Dump Mike Ferguson (NJ7)

Mike Ferguson did a talk sponsored by the NJ Chamber of Commerce last week where he provided his solution to the high cost of healthcare for businesses. It involves, as you can see in the screenshot from the web site invitation below, tax-free savings accounts and increasing deductibles for employees.

Essentially, this solution puts the burden on to everyday folks. Higher deductibles for employees mean that when they or family members get sick it costs more out of their pocket to go to the doctor. This saves the insurance company money, which they pass on to the employer. Everybody saves, except the employee.

As for the tax-free savings accounts, they at first blush appear to be a wonderful deal. But on second blush you realize that if the employee is salting away salary tax-free, then the taxpayers have to pay more in income tax to make up for it. That's a savings for the employee as a wage earner but a cost for the employee as a taxpayer.

At the same time, Mike Ferguson voted against common sense measures like allowing the government to negotiate prices of drugs it buys through Medicaid and Medicare. Such a measure alone could cut double digit percentages off the costs of drugs in the United States, saving seniors and the disable millions of dollars.

What is really interesting is that Mike Ferguson chose to meet with the business community only on this issue. We're not suggesting he shouldn't meet with the business community, because they have an interest in this issue, as well. However, it is clear that Mike isn't going to be having any town hall meetings with the voters of the 7th District any time soon on this issue.

I wonder why? You can ask Mike and if he answers post the answer below or write to dumpmike@gmail.com.

Call his office at (908) 757-7835 or write to him from his Congressional Website.

Posted by admin at 07:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mike Ferguson voted for the United States Congress to intervene in a medical case involving Terry Schiavo, a woman in a persistent vegetative state, to overturn the decision of a Florida state court to remove her feeding tube.

"This is a life and death situation for this young woman," said Rep. Mike Ferguson, R-Hunterdon, who voted in favor of the bill along with fellow Republican Scott Garrett who represents Warren County.

"At the very least we owe her parents the opportunity to have this case heard by a federal judge so no mistakes are made."

Ferguson dismissed arguments from Democrats that Congress was trying to usurp Florida courts, saying Republicans only want to give Schiavo's parents the chance to have the case heard in court.

"If we make any error, we should err on the side of life," he said. "We should take every opportunity to make sure the right decision is made."

Mike Ferguson says he only wants Terry Schiavo's parents to have their chance in front of a federal judge. It has already already been in front of 19 Florida judges. Most of these judges were appointed by Republican governors, many are conservative. The Supreme Court of the United States determined that the case did not merit their review, and seven of these nine federal justices were appointed by Republican Presidents.

This is not about giving people their day in court. It is about interfering in the most personal decisions of American citizens with no regard for privacy or the pain they are causing.

It is about politics, pure and simple.

Posted by admin at 07:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

From today's Daily News, a quote from Mike Ferguson:

Congress was outraged when Ken Lay's Enron unraveled in late 2001 and when Bernie Ebbers' WorldCom went bust in 2002, and rightly so. Assorted corporate chieftains were hauled before congressional committees, as members of both parties lectured the villains of Wall Street. "If you violate the public trust ... you should go, and you will go, to federal prison," Mike Ferguson, a New Jersey House Republican, told Ebbers.

That's an interesting quote, and a laudable one. But my first thought on reading it was that Mike Ferguson is the number one recipient of money from Tom Delay's PACs to the tune of $42,000 since 2001.

Three of Tom Delay's fundraisers are under indictment for illegal use of campaign funds (something Mike has been involved in, too) and DeLay is rumored to be under investigation himself to this fundraising and for accepting trips from lobbyists and foreign agents. DeLay was also rebuked three times by the House Ethics committee for various violations.

In the past few months Mike Ferguson has voted to soften the rules and change the leadership of the Houe ethics committee to protect Tom Delay's position in the House. Mike appears to want the public trust protected in some cases, but not in others.

