Uncategorized

For Immediate Release:
July 8, 2022

Columbus, OH – A new report from the American Independent exposes J.D. Vance’s longtime support for cuts to Social Security and Medicare. Vance wrote, “The way forward is as obvious as it is politically difficult: streamline the tax code, reform current entitlements and avoid enacting new ones.”

“While Ohio families are getting slammed with higher prices, multimillionaire J.D. Vance wants to make it harder for seniors to make ends meet by cutting Social Security and Medicare. Hardworking Ohioans deserve to know they can retire with dignity, but J.D. Vance only cares about fat handouts for his wealthy friends at the expense of those who can least afford it,” said Michael Beyer, a spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party.

American Independent: GOP Ohio Senate nominee J.D. Vance has supported cuts to Social Security and Medicare
Josh Israel
July 7, 2022

• Ohio Republican nominee J.D. Vance is framing himself in his campaign for Senate as an opponent of powerful “elites.”
• Meanwhile, in 2011 the author and venture capitalist embraced a controversial GOP budget proposal that would have slashed entitlement protections for poorer and older Americans, ending both Medicare and Medicaid as we know them while cutting taxes for himself and other wealthy elites.
• In his writings, Vance […] embraced words like “reform” and “trim” in discussing the entitlement programs used by millions.
• In a column published on April 5, 2011, on the FrumForum, a group blog edited by former George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum that described itself as “dedicated to the modernization and renewal of the Republican Party and conservative movement,” Vance, under a previous surname taken from a stepfather, praised a budget proposal about to be released by then-House Budget Committee Republican Chair Paul Ryan.
• Ryan’s proposed budget called for trillions of dollars to be cut from entitlement programs over a decade: repeal of the Affordable Care Act, the program commonly known as Obamacare that provides health insurance coverage for millions of Americans; transformation of Medicaid into a program funded through limited lump-sum grants to states, which would then manage it; and conversion of Medicare into a capped voucher program.
• Robert Greenstein, president of the progressive-leaning nonprofit Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, said at the time that Ryan’s proposal was “a dramatic reverse-Robin-Hood approach that gets the lion’s share of its budget cuts from programs for low-income Americans — the politically and economically weakest group in America and the politically safest group for Ryan to target— even as it bestows extremely large tax cuts on the wealthiest Americans.”
• “The plan contains $1.4 trillion in Medicaid cuts over ten years (which includes repeal of the health reform law’s Medicaid expansion); large cuts in food stamps, low-income housing, Pell Grants, and other programs for people with limited incomes; and repeal of the health reform law’s subsidies to help low- and moderate-income people purchase health insurance,” Greenstein wrote.
• Vance wrote of the proposal, “Early reports suggest that along with serious changes to Social Security and Medicare, the budget will trim nearly $4 trillion from the 10-year budget deficit. I don’t know how the Left will react, but I’m confident that they’ll overreact. And I’m hoping that when the dust settles, we’re having a more intelligent conversation about spending cuts than we’ve had during my lifetime.”
• Vance added, “The way forward is as obvious as it is politically difficult: streamline the tax code, reform current entitlements and avoid enacting new ones.”
• On Sept. 7 of that year, he authored a post endorsing former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination and explicitly praising him for supporting Ryan’s budget and entitlement cuts.
• “As governor, he enacted free-market health care reforms, balanced the budget, and thus far is the most public advocate of the Ryan plan to reduce long-term entitlement spending,” Vance wrote. He dismissed another Republican candidate, then-Texas Gov. Rick Perry, as “a man with no serious plan to curb entitlement spending.”
• In a May 2022 column published in the Atlantic, Frum noted that in his 2011 collaborations with Vance, Vance “endorsed cuts to the future growth of Medicare and Social Security” and lamented his subsequent evolution to full-throated support for former President Donald Trump.
• A Vance campaign spokesperson did not immediately respond to an inquiry for this story.

###

For Immediate Release:
Friday, July 8, 2022

Columbus, OH — In case you missed it, Ohio Democrats expanded a lawsuit against Mike DeWine and his office to strengthen ongoing efforts to gain answers into what DeWine and his cronies knew and when about the largest public corruption scandal in state history. Thursday, Ohio Democratic Party Chairwoman Elizabeth Walters announced a preliminary injunction in the party’s ongoing lawsuit against DeWine to assure key public records are not destroyed and are ultimately shared with Ohio voters.

Since May, none of the records requests filed by ODP have been fulfilled despite empty claims from the DeWine team about the governor’s commitment to “transparency and accountability.” Ohioans should know Democrats will not stop fighting to make sure Ohioans get the answers they deserve.

