Tag: Erik Paulsen

Local newspapers wait anxiously for pension funding relief

Crucial retirement savings package appears stuck in the Senate

Local newspapers serving communities from Tampa, Florida, to Walla Walla, Washington, say they’re under the gun from a pension funding “cliff” they face next year that will make them have to rapidly catch up on required contributions, exacerbating their well-documented financial decline.

When relief for some 20 publishers passed the House in May on a 417-3 vote as part of sweeping retirement savings legislation, it seemed like a slam dunk that lawmakers would ride to the rescue in time.

But they haven’t, and advocates say the clock is running out.

View the complete October 7 article by Doug Sword on The Roll Call website here.

LETTER: Phillips advocates for lower insulin costs, Paulsen is lobbying for big pharma

To the editor:

Oh, how times have changed. Reading about how Rep. Dean Phillips has been advocating for lowering insulin costs in Congress with H.R. 4010, has me both excited and astounded.

A year ago, with Erik Paulsen we would have never seen our District Three representative working for such an important bill. In fact, Paulsen is now lobbying for big pharma. The ones who are trying their hardest to make life saving medicine inaccessible to people who do not have the means to pay the ridiculously high prices. But, Rep. Phillips is acknowledging how high insulin prices are and the inaccessibility with working on The Emergency Access to Insulin Act (H.R. 4010).

The bill will not only help people get emergency supplies now, but also plan for the future with how to continue having access to insulin.

We have long needed a solution to this crisis and with a person like Phillips in office we are finally seeing one start to arise.

Madeline Pukite, Minnetonka
August 13, 2019

Trump admits he was a liability in 2018

New books states president deliberately hindered Minnesota Republican Erik Paulsen’s reelection

President Donald Trump still won’t publicly admit he was a significant factor in Republicans’ loss of the House in 2018. But a behind-the-scenes moment captured in a new book suggests he is more politically self-aware than he leads on.

We know that Trump doesn’t admit mistakes or commit sins. It’s not in his personality or good for his brand to acknowledge any weakness. But, according to Politico’s Tim Alberta, the president endorsed a vulnerable member of Congress in an intentional effort to weaken his candidacy.

“In one case, Trump endorsed as a means of punishment. Having heard that Minnesota congressman Erik Paulsen was distancing himself from the White House in the hope of holding his seat in the Twin Cities’ suburbs, the president stewed and asked that the political shop send a tweet of support for Paulsen — thereby sabotaging the moderate Republican’s efforts,” according to an excerpt in Alberta’s new book “American Carnage,” shared with Axios.

View the complete July 16 article by Nathan L. Gonzales on The Roll Call website here.

Of course Erik Paulsen is now lobbying for Big Pharma’s ultimate scam

The pharmaceutical industry had come up with an ingenious plan to send drug prices ever higher, while protecting itself from competition. But it needed a Washington insider, someone who wouldn’t lose sleep over hosing America’s sick and infirm, to do its bidding on Capitol Hill.

Just such a man was waiting in Eden Prairie.

During his decade in D.C., Erik Paulsen essentially turned his office into a lobbying firm. His positions were exquisitely synchronized to the wishes of our mightiest corporations. He was especially good at harnessing the riches of Big Pharma and medical device makers, taking $1.2 million from our foremost artisans of price gouging.

View the complete May 9 article by Pete Kotz on The CityPages website here.

Federal leaders need to renew fund

On Sept. 30, a vital source of funding for Minnesota’s public lands expired. The Land and Water Conservation Fund has provided over $245 million to Minnesota’s parks and public lands, taking the burden off of Minnesota’s taxpayers. The LWCF takes revenue from offshore oil drilling and invests it in the shared spaces that help make Minnesota special.

A piece of the fund was set aside to complete a Boundary Waters land swap — that swap would provided better protection for the still-patchwork Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness while providing direct property tax relief for Minnesotans. Now that may never happen.

There is still time to revive the LWCF, though. We’re lucky to have supporters like Sen. Tina Smith helping push for LWCF, but we need Rep. Erik Paulsen’s support as well. Ask federal politicians if they know what the fund is — and whether or not they want to revive it.

