#petersfail

Michigan has a rich history of investing in our workforce’s skills and talents. The return on those investments created a vibrant middle class and incredible innovations that changed the face of our nation and world. While Democratic Congressman and Senate candidate Gary Peters claims he supports Michigan’s working families, a closer look reveals something very different.

Gary Peters’ love affair with outsourcing began before he went to Washington. As Michigan’s Lotto Chief in 2005, Peters signed a state contract sending millions of dollars to a Chinese manufacture.

Gary Peters’ outsourcing problem doesn’t end there. His time in Washington, D.C. is littered with votes that outsourced Americans jobs. Peters’ biggest vote comes in the form of President Obama’s stimulus package. He told us, “This economic recovery plan is great news for Michigan.”

As it turns out, it was another example of a misguided and irresponsible policy sold to Michigan families by Gary Peters and President Barack Obama on the back of a lie. Billions of dollars were spent on companies that sent jobs overseas as unemployment rose in Michigan and cities across the country. As the public found out this was being done with our tax dollars, high profile Democrats began to distance themselves – but not Gary Peters.

One of the programs Peters was vocal and supportive of was the Department of Energy’s ATVM loan program – a $25 billion program focused on providing debt capital for automakers to produce cars in the U.S.

Fisker, a member of the program, received $529 million for a car that was being manufactured in Finland. At a time when the economy was going through a recession and millions were looking for jobs, Peters was supporting programs with scarce taxpayer dollars for companies to create jobs overseas. Then Fisker went bankrupt and was bought by a Chinese company.

Peters has not only supported shipping job overseas as a Washington, DC insider, he is also supporting it through personal investments. Peters is investing and continues to invest in companies relocating overseas to avoid paying U.S. taxes.

According to Peters’ financial disclosures, he has invested in companies that relocated outside the U.S. to avoid paying taxes through corporate inversions. Peters owns $15,000 to $50,000 of stock in Medtronic Inc, America’s second largest medical device company, and $1,000 to $15,000 of stock in AbbVie Inc, a healthcare company that “plans to outsource its headquarters to dodge America’s high corporate tax rate.”

As these companies relocate to safe tax havens, fewer jobs are available for U.S. workers and billions of dollars that would have otherwise been pumped into our economy are being spent in other countries.

All of the above makes sense when you consider Peters’ background as a Wall Street banker for 20 years. Companies that relocate through corporate inversions are a smart investment; after all, lower taxes mean more profits for a company.

From now until Election Day, Michiganians will see an endless stream of political ads. With Terri Lynn Land gaining momentum, Democrats nationwide are hitting the panic button. Voters have gotten to know Land, and they like what they see.

Over the next four weeks, Congressman Gary Peters and his allies will spend nearly five million dollars on television ads in the attempt to save his campaign. $2.6 million of ads about Land are scheduled to run over the next three weeks, bought and paid for by the radical, California billionaire friend of Peters named Tom Steyer.

Steyer has pledged to spend $100 million this year to help Democrats maintain control of the U.S. Senate, and Michigan is one of his top targets. In return, Steyer expects Peters to get in line and support the job-killing policies he promotes, such as opposing the Keystone XL Pipeline and supporting cap-and-trade.

There is only one candidate running for U.S. Senate whose agenda will hurt Michiganians, and that candidate is Peters. He opposes policies that grow our economy, create jobs and ensure that the next generation is better off than we are.

To make matters worse, Peters’ campaign is based on falsehoods.

Peters claims to oppose outsourcing and offshoring American jobs after sending a lucrative Michigan contract overseas, voting for legislation and reserving earmarks for companies that outsource jobs and directly profiting from the practice of offshoring himself.

When Peters took to the streets with the Occupy Detroit movement a few years ago, he failed to mention he was an executive for two of Wall Street’s biggest banks, banks that participated in high-risk trading practices that caused the 2008 financial crisis, the very thing the movement was organized to protest. To make matters worse, the bank he marched on was actually a donor to his campaign.

Peters didn’t lose his house or his savings during the recession, because he built a small fortune while creating the crisis. He claimed to be “suffering like everybody else,” while sitting on a net worth of an estimated $426,000 – $2.5 million during the recession. According to Peters’ most recent personal financial disclosure his net-worth at the end of 2012 was valued at $970,000-$3.9 million. That is an increase of 55%-127% since the height of the recession.

