Steve Rodich – 7/6/06

This page was last updated on July 9, 2006.

Voting records tell all; Steve Rodich; Beaver County Times; July 6, 2006.

Voting records may or may not tell all, but Mr. Rodich certainly doesn’t. You’ll read what I mean below.

This is at least the fifth anti-Santorum letter by Mr. Rodich since September 2004. The previous letters were entitled “Santorum flip flops,” “It’s Santorum’s turn to lose,” “‘Nuclear’ option and Santorum”, and “Race already heating up.” It would have been five in a row except Mr. Rodich took a timeout and attempted to bash Lynn Swann in “Swann lacks experience.”

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“Every election we are reminded by Sen. Rick Santorum and U.S. Rep Melissa Hart that their grandfathers immigrated to this country from Italy and worked in the coal mines.

“They fail to remember or understand that the miners were good union people. Union people knew then and now which political party stands up for working people in this country. Their grandfathers are probably rolling over in their graves as a result of their voting records. Let’s look at a few of Santorum’s record. He:”

[RWC] Go here and here to see how the Democrat party and labor unions “stand up for working people.”

Regarding the following points, I believe they are all misleading at best. In some cases, of course, what Mr. Rodich considers a “bad” vote for labor union management is really a good vote for workers. Rather than waste my time trying to verify all of the points, I’ve commented about only a few to show you what I mean.

Finally, the following points are merely a regurgitation of a Pennsylvania AFL-CIO document entitled, “Santorum’s Record Opposing Working Men and Women.” Why didn’t Mr. Rodich tell us?

“- Introduced legislation to eliminate the 40-hour week and overtime pay. His amendment would have also prevented states from raising the minimum wage for restaurant employees.

“- Voted against increasing the minimum wage 13 times, most recently a few weeks ago.”

[RWC] In truth, Mr. Santorum supports raising the minimum wage by $1.10, but not by the $2.10 wanted by Democrats. He shouldn’t support any increase, but no one has accused Mr. Santorum of being an economic or fiscal conservative.

“- Voted for flex-time legislation that would abolish the 40-hour week and allow employers to avoid overtime pay.

“- Voted against the Family and Medical Leave Act.”

[RWC] If true, that was a correct vote.

“- Voted against ending tax breaks that made it easier for manufacturers to close plants and move plants and American jobs overseas.

“- Voted against considering an amendment to give steelworkers a 70 percent tax credit for health insurance costs when the steel industry was hurting in 2002.”

[RWC] If true, that was a correct vote. Why should any group be singled out for special treatment? Of course, group politics is a fundamental part of Democrat strategy.

“- Voted against legislation allowing public safety officers to bargain collectively.”

[RWC] Mr. Rodich didn’t provide any details, but I suspect this has to do with the formation of the Department of Homeland Security in 2002. Democrats tried to hold up formation of DHS – which was their idea in the first place – unless all employees could join a labor union. To Democrats, labor union membership came before national security needs.

“- Voted to weaken OSHA regulations designed to protect workers and to cut OSHA funding.

“- Conducted meetings all over the state last year touting Bush’s personal account plan, which would divert funds from the Social Security Trust at a cost of $2 trillion. You don’t see or hear anything about that now; do you?”

[RWC] Mr. Rodich fails to tell us “Bush’s personal account plan” was actually first proposed by Democrats during the Clinton administration.

What Mr. Rodich forgot to mention is that his “$2 trillion” – or whatever the real number was – would have stayed in Socialist Security but those workers who paid the tax would have controlled the investment of those earnings. Exactly what is wrong with allowing people to control the investment of their own earnings, Mr. Rodich? Also, unlike the rest of the tax dollars funneled into Socialist Security, workers would have been guaranteed the contents of their personal accounts.

“These are just a few examples of Santorum’s dismal record with respect to working people but enough to establish very good reasons why working people, particularly Italian working people, should rebuke Santorum and vote for his opponent, Bob Casey.”

[RWC] “[P]articularly Italian working people?” What is it with liberals that requires them to look at people as members of groups instead of individuals?

Note Mr. Rodich only told us why labor union management wants us to vote against Sen. Santorum. He didn’t provide one reason we should vote for Bob Casey. That’s not a good sign for Mr. Casey.