Roy Blunt Page

Roy Blunt Falsely Blames 'ObamaCare' for High Student Loan Rates

By Heather

Earlier in the day on MSNBC, Andrea Mitchell allowed Sen. Roy Blunt to come on the air and tell this whopper:

‘Romney’s Man In Congress’ Falsely Blames Obamacare For High Student Loan Rates:

If Congress doesn’t act, the interest rates on government-backed student loan will jump in July, so President Obama has made a big push this week to prevent that from happening. Republicans have thus far held up the extension, though presumed GOP nominee Mitt Romney called for preserving the lower rates Monday.

But Romney’s “man in Congress,” Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO), seems to misunderstand the issue. In an interview on MSNBC this afternoon, Blunt blamed high student loan rates on the Affordable Care Act [...]

In fact, the rate was set back in 2007, when President Bush signed a Democratic-backed law to lower the rate from 6.8 percent to 3.4 percent. That law expires on July 1 of this year, and the lower rates end along with it. The Affordable Care Act and President Obama are entirely irrelevant.

Blunt is likely thinking of the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (SAFRA), a bill that was attached to the Affordable Care Act. And while it did not affect loan rates, it did remove banker middlemen from the student loan process, which will save taxpayers millions of dollars.

Mitchell gave Blunt a complete pass when he made that statement during her show, and Ed Schultz was ready to call him out for lying before he even got on the air this evening on MSNBC. He played part of the interview on his radio show shortly after it aired and vowed to do more reporting on it during the evening, which is exactly what he did in the segment above. Rep. George Miller joined Ed to discuss Blunt's statement to Andrea Mitchell and how the Republicans are proposing to pay for the reduced interest rates now.

Here's more on that from Ed Kilgore -- House GOP Tries New Gambit on Student Loans:

Given today’s publicity over student loan indebtedness reaching a cool trillion dollars (see Daniel Luzer’s post on this at College Guide), and Mitt Romney’s earlier undercutting of their position, it’s not surprising that House Republicans are signalling that they, too, will support extending current interest rates for student loans.

But there is, of course, a wrinkle, per Politico’s Jake Sherman:

To avoid adding to the debt, Republicans will try to take money from a public health prevention fund in the Democrats’ 2010 health care law. Senate Democrats are aiming for a separate mechanism to offset the price tag of the extension. And that could set up a showdown between the two bodies and the president during this hotly contested election year.

In their usual hammer-headed way, House Republicans will try to combine one popular position (extending current student loan interest rates) with another (gutting ObamaCare). They are counting on no one much noticing that the element of ObamaCare they are raiding in this particular maneuver is funding for the one health care reform everyone claims to support: a stronger focus on preventive health care.

Roy Blunt Is The Most Crooked Member Of Congress This Year!!!

Since 2005, CREW (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington) has put together a report on the Most Corrupt Members of Congress every year. It's a crowded field, what with Rangel up on ethic charges and Vitter and his diapers, but one name did rise to the top:

Roy Blunt is a candidate in the Republican primary for the United States Senate in Missouri. For the last 14 years, Rep. Blunt has served in the U.S. House of Representatives in the state’s 7th congressional district. As a member of Congress, Rep. Blunt came under fire for a variety of issues including employing the same corrupt tactics that forced his mentor, former Texas Rep. Tom DeLay, to resign. Rep. Blunt’s ethical issues were documented in CREW’s 2006 report on the most corrupt members of Congress.

In 2003, Rep. Blunt divorced his wife of 31 years to marry Philip Morris (now Altria) lobbyist Abigail Perlman. Before it was known publicly that Rep. Blunt and Ms. Perlman were dating – and only hours after Rep. Blunt assumed the role of Majority Whip – he tried to secretly insert a provision into Homeland Security legislation that would have benefitted Philip Morris, at the expense of competitors. Notably, Philip Morris/Altria and its subsidiaries contributed at least $217,000 to campaign committees connected to Rep. Blunt from 1996 to 2006.