The problem here isn’t Peters’ wealth, but that he was doing just fine during the recession. He only claimed to be “suffering” to garner votes.

by Darren Littell - Congressman Gary Peters showed his true colors last week when he stood in support of the latest EPA rules to shut down existing power plants. This comes as a surprise to no one, given Peters’ strong support for actions in Washington that hurt middle class families.

Since going to Washington, Peters has voted along party lines an average of 87.5 percent of the time. He’s been a strong ally of green Democrats by supporting the controversial cap-and-trade and opposing the construction of the Keystone Pipeline.

Now he’s backing the Obama administration’s latest proposal that would create an additional burden on hardworking middle class families trying to earn a living in America’s coal industry.

According to the Energy Information Administration, coal is responsible for the production of about 56 percent of Michigan’s electricity.

A recent report by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for 21st Century Energy highlighted the impact the new rules would have on the economy. If these rules are implemented, families will see an increase in energy bills of $290 billion more for electricity between 2014 and 2030. Additionally, the South and Midcontinent Independent System, which includes Michigan, would feel the biggest impact, with an annual average increase of 3.3 percent.

According to the report, “Higher electricity prices ripple though the economy and reduce discretionary income, which affects consumer behavior, forcing them to delay or forgo some purchases or lower their house savings rates.”

The report further underscores the negative impact the U.S. workforce would face under the new EPA rules. Due to the loss in energy production by existing power plants and a loss in GDP, the U.S. would expect to see a loss of 224,000 jobs from 2014 to 2030.

A recent Detroit News editorial says the new regulations risk making families “hungrier, less prosperous and more likely to be unemployed.”

Gary Peters has consistently supported legislation that increases taxes and kills jobs for middle class families.

In 2009, Peters voted in favor of the Democrat-proposed cap-and-trade plan, which was estimated to raise taxes by nearly $5.7 trillion and cost 2.5 million jobs by 2035. More recently, Peters aligned himself with billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer to fight construction of the Keystone Pipeline – never mind the fact it has been estimated to create thousands of jobs for middle class families who need them.

In an effort to misinform and confuse voters from his record as a career politician, Peters has attempted to paint himself as a centrist on the campaign trail.

By Darren Littell - As the 2014 election gets underway, folks in Michigan are starting to focus on what candidates are saying. They are looking for candidates who share their interests and concerns, especially on the economy. Moving Michigan past the policies that created the Lost Decade is a top priority for our families. That’s why many are confused about Gary Peters’ stance to block the expansion of the Keystone XL Pipeline.

Peters has strongly opposed constructing the oil pipeline that would run from Alberta, Canada, to the Gulf Coast in Texas. Peters has voted against constructing the Keystone XL Pipeline seven times since 2011.

President Barack Obama recently decided the issue was too much of a political hot potato, and brushed the decision to build the Keystone XL Pipeline over to the State Department. This moves comes as little surprise.

President Obama and Gary Peters share many characteristics, but perhaps their most obvious is their love for big-money Democrats. Peters and Obama have been cozying up with Democratic billionaires like Tom Steyer, a strong opponent of the Keystone XL project, for years. Steyer is urging Democrats like Peters to kill the Keystone XL proposal so he can make even more money from its competitors.

Steyer’s $100 million campaign contributions are a welcome gift for Democrats, especially Gary Peters. Recent finance reports show Peters is struggling to raise money for his Senate bid. A strong supporter of Obamacare, Peters is finding it hard to get supporters to rally behind him.

Peters’ attraction to billionaires is well documented. His campaigns have been bankrolled by billionaires like Tom Steyer and George Soros for most of his political career.

Support for the Keystone XL project is high among Americans, including Michigan. A recent poll showed 70 percent of Americans favor building the Keystone XL Pipeline, with 60 percent of Michigan residents supporting it.

Studies show building the Keystone XL Pipeline would create thousands of jobs in the U.S., including here in Michigan.

During a 2013 hearing before the House of Representatives, Keith Stelter, co-owner of Delta Industrial Valves in Niles, Michigan, testified that his company could double in size over the next 10 years if the pipeline project were to move forward.

Peters has been consistently wrong in representing the interests and concerns of Michiganders. One look at his voting record shows he would rather support billionaires and special interest groups than Michigan families.

Peters has rubberstamped President Obama’s agenda, voting with Obama an average of 87.5 percent of the time.

