Booklet (15 pages) - 6" x 9"

BOB KERREY
Country first.

DEB FISCHER
Billionaires first.



NEBRASKA DEMOCRATIC PARTY
421 S. 9TH ST, STE 233  |  LINCOLN, NE 68508-2245
 

Bob Kerrey	Deb Fischer
Navy SEAL Businessman Governor Senator University President 9/11 Commission Entitlement Reform Commission	Welfare rancher Inexperienced Highly Partisan Funded by special interests Too Extreme for Nebraska More Gridlock in Washington

PAID FOR BY THE NEBRASKA DEMOCRATIC PARTY. WWW.NEBRASKADEMOCRATS.ORG.



THEIR PERSONAL STORIES
Bob Kerrey.
Vietnam veteran & Nebraska businessman.

Bob was born and raised in Lincoln and graduated from Northeast High School and later UNL with a degree in pharmacy.

He joined the U.S. Navy and became a Navy SEAL, the very same group of elite warriors who got Osama Bin Laden in 2011.

Wounded in combat in Vietnam, Kerrey spent nine months in the hospital and nearly a decade thereafter struggling with pain to recover from the loss of a lower leg. He went on to run a marathon.

Returning to Nebraska, Kerrey and his brother-in-law went into the restaurant business. Overcoming the hardships of starting a new business and a tornado that destroyed Grandmother's Skillet in its struggling early years, they built a successful chain of restaurants and fitness centers that provide jobs to over 700 Nebraskans.

Kerrey was elected Governor in 1982, when Nebraska needed someone with strong business sense to rescue the budget from drowning in red ink. He turned a deficit into a surplus, and started the rainy day fund to save for future downturns in the economy.

After one term as Governor, he voluntarily went back into private life, saying that he had pretty much accom­plished what he set out to do and had no desire to become a career politician.

In 1987, beloved Nebraska Senator Ed Zorinsky died unexpectedly. Nebraskans urged Kerrey to return to public life. He ran for Senate and won, and proved once again that he is a different kind of leader, one who cares little for partisan games and cares a lot about getting something done to make America stronger.

When he entered the Senate, the federal government was running a deficit of $221 billion a year. When he left in 2001, it had a $236 billion surplus. After two terms, Kerrey once again thought he had accomplished what he set out to do and decided to re-enter private life rather than become a career politician.

He became president of a private university in New York, co-founded by Alvin Johnson from Homer, Nebraska. He enacted a series of changes to put the school back on a solid financial footing despite loud protests from students and faculty.

Balancing a budget doesn't always make you popular, but it has to be done. That is why Bob Kerrey is running for Senate in 2012. Because our nation is in peril. Once again, there is a job to be done.

Deb Fischer.
Welfare rancher.

Since 1973 Deb Fischer has received nearly $3,000,000 in taxpayer subsidies
that only an elite few across the nation are able to receive.

Fischer is one of 136 Nebraska ranchers who have a lease with the U.S. Forest Service that allows her to graze cattle on federal lands at just a fraction of the cost that other ranchers must pay to graze their cattle on state owned or private lands.
Last year this sweetheart deal allowed Fischer to lease more than 10,000 acres for less than $5,000. That is a tax free savings of over $110,000 per year that the typical rancher would pay to lease comparable land. Who got beat in that deal? The taxpayers!

Fischer's lease with the U.S. Government is renewed automatically­ without any public bidding process­ and can be handed down from one generation to the next.

This "welfare program" costs the federal government a net loss of $120 million per year. More disturbing, had these lands been leased at the current market rate, the leases would have generated more than $340 million in revenue per year or more than $3.4 BILLION over ten years.

Fischer got elected to the Unicameral from the Valentine area in 2004. Since then she has compiled a record that cut funding for schools and higher education, shifted property tax burdens to the middle class, imposed a $325 million "sewer tax" on the residents of Sarpy and Douglas Counties, raised the gas tax 12 times and even supported a tax on grapes!

When Fischer decided to run for the U.S. Senate, the Washington special interests and her billionaire backers got Deb to sign an ironclad pledge that she'll never raise their taxes, and in return have poured $2 million into a media blitz to smear Bob Kerrey, using a variety of secret commit­tees and campaign donation loopholes.

Deb Fischer is running for Senate on a platform to advance the interests
of billionaires and corporations while blocking your right to know who's paying for it and what they're getting in return.

She has advocated policies that work in combination to make it impossible to balance the budget or reform Washington's servitude to special interests.



