Mitch Perry
The left-leaning senior advocacy group Alliance of Retired Americans has released its congressional voting record for every member of Congress for 2014, and Marco Rubio gets a zero rating for his votes that the group highlighted in the past year. That’s the same grade the organization has given the junior Florida Republican Senator in past years, as he has a lifetime zero rating from the group.
The Alliance of Retired American has over 4 million paid members, the majority of whom are union retirees, and pushes hard against cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits.
Rubio’s Florida partner in the Senate – Democrat Bill Nelson received a perfect 100 percent scores from the group, as did Democratic Representatives Corrine Brown, Kathy Castor, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, Lois Frankel, Ted Deutsch, Frederica Wilson, Alcee Hastings and Alan Grayson.
The highest ranking Republican member of Congress on the list was Pinellas County’s David Jolly, who received a 33 score. Sarasota area Congressman Vern Buchanan was next with 26 percent.
The group rated 10 different votes that the Senate weighed in on 2014:
1- an extension of unemployment insurance
2- A vote to raise the debt ceiling
3- a bill to patch the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) funding formula for Medicare physician payments.
5 – A vote to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 over three years
6 – The Bring Jobs Home Act, introduced by Rhode Island Democrat Jack Reed. This bill would have provide ad business tax credit of up to 20% of insourcing expenses to relocate business back in the U.S.
7- The Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2014,
8- A vote on confirming Henry J. Aaron to the Social Security Advisory Board.
9- A vote on confirming Carolyn Watts Colvin to the Social Security Commissione
(Aaron and Hallegere were confirmed, Watts Colvin was not).
The 10 votes in the House that were part of the grade were these:
1- A vote to raise the debt ceiling.
2- a bill that would weaken the Dodd-Frank bill by curtailing the ability of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to enforce consumer protections enacted after the financial crisis of 2007- 2008.
3- The Unfunded Mandate Information and Transparency Act of 2013 introduced by Rep. Foxx, R- NC.
4- The ENFORCE the Law Act of 2014.
5- Repealing the Affordable Care Act.
6- Alternative to GOP Budget Plan sponsored by Maryland Democrat Chris Van Hollen.
7- Medicare privatization bill sponsored by Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan.
8- The Transportation HUD funding bill that cut funding for Section 8 housing assistance by $2.9 billion.
9- Vote to amend the tax code to make permanent the accelerated depreciation loophole, and also exempt resulting revenue losses from mandated pay as you go requirements.
10- Bill sponsored by Michigan Republican Dave Camp to change the minimum hours for health care cover- age under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) from 30 hours to 40 hours.
