Retire Jim Moran

Early on Tuesday, September 11, 2001, 2,977 people woke up.

2,203 of them went to work in or around the World Trade Center. 343 of them reported for duty as NYFD firefighters. 37 of them reported for duty as Port Authority police officers. 23 of them reported for duty as NYPD police officers.

125 of them reported for duty at the Pentagon.

87 of them boarded American Airlines Flight 11 from Boston to Los Angeles.

60 of them boarded United Airlines Flight 175 from Boston to Los Angeles.

59 of them boarded American Airlines Flight 77 from Dulles to Los Angeles.

And 40 of them, plus an unborn child, boarded United Airlines Flight 93 from Newark to San Francisco.

Going to work. Getting on a plane. Everyday routine activities. It was a beautiful sunny morning on the East Coast. It was primary day in New York City. But while 2,977 people woke up expecting a normal day, 19 others, all thugs and cowards, woke up with plans for a day that was to be anything but normal.

We all remember where we were that morning. We, too, were doing routine activities – sitting in traffic while going to work or driving our kids to school.

But if we were watching or listening to the news between 8:49 am and 9:02 am, we were horrified by what we thought was a tragic accident at the World Trade Center.

At 9:03 am, we were shocked as we watched live on television as war was declared on the United States.

We were petrified at 9:39 am that another plane had hit the Pentagon, killing 125 of our family, friends, and neighbors. These were the men and women who we saw in the grocery store, on the Metro, next to us in traffic on 395 or Route 50. Some of us may have even been next to them in traffic that morning.

We were utterly horrified at 9:59 am when we watched one of America’s icons of prosperity crumble to the ground.

We fearfully wondered what was next and got our answer at 10:03 am when we learned another plane had crashed in rural Pennsylvania.

We were speechless when evil finished its task at 10:37 am with the collapse of the remaining tower, taking hundreds more lives, including those of brave policemen and firefighters who stayed in the building to save lives even though it meant losing theirs.

For the rest of the day, we watched television in shock of what had happened. We told our families and friends how much we loved them, realizing the fragility of our lives. We threw away our differences and truly united as a people. We weren’t Republicans or Democrats anymore. We were Americans.

We woke up on September 12, 2001 to another not normal day – except this time, we were kinder, gentler, eager to help in any way we could. We donated our time and money and offered our prayers. We were reborn in our love of our country. We were shaken to our core, but we did not allow terror to break us. We heard stories of courage and bravery, like the 393 first responders who gave their lives in New York; the 40 passengers who rose up and stopped their flight from hitting Washington, saving countless lives and winning the first battle in the War on Terror; the hundreds of volunteers digging through the rubble for survivors 24/7. Perhaps we enlisted in the military, or went back to church for the first time in years. We had suffered a tremendous loss. But because we were Americans, we picked ourselves right up and became a better people in the aftermath of an unspeakable tragedy.

We slowly went back to work. Back to school. Back to the airport, flying again. The stock market reopened. Baseball resumed its season. We knew we had to go on with our lives. But we pledged never to forget. Ten years later, we haven’t forgotten. The memories are foggy and the spirit of being united has faded, but we haven’t forgotten. We haven’t forgotten the 2,977 people we lost that day, and the 6,456+ brave soldiers we have lost in the War on Terror. It is our duty and solemn responsibility that we never forget as long as we live, and that we teach future generations about that day and the lessons we learned.

This weekend, we remembered what happened ten years ago and we offer our prayers for those who perished and their families and those who still suffer physically or mentally from the events of that day. We know that despite our differences, we are all Americans, and no cowardly act of terror can break our resolve or take away our liberty. We will never surrender to terrorists. We will live our lives freely and no one can stop us. We are Americans. May God bless us, the United States of America, now and forever.

The House adjourned for its August recess over a month ago on August 2nd, and is set to return this week. The August recess is a time for members of Congress to go home to their districts. It is a vacation, but it is most importantly a time for members of Congress to interact with and make themselves accessible to constituents in person through town halls, meetings, etc. Residents of the 8th District have a lot of things to discuss with their congressman, especially the impending BRAC disaster he facilitated.

So how many public events did Jim Moran hold in the month-long recess? Zero.

Is Jim Moran just so arrogant that he doesn’t feel the need to interact with his constituents? Seems likely. (Or perhaps he’s afraid, since the last time he held a public event and had to answer to the people, this happened as cameras rolled.)

Moran’s complete disregard of the purpose of the August recess shows a complete lack of respect for his constituents. He does not serve the 8th District as he claims to do.

We’re just over a month away from September 15th, when the first wave of 6,400 employees will move into the Mark Center. Jim Moran is continuing to spin the story; he sent a mailer to every house in the 8th District this week taking no responsibility for the move, which seems imminent at this point.

A few weeks ago at Moran’s budget forum, RetireJimMoran handed out flyers showing the truth about Moran’s hand in this debacle. I had a cordial conversation with Moran’s chief of staff, who said we had it wrong. I told him that I am not out to mislead people with this website, but to show the facts. I extended an offer to him – send a rebuttal of what we’re saying, and I’ll publish it verbatim on this site. I figured I’d give them some time. But the event was 29 days ago, and I haven’t gotten anything. The offer is still good, but it’s clear that Moran simply cannot deny the truth.

So now, the clock is ticking towards September 15th. And still Moran is shamelessly continuing to spin the story and benefiting from it. Call his district office at 703-971-4700 and demand the truth.

Click here to go to our Special Report: Jim Moran and the Mark Center.

Check out this video:

Apparently, Moran hasn’t backed down from this.

