Scott McAdams is knowingly trying to deceive you that Senator Lisa Murkowski took individual votes against education, domestic violence prevention, job training, health care, and other programs. The truth is she has, in fact, championed these issues in the U.S. Senate.  Even the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner has called him on it: http://bit.ly/b1VTsG.

The Truth

The truth is Senator Lisa Murkowski made sure Alaskans got the help they need for education, access to quality health care, safety from domestic violence and sexual assault, job training, and a host of other vital services. At the same time, she registered her disapproval of a $1 trillion spending bill that added $237 billion to the federal budget without debate or amendment.

In 2009, Senator Murkowski requested money for vital services in a number of appropriations bills, including:

• Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Bill including funds for Big Brothers Big Sisters, drug and alcohol interdiction, job training, education, improved health care access, and more. http://bit.ly/djjIFK

• Transportation-HUD Appropriations Bill including monies for AWAIC Domestic Violence Shelter, Covenant House Alaska Crisis Center, Lower Yukon School District Teacher Housing, among others http://bit.ly/9yglxs

By the time these bills reached the Senate floor for a final vote, they’d been combined into a $1 trillion, 1,520-page mega-bill that increased federal spending by 12 percent at a time of record deficits and mounting federal debt.  Even three Democrats (Senators Bayh of Indiana, McCaskill of Missouri, and Feingold of Wisconsin) voted against this bill.

Scott McAdams is trying to fool Alaskans by saying Lisa Murkowski voted against domestic violence prevention, rural drug and alcohol interdiction, and Big Brothers Big Sisters this year, too.

The Truth

Senator Lisa Murkowski worked hard to secure funding in Committees for many programs in the coming fiscal year. This includes, but isn’t limited to, funds to assist victims of domestic violence, for drug and alcohol prevention and treatment, job training, Big Brothers Big Sisters, increased access to health care, education.

However, she was forced to vote against the bills in Committee because the Majority again insisted on spending too much money in a time of record deficits.  Many of these bills also included the wrong priorities, like the Labor-HHS-Education bill that would put more money into hiring bean-counting staff at the statistical research arm of the Department of Education, but took out money for community health clinics in rural areas of the country.

The truth is that Senator Lisa Murkowski’s vote against moving several of the Fiscal Year 2011 appropriations bills out of the Appropriations Committee expressed her view that these bills spent too much overall, spent money on the wrong priorities, and needed more work.  Senator Murkowski’s goal is to improve these bills.  It was not to oppose the very things she included in them.

If you want an experienced, effective, trustworthy Senator representing you in Congress, fill in the oval and write in Lisa Murkowski on November 2^nd.