Jack Kingston, “I Was There When”

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Jack Kingston is amassing establishment Republican endorsements while campaigning on what I call conservative highly-emotional issues. You know the national favorites, guns, pro life, immigration, common core, military and lets not forget at election time, the Constitution suddenly becomes real important.
All of Kingston’s endorsements talk about knowing Jack for years. That is because most of Kingston’s backers are long-time state and national establishment Republicans. Jack Kingston has been in Congress 22 years and before that a state representative for 9 years.

When he talks about his long-time perfect voting record on pro-life issues, 2nd amendment rights and support for our military, that is true. There is no question that he is pro-life, pro 2nd amendment and pro military. Those are the easy votes for Kingston.

I have been to several of Kingston’s campaign events and have heard him tell the story several times about when he got a call from Vice President Dick Cheney asking him to vote yes on TARP. “Jack, the President really needs your vote on this. I’m sorry Mr. Vice President, you will have to tell the President I will be voting no.” Kingston then goes on to tell the crowd how hard it was to tell the President “no” but it was the right thing to do.

Kingston knows that saying he voted no on TARP is a conservative crowd pleaser, but let’s talk about a couple of votes where he did not say no. You see Jack was there when the Bush Presidency added $4.9 trillion to the national debt and I am having a hard time finding Kingston’s no votes on the Bush budgets.

Kingston has plenty of earmarks to talk about and he did vote yes on ‘Cash for Clunkers’ but what I want to talk about is my personal favorite, the 108th Congress. Kingston was there. I call the 108th the Republican gateway drug to several of today’s biggest problems we face as a nation. How can we forget William H. Frist, Senate Majority leader, Dennis “Denny” Hastert, Speaker of the House and President George W. Bush? The Republicans held all three houses. Jack was there.

The 108th Congress passed the H.R.1 Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Moderation Act of 2003. Denny Hastert sponsored the bill and Jack Kingston voted yes. The 2004 Congressional Budget Office’s report on the bill stated that it would add 395 billion dollars in unfunded spending. The bill passed 216 -215.

When the bill was introduced over a thousand lobbyists swarmed on Congress and the bill was over 700 pages. I don’t hear Kingston talking about how he had to tell the President “no” on billions of dollars of unfunded spending. I wonder if he read the bill.

The Republicans holding all three houses didn’t turn out very well. Many of the actions of the 108th resulted in the 110th. Congress giving the American people Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid only to be followed by President Barack Obama. The American people got Nancy, Harry, and Barack. Thank you Denny, Bill and George. Jack was there.

After Obama was elected it only took two years for the American people to reject Nancy Pelosi and in 2010 the Republicans won a historical midterm election sweeping them back into the majority in the House of Representatives but could not quite close the deal on the Senate to get rid of Harry Reid.

The Republicans had an opportunity in the 108th to rein in spending, do something about health care, secure the borders, fix the nation’s immigration problems, abolish the IRS, end the Department of Education, rein in the EPA, put conservative judges on the court to enforce the laws on the books, the list goes on and on. But they chose to do nothing but spend, spend, spend. Remember the lobbyist Jack Abramoff? Jack was there.

The political climate looks like the American people are ready to give the Republicans another chance to run the show. January 2015 the Republicans can find themselves in the majority in both houses. This will prevent the Obama Presidency from having any agenda or influence for the next two years. If the Republicans nominate a true conservative and not a candidate that tries to be all things to all people they could find themselves January 2017 with the trifecta. Will Jack be there?

The big questions voters have, will this be a repeat of the 108th Congress? In many circles people are talking about the possibility that America is past the point of return, we have gone over the edge and never will return to greatness. It has become obvious that the Democrats want a complete socialist United States of America and will not defend the republic as it stands so the only hope is one more chance with the Republicans.

Rome is burning. We have a debt crisis, economic crisis, illegal immigration crisis and the list goes on. Jack Kingston is only one of 435 members of Congress. Kingston is not responsible for the problems this country is in but in the examples I made with the 108th congress Kingston went with the flow. He goes around talking about how he cut $3.6 billion from Obama’s budget but never discusses how much he cut from Bush’s budget when the Republicans were adding $4.9 trillion to the national debt. He mentions how he has voted 40 times to combat Obamacare but never discusses how we got Obamacare in the first place. How he returned a million dollars to the national treasury in unused office expenses. Now I guess the H.R.1 Medicare Prescription bill he voted for is only 394 billion 999 million dollars unfunded.

Kingston’s campaign has attacked David Perdue saying he wants to raise taxes. Perdue has discussed raising revenue, not raising taxes. Perdue has stayed focused and on message saying we have a 17 trillion dollar debt crisis, and an economic crisis. If you want the same results send the same people but if you want different results send him to Washington. This has been the message of the Perdue campaign since the beginning.

We need to be honest with ourselves, we will do nothing with this $17 trillion debt if we don’t raise revenue, cut spending and close loopholes in tax codes. Ronald Reagan understood that and raised revenue by cutting taxes. Raising revenue isn’t always accomplished by raising taxes but the Kingston campaign wants you to believe that is what David Perdue wants to do but that is not what Perdue has said.

When people ask me my opinion of Jack Kingston I respond by saying solid family man, pro-life, pro-2nd. amendment, pro military, loves his country and is an all around good man but 22 years. He was there when …………. I understand as 1 of 435 there was only so much Jack could have done and as 1 of 100 maybe he will be able to get more done. If elected Jack will make a good Senator and maybe will not go with the flow like he did with the 108th congress. I do believe Kingston understands the severity of the problems this country faces and will work hard to bring America back to greatness, but 22 years.

When people ask my opinion of David Perdue I respond by saying I like his simple message. If you want the same results send the same people if you want different results send him to Washington. I like how he can stay focused on message and not let attack bother him. I think he is a successful businessman and what this country needs is someone who understands business and how to get this economy moving again. I am concerned how the republican establishment is attacking David Perdue’s success and that vilifying success concerns me. My concern with Perdue is that businessmen like to negotiate. Many of the problems America faces are non-negotiable. Most conservative Republicans feel that the current two Georgia senators Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss are moderates at best and this is their opportunity to get a conservative senator. Perdue claims to be that conservative in the race and is the true outsider. Perdue seems serious about the debt and economic crises and understands the world business climate. Maybe its time for the country to get back to the business of creating a business climate for business to succeed and get this country moving again. Maybe it will take a businessman like David Perdue to do that. I end by saying, Perdue is the unknown but he has not been there 22 years so how could we know him. If Perdue does what he says he will make a good senator. As a businessman we know him but as a senator he would be the unknown.

The question is will the voters of Georgia choose 22-year Congressman Jack Kingston or businessman David Perdue to be their next senator.

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