“Nothing we’re asking for is complicated: emails and texts between Mike DeWine, Jon Husted and their staffs about HB 6, correspondence between the administration and the organizations and individuals connected to the scandal and a full, unredacted calendar from Mike DeWine accounting for how he was spending his taxpayer-funded time. These are questions we started asking in October, answers Ohio voters deserve,” said Chair Walters.

Here’s what Ohioans are reading about the new legal action today:

Dayton Daily News: Democrats Make DeWine Keep All HB 6 Info In FirstEnergy Scandal  

Jim Gaines

“Ohio Democrats are seeking to forestall any destruction of Gov. Mike DeWine’s records related to the FirstEnergy bribery scandal, asking for a court injunction against disposing of materials they’ve requested.

“‘These are questions we started asking in October, answers Ohio voters deserve,’ Ohio Democratic Party Chair Elizabeth Walters said Thursday. ‘But Mike DeWine and his lackeys apparently think that they don’t need to do their job or be held accountable – that they’re above the law. We’re here to make sure they know they aren’t.’

“Democrats maintain everything they’ve requested should be made available and is of public interest. They specifically requested all communications between DeWine, Husted, 13 current or former senior staff members and Sam Randazzo, former chair of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, regarding FirstEnergy and numerous related organizations.

“On May 5, the Ohio Democratic Party filed a civil suit in Franklin County Court of Common Pleas, seeking an unredacted version of DeWine’s calendar and a detailed, 30-item list of related communications. That drew “nothing but crickets” from the administration, Walters said.

“She accused DeWine of stalling to “run out the clock,” potentially until the legal requirement to preserve those records expires.

“Thus the party filed its latest request, for an injunction to prevent destruction of the information sought.

“Nan Whaley, former Dayton mayor and now Democratic nominee for governor, has assailed DeWine’s connections to the scandal, alleging FirstEnergy spent “millions” to aid his election.”

…

WTVG-TV: Ohio Democrats Seek Records From DeWine Related To HB6 Bribery Scheme 

Josh Croup

“[Democrats] want this judge to force the governor to preserve any and all documents that might be linked to that House Bill 6 scandal. 

“Democrats have already sued to obtain unredacted calendars from the governor, along with other documents they say could connect him to that scandal.” 

…

Since October, Ohio Democrats have been working on getting answers to who knew what and when about the FirstEnergy scandal – which Ohioans continue to pay $287,000 every single day for – but have been stonewalled at every turn by the DeWine administration, leaving public records requests unanswered. The lack of answers from DeWine leads to even more questions about what DeWine is hiding, especially as the scandal inches closer and closer to DeWine and his inner circle.

• Find the preliminary injunction HERE. 
• Find the submitted public records requests HERE.
• Find the records Ohio Democrats have successfully obtained from the DeWine administration HERE. 

                                                                    ###

For Immediate Release:
Friday, July 8, 2022

“The independence of the auditor’s office to dig into the numbers is the only way taxpayers and contributors to the pension fund can know they’re not being shafted.”

Columbus, OH — In case you missed it, the Toledo Blade Editorial Board earlier this week called on Auditor Keith Faber to finally do his job and oversee a state investigation of Ohio’s state pension funds, including an investment that’s lost more than $500 million for Ohio teachers and other retirees.

“Ohio law gives the state auditor the power to compel documents and witnesses tied to any public funds…So far, the auditor doesn’t want any part of it,” writes the Toledo Blade Editorial Board.

At a time when far too many teachers in Ohio are working longer, paying more while getting less to make ends meet, the failure to accordingly oversee their investment portfolio in the state’s pension funds is wrong.

Read more from Toledo Blade HERE and below:

• It’s time for an independent examination of the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio and the state’s other public-employee pension funds.
• The fees and expenses charged by professionals paid by the funds require vetting. That examination must include a determination of the values of investment funds and the direct investments made on behalf of the pension funds.
• Why? The answer is Panda Power. That investment lost $525 million. A big zero remained from the initial investment. The right person to oversee that investigation is the state auditor. The independence of the auditor’s office to dig into the numbers is the only way taxpayers and contributors to the pension fund can know they’re not being shafted.
• For their part, STRS is moving fast to implement the key recommendation in a recent fiduciary audit. The near $100 billion retirement fund is seeking outside professional aid to validate fees, expenses, and profit shares on 430 investment funds and 50 direct investments. That’s a start. More, though, remains to be done.
• Together, the five Ohio pensions have about 20 percent of their $266 billion portfolio in alternative investments where returns on those investments are in the hands of outside fund managers. The pension fund-investment staffs picking the outside funds have a financial interest in the highest possible valuations.
• They receive performance bonuses based on the results. Those bonuses typically outpace their salaries.
• It’s a conflict of interest when consultants paid by the funds provide performance reports on investments. Those reports often paint a rosy picture of the reality. The S&P 500 just turned in the worst first half performance since 1970. With market indexes down nearly 12 percent for the June 30 fiscal year, the value of much less liquid alternative investments are subject to big losses. That’s why it’s essential to get the true value of the investments right.
• Ohio law gives the state auditor the power to compel documents and witnesses tied to any public funds. An outside vendor working with the auditor has more authority to acquire investment data and far more credibility than individuals paid by the funds. So far, the auditor doesn’t want any part of it.
• Ohio law gives the auditor sole authority to set up the “standards, guidelines, and procedures,” used for the financial examination. The expense is paid by the audited agency. STRS is planning to pay for private investment-expense verification. The rest of the pension plans must do the same. The best possible way to oversee those checks is for the auditor to hire and oversee independent vendors to examine the fees and investment returns charged to Ohio’s pension plans.