Paragraph three of the story goes like this:

But, lest we forget, this is Congress. In November, DeLay's pals passed a rule allowing someone who is indicted to continue to serve, just in case. (Happily, it was quickly overturned when Republicans realized they had created a public-relations disaster.) But GOP efforts to support DeLay didn't stop there: They bounced the Republican who led the ethics panel that dared rebuke DeLay. Then, GOP party leaders decided to rewrite the ethics rules to make it more difficult to pursue investigations of misconduct. Now Democrats are balking, refusing to conduct any ethics deliberations at all.

Write or call Mike Ferguson today and ask him if he thinks that House Republicans are really wroking to ensure ethics rule our government, or if he is just protecting the source of much of his campaign funding.

Call his office at (908) 757-7835 or write to him from his Congressional Website.

When you are done, leave the answer in the comments for or write to dumpmike@gmail.com.

Posted by admin at 10:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Here are a series of pictures from the rally in Westfield last week. The pics are courtesy of Westfield's own Jacalyn Engler. Welcome, Jacalyn!

Click the pic to get a really large version.

Posted by admin at 06:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

OK, the goal here at Dump Mike is to tell the truth about Mike Ferguson's positions, beliefs and votes. We are not trying to make anything up, but to show the good people of New Jersey's 7th Congressional District that Mike Ferguson doesn' thave their values at heart.

So what we need is for our readers to do a little research to help us nail down exactly what it is Mike thinks and does. So, each week we will post a new link to a source of research into Mike Ferguson's time as a Congressman and before.

This week's link is the Congressional Record, where you can search the Congressional Record for every time Mike has spoken on the House floor.

Please go through this for any quotes or votes that show Mike's true positions on the issues, and then put them in the comments section or e-mail them to dumpmike@gmail.com!

Posted by admin at 07:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Here is the text of a radio ad running in New Jersey today about Mike Ferguson and Social Security:

"CUTS" – New Jersey

This week President Bush brought his risky plan for Social Security to New Jersey — a plan that would end Social Security's guaranteed benefits and tie our retirement savings to the ups and downs of the stock market.

How does President Bush plan to pay for this risky scheme you ask.

First, he'll borrow $4.5 trillion from foreign countries. Then he'll cut benefits by up to 40%.

Cutting benefits and borrowing trillions from foreign nations won't solve Social Security problems - it WILL make them worse.

Call New Jersey Congressman Mike Ferguson at 908-757-7835 and tell him you do not want your benefits cut.

Call Congressman Ferguson and tell him to oppose President Bush's risky scheme that would put in jeopardy our social security benefits here in New Jersey.

We cannot afford to be silent.

Paid for by Democratic National Committee. www.democrats.org. This communication not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. The DNC is responsible for the content of this advertising.

You can also listen to the ad in MP3 format.

Posted by admin at 12:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was not able to get to the Westfield protest -- work, you know -- but want to hear all about it! Please post comments about the event below.

If you took pictures, please send them to dumpmike@gmail.com and I will post them on the site. Please include your name and town if you want attribution for the photo.

Posted by admin at 11:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I didn't see this article in our local Gannet paper, the Courier News, but Wednesday Gannet News Service had an pretty blunt article by Ledyard King demontrating that Michael Ferguson's office it talking out of both sides of its mouth on today's Social Security Pep rally.

If you want to be part of President Bush's conversation on Social Security in New Jersey on Friday, you're probably too late.

Tickets for the president's visit to Westfield are spoken for and the waiting list is growing, according to Abby Bird, a spokeswoman for Rep. Mike Ferguson, R-Warren Township. The White House has given Ferguson, whose district includes Westfield, several hundred tickets to distribute among local constituents and groups for the 10:40 a.m. town hall meeting at the Westfield Armory. [snip]

Some of the tickets to the Westfield event are being distributed on a first come, first served basis. Others are for groups ranging from high school students to business organizations, she said.

Among those organizations are the chambers of commerce in Hunterdon and Union counties, the Somerset County Business Partnership and the New Jersey Business and Industry Association, Bird said. Those groups distribute their allotment at their discretion, she said.

