Are you kidding?

Did anyone else see Roskam's justification for voting for H.R. 6 and tax cuts for oil companies? Get this:

“The bill is overflowing with unintended consequences. One of the most disturbing is severely damaging the retirement savings of seniors. Retirement and pension accounts hold forty-one percent of domestic oil and gas company shares. When our domestic companies’ production levels shrink, so do the hard-earned and well-deserved savings of our seniors."

Oh please. Only a trial lawyer could come up with such baloney. Remember this quote - If in the future he votes for legislation that will hurt seniors (he's already voted against allowing the government negotiate for cheaper prescription drugs), I will be sure to bring this quote back up.

Of course, its complete nonsense that he voted against repealing these corporate handouts because of seniors. Remember, having the government collect the $14 billion it should be collecting would leave lots more money available for Social Security (which doesn't depend on the inequitable owning of stocks), Medicare, and the promotion of clean energy (I'm sure a few retirees have stocks in clean energy companies too).

And how much of this corporate handout are actually going to the stockholders? According to the 13th Annual CEO Compensation Survey:

*The top 15 U.S. Oil Barons are paid 281 percent of the average CEO
compensation in comparably sized businesses. The top 15 U.S. Oil
CEOs were paid an average of $32.7 million in 2005 while the average
compensation for CEOs of large U.S. firms in all industries was
$11.6 million.

*Top three highest paid U.S. oil chieftains in 2005:
#1 William Greehey (Valero Energy) = $95.2 million
#2 Ray R. Irani (Occidential Petroleum) = $84.0 million
#3 Lee Raymond (outgoing CEO of ExxonMobil) = $69.7 million

And lest anyone think that is the pay required to get a CEO capable of running an oil company:

*The second- and third-largest oil companies in the world are both foreign firms, British Petroleum and Royal Dutch Shell. Both pay their
CEOs considerably less than comparable U.S. oil companies. While
they operate in the same global marketplace, their average pay was
$4.8 million, compared to the average of $39.2 million for the top 2
U.S. oil CEOs.

If Roskam really cares about the minority of retirees that have stock in oil companies, perhaps he should look into doing something about CEO pay disparity? Of course, maybe the $127,065 he's received from energy interests is the real reason he voted to keep their corporate hand-outs. It certainly isn't to protect an average American retiree. That is one of the lamest justifications for voting the wrong way I've ever heard.

Social Security

The purpose of this website is mainly to track the way Roskam is wrong on most issues, but there is something else about the man that really motivates me to get him out of Congress - his complete lack of character. This is highly evident when analyzing where he stands on Social Security.

Coming into 2005 with Republican majorities in Congress, privatizing Social Security was President Bush’s top domestic priority. Of course the American people rejected privatization, which would have cut benefits and put their retirement security at risk. Facing widespread rejection towards the privatization proposal, Republicans like Roskam tried to hide their position.

He said he would privatize Social Security in an NTU Survey, a conservative anti-tax group, but then said in an AARP survey that he was against privatization. A clear flip-flopping contrast in opinion. When he was in the state house, he ducked out on a vote that would have revealed his position despite making all the other votes that day.

But lack of character doesn’t end with distorting his position, rather than just ducking the Social Security issue he actually had the audacity to distort and attack his opponent on the issue. In ads he accused Tammy Duckworth of wanting to raise Social Security taxes. The problem was that his accusation was completely made up. He cited an AARP response, but the AARP denied this and in fact sent out thousands of letters saying that Roskam’s ads were false.

He again falsely accused Tammy Duckworth of wanting to give welfare and Social Security benefits to illegal aliens, this time using the Chicago Tribune as a source. The problem, it was a false statement the Tribune never said. The Tribune responded with an editorial, “Don’t quote us on that” calling out Roskam’s lies, as did Senator Obama in this clip.

Clearly Roskam has no scruples about distorting others positions and saying whatever will appeal to the particular crowd he is speaking to. His next opponent should be ready for more Roskam distortions. Luckily for us, the Democrats have taken Congress and it appears Bush’s privatization plan isn’t going anywhere. The easiest and most common sense reform for Social Security is to lift the $90,000 cap on Social Security taxes.