Who is Chris Coons? - Fiscal Conservatism

So, now that Christine O'Donnell has defied all odds and beaten incumbent Congressman Mike Castle to grab the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate, the nation focuses on County Executive Chris Coons. Mr. Coons has spent the last few months flying inconspicuously under the radar. In fact, his name recognition outside of New Castle County is nearly zilch while Christine's is now in national headlines. That's all going to change now. Mr. Coons will have his record examined thoroughly and from initial conversations with members of all political parties, that spells problems for the current New Castle County Executive.

Chris has had his commercials running over the last 2-3 weeks and I have begun a cursory look into Mr. Coons' claims.

1.) He claims to have taken the reigns of county council steeped in corruption and debt. Interestingly, in 2005 Chris Coons said the County's finances were "fundamentally sound"

"While the county's economic health is ‘fundamentally sound,' Coons said, there's been a widening gap between expenses and revenues in the past several years. His proposals would help avoid a projected $152 million shortfall by 2009." (Angie Basiouny, "NCCo Exec Proposes Reining In Spending," The [Wilmington, DE] News Journal, 3/30/05)

It turns out that in 2009, The News Journal reported that Coons said "‘We're 18 Months From Being Out Of Money -- Unable To Operate, Not To Use The "B" Word,'"

"‘We're 18 Months From Being Out Of Money -- Unable To Operate, Not To Use The "B" Word,' Coons Said, In A Reference To Bankruptcy. ‘That's where we are, and it's at a time when many families are struggling, and they're looking to government to help them.'" (Jeff Montgomery, "Sobering Challenges Reflected In Speeches," The [Wilmington, DE] News Journal, 1/22/09)

Now this seems to me to be a bit of a quandary for Mr. Coons. His commercial says that he balanced the budget as County Executive, yet the County went from "fundamentally sound" to "unable to operate".

A deeper inspection reveals even more problems with his commercial. He uses the AAA bond rating of the County as proof of his fiscal conservatism but what he doesn't tell you is that he raised taxes 3 times since he took the reigns in 2005.

In 2006 Chris proposed a 5% increase in property taxes that his Democrat controlled County Council passed instead of cutting spending.

Just a year later in 2007, Coons again had to initiate a tax increase. This time the bill was blown up by 17.5%. Again, he chose to raise taxes instead of working to reduce the cost of county government.

In 2009, amidst the height of "the worst recession since the Great Depression" Chris Coons brought yet ANOTHER tax increase to his Democratically controlled County Council. The result was a 25% increase in property taxes and not a DIME cut from the budget.

In fact, the bond rating company (Fitch Ratings) that has given the County the AAA bond rating said they only did so because Coons increased takes by 25% in 2009 which made the County more stable. Between 2004 and 2009 (when Coons has been in charge) the County lost more than 30% of it's reserves. Despite his claims to have balanced the budget, New Castle County carries a debt burden of $1,639 per man, woman and child in the county.

Still think Coons is a fiscal conservative? The County's spending has increased 10% since he took over and the county budget has grown by a DRAMATIC 33%! Prior to becoming County Executive, Chris voted for every operating budget submitted by his predecessor whom he now claims to have save the county from. In 2008, as cash balances fell, Fitch Ratings put a watch on the county. That watch was a warning that downgraded the status of the county finances from "stable" to "negative". Coons' answer? Not cutting spending on rapidly accelerating union worker costs, not working to slash and cut budget line items that the county couldn't afford. No, his answer was to raise taxes by 25%.

This is NOT the resume of a fiscal conservative.

Castle's Mailers...Truth or Fiction?

You be the judge. Check his attacks against Christine's answers and decide for yourself: Christine Counters

Now let's look at Castle's claim of "Fiscal Conservatism". I'm still trying to figure out which genious he's paying came up with the idea of painting a tax and spend conservative with a 20 yr record of that behavior as a fiscal conservative.

Governor Christie...Seriously?

So you said in your Weekly Standard video endorsement of Mike Castle (RINO-DE) that

"Mike understands that our nation's most urgent priority is the economy and that
the path to restoring America's prosperity requires making tough, responsible
decisions," said Governor Christie. "He is the strong voice that the people of
Delaware need in the Senate to get our fiscal house back in order and get
Americans back to work."

Really? I mean, have you even had a staffer SNIFF Congressman Castle's record or are you already willing to sell out those conservative values that got you elected? Here's why I ask that question.

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 - Voted 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

So again Gov. Christie, where is your consistency? Where is your intellectual HONESTY? Then again, I did find this interesting tidbit. Governor Christie plans to use Cap and Trade funds to pay down the New Jersey debt. This story cites his plan to do it using the state money. Why not also work to pass national cap and trade legislation so he can pump even MORE money into his scheme? Who better to support for U.S. Senate and to ensure Cap and Trade passage than the man who already voted for it in the U.S. House, Congressman Mike Castle? I guess the Constitution, limited government and lower taxes only matter to Gov. Christie when he needs votes.

Hey Mike...Join the Club

As i was scouring the net today I came across a story over at WorldNet Daily called "Obamacare reversal? House 75% of the way there". It was written by Bob Unruh who generally does excellent work. So I stopped and did some reading. Apparently Representative Steve King from Iowa (a Republican of course) issued a discharge petition against the Universal Healthcare bill passed by Congress early this year.

As of July 27th the bill had 162 of the 219 signatures it needs in order to pass. One signature that has not yet been added to the petition is that of Delaware's lone Congressman Mike Castle who is embattled in a Primary race against Christine O'Donnell. The winner of the primary is likely to be Delaware's next Senator. This begs the question, "What are you waiting for Mike?"

His opponent Christine O'Donnell has been a strong advocate of defunding and repealing "Obamacare" since it was passed in March and has been at odds with Castle over how to best deal with the new law. Castle favors "fixing" the bill that amounts to a complete government takeover of the healthcare system. The bill came just months before Great Britain (the country that was touted as proof of the success of socialized medicnine) announced that it was going to begin privatizing it's healthcare system in order to correct problems with the system and stem the skyrocketing costs. Other European countries cited by Democrats are also considering scrapping their Socialized Medicine plans.

Yet still, Congressman Castle remains silent. Castle's office has not yet commented on the petition. His opponent O'Donnell has indicated that she would in fact support the petition if she were in Congressman Castle's place. When asked for comment Christine said:

"Obamacare is more about government seizing control of 1/6th of the American economy than it is about affordable health care choices. It will cripple American small businesses and discourage entrepreneurship. We need to replace Obamacare with a bill that will lower the cost of American health care by promoting competition.

Unlike my opponent, I will fight to defund and repeal Obamacare."

The Obamacare bill has been reported recently to cost the taxpayers more than $1 Trillion dollars including billions of dollars in new taxes, nearly $500 million from charity based non-profit hospitals and $70 billion from those who "don't buy government-approved health insurance". It's reported that "force some 87 million Americans to drop their current coverage" despite assurance by President Obama to the contrary.

I must ask again Congressman Castle, will you sign the petition and kill Obamacare before it starts killing Americans?

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.