, 4/15/11; H Con Res 112, Vote #151; OMB, 3/21/12]
Cravaack Voted to Ensure that Tax Cut Extension Couldn’t Possibly Pass. House Republicans rejected an overwhelmingly bipartisan plan to temporarily extend the payroll tax cut in December 2011. Instead, Bilbray and House Republicans voted for “a piece of parliamentary trickery devised…to ensure the tax cut couldn’t possibly pass. The measure simply sent the tax-cut issue back to a nonexistent conference committee. Unlike the bipartisan Senate vote, this one was supported only by Republicans and was designed to produce only one possible outcome. As a result, it looks increasingly likely that the payroll tax cut will end on Jan. 1, along with extended unemployment insurance for three million jobless workers.” [HR 3630, Vote # 946; 12/20/11; New York Times Editorial, 12/21/11]
Cravaack Voted Against Extending the Earned Income Tax Credit. And when Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee introduced legislation Tuesday to extend the Earned Income Tax Credit, the Child Tax Credit and the American Opportunity Tax Credit for tuition and related expenses, Cravaack voted against them. [Accounting Today, 7/24/12; Levin Amendment Vote #543, 8/1/12; CQ Floor Vote]
Cravaack Supported Privatizing Social Security. In August 2010, the Ely Echo reported that Cravaack “voiced support for privatization of some Social Security accounts.” [Ely Echo, 8/28/10]
