— by Senate Majority PAC
Washington has changed Joe Heck and today Senate Majority PAC is releasing a new report detailing exactly how. Despite pledging to serve in Congress as an independent voice for Nevadans, Heck’s record show he has been anything but; in reality, he has joined his fellow Republicans in Congress to consistently advocate for a special interest, self-serving agenda at the expense of Nevadans. This point is exemplified by Heck consistently voting for the Koch Brothers agenda in Congress, where in 2013 alone Heck voted with the Kochs 100% of the time.
“Congress has transformed Joe Heck into a party line, Washington Republican,” said Shripal Shah. “And just like his Republican colleagues, Heck’s self-serving agenda in Washington puts special interests first, at the expense of people across Nevada.”
“As voters learn more about how Washington has changed Joe Heck, they’ll realize that he has come to embody the recklessness of this Republican Congress and its agenda. He’s not working for Nevada in Congress, and most definitely has not earned a promotion to the Senate,” Shah added.
Heck’s alignment with the Republican Congress and its special interest agenda is best exemplified by one metric in specific: the percentage of times he votes with the Koch brothers. This year he has voted with the Kochs nearly 90% of the time, and in 2013 he voted with them 100% of the time. The Republican billionaires, who have spent heavily on Heck’s campaigns, are now seeing a significant return on their investment with Heck voting for their agenda in Congress. Heck voted for billions in taxpayer-funded subsidies for big oil companies and even voted to protect tax breaks for companies that outsource American jobs.
Heck has also teamed up with his fellow Republicans in Congress to attack programs like Medicare and Social Security. This includes votes to cut $430 billion from Medicare, a call to increase the retirement age to 69, and pushing to privatize Social Security, a program that he famously referred to as a “pyramid scheme” in 2011. Privatization would force seniors to risk their hard earned retirement savings in the stock market.
Heck and Congressional Republicans have also voted to slash funding for higher education programs. Despite touting his own personal benefits from Pell Grants, in 2014, Heck voted for $90 billion in cuts to Pell Grants that more than 43,000 Nevada students receive. Just two years earlier, he also voted with Republicans for a budget that would have made 1 million students ineligible for Pell Grants and eliminated subsides for college loans entirely, causing interest rates to double for student loans.
All the while, Heck repeatedly joined his colleagues to vote to protect perks for politicians like themselves while voting against efforts to support working families. Heck voted to allow members of Congress to travel on private jets on the taxpayers’ dime, and he even accepted taxpayer-funded healthcare subsidies for members of Congress – despite pledging repeatedly to repeal subsidies that benefit people across Nevada – and then voted to hide this fact from taxpayers. Meanwhile, he opposed giving working families a raise when he twice voted against increasing the minimum wage.
In Washington, Joe Heck sadly votes in lockstep with his Republican colleagues and his special interest campaign contributors, pushing an agenda that promotes their own interests at the expense of people across Nevada. As voters learn more about his record, they’ll quickly learn that Washington changed Joe Heck, and that he’s most definitely not deserving of a promotion to the Senate.
To read the full report, click here: http://bit.ly/1O4ljug
Senate Majority PAC is fighting to take back the Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate. The Koch Brothers’ secret network spent untold hundreds of millions to buy Senate seats for their right-wing candidates last year, but with your help, we will win back our Senate majority in 2016 and put a stop to their destructive right-wing agenda.