DCCC: Meadows is wrong for NC families and seniors

Here’s the statement from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee:

Mark Meadows – Wrong for North Carolina Families and Seniors

Over the past months, North Carolinians have quickly seen that Florida native Mark Meadows (NC-11) is completely out of touch with North Carolina families and seniors. Mark Meadows supports dangerous policies that cost seniors and hardworking families while giving tax breaks to millionaires and companies shipping American jobs overseas.

Meadows’ out-of-touch agenda is only part of his problem. Instead of focusing on creating jobs in Western North Carolina, Meadows has been promoting radical conspiracy theories. The people of North Carolina want someone to focus on jobs, the economy and strengthening the middle class not play partisan politics and embrace fringe conspiracies. It’s no wonder that Mark Meadows struggles to raise money and reported only $33,000 cash on hand at the beginning of July.

Mark Meadows is Wrong for Seniors. Mark Meadows backs massive cuts to Medicare and went as far to call that plan “bold.” Meadows touted his support for a Congressional budget that would drastically cut Medicare, raising health care costs for seniors, while protecting tax breaks for millionaires and corporations that ship American jobs overseas.

Meadows Called Ryan Budget Bold.“Congressman Paul Ryan again boldly sounds the alarm on the debt crisis. A powerful message.” [Meadows for Congress Facebook, 3/16/12]

Mark Meadows is Wrong for Hardworking North Carolina Families. Instead of focusing on creating jobs in Western North Carolina, Meadows wants to ship jobs overseas and protect corporate tax loopholes that reward outsourcing of American jobs. In these tough economic times, Meadows supported a tax plan would create a 23% sales tax on nearly everything North Carolina families buy – from gas to groceries, rent to medicine to doctors visits.

Meadows Supported Free Trade. “We can promote new job creation by cutting red tape and regulations, lowering all taxes, and demanding a free trade policy. I will work to get government off the backs of small business and eliminate regulatory laws that hamper economic growth.” [Meadows for Congress, accessed 7/17/12]

Meadows Called the Fair Tax the “Real Equalizer.” “The Fair Tax has a marketing problem. Even in talking with people that strongly support it, when it comes to elections it becomes very problematic to try to explain to them that you aren’t doing a 23 percent tax increase […] Quite frankly, it becomes one of those things that becomes a real equalizer if you look at it from a consumption tax point of view but it has a real marketing problem.” [Meadows ICaucus Interview at 59:00, 2012]

Meadows Pledged to Protect $92.5 Billion in Subsidies That Encourage Companies to Outsource Jobs. The Americans for Tax Reform pledge has become a litmus test for Republican congressional candidates and Members of Congress. The Americans for Tax Reform falsely claims that cutting tax expenditures constitute a tax increase. In reality, it is widely recognized that cutting tax expenditures is just another way to cut spending. Meadows, who signed the Americans for Tax Reform pledge, has promised to protect $92.5 billion in subsidies that encourage companies to ship jobs overseas. [CBS News, 11/20/11; Americans for Tax Reform Pledge Signers, accessed 7/17/11; Americans for Tax Reform, 4/11/11; Center for American Progress, 3/11]

Meadows Supports Radical Conspiracy Theories. Instead of focusing on a plan to create jobs, Meadows has been focused on questioning the President’s citizenship and a radical fringe conspiracy plot.

Meadows Jumped into Agenda 21 Conspiracy Theory with Both Feet. “The latest inanity to take hold is the ‘Agenda 21’ conspiracy theorists who believe the United Nations is coming after your land via code words such as ‘sustainability’ […] At the Henderson County Tea Party candidates forum Tuesday, Republican congressional candidates Mark meadows and Vance Patterson jumped into the Agenda 21 debate with both feet.” [Asheville Citizen-Times, 6/23/12]

Meadows Repeatedly Questioned President Obama’s Birthplace.“With the microphone in front of him during a public forum, Mark Meadows didn’t hesitate. ‘Yes,’ the Republican candidate told the questioner, he would call for an investigation into whether President Barack Obama was born in the U.S […] Meadows told the Blue Ridge Tea Party on June 12 that if Republicans are successful in the fall, ‘we will send him (Obama) back home to Kenya or wherever it is.’ It was the second time he made such a statement at a political event.” [Asheville Citizen-Times, 6/26/12]