Also in 2003, Rep. Blunt helped his son, Andrew Blunt, by inserting a provision into the $79 billion emergency appropriation for the war in Iraq to benefit U.S. shippers like United Parcel Service, Inc. and FedEx Corp. Andrew Blunt lobbied on behalf of UPS in Missouri, and UPS and FedEx contributed at least $58,000 to Rep. Blunt from 2001 to 2006.

Family connections have also helped another of Rep. Blunt’s sons, former Missouri Governor Matt Blunt. Gov. Blunt received campaign contributions from nearly three dozen influential Missouri lobbyists and lawyers when he ran for governor of Missouri in 2004, half of whom had provided financial support to his father. Earlier in 2000, when Matt Blunt was running for Secretary of State, Rep. Blunt was involved in an apparent scheme, along with Rep. DeLay, to funnel money through a local party committee into Matt Blunt’s campaign committee.Rep. Blunt and his staff had close connections to convicted former lobbyist Jack Abramoff. In June 2003, Mr. Abramoff persuaded then-Majority Leader DeLay to organize a letter, co-signed by then-Speaker Dennis Hastert, then-Whip Blunt, and then-Deputy Whip Eric Cantor, which endorsed a view of gambling law benefitting Mr. Abramoff’s client, the Louisiana Coushatta, by blocking gambling competition by another tribe. Mr. Abramoff had donated $8,500 to Rep. Blunt’s leadership PAC, Rely on Your Beliefs.

There are nine others in the report, which includes Democrats Kendrick Meeks and Alvin Greene, "Independent" Charlie Crist and Tea Party favorites Marco Rubio and JD Hayworth.

Roy Blunt just says no to covering adults with pre-existing conditions

By John Amato Monday Apr 12, 2010 6:00pm

Roy Blunt, who was tapped to head the GOP Health Care Task Force said that if an adult has preexisting conditions then they shouldn't be covered. That proves the point Alan Grayson made when he said---don't get sick and die quickly...OK, you know what I mean.

Blunt: ...but access for adults who've done nothing to take care of themselves, who actually will have what I have described every incentive not to get insurance until the day you know you're going to have medical expenses, that's a very different kind of story.

How does Roy Blunt and the Republican party draw the line when people are considered to be "taking care of themselves?" Is he going to have regulations that tell people how to live? The health care industry would love to have a whole host of rules that a person would have to follow before they would be eligible to be covered. Most people don't get sick, but when they do they need health care. If they can't buy it when they need it then what good is our health care industry?

Tags: Alan Grayson, GOP, insurance, Republican Party, Roy Blunt, task force

Racism, Porn, Paranoia and Secrecy at the Republican Values Voters Summit

From an article by Heather on crooksandliars.com on Tuesday Sep 22, 2009

Rachel Maddow talks to the Washington Independent's Dave Weigel about the crazy train that was the Values Voters Summit held last September..

MADDOW: Behold, a Missouri congressman, candidate for U.S. Senate, until recently, the number three Republican in the House, telling what seems to be a really long, meandering, gut-churning racist joke.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ROY BLUNT ®, MISSOURI: Supposedly it‘s the turn of the 19th century, the end of the 19th century, beginning of the 20th century, there was a group of British occupiers in a very lush, very quiet, very peaceful, very uneventful part of India. And this group of British soldiers who were occupying that part of India decided they‘d carve a golf course out of the jungle of India. And there was really not much else to do. So, for over a year, this was the biggest event going on getting this golf course created.

And they got the golf course done and almost from the day the first ball was hit on this golf course, something happened they didn‘t anticipate. Monkeys would come running out of the jungle and they would grab the golf balls. And if it was in the fairway, they might throw it in the rough. If it was in the rough, they might throw—they might throw it back at you.

And I can go into great and long detail about how many things they did to try to eliminate the monkey problem, but they never got it done. So finally, for this golf course and this golf course only, they passed a rule, and the rule was you have to play the ball where the monkey throws it. And that is the rule in Washington all the time.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: Well, who does what? So, who‘s the—who‘s the monkey in Washington in this story? It‘s Republican Congressman Roy Blunt who wants to be the next Republican senator from the great state of Missouri. Mr. Blunt performed his lamentation of Washington monkey at this weekend‘s Values Voter Summit in Washington—which in addition to hosting much of the Republican congressional leadership and most of the probable Republican candidates for president in 2012, it also had some kind of strange stuff going on.

