Elections have consequences. But did any of us really appreciate how dire the consequences would be for American values with the election of Donald Trump? Did we really expect that our immigration policy would devolve into the forcible separation of mothers and their children? A policy that evangelical leader Franklin Graham, and a prominent Trump supporter, described as “disgraceful." That Cardinal Dolan said was “unAmerican” and “unbiblical.” That is opposed by all four living former First Ladies.

Should I laugh or cry when I see that Leonard Lance received the 2018 Champion of Health Care Innovation Award?  Both. Who knows what he thinks about healthcare? He is stuck between a rock and a hard place.  The last thing he wants is to be asked for a cogent response on the issue.  So ask him. The man who recorded 64 votes against the Affordable Care Act, when faced with the realities of office, and the voice of his constituents, could not in the end vote for the cockamamie piece of repeal legislation his party tried to foist on the electorate. The American people expect our government to do more to ensure that the basic health needs of all citizens are taken care of, through expansion of Medicaid or Medicare, or some form of single-payer solution. Do you think Lance did not study the exit polls in the recent Pennsylvania election, which showed the issue is high on the minds of voters? The issue is most apparent in the votes for the expansion of Medicaid, offered under the ACA. The garlic-and-crucifix response of the right has been to roll as many logs as possible into this path towards healthcare access.  Most recently, Virginia, where even a Republican-controlled legislature had to bend to the will of the people, became the 33rd  State to expand Medicaid, and there are indications that more states will follow suit. Meanwhile, the Insurance Apocalypse has not arrived. Not for lack of trying, through Congressional elimination of the individual mandate and their waving the prospect of short-term, thin coverage designed to siphon off the healthy from the pool of the insured to the detriment of those with pre-existing conditions. Those attempts to destabilize the market have not yet worked, in part thanks to the acts of individual governors, such as our own Phil Murphy, to reintroduce the individual mandate at the state level. But this dragon is not slain yet.  Tea Party Republicans, goaded by their base, are stoking the fire in the belly of the beast to try one last time in June to incinerate the ACA, a prospect that must make Leonard Lance, a reluctant dragon slayer if ever there was one, tremble for his fate. Because we will #RememberinNovember #NJ07

Eisenhower Republicans Are Extinct and Leonard Lance Would Like to Keep it That Way. In a recent interview with Fox News, Congressman Lance was asked if he is a "Trump Republican.” “No. I'm an Eisenhower Republican," he said, hoping that a misty mantle of remembered 50’s prosperity would cloak reality. Who were those Eisenhower Republicans? The Eisenhower Republican Platform of 1956 summarizes the accomplishments of the previous four years, and the promises made for the future.  Back then, Republicans raised the minimum wage and promised to “extend the protection of the Federal minimum wage laws to as many more workers as is possible and practicable.” The official Republican position today is that minimum wage issues are best handled at the state and local level—which local efforts are then obstructed by said party.  Back then, the Republican Party boasted that “the protection of unemployment insurance has been brought to 4 million additional workers.” Yet when the Senate voted in bipartisan fashion in 2014 to move forward with a bill that would restart federal unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless, the House voted it down, and Lance’s spokesperson said that “the congressman believes the Senate bill is unworkable.” The New Jersey unemployment rate stood at 7.1% at the time. Back then, the Republican Party  was proud that under Eisenhower, “unions have grown in strength and responsibility, and have increased their membership by 2 million,” and declared that “the protection of the right of workers to organize into unions and to bargain collectively is the firm and permanent policy of the Eisenhower Administration.”  The Republican Party since then has constantly and consistently whittled away at the rights and protections of unionized workers, to the profound disadvantage of middle class America.   Back then, the Republican Party platform stated that “Republican action created the Department of Health, Education and Welfare as the first new Federal department in 40 years.”  Now we have a Department of Education, headed by Betsy DeVos, who demonstrably knows shockingly little about the U.S. education system.  The truth is, Eisenhower Republicans are as dead as dodos and Leonard Lance has no kinship to this extinct species. Congressman Lance supports Donald Trump 88% of the time. And we will #RememberinNovember. #NJ07

NJ Primaries are June 5! Mark your calendars and plan to vote! The following is a collection of public statements and voting records on net neutrality by each of the major candidates for NJ's 7th Congressional District. Please refer to candidate websites and social media accounts for additional information and to interact with candidates.   Lindsay Brown Peter Jacob Goutam Jois Leonard Lance Tom Malinowski Supports FCC Net Neutrality YES YES YES NO YES  

  Leonard Lance belongs to a professional trade union.  The reason members of his legal profession are at the top of international salary rankings is that “the American Bar Association operates a state-approved cartel.” All of our professions practice a sophisticated form of collective bargaining, using restrictive licensing done in the name of the public good, in order to drive up compensation.     But collective action taken by employees becomes anti-competitive and violates the norms of the free market.  You can be sure the Koch brothers raised a glass in Wichita, when they read Neil Gorsuch’s majority decision he just wrote for the Supreme Court, allowing employers to deprive their workers of their right to sue collectively.  Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg rightly attacked the majority verdict for “substitut[ing] its preferred economic policies for those chosen by the people’s representatives.” No doubt Mitch McConnell will be further rewarded for stonewalling President Obama, and allowing President Trump to appoint Neil Gorsuch.  His appointment is sure to bring more good news for the right, such as the case in which the Court is expected to prohibit public sector unions from charging non-members who benefit from collective bargaining.  This will weaken the power of public unions by creating new challenges in organizing strategy, political activity and political donation, and bargaining for workers. The Court has already ruled against class action suits brought by consumers.  It is all part-and-parcel of a Court that increasingly is seen as “too conservative” and favors the rights of big business over the rights of workers and consumers.  Donald Trump, for all his populist huffing and puffing, heads a government whose only interest is self-preservation for the donor class and ossification of the very class mobility that underpins the American Dream.  The courts are being stuffed with like-minded jurists who will preserve this reactionary legacy long after Trump is gone.  We have to stop this NOW, first by turning out in force for the Democratic primary in June, and then by voting massively in September to ensure the House and Senate are flipped.  That will give democrats the voting power it needs to put the brakes on this plutocratic administration.   #RememberinNovember #NJ07