Molly Muth, Minneapolis
Lakeshore Weekly News, November 23, 2018

Not a single Republican will support bill to combat rise in hate crimes

Credit: Nikos Frazier | MLive.com

With hate crimes surging nationwide, not a single Republican will sign on as a co-sponsor to a bill to address the problem.

Hate crimes are on the rise in Trump’s America, a trend that has been attributed in large part to Trump’s incendiary rhetoric, tacit endorsement of violence, and embrace of far-right extremism.

According to new FBI statistics released this week, documented hate crimes rose by 17 percent in 2017, with particularly notable increases in anti-Hispanic and anti-Semitic crimes. During the same time period, white supremacist murders doubled, making 2017 the fifth deadliest year on record for extremist violence.

Clearly, there’s a need to do something to address the surge in hate crimes.

Phillips represents regular voters

The source of campaign contributions is a trustworthy indicator of who will truly represent residents of the 3rd Congressional District: incumbent Erik Paulsen or his challenger Dean Phillips.

Paulsen currently occupies the eye-popping rank of No. 4 among reps who have accepted the most PAC money. That’s right — of 435 U.S. House reps, only three take more outside money than Erik Paulsen. He’s raked in over $2.6 million from political action committees. PACs are funded primarily by corporations and billionaires outside our district, and exist for one reason only: to influence elections and legislation.

Dean Phillips? Zero PAC money. Sixty-seven thousand individual contributors, donating an average of $33 each, have provided 100 percent of his campaign funds. And that’s who Phillips will listen to before casting votes in Congress: his constituents. The lion’s share of Paulsen’s votes, on the other hand, reflect the interests of the outside parties that pour money into his campaign coffers. Continue reading “Phillips represents regular voters”

Bid farewell to a representative who’s been no help with light rail

U.S. Rep. Erik Paulsen is an absentee congressman on so many critical issues — from climate change to gun-violence prevention and controlling assault weapons — that the time for change is long overdue. But after Paulsen’s complete and total inaction and rank partisanship in the face of a chance to expand not one but two light-rail lines in his district, voters should wish him well in his next endeavors.

The Third District is composed of the west metro’s largest suburbs, including Bloomington, Brooklyn Park, Eden Prairie, Minnetonka and Plymouth, and home to both the Southwest and Bottineau light-rail projects. Both lines have been planned for years. Each line has received multiple approvals from each of the nine cities through which they run. The only funding that remains to be received is from the Federal Transit Administration, which mysteriously refuses to allocate the money Congress has awarded specifically for the purpose.

It is clear that Paulsen has never assisted with any part of Southwest or Bottineau. Instead, he stands idly by while more than $3 billion in infrastructure remains tied up in bureaucracy. That’s $3 billion — more than three U.S. Bank Stadiums’-worth of jobs and physical infrastructure. Continue reading “Bid farewell to a representative who’s been no help with light rail”

Top 10 GOP House seats most likely to flip in a blue wave

Republicans are scrambling to minimize their losses in Tuesday’s midterm elections in an effort to deny Democrats the 23 seats they need to recapture a majority in the House.

In recent weeks, Republican groups have redirected millions of dollars to competitive districts where their prospects appear brighter. Meanwhile, President Trump has gone to bat for several vulnerable GOP incumbents.

A handful of GOP lawmakers are fighting uphill battles for survival and appear likely to lose their seats, according to party strategists, with just days left before the vote.

Here are the 10 Republican incumbents seen as most likely to lose their seats:

View the complete November 2 article by Max Greenwood on the Hill website here.

 

Paulsen is on the take, torn between constituents and PACs

To the Editor:

The serenity prayer is a popular prayer and, in the case of this upcoming election, it is more relevant than I can imagine.

“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can…”

I am an army veteran. I fought for my democracy in 1970 and I am doing it now as a citizen. The democracy the Republicans have painted for us now is not the democracy I fought for. Stand up for it. Others will follow. Democracy is not free.

Voting is not enough if you are uninformed. Depending on how you feel (red or blue) that day, that’s how you are going to vote. We still have time and our voices matter. Change the unacceptable! Continue reading “Paulsen is on the take, torn between constituents and PACs”