You might recall on Friday‘s show, we warned you there was going to be a breakout session at the summit to define what they called a new masculinism, like feminism but for guys.

Here‘s how that went.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL SCHWARTZ, SEN. COBURN‘S CHIEF OF STAFF: It‘s been a few years, but not that many, since I was closely associated with pre-adolescent boys, boys who are like 10 to 12 years of age. But it is my observation that boys at that age have less tolerance for homosexuality than just about any other class of people. They speak badly about homosexuality. And that‘s because they don‘t want to be that way. They don‘t want to fall into it.

And that‘s a good instinct. After all, homosexuality, we know, studies have been done by the National Institutes of Health to try to prove that it‘s genetic and all those studies prove it‘s not genetic.

Homosexuality is inflicted on people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: Inflicted on people. The speaker there is chief of staff to United States senator. His name is Mike Schwartz, and he‘s chief of staff to Tom Coburn of Oklahoma. Mr. Schwartz is also a founding member of Operation Rescue. He also co-authored a book accusing gay people of using AIDS to advance a nefarious gay agenda.

And now, well, this weekend, he moved quickly from the gay being inflicted on people to some remarkable advice about pornography and preteens.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCHWARTZ: All pornography is homosexual pornography because all pornography turns your sexual drive inwards. Now think about that. And if you—if you tell an 11-year-old boy about that, do you think he‘s going to want to go out and get a copy of “Playboy”? I‘m pretty sure he‘ll lose interest. It‘s the last thing he wants.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: Chief of staff to United States senator. How does a person have time both to be chief of staff to a United States senator and to develop complicated theories about how porn makes you gay, and that‘s a good thing to tell an 11 year old? Under the same roof as that breakout session at the Values Voter Summit, the most absurd award ceremony award was unwittingly being earned by the Values Voter Summit organizers.

Bill O‘Reilly, who is a host at FOX News Channel, accepted the summit‘s first ever Media Courage Award. The ceremony to award Mr. O‘Reilly his Media Courage Award was closed to the media. Courage.

Joining us now is the man who snapped that photo of that sign, David Weigel, a reporter for “Washington Independent.” He filed several reports from the Values Voter Summit.

Mr. Weigel, thanks very much for coming back on the show.

DAVID WEIGEL, WASHINGTON INDEPENDENT: Thanks for having me again.

MADDOW: Was the Media Courage Award ceremony being closed to the press a mistake? It seems like a very awkward decision. Did they really follow through on keeping reporters out?

WEIGEL: It was a surprise to everyone. Reporters were ushered out at 5:00. We were supposed to be allowed back in at 7:00. And when we showed up, a very bashful, chagrin staff of Family Research Council informed us that Mr. O‘Reilly has just instituted this rule. Somebody who is inside the event with a camera, I think, was kicked out very seconds after I took that photo, seconds after I took that photo.

And it was—not only was it surprising, but the content of the speech was actually about, according to who were inside, the content was about why the media doesn‘t cover conservatives. Now, up to now, getting kicked out of the event wasn‘t a reason the media didn‘t cover conservatives, but O‘Reilly‘s doing his part.

MADDOW: After the new masculinity breakout session, we just played some clips from that—what was the crowds‘ reaction to Mr. Schwartz‘s comments that porn will make you gay and we should tell preteens this?

WEIGEL: It was—a door had been opened and they had just discovered an answer to questions that had for years and years. It‘s not audible on that tape, there is a gasp, and a bit after he explains the truth in the story, some people started asking about where he heard this, what the guy‘s name was, and they wanted to know more about this theory because I think it cracked open a lot of theories that value voters, as they define themselves at this conference, had about why America keeps getting further from the values they like.

And this was a very nice silver bullet explanation. I mean, you know that evangelicals, American evangelicals have a—there‘s a pornography addiction that a lot of these speakers talk about this. So, it all came together for them and I heard gasps and people nudging each other to hear more about this.