THE DEFICIT
Anybody can talk tough on budgets. Let's see what they've actually done.

Bob Kerrey balances budgets.
As Governor of Nebraska, Bob Kerrey turned a deficit into a surplus.

While he served in the U.S. Senate, he made the tough votes that eliminated the deficit, created a surplus, and allowed the government to begin paying off the federal debt.

As a university president, he took on the faculty and student protesters to fight red ink.

Time after time, Bob Kerrey has shown the courage to make hard choices and get a budget under control.

[CHART] BUDGET SURPLUS OR DEFICIT (MILLIONS)

Deb Fischer makes it worse.
Fighting two unfunded wars while cutting taxes for the super-rich are what got us into this mess.

Nevertheless, Deb Fischer signed the extremist Grover Norquist Pledge that she will never raise taxes on millionaires. A pledge that Nebraska Republicans like Congressman Jeff Fortenberry have called absurd. And she opposes the "Buffett Rule," which says the well-to-do should pay as much in taxes as their employees. Experts agree that it's just about mathematically impossible to balance the budget unless the rich pay a fair share instead of paying less in taxes than their secretaries.

The billionaires and corporations funding the attack ads on Bob Kerrey are aligning with Deb Fischer to protect their free ride. No doubt they expect to make a profit.
Deb Fischer is more interested in tax breaks for billionaires than in balancing the budget, and she put it in writing.



TAX FAIRNESS
Bob Kerrey. Let's be fair.

Kerrey believes that we must cut spending in order to balance the budget. He also believes that tax loopholes, tax shelters, and other government "giveaways" buried in the tax code by lobbyists must be eliminated. Kerrey is willing to eliminate special interest tax breaks and require millionaires to be part of the solution to balance the budget, provided we cut spending first.

Working with Republican Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, Kerrey co-chaired the IRS Reform Commission that led to a law reforming IRS procedures and providing recourse for taxpayers who are abused by IRS bureaucrats.

Deb Fischer. Let's not.

Fischer voted for the biggest spending "earmark" in Nebraska history, which effectively took $70 million away from education. Property tax payers will have to make up the difference.

Then she voted to give herself an annual $2,400 property tax cut while most Nebraskans get $93 or less. Ted Turner saves $100,000 annually, thank you.

She has voted to raise the gas tax 12 times. She voted to raise sales taxes, fees on services, even taxes on grapes. In the Unicameral she produced a report highlighting 31 new ways the legislature could raise taxes.

She voted for a $325 million tax-on-a-tax for a metro Omaha utility and sewer replacement project, which also threatens the loss of 1,900 food processing jobs. Contrary to what you might think, it's not limited to the Omaha area. Deb Fischer's tax-on-a-tax can be applied to municipal projects financed by special assessments anywhere in Nebraska. Remember that when your town is pursuing its next infrastructure upgrade.

If the middle class has to pay a tax, she's all for it. If the wealthy have to pay, she's not.



END THE GRIDLOCK IN WASHINGTON
Bob Kerrey. I can work with the other party.

Kerrey puts country ahead of party (sometimes to the annoyance of the far left). He has often demonstrated his willingness to cross party lines and work with Republicans like Alan Simpson, Newt Gingrich, Rob Portman, and John Danforth on issues like entitlement reform IRS reform, cutting spending, long term care, and Alzheimer's disease.

Kerrey has proposed a constitutional amendment to eliminate political caucuses, impose term limits, and limit special interest money — the prime causes of gridlock in Washington. He wants to reform the filibuster too.

The current system is fundamentally flawed, which is why Congress has been unable to pass the Farm Bill, a Transportation bill, a Postal Reform bill, a Veterans Job Act or Violence Against Women legislation.

Deb Fischer. I won't.

Deb Fischer has explicitly said during a primary debate that she can't think of a single Democratic Senator she could work with. And her central objection to Senator Kerrey's reform proposals is that it is just too hard to change Congress.

Since Americans from all 50 states are likely to continue their long tradition of balancing power by electing both Republicans and Democrats to Washington, Fischer's refusal to work with the other side essentially guarantees that she won't be able to get much done on national issues or Nebraska priorities.

By refusing to endorse reform measures to end the gridlock
and by aligning herself with Tea Party radicals whose no-compromise extremist agenda has led to stalemate in Washington and a downgrading of the U.S. Government's credit rating, Deb Fischer puts herself outside the mainstream of Nebraska politics.

