PRINCETON — Locked into a March 20 battle with fellow Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Don Manzullo, U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger spoke in a “town hall” meeting Saturday morning, finding a friendly and applauding crowd of 20 people in the Prouty Building in Princeton.
During the meeting, Kinzinger found supporters who were willing to take some of his campaign signs that carry his “A fresh conservative voice” slogan.
He also announced results of a survey he and his staff started in which they asked all the small business owners in the region to tell them what he and Congress could do to help each of them make good on his goal to create “one more job” per business. Those results, in order, were as follows: 1, lower, simplify taxes; 2, “repeal Obamacare”; 3, reduce regulations; and 4, create various tax credits for investment.
He remarked that none of those ideas involved making government larger or more important.
“My job in Washington, D.C. is to make my job less important to you,” Kinzinger said.
The remarks on small business came one day after President Barack Obama announced he was elevating the Small Business Administration to a cabinet-level position, and one day after Obama announced he was requesting more authority for the president to combine various agencies that perform the same or similar duties in an effort to “streamline” government.
Before the meeting in downtown Princeton, Kinzinger was asked what he thought of the tactic announced and request made by Obama on Friday.
“Combining the agencies and duties is something that we’ve been advocating from Day One. I commend the president for saying he wants to do that,” Kinzinger said. “Now, where I have real questions is, what kind of power does he want us to give him? That’s something we have to figure out.
“As this just came out yesterday, I’ve got some research to do on it, but I’ll say this: With how this president has acted so far in going around Congress, whether it’s with recess appointments when there was no recess or whether it’s with regulations around the will of Congress, I don’t have a lot of faith that he really has the respect for Congress that he should according to the Constitution.”
Kinzinger also responded to a press release distributed by Manzullo’s office that an organization committed to smaller government and free enterprise, Americans for Prosperity, said Manzullo had a “perfect 100 percent” voting score on 56 votes. The two supported different approaches for preserving Medicare and Social Security. Kinzinger voted against a conservative Republican Study Committee’s proposal, but on Saturday at the Prouty Building he said he instead supported Wisconsin Republican Paul Ryan’s plan for Medicare and Social Security that, he said, would cut costs but not adversely affect benefits promised to Americans older than 55. Only Manzullo and Joe Walsh from Illinois received grades of A+ from the group.
“Since AFP began our scorecard in 2007, Manzullo supported the small government, free market position on all 56 House votes we’ve scored,” said AFP Director of Government Affairs James Valvo.
But Kinzinger said, “What they do is those organizations pick certain votes. So, we have, you know, a thousand votes already basically in Congress and they pick certain votes and pick which ones they’re going to score, but … when you look at the Illinois Republican delegation, which is conservative, everybody got a grade of B or above.”
“It is what it is, if you’re conservative you’re conservative, but sometimes Washington organizations do Washington things and I don’t think there’s any doubt that I’m a conservative. What the real issue here is, when you look at the difference between Congressman Manzullo and I, he’s going for his 21st year in Congress and I’m going for my third.”
The two were pitted against each other in redistricting that put all of Bureau County into a new 16th District and which shifted the 11th District away from Kinzinger’s Manteno home. While Kinzinger’s campaign pushes him as a “fresh conservative,” Manzullo’s campaigning on his “Proven, Conservative Leadership.” His recent local campaign stops included a tour of the Maze Nails plant in Peru and a Tea Party meeting in Pontiac.
Kinzinger on Saturday reiterated his ongoing theme that the freshman members of the House and changed the conversation in Washington from “How much more are we going to spend?” to “How much more are we going to cut and how are we going to pay for it?” Speaking later in the Prouty Building, he reiterated that until recently Manzullo had been a leader among Illinois Republicans in making deals for “earmarks” that often would give a politician funding for something desired for the district in exchange for a vote on a “bad bill.
The Manzullo campaign this morning emphasized that the freshman class didn’t ban earmarks.
“Congressman Manzullo and his House colleagues voted in 2010 to enact a self-imposed earmark ban on themselves — a full year before Manzullo’s opponent and the freshman class took office,” according to a press release this morning. “Manzullo was consistently very judicious about requesting earmarks. He requested a limited amount and they were nearly always for infrastructure spending, such as roads. Unfortunately, too many members of Congress abused earmarks and that’s why Manzullo in 2010 voted to ban them.”
The Manzullo campaign said Manzullo was not the largest “earmarker” in 2008 among Republicans, issuing the following statement: “Reality: In FY 2008, Congressman Manzullo was actually listed fourth of nine Illinois Republicans in securing earmarks. And the only reason he was that high on the list was because he was charged with a huge $59 million earmark (out of $64 million total) that year for a new federal courthouse in Rockford. That $59 million was requested by the U.S. Courts and the president because the existing courthouse in Rockford, which serves 10 counties and three Congressional districts, was a major safety hazard.
“It’s questionable as to whether courthouses should even be considered earmarks because they are a requirement for the judicial branch under Article III of the Constitution. In FY 2009 and FY 2010, Manzullo was in the bottom 20 percent of all members of Congress in terms of earmarks.”
His office directs voters to a database from Taxpayers for Common Sense. Some Libertarians and Tea Party groups were not supportive of Kinzinger, a U.S. Air Force pilot and current captain in the Air National Guard, when he came out mostly on his own making statements to urge the United States government to take action against Libya.
“Well, history is going to judge it,” Kinzinger said. “We provided air refueling so we were really in the back of the line there, providing air refueling. Frankly there’s a dictator now that’s dead that killed Americans. The result of that has been pretty doggone good. I understand there’s concern, there’s always concern about what ends up happening in the Middle East but when you have people stand up and say we want freedom, I think the president took the right position. I don’t pander but I do what I think is right.”
Kinzinger, Manzullo dispute over voting records (La Salle News Tribune)
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