MADDOW: I‘m also—in addition to talking to people like Tom Coburn and his staff—Senator Coburn is on the far-right end of the Republican Party. But I was also interested to see people like Tim Pawlenty turning up at this event. He has still talked about, as a moderate, in beltway common wisdom. Can you tell us what he was like before this Values Voter Summit audience?

WEIGEL: He was revelatory, I think, because the reason Governor Pawlenty is seen as a very credible candidate to take down Barack Obama is that he‘s a governor of a blue state who has governed for most of his tenure with a Democratic legislature and vetoed a lot of things he doesn‘t like but close to the middle.

Before this audience, he was pushing every single button. He compared what President Obama was doing on foreign policy to what Neville Chamberlain did in appeasing Hitler. He talked about—he called the president out for the debt he was putting on our children and that actually indulged the people who are angry about the president speaking to schoolchildren, saying, “The next time you do it, you should apologize for this debt you‘re leveling on them.”

And he quoted from the verse from “Chronicles” that Ronald Reagan used in his inaugural and there was a moment where everyone in the audience, not everyone, but a big portion in the audience knew that passage and they were reading it along with him. He sounded—he sounded like a preacher and it was—it was one—something that elevated him to the number three position in this straw poll, but two, just something we haven‘t seen from this guy before.

MADDOW: Certainly not part of the national common wisdom about Pawlenty but a side of himself that he is cultivating with audiences like this.

Dave Weigel, reporter for “The Washington Independent”—thanks very much for your reporting, totally invaluable about this. And thanks for joining us tonight.

WEIGEL: Thank you so much, Rachel.

Excerpts from: GOP Whip Quietly Tried to Aid Big Donor
Provision Was Meant To Help Philip Morris By Jim VandeHei Washington Post Staff Writer June 11, 2003

Only hours after Rep. Roy Blunt was named to the House's third-highest leadership job in November, he surprised his fellow top Republicans by trying to quietly insert a provision benefiting Philip Morris USA into the 475-page bill creating a Department of Homeland Security, according to several people familiar with the effort.

The new majority whip, who has close personal and political ties to the company, instructed congressional aides to add the tobacco provision to the bill -- then within hours of a final House vote -- even though no one else in leadership supported it or knew he was trying to squeeze it in.

Once alerted to the provision, Speaker J. Dennis Hastert's chief of staff, Scott Palmer, quickly had it pulled out, said a senior GOP leader who requested anonymity. Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) also opposed what Blunt (Mo.) was trying to do, the member said, and "worked against it" when he learned of it.

The provision would have made it harder to sell tobacco products over the Internet and would have cracked down on the sale of contraband cigarettes, two practices that cut into Philip Morris's profits. Blunt has received large campaign donations from Philip Morris, his son works for the company in Missouri and the House member has a close personal relationship with a Washington lobbyist for the firm.

It is highly unusual for a House Republican to insert a last-minute contentious provision that has never gone through a committee, never faced a House vote and never been approved by the speaker or majority leader. Blunt's attempt became known only to a small circle of House and White House officials. They kept it quiet, preferring no publicity on a matter involving favors for the nation's biggest tobacco company and possible claims of conflicts of interest.

Several in that circle say they were struck by Blunt's willingness to go out on a limb for a company to which he has ties. What's more, he did it within hours of climbing to the House leadership's third-highest rung, a notable achievement for a man who came to Washington less than six years ago.

A senior Republican lawmaker who requested anonymity said some GOP members worried at the time that it would be "embarrassing" to the party and its new whip if details of the effort were made public. Another Republican said Blunt's effort angered some leaders because there was "so little support for" a pro-tobacco provision likely to generate controversy.

In an interview last week, Blunt said he pushed for the tobacco provision after talking with John F. Scruggs, vice president of government affairs for Altria Group Inc., Philip Morris's parent company. "It's good policy," Blunt said.

Scruggs said in an interview that the provision was "pretty important to us." Philip Morris, the nation's largest cigarette producer, would have benefited from the measure more than any other company.

