By Susan Duclos
If it wasn't so sad and pathetic it would be amusing. House Republicans were warned that if they voted for a fiscal cliff deal that allowed tax cuts to expire and agreed to allow tax hikes to move forward on upper income Americans, they would be held accountable.
Not only did 85 House Republicans cross the aisle to vote with Democrats for the deal, but the deal also allowed the expiration of the payroll tax holiday, which resulted in an extra two percent to be taken out of paychecks of American workers, affecting 77 percent of American workers.
151 House Republicans voted against the deal.
(List of 85 members embedded here at WuA and direct quotes claiming to be against taxes increases from House GOP members that voted for them in the fiscal cliff deal, found here)
It has begun.
Representative Aaron Schock (R-IL) is one of those 85.
Now a group called the Jobs and Progress Fund is televising ads in Representative Aaron Schock's district, which highlights Schock's vote for the fiscal cliff deal. The ads assert that Schock "voted for the biggest tax increase in half a century."
The ads have been running on Fox News stations on cable systems across the 18th Congressional District, said Steve Shearer, Schock's chief of staff. Similar radio ads also have been running in the district from the same sponsoring group - Jobs & Progress Fund.
An official of WICS-TV in Springfield said the group has purchased $34,300 worth of time combined on that Springfield broadcast station and its sister station in Champaign, WICD. Those ads started running Wednesday and are scheduled to continue through Jan. 26, said Jennifer Valenti, local sales manager at WICS.
A letter sent Thursday by Chicago lawyer John Fogarty Jr., on behalf of the Peoria Republican's campaign, to Comcast Cable in Bingham Farms, Mich., states that an allegation on the ad that Schock "voted for the biggest tax increase in half a century" is "demonstrably false."
Via Chicago Business:
According to the Ohio Secretary of State's website, a group called Ohio First for a Better Government registered as a nonprofit corporation in Dayton on March 8, 2011, and changed its name to Jobs and Progress Fund Inc. last month.
Ohio First is registered with the IRS but its annual tax return is not yet available, according to Guidestar.org, a website that tracks nonprofit data.
The group was incorporated by David R. Langdon, a prominent attorney in Cincinnati for several conservative nonprofit groups. He did not respond to a request for comment.
The ad urges his constituents to contact Mr. Schock and “tell him to side with taxpayers, for a change.”
In a radio ad being played in Springfield, a man and woman are talking about Schock. The man says that Schock “sided with the liberals and raised taxes.”
“Unbelievable,” the woman says.
House Republicans were warned. They crossed the aisle and voted with liberals anyway, at least 85 of them did. They will be held accountable.
Schock voted for the bad deal. That deal allowed tax cuts to expire, allowed the payroll tax holiday to expire. Taxes went up with a rate increase for upper income Americans. More taxes are being taken out of paychecks of workers across the nations. The deal provided $41 in tax revenue for each $1 of spending cuts in a nation that spends more than it can afford.
Schock should quit whining and accept responsibility for his vote.
