Tag: Erik Paulsen

Erik Paulsen voted to keep Trump’s tax returns a secret

Republican U.S. Rep. Erik Paulsen is paddling toward reclaiming his seat as quickly as he can, in part by promising to “stand up to” his party “and President [Donald] Trump” if push comes to shove.

Well, last month, he had his chance. He did not take it.

At issue were Trump’s tax returns, which have remained secret and are now back in the limelight. After 18 months of trawling through the Trump family’s financial dirty laundry, The New York Times published a scathing report accusing the sitting president of “dubious tax schemes” and “outright fraud,” helping his parents sidestep taxes, and undervaluing that money so he could siphon as much as possible to himself and his siblings.

A Trump lawyer has called these allegations “100 percent false.” Trump himself described the story as “a very old, boring and often told hit piece.”

View the complete October 5 article by Hannah Jones on the CityPages website here.

Messages are dividing the country

The upcoming election is again subjecting voters to inflammatory and deceptive advertisements by candidates and special interest to artificial divide our country.

Recognizing that these divisive advertisements have some success in creating harmful divisions, I have faith we can still agree on something: Congress isn’t working as confirmed by Gallup Inc.’s 40 years of polling America’s approval of Congress. Since 2010 approval of Congress has hovered between 10 percent and 20 percent. The institution is broken. Why?

Listening to eulogies for Sen. John McCain, I was struck by one speaker’s words of the senator: “He did understand that some principals transcend politics, that some values transcend party. … he understood that if we get in the habit of bending the truth to suit political expediency or party orthodoxy, our democracy will not work.” Continue reading “Messages are dividing the country”

Voters consistently rank health care as their top political concern. What does that mean for Minnesota’s House races?

Ask any candidate for Congress in Minnesota this year about health care, and they’re almost certain to tell you it’s one of the most important issues in their districts — if not the single most important issue.

Opinion polling backs that up: a recent CBS News poll found that 70 percent of Americans think health care is a very important issue, a larger share than any other top issue. A similar conclusion has been reached by plenty of other polls conducted over the last few months, which also find that health care is foremost in voters’ minds, even above the economy and headline-grabbing topics like immigration.

Just because seemingly everyone agrees health care should be a top focus, though, doesn’t mean they agree on what parts of the issue to focus on: for the most part, Democratic and Republican candidates are telling voters very different stories when it comes to the politics of health care.

View the complete September 28 article by Sam Brodey on the MinnPost website here.

The Grand Old Puppet Party

If you’re looking for something to take your mind off all those mudslinging attack commercials Erik Paulsen and his PACs are running, check out this site for a musical look at Rep. Paulsen and GOP’s voting record::

The Grand Old Puppet Party

 

24 House Ratings Change in Favor of Democrats, One Month Out

 

Roll Call elections analyst Nathan L. Gonzales has two dozen House race ratings shifts — and they’re all positive for Democrats. Nearly one month from Election Day, Gonzales discusses how it’s more a question of Democratic prospects being good or great in the House than anything else. See below for a full list of all the ratings shifts and watch the video for more analysis.  Continue reading “24 House Ratings Change in Favor of Democrats, One Month Out”

These representatives voted to keep Trump’s sketchy tax practices hidden from the public

NOTE:  Rep. Erik Paulsen sits on the House Ways and Means Committee and is one of the representatives who voted to keep Trump’s taxes private — more than once.

21 House Republicans on the Ways and Means Committee blocked disclosure of Donald Trump’s tax returns last month.

The New York Times published a lengthy investigative report on Tuesday accusing President Donald Trump of participating in “dubious tax schemes during the 1990s, including instances of outright fraud.” Despite his many 2016 campaign promises to eventually release his tax returns, he refuses to do so, and the public is still in the dark about his personal finances. Now, thanks to a vote last month by the 21 Republican members of the House Ways and Means Committee, those tax returns are unlikely to come to light in the foreseeable future. Those Republicans voted to keep the president’s tax returns hidden.

Relying on a “vast trove of confidential tax returns and financial records,” the Times determined that Trump “helped his parents dodge taxes,” established with his siblings a “sham corporation to disguise millions of dollars in gifts from their parents,” assisted their father in taking “improper tax deductions worth millions more,” and formulated a “strategy to undervalue his parents’ real estate holdings by hundreds of millions of dollars on tax returns, sharply reducing the tax bill when those properties were transferred to him and his siblings.”

A Trump lawyer claimed these “allegations of fraud and tax evasion are 100 percent false, and highly defamatory,” but the president didn’t deny them. In a tweet, he repeated his standard and false claim that the paper is “failing” and described their story as “a very old, boring and often told hit piece.”

View the complete October 3 article by Josh Israel on the ThinkProgress website here.

So, you saw a nasty ad …

As you may have noticed, Erik Paulsen and his special interest patrons are spending millions of dollars to flood the airwaves with negative attack ads again Dean Phillips. You might have questions, and Dean and his campaign team were happy to shed light on the truth:

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Dean Phillips is running a people-powered campaign because he believes that our politics are broken — and these kind of ads are part of the problem. Dean has taken $0 from PACs, lobbyists or members of Congress; instead, 64,000 individuals have contributed to the campaign, at an average donation of us $32. Change is coming, and everyone’s invited!

 

Despite not hosting a public Town Hall for seven years, Paulsen calls himself ‘one of the more accessible members of Congress’

‘Congressman Paulsen certainly has an interesting definition of the word accessible’

In an interview this week with KARE11, Congressman Erik Paulsen called himself “one of the more accessible members of Congress,” despite not holding a single public Town Hall for seven years. Paulsen’s statement came in response to DFL candidate Dean Phillips’ viral Bigfoot ad, which WCCO’s Pat Kessler called true and KARE11 rated as ‘mostly true.’ 

“Congressman Paulsen certainly has an interesting definition of the word accessible,” said DFL Executive Director Corey Day. “The only people Erik Paulsen is accessible to are the special interests and corporate PACs who have donated millions of dollars to his campaign. What’s more, Congressman Paulsen and his Republican allies have resorted to attacking Dean Phillips in ads that are consistently revealed to be inaccurate, misleading, and flat out false.”

“Dean Phillips is offering voters a clear alternative, showing them what true accessibility looks like. He’s appeared at over 120 public campaign events to which everyone is invited, not just wealthy donors. And unlike Erik Paulsen, the sixth biggest recipient of special interest money in Congress, Dean hasn’t taken a penny from PACS or special interests.”

LCV Victory Fund Trolls Erik Paulsen in New TV Ad

Cartoon Shows Paulsen, Trump Canoeing Through Polluted Waters; Highlights Paulsen’s Votes to Dump Coal Waste Into Waterways & Gut Limits On Methane Pollution

Minneapolis, Minnesota– In a new TV ad, LCV Victory Fund calls out Rep. Erik Paulsen (MN-03) for trying to deceive voters about his record of siding with Trump and corporate polluters.

Paulsen has attempted to convince voters that he’ll stand up for Minnesota’s environment, focusing his first TV ad of the cycle on efforts to protect the Boundary Waters. But Paulsen has continually voted to gut protections for clean air, water and public lands, earning a 14 percent on LCV’s 2017 National Environmental Scorecard. That included votes to block the Clean Water Rule and cut millions from the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which recently provided $4 million to protect an addition 50,000 acres of the Boundary Waters.

Last month, the Trump administration announced they will be allowing mining exploration just outside of the Boundary Waters and stopped an environmental review of how mining would impact the wilderness area.

View the complete October 2 article by Alyssa Roberts on the League of Conservation Voters’ website here.