It's Time For Voters To Be Frank with Don*

9/21/06

Ester, Alaska

By Deirdre Helfferich of Ester Republic

Don Young is up for re-election this fall, and I thought it appropriate to enumerate just why Representative Young doesn't deserve his title. There's at least one reason (and probably more) for every star in the 1958 US flag when Alaska's star became the forty-ninth, but I don't have room here to list them all.

Young's history speaks for itself, and it's high time Alaskan voters paid attention to that history. Our representative has been short-changing, insulting, and betraying us for a long, long time. From fishermen to carpenters to auto dealers to teachers, Young has been giving us the shaft-pork notwithstanding. I suggest that we give him the heave-ho before he embarrasses us any further.

1. Fresh blood: Don Young has been in office since 1972. This means he's been in Washington, DC so long it is now his home, not the village of Fort Yukon, Alaska (and not that mailbox there, either). Term limits are put in place to make sure that fresh ideas and representation of more people is possible. We don't have term limits, but we do have the voting booth.

2. Boondoggle bridges: Young bragged about his ability to provide pork for Alaska, forgetting that the term is not a flattering one. Pork is, by its very nature, wasteful fat, not appropriate funding. Even the Cato Institute got annoyed with him about "Don Young's Way."

3. Privately-funded junkets: According to the Center for Public Integrity, Tom DeLay and his staffers accepted about a half-million dollars in privately funded trips during a 5.5-year period studied by the Center, and Young's office was only about $8,000 less, but it was still more than $350,000 worth, putting him in the top ten for number of trips accepted and the top eleven for dollar amount. See www.publicintegrity.org/powertrips/ for more information.

4. Homophobia and rude language: Anybody recall his appalling "butt-f***ers" comment to a formal assembly of Fairbanks high school students? I'm sure those students didn't forget it. Promoting bigotry and using crude language in a public forum to high school students is not appropriate.

5. Global warming: according to Young, it isn't happening, it isn't our fault, and his opinion is that the glaciers in Greenland are not shrinking. And his opinion is worth any scientist's, any day, even when theirs is based on decades of research and study and his is based on, well, opinion (just ask him).

6. Don Young's top campaign contributors throughout his career come from the oil and gas industries. In the last year, the top companies are, in order: Carnival Corp. (cruise ships), Wal-Mart, and VECO.

7. And speaking of VECO, according to his campaign finance disclosure statements, Young was the recipient of more than $100,000 from VECO officers to his campaign or his political action committee, Midnight Sun. This doesn't include the moola raised at fundraisers hosted by Bill Allen and other VECO personnel for Young over the years.

8. The Drum Major Institute for Public Policy rates Young's voting record on behalf of the middle class with a resounding "F". Some of these votes I have discussed here before. Young earned this failing grade by voting for the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, for the Class Action Fairness Act, for the Death Tax Repeal Permanency Act, for the Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act, for the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, for the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act, for the Energy Policy Act of 2005, and for the Small Business Health Fairness Act of 2005.

These bills, like many others, have deceptive titles, and do not do what they might suggest from the title. Instead, they hurt the public, especially the middle class, and make life harder and meaner for millions of Americans. For example, the Deficit Reduction Act will remove three to five million citizens who are entitled to it from Medicare because they don't have passports or birth certificates (apparently it's a crime to be so old that you were born before they gave out birth certificates, or to have been so unfortunate that you lost it in, say, a hurricane . no exceptions). For more information, please go to www.drummajorinstitute.com.

9. The USA PATRIOT Act: Don Young didn't show up to vote on this important piece of legislation, but claimed he had voted for it. This erroneous assertion was repeated by several otherwise reputable papers, such as the Juneau Empire. Later, he realized he hadn't actually voted on it and said, famously, that it was "one of the worst pieces of legislation ever passed." But this didn't stop him from extending the notorious sunsetted provisions in February 2006.

10. Symbol over substance: Don Young was one of the co-sponsors of HJ Resolution 10: the Flag Desecration resolution, which proposed a constitutional amendment that reads: "The Congress shall have power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States." He co-sponsored similar resolutions in several previous Congresses. Aside from the waste of time this involves, it shows that Representative Young is more concerned with protecting the mere symbol of a free country than with actually ensuring that its citizens' right to express their opinions is protected. (See #9.)

