Retire Jim Moran

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/

Jim Moran has been very vocal in recent weeks about the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) operation that would move 6,400 defense industry workers to a massive complex next to I-395. Two and a half years after the decision was announced, there is still no solid plan for getting those workers to and from work without exacerbating the gridlock that already occurs on 395. Moran recently called on local jurisdictions to file a lawsuit to stop the move.

But looking back to September 2008, it seems that Moran’s loud opposition to the move is little more than a political grandstanding operation to exploit the outrage of local commuters.

On October 2, 2008, the Fort Belvoir Eagle ran this story [edited below for length, emphases added]:

Army decision places final piece of BRAC puzzle
October 2, 2008
By Travis Edwards

The Department of the Army announced Monday that the future home of the 6,400 personnel associated with the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure, Recommendation 133, will be the Mark Center in Alexandria.“The Mark Center has been deemed the best value for the Army after considering the cost, the schedule, the security requirements, transportation and other critical factors,” said Fort Belvoir Installation Commander Col. Jerry Blixt. “Now, we, Fort Belvoir, must continue to move forward to complete the BRAC mission given to us by Congress and the President.”

Although he expressed disappointment that the GSA site was not chosen, Congressman Jim Moran, D-Va., whose 8th Virginia District includes part of Fort Belvoir, Springfield and the Mark Center, said the decision was good for commuters.

“Preventing the Washington Headquarters Service from moving to the Engineer Proving Ground benefits the region’s commuters,” Moran said. “Transportation studies showed that locating the headquarters there as dictated in the Army’s original plan would increase commuting times along I-395 and Route 1 by two to three hours per day. In that respect, this decision is a victory for Northern Virginia commuters.”

“I appreciate all the hard work Army officials and civilians put into coming to this decision,” Moran said. “It was a monumental effort and they did an excellent job keeping all the stakeholders informed throughout the process.”

Now, it should be noted that Moran was not the only local official to praise the move, but there were several who criticized it too.

After the site was chosen, Duke Realty sold the land to the federal government for $105 million. Three weeks later, Duke Realty’s CEO, Dennis Oklak, contributed the maximum $2,300 to Moran’s 2008 re-election campaign. After Clark Construction was contracted for $695 million to build the Mark Center, its executives contributed a total of $10,900 to Moran. (Source: The Washington Examiner)

However, what is disturbing is that Moran is acting like he had nothing to do with the decision and has opposed it all along. In an article in the Fairfax Station Patch.com, Moran said this:

“I just have to say [I am] disgusted with some of the people who, either through indifference or wrongheadedness, have allowed this to happen.”

Um, Jim, you allowed this to happen. You represent this district and you’re on a House defense subcommittee. You served as mayor of the city where the building is. Nothing happens in this district without you knowing about it. You did nothing to stop it, and you even praised it. You were complicit. How about you take some responsibility for once?

You can call his district office at 703-971-4700 and demand answers.

(Sources: Fort Belvoir Eagle, Fairfax Station Patch, The Washington Examiner timeline)