Organizations representing seniors, many of whom oppose the president's plan, did not receive tickets. Bird said that's because many seniors were among those who called in and are receiving individual tickets. The list of invitees includes firefighters, the families of military personnel serving in Iraq and the Democratic mayors of Fanwood and Summit, she said.

"This is a chance for people -- whether they are Republican or Democrat -- to come out and hear the president," she said. "We want to ensure that the entire community is represented."

White House spokesman Ken Lisaius said the distribution of tickets is being handled similarly to other town hall meetings that have been held. The format calls for the president to ask several pre-selected attendees to talk about their own retirement situations, he said. The names of those participants won't be announced until Friday, he said.

Business organizations that support the creation of privately invested Social Security accounts get to pass out tickets, and senior organizations who oppose the accounts are frozen out. Only secret "pre-selected" attendees get to ask questions.

And still Ms. Bird says they want to make sure the "entire community" gets to go. But at least two Democratic Mayors will be there!

Good for Gannet for getting it right, and shame on President Bush and Congressman Ferguson for running a dog and pony show at taxpayer expense.

P.S. Can anyone find this article printed in the Courier News?

Posted by admin at 07:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In talking about President Bush's orchestrated pep rally today, the Associated Press announced that the 7th District is competitive, and that Mike Ferguson is getting heat from the voters of our district.

President Bush is trying to shore up the electoral prospects of two Republican lawmakers who are getting heat over his plan to overhaul Social Security.

Bush was to appear Friday at meetings with mostly hand-picked audiences in the districts of GOP Reps. Mike Ferguson of New Jersey and Chris Chocola of Indiana.

With both seats competitive, they are prime targets for Democrats interested in running in the midterm elections next year against Bush's plan for the partial privatization of Social Security.

So let's keep the heat on and make sure this district stays competitive.

Posted by admin at 07:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

On Friday, March 4th President Bush will come to the 7th Congressional District for a "town meeting" on Social Security with Congressman Mike Ferguson. The meeting, at the Westfield Armory, is being called a "discussion" but it is simply another orchestrated event for the President's supporters.

Tickets for this "public" opportunity to discuss retirement security with President Bush are being handed out by only three entities: The White House; Rep. Ferguson's office; and the Union County Chamber of Commerce and Somerset County Business Partnership.

The White House and Rep. Ferguson support of President Bush's Social Security proposal, and so does the United States Chamber of Commerce which accredits both county business organizations. The national Chamber is a prime funding source for the Alliance for Worker Retirement Security, a business coalition which was formed to back private investment of Social Security dollars.

With only supporters of the President's plan distributing tickets, the likelihood of any opposing views attending the "town hall" is pretty darn low. But they do not want opposing views in the audience. The President has been orchestrating events such as these all over the country with hand-picked audiences to reflect his own positions and make it appear the public supports private accounts.

However, anyone who attended Rep. Ferguson's town meetings last Saturday knows this is not the case. In open meetings in Bernardsville and Flemington the Congressman was directly challenged on his support for this plan, and on his weak grasp of the reality that Social Security faces.

I was amazed to hear Rep. Ferguson announce firmly and with resolve, "There are fewer people in the workforce today than there were 20 years ago." He repeated the claim twice.

But it is simply untrue. The Department of Labor says that in 1985 there were about 115 million people in the workforce, and in 2005 there are 148 million. That's a 33 million person, 28 percent increase that Rep. Ferguson didn't know about.

Rep. Ferguson also announced with authority that by the end of the 21st Century the Social Security shortfall would reach $75 trillion dollars. He used that stunning number to demonstrate that the President's plan to add $1 or $2 trillion to the deficit for private accounts was small potatoes.

But the Social Security Administration's trustees report from 2004 says the shortfall will be just $3.7 trillion, more than $70 trillion less than Rep. Ferguson's assertion. When told by a member of the audience had bad data, Rep. Ferguson stubbornly insisted, "That's not the information I have."

