Burton speaks to residents

Congressman discusses election at town meeting
By Mishele Wright, Marion Chronicle-Tribune
Published: Sunday, September 12, 2010 1:08 AM EDT

Congressman Dan Burton discussed the importance of the upcoming congressional election, as well as the 2012 presidential election, during a town hall meeting Saturday at the Grant County Family YMCA.

About 20 concerned citizens were present at the meeting to listen to Burton’s opinions about the national debt, health care reform, the Cap and Trade bill and other issues concerning the federal government.

Burton criticized the current administration, saying the national debt has increased by 50 percent and 2.6 million people have lost their jobs in the last two years. He proposed several changes, including balancing the federal budget, cutting government spending, reducing the size of the federal government, repealing the health care bill and replacing it and ending bailouts permanently.

“We shouldn’t pay companies with your tax money,” he told the citizens.

Some people in attendance asked Burton how he plans to execute his beliefs. Fairmount resident David Milliner asked Burton if he would be in favor of Congress shutting the government down to create a balanced budget.

The congressman said officials attempted to do that during Bill Clinton’s administration, but were unsuccessful.

“It wouldn’t work,” he said. “We tried it.”

Milliner said citizens put their lives on the line everyday, and politicians should, too.

“We need leaders to put their careers on the line to do what’s right,” Milliner said.

Burton agreed to bring the idea up to other leaders in Congress.

After the meeting, Milliner said he came to listen to what Burton had to say.

“It’s our duty to find out what’s going on,” he said.

Various issues brought residents to the meeting.

Veteran State Representative Jim Sellers Jr. attended the meeting with other representatives to talk to Burton about their concerns with the VA Medical Center and current issues involving veterans.

Marion resident Xen Stewart said he attended the meeting to ask Burton if the post office in south Marion would be closing.

“We’ve heard so many rumors,” Stewart said. “We don’t know if it’s going to close, but I wanted to know if he knew anything specific.”

Stewart, a former letter carrier, said he uses the post office, located at 3333 S. Felton Ave., everyday, and he doesn’t want it to close.

Burton told Stewart he would look into the issue for him.

“I’m glad he took an interest in it,” Stewart said after the meeting. “I came to specifically ask about it.”

After he was finished speaking and answering questions, Burton encouraged audience members to tell their friends and neighbors how important the November election and the 2012 election are.

“It’s just a radical movement to the left and toward socialism, and we’ve got to put a stop to it,” he said about the current administration.

In Case You Missed it                                                                        CONTACT: John Donnelly
July 7, 2010                                                                                                  (317) 848-0201

(AFP News Release)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, July 7, 2010
AFP Contact: James Valvo (703) 224-3200

Americans for Prosperity Applauds Indiana U.S. Representative Dan Burton

-Signs No Climate Tax Pledge-

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The free market grassroots group Americans for Prosperity (AFP) today applauded Indiana U.S. Representative Dan Burton (5th District) for signing the group’s “No Climate Tax Pledge.”  Burton joins more than 625 bipartisan lawmakers and candidates on the federal, state and local levels pledging to “oppose legislation relating to climate change that includes a net increase in government revenue.”

“The one thing elected officials should be able to agree on is that global warming shouldn’t be used as an excuse to hike taxes on citizens and businesses,” said AFP Vice President for Policy Phil Kerpen.  “We encourage all of Indiana’s elected officials and candidates for elected office to sign the pledge.”

Cap-and-trade took its first step toward enactment last year when the U.S. House narrowly passed the Waxman-Markey energy tax bill, which escaped the lower chamber by a scant seven votes despite significant bipartisan opposition.  The Senate has struggled to pass companion legislation, with several key Democratic senators expressing opposition to passing the energy tax bill. 

President Obama has made no secret of his support for the bill, which would be the largest tax increase in American history.  The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has scored the House plan as an $846 billion increase in federal revenue, a burden that will be borne by taxpayers and consumers for decades to come.  Recent analysis by the Institute for Energy Research found the Kerry-Lieberman Senate bill would cost the nation more than 500,000 jobs by 2015 and decrease household income by over $1,000 by 2020. 

“Using the guise of climate change to transfer dollars from hard-working citizens to bureaucratic big government is unacceptable,” said Kerpen. “Regardless of their stance on global warming, this should be common ground for all of our elected officials at all levels of government.”

The pledge is available online at www.NoClimateTax.com.  AFP does not endorse candidates.  All elected officials and candidates are encouraged to sign the pledge and go on the record in opposition to using the climate change issue to increase taxes and grow the size of government.

Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is a nationwide organization of citizen leaders committed to advancing every individual’s right to economic freedom and opportunity. AFP believes reducing the size and scope of government is the best way to safeguard individual productivity and prosperity for all Americans. AFP educates and engages citizens in support of restraining state and federal government growth, and returning government to its constitutional limits. AFP has more than one million  members, including members in all 50 states, and 30 state chapters and affiliates. More than 60,000 Americans in all 50 states have made a financial investment in AFP or AFP Foundation. For more information, visit www.americansforprosperity.org

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Next Stop In Burton's 2010 Town Hall Series: Marion, Indiana

Fellow Hoosiers,

I hope you will consider attending my town hall meeting in the city of Marion, Indiana, this Saturday, March 27.  After the disturbing government takeover of health care and student loans this week, we have a lot to discuss, and I look forward to answering your questions.  Please see the details below.

