On this yr of campaigning for reelection, we’re all grateful to Sen. Cory Gardner for his spasm of environmental advantage. We respect his efforts to steer President Donald Trump to help The Nice American Outside Act. It’s a worthy achievement however one which contrasts along with his general voting document.
After 5 years within the Senate persistently opposing laws to guard the atmosphere and refusing to help crucial, Colorado-specific, bipartisan, Home-passed, conservation invoice, The CORE Act, Gardner is now promoting himself as a public lands champion who loves the outside and promotes conservation. The League of Conservation Voters which tracks lawmakers’ pro-environment votes provides Gardner a lifetime rating of 11%.
Hypocrisy and dishonesty are two of Cory Gardner’s strongest traits. In Colorado, Gardner tells voters that he fights “to protect our values and future.” In Washington he’s a Trump sycophant, voting the Trump agenda 89% of the time. This champion of Colorado “values and the future” has voted for billions in subsidies for fossil fuels, voted towards limits on carbon air pollution, voted to undermine scientific evaluations, and voted towards strengthening environmental protections.
A revealing instance of Gardner’s betrayal of Colorado and conservation values is his 2017 vote to finish the BLM Methane and Waste Prevention Rule which was modeled on Colorado state guidelines and was estimated by the BLM to save lots of greater than $1 billion in wasted pure gasoline and air pollution, eliminating 175,000-180,000 tons of methane emissions yearly. Republican Senators Susan Collins, John McCain and Lindsey Graham voted to maintain the rule, Gardner didn’t.
Worse than his abominable conservation document is Gardner’s betrayal of his oath of workplace to help and defend the Structure of america. After the Home impeached Trump, it was the duty of the Senate to strive the president on the articles of impeachment. Gardner voted to not name any witnesses, becoming a member of the Republican majority, thus ending the trial. A Senate trial with out witnesses shouldn’t be a trial, and to not strive an impeached president is a failure to help and defend the Structure.
Lack of fiscal duty is a 3rd, main failure of this senator from Colorado the place most of us value accountable tax coverage. Gardner deserted Colorado values when he voted for the Tax Minimize and Jobs Act of 2017. This Paul Ryan-Mitch McConnell political reward to America’s richest residents was one of many nice failures of the Trump administration. The laws directed 34% of the tax advantages to the wealthiest 1% of People, in accordance with the Tax Coverage Heart. Working households clearly benefited, however the tax reduce to companies marked a big shift in wealth distribution to giant companies and wealthy People. JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley acquired $18 billion of tax aid. The profit to the Koch brothers is estimated at greater than a billion {dollars} a yr, and corporations together with Pfizer, Basic Electrical and Chevron will save billions in taxes.
Sadly little of this financial achieve benefited wage-earning People as firms spent their additional cash on dividends and stock buybacks. Staff’ wages noticed little change and are nonetheless beneath their 2008 stage.
Whereas the Ryan-McConnell Tax Minimize and Jobs Act of 2017 fulfilled Trump’s marketing campaign guarantees to rich donors, it undermined our nation’s fiscal safety, by growing the 2019 deficit to $984 billion, thus elevating the federal nationwide debt to $23 trillion. That Gardner voted for the 2017 tax reduce, creating an almost trillion-dollar deficit, throughout a time of prosperity and financial development, is unconscionable. His vote lessened our nation’s capability to answer the present financial catastrophe and the coronavirus pandemic.
The weakening of environmental safeguards, failure to defend the Structure, and monetary irresponsibility shouldn’t be tolerated by Colorado voters. It’s time to take away Gardner from the Senate.
Charles Kerr is a retired trainer in Grand Junction who served two phrases on the BLM North West Useful resource Advisory Council and has liked exploring the mountains of Colorado on either side of the continental divide for over 50 years.
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