11. Remember when the World Trade Center was hit, and Don Young's first suspect was environmentalists? Young seems to forget that environmentalism (originally a Republican value) is a mainstream health and safety concern these days. Nobody wants to have their kids dying from air pollution or go back to the days of rivers catching fire. But, according to our representative, having environmental values means we are "idiots." Young has a history of equating environmentalism with terrorism, using jingoistic insults and outright lies to demonize those with whom he disagrees, to an irrational degree. Young has a zero percent score on environmental issues by the League of Conservation Voters. At least he's good for a laugh (yep, us 'waffle-stomping' types who 'aren't Americans, never have been, and never will be' have a good time flattening breakfast foods and contemplating how clever we are that we get away with voting every election).

12. Poor attendance in Congress: Young has made himself notable in this regard, not showing up very much even though he is in fact our only Congressman. It isn't reasonable to expect that a US Representative go to every single session or vote, but c'mon, Don, you sure could have made more of an effort over the years.

13. Really bad food labeling: Our representative voted in favor of a food labeling bill that will, if it passes the Senate, make it impossible for Alaska to require that farmed salmon be labeled as such. The National Uniformity for Food Act would prevent states from requiring different labeling than that of national requirements. Since state requirements are often more comprehensive than national ones, such as our farmed fish labeling requirement and our GM fish labeling requirement, this bill will prevent states from exercising their rights and will result in lower labeling standards. (The genetically modified food labeling law was passed unanimously in the Alaska legislature.)

So why didn't Don Young pay attention? He has struck a blow against Alaskan fishermen and fish processors, not to mention a serious body blow to states' rights. This bill would also prevent citizens in local municipalities and states from passing laws requiring, for example, that genetically engineered foods and ingredients such as Monsanto's recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH) be labeled. If states can't protect their residents any more than the federal government, then we are stuck with the LEAST safe requirements. The Organic Consumers Association (www.organicconsumers.org) has more on this bill and its implications.

14. Don is not a friend to renewable energy, energy sources that would REALLY make us independent of other countries. In the most recent example, he's worked to block the Cape Cod offshore wind project by proposing an amendment that would have stripped the Coast Guard's ability to evaluate any such project and simply banned any offshore wind farm within 1.5 nautical miles of a shipping channel or ferry route, and never mind whether the facts might allow for safe passage to as close as one-quarter mile (www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=43890).

15. Voted no on raising the corporate average fuel efficiency standards (CAFE). Young, obviously not too concerned about getting the United States energy-independent, apparently doesn't realize that we can't sell American cars even in China because our fuel efficiency is too low. Take that, automotive industry!

16. Hazy on ethics: Young voted for the so-called "DeLay rule," which would have repealed the requirement (put in place by Republicans, by the way) for resignation from the House party leadership of any member indicted on criminal charges.

17. No friend of students: Young voted to cut federal student aid by $12.7 billion.

18. Lip service to veterans and the military: Young voted against expanding TRICARE health care coverage to reservists and the National Guard.

19. Pro-sweatshop: in 2000, our representative blocked a bill that would have made the garment industry in the Marianas Islands conform to US labor laws.

20. Cozying up to the oil companies: When Young had an opportunity to query BP about their failure to follow standard industry practices in a hearing conducted by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Young said, "I'm not here today to beat a dead horse." He said, "I just want to know that it doesn't happen again", and he left early. Right, Don.

Given that Young has been in office for thirty-plus years, there are many more examples that could be enumerated here, but this paper has only so much room. Just because the man has seniority (the main reason I hear for retaining him), it doesn't mean that his seniority is doing us any good. In my opinion, his votes have far too often gone against the interests of Alaskans and toward the interests of corporations in other states and countries. Don Young's years in Congress have more and more become a millstone around the necks of Alaskans.

Let's toss that weight.

Sources include OpenSecrets.org, GovTrack.us, Drum Major Institute for Public Policy, TheAgitator.com, VoteSmart.org, OnTheIssues.org, Talking Points Memo,

Much as I would love to be able to claim this pun for myself, the credit (or perhaps it's the blame) must go to David A. James. My thanks to him for allowing me to inflict my readers with this delightful phrase.

Deirdre Helfferich is Editor of the Ester Republic, 2002, 2003 & 2004 Alaska Press Club award winner. She may be contacted at editor@esterrepublic.com.