Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Mike Castle - Fiscal Responsibility Fact Check

On his website Mike Castle claims to be Fiscally Responsible. I decided to do some Fact checking. I thought, maybe I'm WRONG about Congressman Castle. Maybe he IS a budget hawk. This is what I found:
FACT - Castle voted for TARP (the $700 Billion bailout of the financial industry in 2008
FACT - In 2008 the American Conservative Union and Club for Growth (Fiscal conservatism) rated Mike Castle at 28% and 26% respectively.
FACT - Castle voted FOR the Auto-bailout that resulted in GM being owned by the unions and taxpayers
FACT - American for Fair Taxation rated Mike Castle as a -1 against the FairTax measure
FACT - Castle Voted FOR permanently raising taxes on businesses
FACT - In 2008 the National Tax Payers Union gave Congressman Castle a D rating
FACT - AGAINST making the Bush tax cuts permanent, capping discretionary spending at $973 billion and imposing a moratorium on earmarks
FACT - Congressman Castle supported the interests of the National Small Business Association 60 percent of the time from 2007-2008
FACT - Castle voted FOR the Obama Omnibus spending bill that increased spending 8% on TOP of the Stimulus packages

Castle's website states:
Economic Stimulus - Mike Castle has supported the federal initiative to return millions of taxpayer dollars back to individuals and families, spur business investment, and expand refinance options for homeowners.

The $787 Billion stimulus package (which is projected to cost $3.27 Trillion) has resulted in $514, 012, 482.38 in Delaware dollars or put another way 6 one hundredths of one percent of the total stimulus package (assuming $787 Billion is correct). The Stimulus package has resulted in 1,174 jobs gained however, by December of 2009 Delaware had lost 11,400 jobs which resulted in a net loss of 10,226 jobs. Home foreclosure filings are still averaging 13 per day.

The website also states:
Financial Services Committee: Mike Castle serves on the House Committee on
Financial Services, which has jurisdiction over banking and the securities and
insurance industries. In this capacity, he has worked to ensure the viability of
low income housing programs and has introduced legislation to shield consumers
from identity theft.

This committee failed to stop Fannie and Freddie from bringing down the entire national housing system, failed to properly regulate and evaluate the banking industry and is largely responsible for the financial services bailouts (which Castle voted for).

Finally, Castle's website states:
Budget Reform: One of the reasons Mike Castle first ran for the United States
Congress was to bring to the federal government the same principles of fiscal
responsibility that he practiced as Governor of Delaware. Castle has fought for
solid budget reforms in Washington, including a presidential line item veto,
rainy day accounts, pay as you go for both tax cuts and spending, and a
no-excuses balanced budget process.

Despite this statement Mike Castle has voted against PAYGO (pay-as-you-go) amendments. The most recent of which was on February 14th 2010. He has a 2008 rating of 26% from the Club for Growth and has voted AGAINST making the Bush tax cuts permanent, capping discretionary spending and imposing a moratorium on earmarks 3 times since 2005. He's also voted FOR Cap and Trade, the auto bailouts, cash for clunkers, the 2008 stimulus package, the Omnibus spending bill (increased federal spending 8% ABOVE stimulus package) and believes that Social Security works relatively well despite the fact that it owes more than $14 TRILLION in unfunded liabilities and is the second largest budget item in federal spending (2nd only to Medicare/Medicaid which he has also praised).

Congressman Castle is CLEARLY not fiscally responsible with the people's money. He has time and again voted in ways that go against what is "fiscally responsible". His votes tend to contradict his campaign promises in the area of fiscal responsibility.

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