Several Republicans who learned of the November effort have privately expressed concern that Blunt pushed the provision partly because of his personal relationship with Philip Morris lobbyist Abigail Perlman. Blunt, who several Republicans said spends considerable time with Perlman, would not discuss their relationship or whether the two had talked about the provision.

"I am just going to talk about policy here," he said. Perlman did not return two phone calls placed last week requesting comment.

Andrew B. Blunt, one of the lawmaker's sons, is a lobbyist for Philip Morris in Missouri, where his work is confined to state matters. Andrew Blunt did not return two phone calls requesting comment. Rep. Blunt did not talk to his son about the tobacco provision, the congressman's spokeswoman said.

Philip Morris has contributed more than $150,000 to political committees affiliated with Blunt since 2001, according to Federal Election Commission records.

Blunt said he pushed the provision because he thought it was good policy, much of it drawn from legislation introduced last year by then-Sen. Tim Hutchinson (R-Ark.). Sens. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) and Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) recently introduced legislation that would do much of what Philip Morris was seeking to do, Blunt said. He said the provision was relevant to the homeland security bill because news reports last year showed that terrorist groups, such as the Lebanon-based Hezbollah, were profiting from the sale of contraband cigarettes.

Blunt said his actions were no different than those of a member who successfully tucked a provision providing liability protections to the Eli Lilly pharmaceutical company into the same homeland security bill.

The Eli Lilly provision, once discovered, embarrassed the GOP because it appeared the party was using the cover of homeland security to protect a big contributor. No one has acknowledged responsibility for adding the Eli Lilly provision, which Republican leaders later agreed to rescind.

Hastert has not spoken publicly about Blunt and the Philip Morris provision. His spokesman, John Feehery, said yesterday, "It had not been fully vetted and there was no sign-off from the Judiciary Committee, and that's why it didn't go in the homeland security bill."

Because Blunt's actions in the Philip Morris matter were kept quiet, there were no apparent repercussions or threats to his leadership ambitions. Meanwhile, there is evidence that the majority whip has continued to work aggressively on behalf of companies to which he has ties.

In April, for instance, Blunt managed to have a provision inserted into a Senate bill, without debate, on behalf of United Parcel Service Inc. and FedEx Corp. The two companies were seeking to block the expansion of a foreign rival's U.S. operations. Blunt's son Andrew also represents UPS in Missouri, as the Wall Street Journal first reported, and the two companies have contributed a total of $120,000 to Blunt since 2001, according to Federal Election Commission data.

Also this spring, Blunt brokered a deal with Rep. Ernie Fletcher (R-Ky.) to fight for a vote on legislation that could open the door to Food and Drug Administration regulation of tobacco, a top priority for Philip Morris, a senior House GOP leader said. Philip Morris would benefit because it is far ahead of its competitors in designing and selling "safer" cigarettes that could be permitted if the FDA gains regulatory power, lawmakers and industry experts said.

Missouri Rep. Roy Blunt has come under fire from the Center for Public Integrity for engaging in a controversial pattern of providing earmarks to a former-staffer-turned-lobbyist.

The Center for Public Integrity reports that former Blunt chief of staff Gregg Hartley, who now works for DC lobbying firm Cassidy & Associates and is registered as a lobbyist for EaglePicher Technologies, has given Blunt $11,783 in campaign contributions over the last three years after leaving Blunt's staff. Blunt, as a Republican whip, provided a $3,920,000 earmark in a 2008 bill for "Advanced Lithium-Carbon Monoflouride Combat Portable Batteries."

Cassidy & Associates Web site describes Hartley as having been "one of the most savvy chiefs of staff to a leadership member" who once worked closely with Blunt during his 18 years with the Congressman. Eagle Picher provides technologies for the automotive, defense, medical and space industries, according to its Web site.

Roy Blunt Falsely Blames 'ObamaCare' for High Student Loan Rates

Roy Blunt Is The Most Crooked Member Of Congress This Year!!!

Roy Blunt just says no to covering adults with pre-existing conditions

Racism, Porn, Paranoia and Secrecy at the Republican Values Voters Summit

Former GOP Whip Gave Earmark To Former Staffer