BOEHNER NURTURING ANOTHER RIGHT WING EXTREMIST

Speaker of the House John Boehner

Boehner Raising Cash For Brooks in Attempt to Recruit Another Foot Soldier For Out-Of Touch, Anti-Middle Class GOP Agenda

ROCHESTER, NY – Today, the Slaughter campaign blasted County Executive Maggie Brooks for holding a fundraiser in Rochester this Saturday with House Speaker John Boehner, and for her alignment with groups that put the desires of large corporate interests before the priorities of Monroe County residents.

As Speaker of the House, Congressman John Boehner has spent the last two years protecting tax cuts for the rich, tax breaks for outsourcers, and tax loopholes for large corporations while trying to pass out-of-touch, anti-middle class cuts to Medicare and other social services to pay for it. At the same time, his recruit Maggie Brooks has rewarded deep-pocketed campaign contributors with lucrative taxpayer-funded contracts, and then raised the property tax levy, raised taxes on county services, and threw the county into $389 million in debt to pay for it.

“Republican Speaker John Boehner has spent his career protecting tax cuts for millionaires at the expense of the middle class, and now he’s in town raising campaign cash for Maggie Brooks, who would be an obedient foot soldier for the Republicans’ out-of-touch, anti-middle class agenda," said Eric Walker, a spokesman for the Slaughter campaign. "Monroe County families should ask themselves: do they want a member of Congress who will be a rubber stamp for the GOP's Ryan budget, which cuts taxes for the rich while gutting Medicare, Medicaid, and education?"

Slaughter compared Boehner’s slash-and-burn approach with the work of a former colleague, moderate Republican Sherry Boehlert (R-NY), who last week published an op-ed lamenting the Republicans’ plan to disable the government’s regulatory structure.

Slaughter’s campaign also slammed Brooks’ recent endorsements from two organizations shilling for large corporate interests at the expense of the middle class. Earlier this year, Brooks was endorsed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a group that supports outsourcing American jobs, and supports the destructive “Ryan Budget” that further cuts taxes for the rich while exploding the deficit. The group has already spent tens of thousands of dollars on negative television ads attacking Louise Slaughter. 

In addition, Brooks accepted the endorsement from Karl Rove-backed National Federation of Independent Businesses, a front for anti-middle class initiatives like turning Medicare into a voucher system, scrapping equal pay for women who do equal work, and doing away with the minimum wage. Brooks has also been named a GOP “Young Gun,” which means her campaign will receive money from billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, famous for bankrolling Newt Gingrich’s failed presidential campaign and for a Department of Justice investigation into allegations that Adelson used prostitution to further his business interests in the Chinese city of Macau.

“Maggie Brooks is exactly the type of politician that the big business lobby likes: someone who says one thing to the public and then does another behind their back,” Walker said. “She’s been selling her office to campaign contributors for the past 8 years, so it’s no surprise she’s supported by groups that expect her to sell out to the corporate interests in Washington.”