The Republican National Committee recently conducted an?online straw poll?identifying 32 candidates who could get its nomination in the 2016 presidential race. Each of the 32 has quite a questionable history, though, that contrasts with the GOP’s consistent claim of it being the ?moral? option for voters.
Philander, racism, thievery, bribery, and combinations of these and other?sins?are?found across the slate, in fact.?In this series on the 32 potential candidates (updated every other day), Liberal America will offer a quick rundown on the hypocrisy clouding each one’s ?holier than thou? claims.
Mike Pence
Governor of Indiana and former U.S. Representative
There are only two possible opinions that can be formed when reviewing Iowa Governor Mike Pence: 1) either he thinks the public is stupid, or 2) he’s quite dumb himself.
While still congressman of the state’s 6th District, for example, he was a fervent opponent to the Recovery Act, voting against it and even calling for a spending freeze as its alternate. At the same time, though, he was requesting ample funds for use in his district. And in the new role of Indiana Governor, Pence recently tried to credit himself for projects in his state that were funded by the Recovery Act.
Back in 2009, he claimed the solution to high unemployment was to give tax credits to the rich; in argument against support for clean energy, Pence claimed that there’s no such thing as global warming. He even publicly praised Rush Limbaugh with a declaration of ?I cherish his voice(.)?
He was a cosponsor of 2009?S ?Defund ACORN Act,? which used the infamous (and chop-edited) video by James O?Keefe as basis to strip the national group of any federal funding. By 2010, four investigations, including one by the Government Accountability Office, had ACORN cleared of all the charges. In 2011, however, Pence was using the ACORN allegations in another Big Brother movement, citing them in support for his call to defund Planned Parenthood, and using another quacky video as ?evidence.?
He introduced a bill to block the Fairness Doctrine ? laws that required media to give valid, correct and balanced news ? claiming that its requirements of honesty and impartiality would censor ?American talk radio and American Christian radio.? (Pence was successful in this argument, too; the FCC formally removed the Doctrine in 2011.)
With religious zealotry, Pence (an anti-evolution creationist) falsely argued that the federal government was funding abortions. He even claimed that abortion causes unemployment.
Since taking the governor’s office in 2013, this stupidity has continued. Consider his response to the Affordable Care Act, for example (which he publicly compared to 9/11). After refusing the Medicaid Expansion portion of the Act, Pence is now promoting an alternate solution of Health Savings Accounts. But HSAs are high-deductible programs that provide tax credits to users, and which won’t benefit the low-income citizens that the Expansion was intended to cover.
Despite this rejection of Medicaid Expansion, enrollment in regular Medicaid just hit a new high in Indiana, and even though Pence claims a declining unemployment rate. For unemployment to go down while Medicaid enrollment increases only indicates this new employment to be of insufficient wages.
He claims Indiana to be improving in education, but tell that to the state’s teachers, who are now paid less since Pence took the governor’s office. Indiana is the only state to show decline in teacher salaries for the last fiscal year, too; they now earn 15 percent less than they did 10 years ago, and are 14 percent below the national average of teachers? wages.
And before he took the governor’s office, he was already involved in scams in his home state. Pence was part owner of Kiel Brothers, an oil company that also operated a convenience store chain in the region, and that somehow wound up over $100 million in debt for 2006. His brother Gregory was CEO.
Over $9 million of that debt was owed to the state and many Indiana towns and counties, and over $8 million of that debt wasn’t just for unpaid taxes or bills ? they were penalties for oil spills and improper storage. The company simply filed bankruptcy, though, walking away without paying its public debts. And six months later, Pence’s brother was appointed assistant director to (of all things) the state’s Dept. of Environmental Management by then Gov. Mitch Daniels (who is another whacky GOP 2016 Hopeful).
Despite all this stupidity and crookery, Pence could still be a viable presidential candidate. He contemplated a bid for the office in the last cycle (and was even formally asked to run by South Carolina’s most far-right and extremist state legislators, who made their request in a video). The Christian Broadcasting Network even called him the ?Madonna of 2012,? and Forbes said Pence would ?reunite the Reagan Coalition.? And in the wake of other GOP candidates? scandals, senior members of the GOP are recruiting Pence for 2016.
That possibility brings up two closing questions, though: 1) will the public be ignorant of his questionable history, and 2) is Pence dumb enough to even try it?
Visit Liberal America for information?on?the other?GOP 2016 hopefuls.
What’s your take on these?hypocritical Republicans? State your case on?Liberal America’s Facebook?page.
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See previous posts on GOP 2016 hopefuls:
Kelly Ayotte??|?Haley Barbour?|??John Bolton?| ?Jeb Bush?|?Hermain Cain? |?Ben Carson?|??Chris Christie??| ?Ted Cruz??|?Mitch Daniels??| ?Newt Gingrich??| ?Nikki Haley?|?Mike Huckabee?|??Bobby Jindal?|?John Kasich?|?Peter King?|?Susana Martinez?|?Sarah Palin?|?Rand Paul?| ?Ron Paul??| Tim Pawlenty?|
