From the Eau Claire Leader Telegram:
In a recent “It Seems to Me” article by a retired UW-Stout professor, he called Sen. Ron Johnson the following: a clown, an ethically and intellectually challenged senior senator, shameful, artfully sly, brazenly, of abnormal intelligence, a political hack and a strident anti-environment voice. He also said Johnson has a “lack of intellectual and moral integrity deeply rooted in his personality.”
Wow. What a kindly professor. The actions by Sen. Johnson obviously were decisions that the good professor doesn’t agree with. The following are some of the actions that Johnson has initiated in his first term:
• Had major responsibility for the passage of a bill that enhances the security measures for the waiver program so that citizens from terrorist hotspots are no longer allowed to use the waiver program. As chair of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Relations Affairs, Johnson put together a comprehensive strategy to destroy ISIS.
• He proposed legislation that would require the federal government to certify that Syrian refugees be fully vetted before they are allowed to enter the U.S. He has continued to push the federal government to secure the border and helped pass legislation to deal with the threat of cyberattacks.
• He called for the American people to have a voice in the selection of Justice Antonin Scalia’s replacement after the November election.
• He stands with Wisconsin farmers, families and manufacturers against the Environmental Protection Agency’s overreach. (The EPA’s “Waters of the U.S.” rule would allow the federal government to regulate small ponds, ditches and creeks on private property, affecting 92 percent of the land in our state.)
• He is working to get to the bottom of the real problems with the VA and prevent further deaths like those at the Tomah Medical Center.
• He filed a resolution against the Iran nuclear deal because the Obama Administration hadn’t submitted the information to Congress that is required under law. He continually has expressed his concerns about Hillary Clinton’s handling of national security information.
• Has been part of the Senate passing a budget that balances over the next 10 years. His committee has passed 70 budget-related bills, 20 of which have become law. He authorized the lending proposal to transition away from the failing Obamacare law. He sponsored a law that presses the federal government to communicate the total costs of Obamacare.
• He is concerned about the economy, which is in its worst recovery since World War II. He says that “by reducing the enormous regulatory burden, replacing our tax system with one that is simple and globally competitive, and keeping energy prices low while protecting our environment, our economy can be dramatically strengthened.”
The following are some facts about Russ Feingold:
• When he first ran for Senate in 1992, he said he’d serve only two terms. When he ran against Johnson in 2010, he was running for his fourth term. Now Feingold is again running for a fourth term.
• When he first ran for the Senate, Feingold insisted his campaign funds would be almost entirely from Wisconsin. Today 75 percent of his funds are from outside the state, including extensive funds from multi-billionaire George Soros.
• After Feingold’s defeat in 2010, he founded a political action committee (Progressives United) that raised $7.1 million. Only 5 percent of his PAC funds actually went to help his fellow Democrats’ campaigns, including $9,889 dollars for Tammy Baldwin’s Senate campaign.
The PAC also spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on salaries or consulting fees for Feingold, his top aide and eight former staff personnel. Fund raising in the amount of $2.3 million was the top expense of Feingold’s PAC.
• Feingold supports the Iran nuclear agreement and has said Iran is “not inherently an enemy country.”
• Feingold said the federal deficit was at “the top” of his agenda when he was elected in 1992, but the deficit increased from $4 trillion to $14 trillion during his 18 years. He also voted against a balanced budget amendment four times.
My hope is that you decide to re-elect our current citizen-legislator, Ron Johnson, for his second term.
Jackson, of Eau Claire, is retired after spending much of his career in the human resources sector.