It’s clear Peters doesn’t stand with Michigan families. As a career politician, he believes you have to talk-the-talk, but not walk-the-walk. While Peters’ campaign benefits from his relationship with billionaire Tom Steyer, Michiganians are being left behind.

by Darren Littell

President Barack Obama’s signature law, the Affordable Care Act, continues to remain unpopular across the country according to recent polls. Unable to turn the law’s popularity around, and given the proximity of midterm elections, Gary Peters is now trying to distance himself away from the law he once firmly supported.

When asked what he thought about Obamacare just a few weeks ago, he replied, “The law is not perfect. I’ve never voted on a perfect law, never will vote on a perfect law, and so you have to go back and constantly refine it.”

This is Gary Peters’ latest flip-flop on the issue.

As one of Obamacare’s earliest supporters, Peters told families in August of 2013, “I actually got the bill, and read the bill. And the more I read it, the more I liked it.”

His record of flip-flopping on issues has been well-documented. Gary Peters has changed his stance on the individual mandate several times since 2013.

These constant flip-flops lead to more questions that deserve answers. If Peters read the bill more than once and understood it, why did he continue lying to Michigan families, telling them “if you’re covered and you like your insurance, you can keep it”?

Don’t the 225,000 Michigan families who lost their health care because they fell for Gary Peters’ intentional deceit deserve an answer?

As someone who claimed he read the bill multiple times, did Peters not see the mounting problems the law would cause, or did he chose to ignore them?

In addition to the families who lost their health insurance due to Obamacare, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office reported that under Obamacare, the labor force will lose the equivalent of 2 million full-time employees by 2017 and more than 2.5 million by 2024.

These issues are coupled with the fact that Democrats like Peters celebrated Obamacare’s enrollment numbers, only to be hit with another glitch: people aren’t buying, they’re only looking.

Last week, the Energy and Commerce Committee released a report noting that few families have paid their premiums to start coverage – including only 55 percent of the families enrolled in Michigan.

Peters feels the pressure from public opinion, even more so now because he finds himself in a contested Senate seat he thought he would easily win. Between Peters’ track record of flip-flops, his vocal support for Obamacare and a strong opponent in Terri Lynn Land, he’s having a hard time convincing his pals in Washington he can win.

Gary ‘Pure Washington’ Peters is a classic politician: his support will go whichever way the political winds are blowing. We deserve better.

From the Detroit News - Obamacare has become frustratingly predictable. The Obama administration promised more than it can deliver and Michigan families are suffering because of those false promises. The newest negative report on Obamacare came out last week, this time it was by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. The report estimates that due to Obamacare, the labor force will lose the equivalent of 2 million full time employees by 2017 and more than 2.5 million by 2024.

The new CBO report estimates that the reduction in employees will come from a net decrease in workers’ hours. The CBO estimate claims that a portion of those hours lost will be tied to the new taxes under Obamacare.

The new projections add more hardship to families attempting to gain health care coverage. If increased taxes result in businesses having to cut hours, it not only means that families will be shut out of possible employer-based health care coverage, but it also means that families will be fighting to protect their jobs.

The possibility of lost jobs is already being felt here in Michigan. In west Michigan we have seen that new Obamacare regulations have resulted in lost hours for workers that have resulted in at least 1,000 fewer jobs being available.

What’s worse, both Gary Peters and Mark Schauer have made claims that one of the reasons they voted for Obamacare was because the law would help small businesses and create jobs. Well, less than two months into 2014 we have already seen Obamacare hurt Michigan employers, and now we have a CBO report that is claiming the number of lost jobs could be as high as 2 million in less than five years.

This newest report adds insult to injury. In Michigan, we have already seen individuals lose their health care, as well as people losing their jobs because of Obamacare regulations. Now, we have news that the jobs lost are going to be higher than originally projected. What makes this even worse is that Democrats Mark Schauer and Gary Peters will not stand with Michiganians to help them.

Mark Schauer and Gary Peters continue to ignore the demands to tell Michiganians if they are running on or from Obamacare. Not only will they not tell us where they stand, but they have not come out to apologize for the heartache that Obamacare has caused to 225,000 that have lost their health care coverage, the 1,000 jobs lost in western Michigan, the security risks associated with Healthcare.gov or the now unknown future consequences of the health care law.