Villanova students are committed to social justice. This is the cornerstone of our institution and the bedrock of intellectual life on campus. In accordance with this ideal, we should not support those who have championed the causes that perpetuate systematic injustice.

 

TOOMEY'S FULL VOTING RECORD, STARTING WITH MOST RECENT VOTES:

https://votesmart.org/candidate/key-votes/24096/pat-toomey#.UYNausqr7H0

 

CREDIT TO JEFFREY BILLMAN OF THE PHILADELPHIA CITY PAPER. PLEASE READ http://archives.citypaper.net/articles/2010/10/28/66-reasons-not-to-vote-for-pat-toomey

 

HUMAN RIGHTS

- 0% rating from the Human Rights Campaign

- Anti-civil rights, anti-senior citizen, anti-labor unions, anti-immigrant, against all LGBT issues, wants to amend the constitution to ban gay marriage, and is against adoption of children by gay couples. Voted Yes on reporting illegal aliens who receive hospital treatment

 

ENVIRONMENT

- 0% rating from the League of Conservation voters, demonstrating anti-environmental political positions
- One of the worst environmental records of any current elected representative
- Doesn’t think global warming is real. Toomey said “There is much debate in the scientific community as to the precise sources of global warming.”
- Opposes alternative energy incentives, supports drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, opposes the Kyoto Protocol

STUDENT LOANS

- Voted to raise student loan rates twice (both on 5/24/12)

 

BUDGET
- Advocates cuts to Medicare, Social Security, transportation, infrastructure, elementary and secondary education, National Institutes of Health cancer and other health research, and environmental protection

 

HEALTH
- Toomey supports allowing health insurance companies to deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions
- Voted against the Patient Bill of Rights, which would require insurance companies to cover emergency care and allow people and their estates to sue insurance companies that wrongly denied coverage
- In 2007 and 2008, Toomey argued against the reauthorization of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), which guarantees health coverage for low-income children not eligible for Medicaid

 

CAMPAIGN FINANCE
- Toomey supports the Citizen United Decision, which, according to polling, 80% of the American public opposes. Toomey also opposed the DISCLOSE Act, which would have required groups and corporations financing campaign ads to disclose their funding sources, and banned bailout recipients, foreign corporations and large government contractors from financing independent political ad campaigns. Toomey opposed the bill because he thought it was too lenient on unions.

 

ECONOMY
- As an ex-Wall Street banker, Toomey strongly supported financial deregulation that lead to the global economic crisis, including the repeal of Glass-Steagall
- Toomey defended the executives at bailed-out banks who awarded themselves million dollar bonuses, arguing in a letter posted in Facebook that it was “horrible” to tax these bonuses
- Supports tax cuts and subsidies for corporations. Tommey said that “American corporate income taxes are far too high.” He told CNBC in 2007, “Let’s not tax corporations. I think the solution is to eliminate corporate taxes altogether.”

 

 EARMARKS
- Won at least $12 million in pork during his first term in Congress before disavowing earmarks, including $3 million for Air Products & Chemicals Inc., an Allentown company that became his largest source of campaign funds
- The day after the Deepwater Horizon explosion, Halliburton, a company involved in that oil rig, cut Toomey a check for $2,500. He accepted it.

 

TAXES & ECONOMIC INEQUALITY
- Supports flat tax cuts for the wealthy, the implementation of a flat tax system, and an elimination of the progressive tax. He also wants to eliminate inheritance, capital gains, and dividend taxes, which overwhelmingly benefit the rich
- Although the rich have gotten richer over the last three decades while others have stagnated, Toomey doesn’t think it’s a problem. In his book, The Road to Prosperity, he wrote that “It is true that the differences in income between top earners and the lowest earners have widened in recent decades. But the importance of this statistic has been wildly exaggerated.”
- Voted against raising the minimum wage from $5.15 to $6.15 an hour

 

WAR
- Voted for the Iraq War and then voted against awarding the troops a $1,500 bonus, what he called “an excuse to undermine the fiscal stability of this country.” He has a mere 25% rating from the group Disabled American Veterans.

 

GUN CONTROL
- Toomey's sudden reversal of position on gun background checks, despite almost 15 years of voting with the NRA on every anti-gun regulatory bill, shows that Toomey is merely playing politics and does not truly stand for sensible gun regulation. Toomey, who earned an A rating from the National Rifle Association, has previously voted against requiring background checks at gun shows, and for reducing the waiting period for guns purchased at guns shows from three days to one. Ask yourself why he has suddenly reversed his position after consistently opposing all gun regulation for over a decade.

 

Some of Toomey's more recent votes:

- Against ratifying the treaty of The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (12/4/12)

- Against incentives for alternative energy (11/28/12)

- Voted against disaster relief funds for Hurriance Sandy victims (1/28/13)

- Supports prohibiting the United States from entering into the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty (3/23/13)

- Against any regulation of assault rifles (4/17/13)

- Supported military force against Iraq as late as the end of 2011 (11/29/11)

 - Supports subsidies and tax break for oil companies (5/17/11)

 

Sources

http://archives.citypaper.net/articles/2010/10/28/66-reasons-not-to-vote-for-pat-toomey

http://www.derivativesstrategy.com/magazine/archive/1999/0599playf753.asp

http://www.hrc.org/files/assets/resources/112thCongressionalScorecard_2012.pdf​

 

https://votesmart.org/candidate/key-votes/24096/pat-toomey#.UYLbaaPYHfU​

 

http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=3504