Sincerely,
Dan

MARION TOWN HALL MEETING

Where:
YMCA
123 Sutter Way
Marion, IN 46952

When:
Saturday, March 27 at 2:30pm

Who:
Rep. Dan Burton
Residents of Indiana's 5th Congressional District

For the full town hall schedule, please click this link:
http://burton.house.gov/pages/2010-town-hall-meetings
 
Note: All town halls are free, open to the public, and seating is on a first-come, first-served basis.

Why We Must Fight This Health Care Bill

Friends,

For over a year, I’ve been fighting the government-run health care policy that President Obama and Congressional Democrats have sought to impose on America.  However, as conservatives in America made our case to the public and won enough support to stop the policy, we have seen Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others subvert the process and undermine the rule of law to impose their will.

Yesterday, 222 Democrats in the House voted to allow the use of an unconstitutional legislative trick known as the Slaughter Solution. This trick allows Nancy Pelosi to “deem” the Senate health care bill passed out of the House without actually having members of Congress vote on the bill.  I thought I had seen the worst abuse of power when the Democrat leaders in the Senate began buying votes to pass their bill, but if Nancy Pelosi successfully ducks a vote in her bid to provide political cover for vulnerable House Democrats, she will have undermined the democratic process, the integrity of the Congress, and trampled on the Constitution.

As the 72 hour clock ticks down to Sunday’s final vote, it is important to remember why the House wants to avoid voting on the Senate bill.  The special deals that were made during the Senate vote sale on Christmas Eve 2009 included, but are not limited to, the infamous Cornhusker Kickback and Louisiana Purchase, and less known deals like cash for union health care, fee exemptions to politically connected insurers, and longshoreman becoming exempt from the health care tax—all secret backroom deals given to Senators willing to sell their vote on so-called health care reform.

And the secret sweetheart deal-making continues even now in the eleventh hour.  In the last week, we discovered that the health care reform bill suddenly includes a government-takeover of the student loan industry, which threatens the jobs of thousands of Hoosiers employed by Sallie Mae.  To add to this onion of corruption, a single bank in North Dakota will be exempt from the provisions of the student loan takeover—North Dakota’s lone Member of Congress has long been undecided on how to vote on Obamacare.  They call this one the Bismarck Bank Job.

Who pays for all the horse-trading?  At a cost of over $1 trillion in deficit spending, $569 billion in job-killing tax increases, and $523.5 billion in Medicare cuts, it’s Hoosiers in the 5th Congressional District, taxpayers across the country, seniors, and future generations who will be forced to pay through taxes, job-loss, and debt-induced inflation for a government takeover of health care and student loans.

I know millions of Americans are waging a war against this bill with phone calls, letters, and emails to Congress.  As you continue to fight, I recommend arming yourself with the following facts about this bill:

•    The new version released yesterday has over $1 trillion in new entitlement spending, $65 billion more than the Senate-passed bill

•    Hits the American people with over half-a-trillion in tax hikes

•    Uses Medicare as a piggy bank – nearly half-a-trillion in Medicare cuts to pay for the new entitlements

•    Allows federal funds to pay for elective abortions and denies adequate conscience protection to individuals and institutions

•    Mandates a massive expansion of Medicaid, and 500,000 Hoosiers would become newly eligible, costing Hoosier taxpayers billions more in state taxes, and causing one in four Hoosiers to be on public assistance

•    The Healthy Indiana Plan (HIP) would be eliminated as the new federal rules would force the 45,000 families who are currently covered into the Medicaid fee-for-service delivery model

•    Many Hoosiers who currently have health insurance will pay higher premiums – the Congressional Budget Office estimates an average increase nationally of $2,100 for some families, and a study of the effects in Indiana showed premium increases ranging up to 78%

•    A job killing tax of $2,000 per employee will be levied on many companies which cannot afford or choose not to provide health insurance to their employees

The American people don’t want this, and you deserve better than this.  While this bill might pass on Sunday, I promise my fellow Hoosiers that I will be fighting for liberty and constitutional government, and to kill these government-takeovers now, and in the future.

Sincerely,

Dan Burton

House Republicans Adopt A Ban On Pork Projects!

Friends,

I have some exciting news!  Yesterday we won a huge battle in the war against out-of-control spending, as the Republican members of Congress voted to ban every Republican from requesting pork projects for the rest of the 111th Congress.

That's right - the pork-barrel spending process, where billions of dollars are secretly doled out every year - has been banned by Republicans in the U.S. House.

As you may know, since 2007, I have taken an annual pledge to never request a pork project and to always vote against them.

In the last few years, myself and just 31 other members of Congress have taken the "no pork pledge," and we have been pushing the rest of the Republican members to do the same.  We finally got our vote yesterday, and I'm proud to say that the Republican Party is, in no uncertain terms, leading the way towards fiscal responsibility and an ethical appropriations process in Congress.

Unfortunately, the Democrats in Congress still allow themselves to request pork projects, but I am currently working on legislation that will give them a chance to agree to a pork project ban for the entire Congress.  I'll keep you posted on any progress with that effort.

Sincerely,

Dan Burton