She even wants to turn Nebraska's non-partisan Unicameral into a partisan body where everyone is labelled a Democrat or Republican just like Congress.



SOCIAL SECURITY & MEDICARE
Bob Kerrey. Protect it for future generations.

Every wage earner in Nebraska has paid into Social Security and Medicare and has a right to expect getting something back when they retire.

Bob Kerrey is an acknowledged expert on the subject. In the 1990's he chaired a bi-partisan national commission that wrote a blueprint for putting Social Security and Medicare on a sound financial footing. And recently he offered a ten point plan that would secure Social Security for the next 75 years.

Kerrey believes we must reform Social Security and Medicare to preserve them for generations to come. Contrary to scare stories in the right-wing media, the problem can be solved and there are practical solutions that will work.

Deb Fischer. Gut Social Security and Medicare.
Deb Fischer has pledged to support the radical "Cut, Cap and Balance" proposal developed by the Tea Party. It would destroy Social Security and Medicare by forcing massive 30% cuts in both programs. This extremist plan is proposed by—you guessed it—the very same billionaires who don't want to pay their fair share and who are buying elections this year so they won't have to.

Fischer promises to end Social Security as we know it for everyone below the age of 40 and her radical budget plan would force cuts of $3,461 in Social Security benefits and $4,509 in Medicare benefits in 2014. In 2030 her budget plan would mean cuts of $7,445 in Social Security benefits and $7,583 in Medicare.
 


HEALTH CARE REFORM
Bob Kerrey. People come first.

Bob Kerrey wants to fix what's wrong with our health care system; not turn back the clock. He supported the Patient's Bill of Rights and many of the insurance reforms found in the Affordable Care Act. Kerrey believes all Americans deserve access to health insurance and should never be denied it because of preexisting conditions.

•    In Nebraska over 18,000 kids are insured because the Affordable Care Act
is allowing them to stay on their parents' plan until they are 26.
•    There are 700,000 Nebraskans benefiting from the rule to prohibit insurance companies from enforcing a lifetime cap on benefits.
•    There are 46,000 Nebraskans who got a rebate from their insurance company this year because the law requires these companies to spend at least 85% of customer premiums on actual health care.
•    There are 146,000 Nebraska seniors who got free preventative check-ups on Medicare.
•    There are 25,000 seniors who saved over $600 dollars on prescription drug costs.
•    There are 359,000 Nebraskans who got free checkups and flu shots and preventative screenings for things like colon and breast cancer.
•    In 2014 there are over 100,000 working men and women in Nebraska who will get access to health insurance, including 12,000 veterans and their families.

The Affordable Care Act puts the law on the side of the people. We should fix it, not reverse course now.

Deb Fischer. Insurance company profits come first.

Deb Fischer would repeal the Affordable Health Care Act so that once again insurance companies would have the right to deny children and adults health insurance due to preexisting conditions.

Her vote would repeal the right of children to remain on their parents' health care policy until age 26.

It would also allow insurance companies to cap lifetime benefits and kick you off the policy if you have an expensive claim that threatens their quarterly profits.

Fischer says we should pass tort reform to limit medical malpractice lawsuits, something Nebraska did in the mid '80's. ...when Bob Kerrey was Governor!



NATIONAL SECURITY
Bob Kerrey. Vietnam Vet and 9/11 Commission

Bob Kerrey was injured in combat as a Navy SEAL

He was restored in mind and body with the help of wonderful men and women who care for our veterans. With the possible exception of John McCain, there will be no one else in the U.S. Senate who knows more first-hand about what that means to veterans and how important it is that we support our troops in the field and support our veterans.

Bob Kerrey served on the Senate Intelligence Committee and on the 9/11 Commission that evaluated the terrorist attacks on the U.S. He is an expert on what we must do to defeat terrorism and is an ardent supporter of a strong national defense.

Kerrey is adamantly opposed to Iran developing nuclear weapons. When it comes to voting to send our sons and daughters to war and when it comes to taking care of them when they come home, military service matters.

Deb Fischer. Zero experience.

Deb Fischer has absolutely no experience in national defense or the war on terror.

She made that clear when she endorsed the extremist "Cut, Cap. and Balance" Tea Party budget plan. In addition to gutting Social Security and Medicare, that plan would force huge cuts in the military, giving terrorists the upper hand in far too many places. TRICARE would be cut by 30% too.

However. Fischer's "Cut, Cap and Balance Plan" would allow her billionaire sponsors to continue avoiding their fair share of taxes.

Zero