###

For Immediate Release:
Thursday, July 7, 2022

Columbus, OH — Today, Ohio Democratic Party Chair Elizabeth Walters announced the party is requesting a preliminary injunction in its ongoing lawsuit with Mike DeWine to make sure key records connected to the FirstEnergy bribery scandal are not destroyed.

• Find the preliminary injunction HERE. 
• Find the submitted public records requests HERE.
• Find the records Ohio Democrats have successfully obtained from the DeWine administration HERE. 

“These are questions we started asking in October, answers Ohio voters deserve. But Mike DeWine and his lackeys apparently think that they don’t need to do their job or be held accountable – that they’re above the law. We’re here to make sure they know they aren’t,” said Walters.  

In early May, Democrats sued Mike DeWine over his refusal to turn over records connected to the largest public corruption scandal in state history and resubmitted public records requests to get to the bottom of what DeWine knew and when.

To date, none of those records requests have been fulfilled despite empty claims from the DeWine team about the governor’s commitment to “transparency and accountability.” Now, Democrats are taking further legal action to make sure key records connected to the scandal are not destroyed by DeWine and Ohioans can get the answers they deserve.

Since October, Ohio Democrats have been working on getting answers to who knew what and when about the FirstEnergy scandal – which Ohioans continue to pay $287,000 every single day for – but have been stonewalled at every turn by the DeWine administration, leaving public records requests unanswered. The lack of answers from DeWine leads to even more questions about what DeWine is hiding, especially as the scandal inches closer and closer to DeWine and his inner circle.

###

For Immediate Release:
July 7, 2022

Columbus, OH – A newly uncovered interview first reported by Vice reveals that JD Vance said, “There’s something comparable between abortion and slavery… it has this morally distorting effect on the entire society.”

The overturning of Roe v. Wade and the implementation of Ohio’s six-week abortion ban – which recently forced a 10-year-old girl to travel out of state to get an abortion after being raped – put Vance’s extreme anti-abortion comments into even sharper focus. In addition to comparing abortion to chattel slavery, Vance has said “two wrongs don’t make a right” when explaining why he wants to force survivors of rape and incest to give birth and called rape “inconvenient.”

“J.D. Vance is dangerous and belongs nowhere near the U.S. Senate,” said Michael Beyer, a spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party.

Vice: JD Vance Compared Abortion to Slavery
Cameron Joseph
July 7, 2022

• JD Vance compared abortion to slavery in an interview last fall, drawing a controversial parallel between America’s original sin and a procedure that until recently was a constitutional right.
• “There’s something comparable between abortion and slavery, and that while the people who obviously suffer the most are those subjected to it, I think it has this morally distorting effect on the entire society,” Vance, the GOP nominee for an open Ohio Senate seat, said in an interview with the Catholic Current last October.
• Vance then referenced Abraham Lincoln’s quote “I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master,” before arguing that because of abortion, many Americans have “begun to see children as inconveniences to be discarded, instead of blessings to cherish.”
• “I really think abortion has really done something very socially destructive to us as people in how we see the most vulnerable and the most dependent among us,” Vance continued. “I think that’s one of the under-appreciated facts about abortion. It’s really distorted our entire society.”
• The Supreme Court’s recent decision to overturn a half-century of precedent and allow states to back abortion has significantly raised the stakes on the issue in both state and federal elections—especially since some congressional Republicans already working on legislation to ban abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy at the national level.
• Vance’s own state now has a six-week abortion ban in place, with no exceptions for rape and incest. That law reportedly recently blocked a ten-year-old girl who’d been raped from getting an abortion; she had to travel to another state to obtain one.
• Vance seems to oppose such exceptions in abortion bans. When asked last fall about including exceptions in cases of rape and incest in abortion bans, he replied that “two wrong[s] don’t make a right.”
• “It’s not whether a woman should be forced to bring a child to term, it’s whether a child should be allowed to live, even though the circumstances of that child’s birth are somehow inconvenient or a problem to the society,” Vance said.
• Vance’s campaign did not respond to questions from VICE News about his abortion comments.

###