Who Would Possibly Favor Shipping American Jobs Overseas? Meet Boehner Patsy Ken Calvert (R-CA)

Most people who have ever heard of him just think of Ken Calvert as a roly poly little pervert who got arrested in a park with a hooker in his car and who has a reputation for using his office for earmarks to pump up his real estate business. But Ken Calvert is much more than that to Boehner and his clique. Calvert is one of the most dependable and mindless voters in the entire Republican stable. If the leadership wants it they don't have to make any arguments or persuade anyone; he does exactly what he's told. And his two votes for Bush's 2008 no-strings-attached Wall Street bailout (TARP) and on all the toxic trade legislation that has devastated the Inland Empire's employment situation paint a very ugly picture.

Starting with NAFTA in 1993, Boehner has been pushing Republicans to vote for laws that exported American jobs overseas. And in Calvert's case he didn't have to push too hard-- just snap his fingers. NAFTA, CAFTA, GATT/WTO, fast track trade promotion, trade with Singapore, trade with Chile... Calvert was always someone who could be counted on to toe the line... and vote to send American workers' jobs overseas to low wage markets.

It's one of the reasons Blue America was so fast to endorse progressive Democrat Bill Hedrick this year and to help raise contributions for his grassroots campaign. And it's why I wasn't surprised in the least yesterday from a letter I got from Bill's campaign about Calvert pledging to protect tax breaks for companies that export American jobs overseas.

Calvert, who in a recent press release touted his signature on Americans for Tax Reform's anti-tax pledge, helped protect companies that ship American jobs overseas by voting against the Education Jobs and Medicaid Assistance Act. The deficit neutral legislation, passed by Congress and signed into law, saved and created 320,000 jobs and was paid for in part by closing tax loopholes that enable companies to take advantage of foreign tax credits and move assets, production and jobs overseas.

"Congressman Calvert needs to get his priorities straight," said his Democratic challenger, Bill Hedrick. "Local teachers and first-responders are losing their jobs due to budget cuts, and Congressman Calvert showed us that he'd rather protect tax loopholes used by companies that ship American jobs overseas than close them to help keep local police officers on the beat. I can't think of anything more elitist than a career politician bragging about how he puts corporate special interests before his constituents at a time when communities in Orange and Riverside counties are facing unemployment rates at or near double digits."