These are the basic facts of the entire issue: how many workers will pay into the system or retire, and how much debt do we need to make up. Yet Rep. Ferguson misstated both in public meetings intended to educate the public on the issues facing Social Security.

If he believes these numbers, his position on Social Security is based on bad information. If he doesn't, then he is intentionally misleading the public for partisan gain.

We cannot address the issue of Social Security with misinformation and misstatements of fact. It is only with an engaged, educated populace that a proper, measured and financially prudent solution will be made.

If Friday is anything like last Saturday, President Bush and Rep. Ferguson will not be leading us into that direction.

[Download a flyer of this essay in Word for Windows]

Posted by admin at 08:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Apparently the Republican legislators got together this week in Washington, D.C. to talk about what they heard from constituents at their town hall meetings on Social Security this weekend.

Here's how Tom DeLay characterized the meeting:

Hastert and DeLay talked with reporters after meeting with lawmakers just back from a week spent sampling public opinion on Social Security. DeLay said the session produced "not one negative comment by the members."

Not one negative comment? Either Mike wasn't at that meeting, or he isn't relaying what we saw in Bernardsville and Flemington last Saturday.

And, don't forget, Tom DeLay and Mike Ferguson are very close.

Posted by admin at 06:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We've already established that Mike Ferguson is trying to keep himself in the Republican areas of his district. His House web site, paid for by the taxpayers, only links to Republican counties Somerset and Hunterdon while ignoring Democratic counties Union and Middlesex. His "town hall" meetings this weekend were in Somerset and Hunterdon as well.

We thought that perhaps Mike was actually getting some courage when President Bush scheduled another "town hall" in Union County at Ferguson's invitation. You'd really think this would be open after Mike said this in the paper:

Rep. Michael Ferguson (R-7th Dist.), who invited Bush to Westfield, said Friday's event will be "a conversation."

"He wants to speak to, listen to and talk to residents from around the state," Ferguson said.

But there will be no conversation, because the Westfield Armory is going to be full of supporters of George Bush and no one else. The White House and the Chamber of Commerce are handing out most of the tickets. Mike's office is handing out the other couple hundred. Here's Mike's feeling on who is going to get tickets:

"My sense is the people who would be most interested in being in an event with the president will be ones who are supporters," Ferguson said. "And I think it's important to hear constructive criticism ... that doesn't include disruptive behavior or obnoxiousness."

Obnoxious? I think it is obnoxious that a three term Congressman thinks that the American workforce has been shrinking for two decades when it has risen by 43 million people, and when corrected denies he was wrong.

I think it is obnoxious that a three term Congressman mistates the potential shortfall of Social Security by more than $70 trillion dollars, and when corrected denies he is wrong.

I find it obnoxious that Mike Ferguson is not going to let us in the door on Friday to see our President because we do not agree with his position, and then assumes that because we disagree that we are obnoxious.

You can tell him youself on Friday. Democracy for America, NJ Citizen Action and the Union County, Somerset County and NJ Democrats are meeting at 9 a.m. at the corner of Rahway and Grove in Westfield to demonstrate their opposition to the President's Social Security plans.

Why does Mike Ferguson think people who disagree with him are obnoxious? Why won't he let people with different ideas in to see our President? Ask him yourself!

Call his office at (908) 757-7835 or write to him from his Congressional Website.

When you are done, leave the answer in the comments for or write to dumpmike@gmail.com.

Posted by admin at 07:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

President George Bush is coming to Westfield on Friday morning (the Armory at 10:40 AM) to try to continue to sell his Social Security scheme. Congressman Mike Ferguson (NJ-7) will also be there. Join us to send them a message and Take Back America!

Fran Middleberg and Greg Romer from our Springfield, Union County Meetup are coordinating Democracy for America activities on the ground. Please contact Fran at fmiddleberg@hotmail.com or calling 973-912-4309 .

Here are some posters you can download and print. We're asking people to post them along Route 22 in Westfield to welcome the President and to carry them at the counter protest. Warning, the files are huge!

                        

Posted by admin at 07:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)