Last night, Jim Moran held a budget forum with the Concord Coalition in which citizens were able to work together to find ways to balance the budget and stop our runaway $1.4 trillion (and counting) debt. The event looked very promising – a large number of ordinary citizens, not just partisan activists, were there and working together to find solutions to our unsustainable fiscal crisis. However, Moran made remarks that were highly ideological and partisan, showing that the whole thing was falling on deaf ears, ruining what could have been a very productive evening. Here are a couple excerpts.

First, Moran claimed that “half a million public sector jobs have been lost just in the last year.” He got the number right – 500,000 – but that’s how many have been lost since September 2008, not just this year, according to US News & World Report.

Here’s an excerpt where Moran makes a questionable claim about budget projections then can’t place a decimal and shows he doesn’t understand the difference between the national debt and the federal budget deficit.

“You know, in 2001, we had a projected surplus for this year, 2011, of $2.3 trillion, based upon the tax rates that were in place then.”

Hmmm…the Congressional Budget Office projected in January 2001 a surplus of $889 billion, not $2.3 trillion – where is Moran getting his numbers?

“Since then, we’ve had a $12.7 trillion budgetary reversal. Because we now have a $10.4 trillion deficit instead of that $2.3 trillion surplus.”

Our federal budget deficit is $1.4 trillion, not $10.4 trillion. And it looks like Moran is confusing the national debt and the federal budget deficit. The national debt, which is $14 trillion and counting, is the amount we’ve borrowed, plus interest, from holders of our debt such as foreign countries. The federal budget deficit is the difference between the revenue the government receives from taxes and the amount it spends. When Moran says we’ve had a “$12.7 trillion budgetary reversal” from our projected $2.3 trillion surplus, he’s adding the two numbers together to $14 trillion, the amount of our national debt. The debt and the deficit are two very different things, and apparently Moran doesn’t understand that – God help us if our congressman doesn’t know the difference.

Moran later made a point showing that he fundamentally does not understand what taxes are.

“What happened…[is] neither of the two tax cuts were paid for.”

Moran is referring to the George W. Bush-era tax cuts of 2001 and 2003. When he says that they weren’t “paid for”, he acts like they were a spending item. The government does not spend money on a tax cut. It simply does not receive money in the first place. No money comes in, but no money goes out. Here’s an analogy. Moran enters a sweepstakes for a new car. He expects to win, and plans to sell the car for $30,000 when he wins it. However, he doesn’t win, and says, “I didn’t win, that costs me $30,000!” No it doesn’t. It didn’t cost anything. He just simply didn’t get anything. Nothing came into his wallet, but nothing went out. If the government had to pay for a tax cut, that would mean all the money we work for belonged to the government, and they decided to give some of it back to us.

Again, this event should have been a very positive one that even this site would praise. But Moran’s speech showed that he was going to govern according to his own rules. Here’s his full speech.

Check out our new page, “Special Report: Jim Moran and the Mark Center“. After extensive research, we have compiled the full story of Moran’s responsibility for the Mark Center debacle – learn the truth you’re not hearing.

RetireJimMoran called into The Politics Hour with Kojo Nnamdi on WAMU Radio (88.5 FM) on which Jim Moran was a guest and grilled him about the Mark Center debacle. The audio is below.

Here’s the article from which comes the quote Moran said was “not accurate”:

http://www.belvoireagle.com/index.php/lead/army_decision_places_final_piece_of_brac_puzzle/

Here’s the source for the money:

http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/2011/01/still-no-exit-strategy-mark-center

On Friday, Jim Moran signed a letter to President Obama urging him to end the Bush administration tax cuts.

As we reported in the heat of the debate in December when the cuts were extended, the tax cuts don’t just benefit the wealthy, but they benefit everyone. In fact, they probably save you close to $3,000. A study by the Tax Foundation found that the average middle class district in our own 8th District of Virginia making the median district income of $111,455 would pay an extra $2,895 if the tax cuts are ended. Essentially, Jim Moran is trying to raise your taxes by $2,895. That could have a devastating effect on a family. (Moran wouldn’t know, since he carelessly throws around hundreds of thousands of dollars.)

Call Jim Moran at 703-971-4700 and tell him not to raise your taxes.

(We have more on this issue here.)

As we reported in April, Jim Moran spent taxpayer dollars to send a mailing advertising an event he was hosting about security and privacy on Facebook. This was a legitimate use of taxpayer dollars unlike other things he’s sent. The outrage is that Moran didn’t even feel compelled to stay at his own event. RetireJimMoran was there and listened to Jim Moran say in his introduction speech to the audience of about 20 that he was going to “kick back” and listen to the presentation. Moran slowly walked up the stairs of the auditorium while shaking hands, left the room, left the school, and drove away in his car.

The mailing cost $2,018.75 in taxpayer dollars to prepare and mail. Now, that’s practically nothing compared to the billions the federal government spends every day. But he mailed 75,073 and about 20 people showed up, and he left his own event. If he didn’t think the event was interesting enough to stay for, why did he spent $2,000 advertising it?

(The $2,018.75 figure comes from page 3205 of the Quarterly Statement of Disbursements of the House, viewable in PDF format here.)

PolitiFact Virginia has shown another claim from Jim Moran to be false. Moran claimed that when the Republicans took control of the House, they required congressional offices to buy styrofoam plates and cups from a company owned by the influential conservative Koch brothers. PolitiFact fact-checked this statement and found it totally false. Read about it on their website here.

http://www.politifact.com/virginia/statements/2011/jun/01/jim-moran/rep-moran-says-gop-requires-use-cups-house-cafeter/